TGRF Reviews: the Alloy of Law

I was able to get my hands on the continuation of the Mistborn world - the Wax and Wayne series - over Christmas, and was able to sit down and read the relatively short first book recently. I wanted to get my thoughts down before I started the second book.

Since my recent ratings have been generally lower than I felt they should be, I've opted to stop rating individual sections or aspects of media in these reviews, and instead simply provide an overall rating which I feel is more accurate. I'll still offer my thoughts on the individual aspects as usual.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the media.
1: Flawed, bring the media down noticeably.

Title: The Alloy of Law
Author: Brandon Sanderson
My Rating: 2.85/5 - mostly...

TGRF Reviews: Rhythm of War

Yesterday I finished Rhythm of War, the fourth book in the Stormlight Archive. My past reviews of these books have been somewhat on the negative side, but I feel like this is probably the best book so far.

As I did last time, I will break the book into sections rather than critiquing areas such as character or plot. This is because each section is vastly different from the last, making it difficult to lump all of 'character' say into one category.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the media.
1: Flawed, bring the media down noticeably.

Title: Rhythm of War
Author: Brandon Sanderson
My Rating: 3.3/5 (should be higher)

Phase 1
The Stormlight books have followed the same general pattern: they start out...

TGRF Reviews: Oathbringer

Yesterday, I finished Oathbringer, book 3 in the Stormlight Archive. Since book 4 is already in my possession, I didn't want to waste much time getting to the review of book 3. So let's hop to it.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the media.
1: Flawed, bring the media down noticeably.

Title: Oathbringer
Author: Brandon Sanderson
My Rating: 3.5/5

Phase 1
I've opted to forgo my usual summary and my breakdown of the story into parts. The book is so massive that it's almost like trying to review separate books in one. Therefore, I'll break the book into what I see as it's defining 'parts'. I will attempt to avoid spoilers, though this won't be 100% possible.

Phase 1 is - as is becoming typical with these...

TGRF Reviews: Edgedancer

I generally read whatever introductory material there is before a story, and I'm glad I do so, because the introduction to the third book in the Stormlight Archive, Oathbringer, contained a suggestion to read a short novella which took place between books two and three. That novella was Edgedancer.

I did some research on how required the story was. One review said that it dealt with an important plot point, which Oathbringer otherwise skimmed over. I didn't want to unjustly find fault with anything I planned on reviewing, so a few days later, I acquired Edgedancer from the library and settled down to read.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the media.
1: Flawed, bring the media down noticeably.

Title: Edgedancer
Author: Brandon Sanderson...

I finished book two of The Stormlight Archive yesterday, which means it's time for another review. When I started reading the book, I intended to review each part individually as I did for TWOK. However, book two felt far more cohesive than TWOK did, and for that reason, I decided to simply review the whole thing as one.

Let's get to the review.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the story.
1: Flawed, bring the movie down noticeably.

Title: Words of Radiance
Author: Brandon Sanderson
My Rating: 4.17/5 - A hard-to-put-down original adventure, only limited by some stylistic choices.

Spoiler-free summary: Keeping these summaries spoiler-free is only going to get harder as the series progresses. I tried to write one for this book, but because so much...