Disappointed might be the best way to describe my feelings about this book. I love Brandon Sanderson’s writing and have praised him as a master of meaningful fiction comparable to Tolkein, but this book, while good, and certainly worth the read, falls short of what it promised to be.
Let me start with the good. Sanderson did a characteristically good job with world-building. The internal logic is tight; cause and effect are connectable and the broken/created rules are extraordinarily explicit in a way that allows your mind to sleuth the fictional world of Roshare as if it were real. The characters are well written as personalities, and it makes switching between them a refreshing change of pace. Similarly, the plot arch is paced reasonably well, it’s easy to get sucked into. Finally, Sanderson’s signature “magic science” is thoroughly developed in this book, if you like imagining a new set of the laws of physics, this will work well for you.
My complaints: The opposition in the book was weak; Odium was a clueless and insubstantial villain, made worse by the fact that the other potential main villains were actually kind of good guys… Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy a story that tells both sides, but the lack of archetypal opposition is really draining. It doesn’t resonate. He tries to compensate for this by introducing a few new villains (i.e. the pursuer) but they are pretty insubstantial compared to the like of Amaram and Sadeas. Furthermore, the intended moral framework conflict between surgeon and soldier didn’t really develop like it could have. The conclusions were half baked and the exposition undercovered.
In summary, this really was a decent book, better than anything Rawling has written and better than even some of Card’s books; it just didn’t live up to its potential.