The problem I am faced with, then, is seeking to credibly critique Rhythm of War without falling into the trap of relying only on subjective preferences and opinions. One Facebook commenter who was seeking to dissuade someone from reading Sanderson tried to suggest that it was proven his dialogue wasn’t very good - which, is not only a wildly subjective opinion but, also, not all that accurate. So many of the complaints I have heard about Sanderson’s writing are offered up as objective critique but are nothing more than subjective preferences. However, I don’t want to be just another voice amidst the cacophony of internet critics and fanboys elevating my subjective opinion to the point of objective fact.

There is another reason why I am being overly cautious and subsequently verbose, and that is because I didn’t particularly enjoy Rhythm of War. To put it another way, Rhythm of War is not just “yet another book” but is, in fact, much bigger and important to Sanderson’s oeuvre than any other book he has yet published. Not only does this book bring with it any of the normal difficulties with reviewing one book in the middle of a much longer series, or such a lengthy book as this (1,220 pages), but Sanderson is quite obviously positioning ‘The Stormlight Archive’ as the great magnum opus of his career and, therefore, the foundational connection upon which all other “Cosmere” books hinge. This lengthy introduction to a fantasy book review may seem unnecessary, even pompous, but Brandon Sanderson’s work serves as such an odd crux in modern fantasy literature that I feel it is necessary to expand upon my normal style in reviewing Rhythm of War, the fourth book in Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive. Given all of this - which can be proven by any prolonged exposure to Facebook fantasy groups - when I come to read and subsequently review Brandon Sanderson books, I am faced with a challenge: Not a challenge of being truthful or not, but simply one of seeking to expose any bias I myself may bring to my reading so as to be able to provide as valuable a review as possible.

Conversely, those who love his work are seemingly predisposed to ignore any and all flaws some may point out, vociferously defending Sanderson in the same way I may defend the authority of Holy Scripture. Those who dislike his work do not merely dislike it, they go out of their way to attack any who do like it and warn off all those yet to experience it.

A societal misunderstanding considering the value of ones’ opinion underlies a fundamental inability to understand the difference between subjective opinion and objective criticism. In the 21st Century world of fantasy literature, no author has proven to be more polarising than Brandon Sanderson, for whom all objectivity seems to disappear for his fans and detractors.

Rhythm of war sanderson