Book 4 of the Stormlight Archive is everything I wanted it to be! After so long in training wheels, the groups have finally come into their own powers but not without costs. Shallan is a master lightweaver but broken with fractured personalities to compensate. She finally has to face her pact with the Ghostbloods. Adolin’s character has become one of my new favorites as he stands by his bound with his shardblade/friend Maya through their journey in Shadesmar to recruit the HonorSpren. Kaladin has been burdened by the inability to save everyone and is suffering from battle shock. He should be taking a step back from the battlefield but when Urithiru comes under attack he has to stand. After Moash’s betrayal and his own fears for those around him, Kaladin is forced to face new enemy fused such as the Heavenly Ones and the Pursuer. Venli comes into her own as the Voice of Raboniel. The hidden Radiant is titled the Last of the Listeners. She searches for a 3rd option, a way for Singers to become Listeners and live without the influence of Odium or the oppression of Man.
The meat of this book follows around Navani Kholin, the fused Raboniel, and the Urithiru’s Spren, the Sibiling. In an endless war, Navani and Raboniel become science bros in finding an anti-voidlight/stormlight. The consequences of which are the end of the war, one way or another. There is a strange relationship of respect and inevitable betrayal. Navani really comes into her own her as a scholar but, more importantly, as a Bondsmith. The story is my new favorite in the Stormlight Archive and now I dread the wait to learn where Sanderson will go next with these characters I’ve grown to love.