My Cosmere Year Wrap Up + Wind and Truth Book Review

I have been a BIG Brandon Sanderson fan for many years. I was 19 when I read my first book by him (Way of Kings) and at the time, he had the Mistborn series, Elantris, Warbreaker, Way of Kings, and a few novellas published. I have reread a quite a few of books over the years, but when they anounced the release of the fifth Stormlight book for the end of 2024, I knew it was a good time for me to revisit all of the Cosmere books he'd written. I did not read Allomancer Jack, White Sands, or the Cosmere secret projects.

Note: The Cosmere is a fictional universe that many of Sanderson's books take place in. If a book is a "Cosmere" book, it takes place on a planet in that universe. Think of it similar to Marvel, but with fantasy books. Not all of his books take place in the Cosmere and so far, you can read all the Cosmere books independently, without having to read all the connected books. But, it can be fun to find the Easter eggs in the connections.

I knew it was going to be a big undertaking, but I broke it down to about a book a month (some months had multiple shorter books to fit it all in) and I'm a big reader, besides the fact that his books are un-put-down-able. I was confident I could do it!

So ...

How did I do?

I succeeded in rereading all the Cosmere books I set out to read! However, I didn't quite manage to finish Wind and Truth in 2024 (I ended up reading it in January of 2025). Here's how my year went:

January through March, I had planned on reading the original Mistborn books (the trilogy, Sercret History, and Eleventh Metal) and read them just as planned. I loved revisiting them! The original Mistborn trilogy remains my favorite work by Brandon Sanderson. I love the characters, the romance between Vin and Elend, the heist plot, the plot twist at the end, and the character arcs. This time around was really fun because I was listening to the third Mistborn book (while painting our living room) in conjunction with reading the ebook of Secret History (the two plots take place adjacent to each other as well).

In April and May, I squeezed two books in each month to read the second era of Mistborn (Wax and Wayne). I managed to finish the first (Alloy of Law) in April, but didn't quite manage to finish the second (Shadows of Self) until May, but then I also did read the last two (Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal) in May, catching up with my schedule. I always love Alloy of Law, it's so funny and the characters and mystery are so fun to read about. Shadows of Self has never been my favorite, but there are still good parts. It surprised me how much I loved rereading Bands of Mourning and I cried again when I read the end of The Lost Metal.

In June, I read Warbreaker. Warbreaker is such a great story that plays with different tropes in interesting ways and has amazing characters. I am super excited that we are apparently getting another Warbreaker book soon!

In July, I read The Emporer's Soul and Elantris (and Hope of Elantris). I had forgotten how much I love The Emporer's Soul until I reread it. It is a novella, so it's shorter, but the worldbuilding is really cool and the con artist plot line is right up my alley. Rereading Elantris, it's probably my least favorite Cosmere book. It isn't bad, but I didn't love it as much I thought I would. I found myself not wanting to read it, or remembering what came next and not being excited for it.

August and September are when I started to get off track. I was supposed to read Way of Kings in August and Words of Radiance as well as Edgedancer in September. However, I ended up having morning sickness during these months, so my reading was very much mood reading, especially in August as I was in the thick of it and just trying to survive feeling sick all the time with four kids to take care of.

I started reading Way of Kings in September and finished it in October. I then immediately picked up Words of Radiance and Edgedancer and finished those in October as well. I absolutely loved reading Way of Kings this time. I've always loved the book, but in the past, a lot of Kaladin's parts dragged for me. That wasn't the case this time, for whatever reason. I just thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end, and the ending made me cry (like it does every time). I also really enjoyed my rereading of Words of Radiance. Edgedancer was just okay this time around.

November was very busy for me--holidays with four kids and being pregnant is no joke. Despite the business, I managed to read both Oathbringer and Dawnshard. Oathbringer is one of my favorite endings of all time. It helps that Dalinar is my favorite character in Stormlight. I know this is a lot of people's least favorite book because of pacing, and on this reread I could see why with how the first half of the book is so full of meetings, but honestly, the pacing has never bothered me and I love the ending so much. The themes and character arc felt even more powerful to me this reread with some of the things going on in my personal life. It is so powerful.

In December, I almost managed to get all the way caught up. I finished my Rhythm of War reread, though I finished it after the release of Wind and Truth. It was Christmas time, so I was busy and reading more holiday books. I also just had a harder time getting into it. The first time I read it, I didn't love it. I liked it more this time around, but I didn't feel the same pull to pick up the book and keep reading that I do with the first three. Those three are long, but it's hard for me to put them down and get anything done. With Rhythm of War, it almost feels like the opposite. I will say, I love (and have always loved) the Navani plot line and this time around, I felt much more invested in Kaladin's plot line as well.

I also read Sixth of Dusk and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell in December, between Christmas and New Years. Both are novellas. I absolutely love Shadows for Silence. I know so many who love Sixth of Dusk because of the cool world building (and it does have that), but I personally find the plot a little boring to get through.

I also started Wind and Truth near the end of December (while I was reading the novellas), but I didn't finish it until January of the next year. I didn't hate the book, but like with Rhythm of War, I didn't feel myself just wanting to read it nonstop and was honestly fairly disappointed with it.

Wind and Truth Review:

This review is not going to be completely spoiler free, because I want to talk about things that I liked or didn't like in the book, but I will try to keep things vague enough that the spoilers aren't too crazy.

I want to start by saying that part of my disappointment came from expecting this book to be a bit of a climax, in wrapping up the first arc of the series. Instead, we got a book that felt very much like a setup book (and my understanding is this was what Sanderson was going for). I'm not sure if this is why I felt bored during much of the book or if it was something else. The other part of my disappointment came from what felt like a shift in the themes and feel of the book. I'll go more into that later.

There were many things about the book that I enjoyed. My favorite part of the book was everything Adolin. His sections in Azir were all so enjoyable to me. I loved seeing Adolin and Yanagawn's friendship develop and Yanagawn's character development. I was very invested in Azir and Adolin's role there. I also was very interested in everything happening with the deadeyes and the climatic moment there was great.

There were some backstory scenes that we got to see as the characters were in the spiritual realm that I liked. I also loved the section where we get to se Jasnah humbled--I know some people didn't love that part, but I thought it was very well done, realistic to what would happen, and honestly, it was satisfying to see someone able to do to Jasnah what she often does to others.

With the end of the book, the things liked the most were Sigzil's sacrifice, Szeth's arc, that Dalinar chose to protect Gavinar, and the wrap up with the herald's. These things were fun to read and felt satisfying to me as a reader.

That being said, there were quite a few things that detracted from the reading experience for me. For some reason, there was so much of the book that just dragged for me. The worst were the scenes where Honor was telling his backstory--these felt like straight up exposition dump and I found myself getting annoyed every time it went back to his veiwpoint. Honestly, though, most of the spiritual realm felt long and uninteresting. I have a hard time with dreams in books and the much of the spiritual realm felt dream-like, so I'm wondering if this is part of why I struggled with it. I'm not sure, but I had an especially hard time with caring about Shallan's veiwpoints in the spiritual realm.

The other part of the book that was very boring to me was Sigzil's sections, and I think it's because I had already read The Sunlit Man (which was recommended to be read before Wind and Truth). I already knew so much because of the Sunlit Man that it was not exciting to read and all the tension I would have felt otherwise about their struggles was gone. Like I said before, I did love his climax, but the rest of his sections were just harder to get through. In fact, most of the fight scenes until day 9 felt a little pointless to read and I found more boring. It almost felt like it didn't even matter until it was closer to the end of the 10 days.

If you take the bulk of the spiritual realm and the bulk of the fight scenes, it makes up most of the build up in the book and it's easy for me to see why I had a harder time getting through the book. On top of this, I found myself often pulled out of the story by more modern language. The worst offense for me was the constant use of the word "therapy". It literally was driving me crazy, though there were other phrases that felt very out of place to me too. It seems like such a small thing to have a few out-of-place words, but it actually had a big effect on the reading experience for me.

With the word therapy, I also had a hard time with the fact that Szeth is the one who has the main character arc, but we see so much of his perspective through Kaladin's eyes. Kaladin's character is simply trying to "fix" Szeth and it's honestly way less fun to watch someone trying to fix someone else than it is to watch a character struggle themselves to fix themselves. This was one of the way that themes in this book felt different to me than in the past books and it had a big effect on the reading experience.

And finally, the contest of champions. This was the thing that the last few books have really been leading up to and it was a huge letdown for me. I hated--absolutely hated--who the champion was. From the beginning, I have held firm that I could handle anyone being the champion except one person. And guess who the champion was? Yep, that person. I also hate the way they became the champion, it makes me sick. Then the contest itself very anticlimatic. I was just expecting so much more from it and it just kind of ... fizzled.

Overall, I think the sections I enjoyed made it worth reading and I plan on continuing the series. I am hoping that this book is a one-off and not the start of a different trajectory for the series. I love the first three books, like the fourth book, and was disappointed with this one, but I hold out hope that I can love (or at least like) the sixth. I guess we'll see.

So those are my thoughts on Wind and Truth and how I did with my Cosmere rereadathon. It was so fun to revisit so many of my favorite books in 2024! Have you read Wind and Truth? What did you think of it? I'd love to hear your thoughts, even if they differ from mine!