A Disappointing Finale: A Wind and Truth Review, the Fifth Book in The Stormlight Archive
When Wind and Truth hit shelves, fans of Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive were eager to dive into the epic conclusion to the series’ first arc. However, while positive reviews flood the top search results, a deeper dive into Reddit threads, YouTube book channels, and Goodreads user reviews reveals a different sentiment. For many readers – myself included – this book felt more like a fizzle than a finale of this first arc. Sanderson himself, just days before the book’s release, told Esquire, “If my career is going to crash and burn, this is the book that’ll do it.” While that may be an overstatement, Wind and Truth left me unsatisfied. Sanderson said a few things in different interviews before this book’s release that seemed to try and settle some expectations of the book…but I didn’t see any of them until after I had read the entire book. Would it have helped if I read those interviews before I read the book? I don’t think it would’ve made me any happier about the outcome. Below, you will find my Wind and Truth review and the main areas which I thought fell short of a book that could have been great.
THIS WIND AND TRUTH REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
Author – Brandon Sanderson
Publisher – Tor Books
Page Count – 1,344
Audiobook Length – 63 Hours
Wind and Truth on Amazon
The Contest of Champions: An Exciting Finish Without the Excitement
Central to the story is the much-anticipated Contest of Champions. With a build-up of roughly 1,200 pages, this climactic confrontation should have been the defining moment of the book – perhaps even the series. Instead, it felt surprisingly tame. The stakes were high on paper, but the execution lacked the tension and grandeur needed to deliver a payoff worthy of its buildup. For a series known for its pulse-pounding Sanderlanche climaxes, this one fell short.
Looking back at Oathbringer (my personal favorite of the series), Dalinar’s character arc felt monumental as he grappled with his past and uttered “I am Unity,” leading to an explosive confrontation that reshaped the world. The stakes were deeply personal yet had cosmic ramifications. By contrast, his role in the Contest of Champions felt hollow, as if his ultimate test had already occurred in a previous book. The result was a climax that felt more like a procedural resolution than an emotional crescendo.
Similarly, in Words of Radiance, the battle of Narak was thrilling because it balanced large-scale combat with deeply personal stakes. Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan all had crucial moments of self-discovery that impacted the broader conflict. Words of Radiance also has in its conclusion the moment that probably gave me the most chills and excitement of any Sanderson line: “You sent him to the sky to die, assassin,” Kaladin said, Stormlight puffing from his lips, “but the sky and the winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.” By contrast, Wind and Truth lacked that emotional engagement, making the Contest of Champions feel detached and ultimately underwhelming.
Even in Rhythm of War, where the focus shifted more toward philosophical and metaphysical themes, the climactic battles carried weight because they reflected character arcs in meaningful ways. In Wind and Truth, the Contest of Champions lacked both intensity and emotional depth, turning what should have been a gripping moment into a pretty tame one.
Kaladin: From Warrior to Therapist
Kaladin Stormblessed has been one of The Stormlight Archive’s most compelling characters, a tortured hero struggling with depression and rising time and again to fight against impossible odds. Yet in Wind and Truth, Kaladin’s storyline feels neutered. Gone is the relentless fighter who inspired armies and led the charge against the Fused. Instead, we get Kaladin the therapist.
“How?” Ishar repeated. “What are you?” He gestured toward Szeth. “Are you…are you his spren? His god?”
“No,” Kaladin said. “I’m his therapist.”
It’s a moment that was clearly intended to resonate but instead came off as so cringe-worthy I almost stopped reading for the night. Let’s say you love the idea of Kaladin becoming a therapist…unfortunately, his therapizing is also wildly unrealistic. Kaladin’s ability to completely change the way of thinking for Heralds who’ve been tortured for thousands of years – after just a few days of “therapy” – stretches credibility to the breaking point.
Compare this to Words of Radiance, where Kaladin’s internal struggle with his oaths and his personal failures made his eventual “triumph” against Szeth one of the most satisfying moments in the series. That fight was deeply tied to his character development, whereas in Wind and Truth, his arc lacks that same weight. His internal struggle has been replaced with external validation, robbing his story of its former depth.
Furthermore, in previous books, Kaladin’s progression always felt earned. His leap to speaking the Fourth Ideal was agonizingly difficult, yet here, there’s a sense of inevitability that makes his eventual growth feel hollow. Instead of questioning himself, his arc proceeds in a straight line, lacking the emotional highs and lows that made his earlier development so engaging.
The biggest issue, however, is that this shift in Kaladin’s role doesn’t feel earned. His struggles with depression were once handled with nuance, making him one of the most relatable characters in the series. Here, his inner turmoil seems conveniently resolved so he can act as a therapist figure rather than as a warrior grappling with his own identity.
The Prose: A Sudden Shift in Style
One of the most jarring aspects of Wind and Truth is how much the prose itself took a turn in a different direction. Much has been said about the use of the word “therapist,” but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are phrases, expressions, and entire passages of dialogue that feel completely out of place in the established world of The Stormlight Archive. Characters use modern-sounding language that breaks immersion, and their tone feels drastically different from past books. There are moments when the prose feels almost like a different writer took over, shifting from the poetic and immersive descriptions that defined the series into something that feels far more contemporary—and not in a good way.
This change in writing style made it difficult to feel grounded in Roshar. Instead of the distinct and deeply built world Sanderson crafted in the previous books, the dialogue and narration often felt like it could belong in any generic fantasy setting. Rhythm of War had already started this trend, but Wind and Truth took it to another level, making some of the dialogue feel downright anachronistic and turning some main characters like Kaladin into someone that talks like a millenial on instagram.
In The Way of Kings, the prose felt like it belonged to an epic fantasy novel. The poetic descriptions, the weight of each sentence, and the careful balance of exposition and dialogue created a world that felt truly unique. In contrast, Wind and Truth feels like it has lost that sense of careful craft. Sentences are more utilitarian, the descriptions less vivid, and the characters’ dialogue far more modern than before.
The Loss of Inner Conflict: Everyone is Too Self-Aware
One of the strengths of The Stormlight Archive has always been the inner struggles of its characters. These deeply personal battles made their triumphs feel earned and their failures feel devastating. But in Wind and Truth, that internal conflict is largely absent. Nearly every character is hyper-aware of their emotions, their mental states, and their personal struggles to the point where there is barely any internal tension left to resolve.
Apart from Jasnah, who remains one of the few characters still grappling with significant internal turmoil, most of the cast spends the book in a state of near-total self-awareness. This robs their journeys of any sense of discovery. When characters speak their Fifth Ideals, it doesn’t feel like a massive revelation—it feels like the inevitable next step in a process that they have already thoroughly analyzed and understood. Compare this to Oathbringer, where Dalinar’s realization that he had to accept responsibility for his past made for an incredibly powerful moment. Here, everyone seems to already know their path before they even take the final step, making those moments feel predictable rather than transformative.
Moash and Mishram: A Problem For A Later Arc
One of the most frustrating aspects of Wind and Truth is how little was done with some of the most compelling antagonists in the series. Moash, once one of the most intriguing villains, essentially disappears after a climactic moment where he kills a radiant spren. His transformation into an Ironeyes is fascinating, but it feels abrupt and underexplored, leaving his arc feeling unfinished.
Similarly, Mishram, who has been hyped as an ancient force with the potential to reshape Roshar’s very nature, is released—and then forgotten. After all the buildup regarding her imprisonment and its consequences, the lack of immediate fallout is disappointing. Mishram’s release did allow Honor to bond Dalinar, but I was expecting immediate chaos. Instead, she isn’t mentioned again.
What I Liked
Despite my criticisms, there were moments in Wind and Truth that stood out as bright spots. Adolin’s storyline was a highlight, particularly his battles, his arc with Yawngawth, and his inner conflict over forgiving Dalinar that had me excited whenever I saw I was at another Adolin chapter.
Moash becoming an Ironeyes was also an unexpected but intriguing development. While his arc felt underutilized and this moment was but a fleeting moment, the transformation itself was a cool nod to the larger Cosmere and the connections between The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn while setting him up for being an even more unique character in the future.
The mention of Sazed was another exciting moment, providing a small but tantalizing connection between different Cosmere books. Although a tiny moment in itself, I still love my boy Sazed.
Finally, Dalinar giving Honor to Odium was one of the most compelling moments in the book. While the Contest of Champions overall felt lackluster, this decision was weighty and had massive implications for the future of Roshar. Nobody on Roshar knows that he exceeded is a very intriguing point, as this story will move along to the next arc with the planet’s population believing that Dalinar lost the contest so spectacularly that Odium is now wildly more powerful than he was before. Only Wit realized what Dalinar had done, but initially even he thought Dalinar failed miserably.
Conclusion
Wind and Truth is by no means a terrible book, but it’s a disappointing one for fans who have been deeply invested in The Stormlight Archive. The Contest of Champions didn’t hold the excitement or impact I was looking for, Kaladin’s arc was neutered, and the climactic Sanderlanche moments failed to deliver. While Adolin’s storyline and a few other standout moments helped salvage the experience, they weren’t enough to save the book from feeling like a shadow of what it could have been.
Brandon Sanderson has set a high bar for himself with his past work, and perhaps that’s why Wind and Truth feels like such a letdown. For those of us who have loved this series, it’s a bittersweet farewell to the first arc – a finale that closes one chapter but leaves us questioning the future.
