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Time to Read: 15 hours 21 minutes

Rating: Superposition of 6 and 8 (Not 7) / 10

This is the most conflicted I've felt about a book in a while. Because I can sort of see glimpses of why people love this book, but I also don't get how overwhelming the praise is when so much of the interesting stuff about this book is just setup that hasn't been paid off yet, AND I can see the major criticisms of the book as valid.

Overall, the most interesting and engaging thing about the name of the wind is the framing of the whole narrative. It turns a 4-6/10 story into a 6-8/10 story. Scenarios that might seem like fantasy escapism turn into scenes that are ironic with knowledge of the endgame in mind. This is why even though I understand where the Gary Stu criticism is coming from, it ultimately falls flat for me because we know for a fact that he fucked up majorly along the way to be where he is now.

The second most interesting and engaging thing in the novel is the songs and stories and how the novel plays with concepts surrounding the impact of stories and lies.

“All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.” He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”

There is a lot that makes you think about the nature and impact of stories, how they spread, how they change, how they affect people. Now, this isn't really explored enough for me to say it's resolved or concluded thoroughly in this book, but it is there and I'm hopeful the rest of the series will continue to touch on this, and I can see why the "unreliable narrator" theory of Kvothe's story appeals to people. Although I think if Kvothe is lying about things, it either it fails in this book on it's own to be meaningful or I failed to pick up on the details of things that he lied about that would be meaningful. It's also hard to feel like this story has a great unreliable narrator bent to it when two of my favorite stories every deal with unreliable narrators better in every way and make a much better emphasis and use of them (Monogatari and Umineko), the later of which also does a better job with the themes surrounding lies, truth, and the impact of stories.

Back to the interesting stuff, hearing about the myths and songs of the world is the most interesting thing about the worldbuilding in this book, and it's basically the only aspect that the world is really explored that much because the book largely happens in some towns concerning stuff that is of no greater political concern than local stuff that could happen in any town. It's no stormlight Archive that has every aspect of it's unique world being a constant part of the characters and plot, because most of the story is set in a regular fantasy setting besides the characters mannerisms and culture that is different from other fantasy books I guess.

The third most interesting thing is the setup for future events. Stuff like the end of the book with Bast and the Chronicler (which was great btw I loved it), the four plate door, Elodin's entire ass character, setup for Denna's character.

The fourth most interesting thing about this book is the prose. God the opening and closing of the book is so good. I was never really bored reading it.

I enjoyed the book much more once it hit the academy. (It reminded me of mushoku tensei oddly). It wasn't great really, but it was fun seeing Kvothe burn Master Hemme (although it was probably wrong of him to do that and Hemme is completely justified in hating him for intentionally hurting him for a laugh). It's interesting because in contrast to the Gary Stu accusations, I think Kvothe probably deserved to be banned from the archives despite everyone acting like it was completely unfair. Regardless of the fact that he was tricked and drugged, he CHOOSE to be drugged to protect his reputation. He knew he would be compromised and still did what he did. If he was responsible, he wouldn't have let himself into that situation and would've just waited a day, but he's impatient, arrogant, and curious. AND THEN HE PROVES HE DOESN'T DESERVE IT AGAIN BY BREAKING IN AT THE END OF THE BOOK. So suffice to say, he doesn't seem like a Gary Stu to me and his flaws are clearly going to bit him in the ass in the end (well, the middle I guess...).

There is one scene I fucking love and it's the scene where Kvothe plays the song at Eolian and his lute breaks and Denna sings with him and the chapter after where he talks about playing music vs hearing music and my god it's all so good and AHHHHHHHHHHH. WOOWWWWW I wish the whole book was as good as those two chapters are.

"I buried my face in my hands and wept. Not for a broken lute string and the chance of failure. Not for blood shed and a wounded hand. I did not even cry for the boy who had learned to play a lute with six strings in the forest years ago. I cried for Sir Savien and Aloine, for love lost and found and lost again, at cruel fate and man's folly. And so, for a while, I was lost in grief and knew nothing."

Now for my problems with it, I guess.

Overall, my biggest disappointment while reading was this feeling that nothing substantial was happening. At 85% complete I thought this: "Getting to/in what is shaping up to be the climax of this book and Im kind of disappointed with how little anything has progressed in the overall narrative concerning the "kingkiller." Ik that it's the first in an unfinished trilogy, and it has to be the "act one book," but still... I was expecting more epic in the fantasy called the kingkiller Chronicles." And I feel less this way now because the ending was hype and good, but looking back, it still feels like not a lot built up to was paid off because: 1. He is still in the Academy 2. He said the name of the wind but doesn't know it really, will learn it in the future 3. He is still hardcore in this weird limbo friendzone thing with Denna 4. He is still feuding with Ambrosa 5. The climax of this book is him randomly running off to learn about the chandrian's, completely missing them, and fighting a random dragon instead. Like cool, but also not at all what the rest of the book was about really. Much more connected to the rest of the book was how that developed his relationship with Denna (which I liked).

Second issue, none of the characters are amazing yet. They all have the potential to be good but just aren't yet. Kvothe is made interesting due to the framing device but just with the past story, there is nothing to his character besides Denna. Honestly though, his talk at the end about being next to Denna while she goes through a revolving door of men did hit and is genuinely interesting aspect to his character.

Oh, by "They" I actually just mean Kvothe, Denna, and Bast. I guess maybe the chronicler too but not really.

Third Issue, the villains/antagonists suck and are nearly non existent. Like D tier villains. Generic cookie cutter looking ass.

Fourth Issue (which is the flip side of the positives) is that a large portion of this book relies on it being paid off in the future which is a worrying prospect when it's been 12 years since sequel came out and the finale is nowhere in sight...

Overall, a lot of potential, a lot of good (the Sir Savien and Aloine will be a great scene no matter what happens in the future), and a lot of eh. But solid. I liked it. I mean, it was good enough to binge in 4 days lol.

Time to Read: 3 hours 30 minutes

Rating: 7/10

I know some people find Lift cringe, but I like her BECAUSE she is cringe and her dynamic with Wyndle is fun. She can be over the top sometimes, but I feel like she is accurate to how middle school kids act, especially with the implication that it's actually a front to hide her trauma. Speaking of which, all the hints to her deeper character, like everything to do with her running away to avoid attachments, lying to herself about not wanting to make decisions, in general lying to herself about what her actual goal is ("I'm here for pancakes!") to herself and Wyndle to disguise how aware she actually is, I really like it all. I found it great. I understand why people dislike her, and she's not an S Tier fantasy character like Kaladin and Shallan, but I really like reading about her little adventures and I can't wait to see her grow into a main character going into the future.

Besides Lift, I liked Darkness' whole ideology falling apart (and lift comforting him, that was great). I liked the cremling guy's stuff, "the sleepless" and the greater lore implications of his speech.

Overall good novella. Not as good as Emperor Soul. Better than any of the others.

Time to Read: 4 hours 19 minutes

Rating: 4/10

I went into this story knowing the graphic novel was lowly rated and generally considered the worst cosmere entry. I probably should've read the prose version instead and might eventually decide to IDK. It'll probably be quicker to list the things I like with no caveats.

1. I like Khriss as a character.
2. I liked when wider Cosmere implications were hinted at like a guy named Trell showing up.
3. Lord Admiral's story with getting screwed over by the guild and then getting revenge on them was fun.
4. Ais' character conflict and arc if a little under baked is good.

Now stuff I like in concept but not so much in execution because I felt like it was underdeveloped.

1. Aarik's character arc.
2. Drile's character arc/conflict with Kenton. The Drile fight doesn't work as a climax because the conflict between them is barely built on and it doesn't connect with the other climax in anyway other than they are happening right after each other.
3. Kenton's character arc.

Things I don't like.

1. It's a desert story where we only spend ~1/6th of the story at best dealing with the actual desert world.
2. I dislike the stakes and setup of the plot. The entire plot is just one long political game to save the Diem and that could work I guess but the importance of the Diem is so ill defined that it becomes boring and hard to care about. The Diem is important so Sand Mastery can continue which Kenton believes can be used to protect the population (which it hasn't been doing up until this point), so this entire story is just "we need to save the Diem so the Diem can do cool stuff in the future maybe." I find this incredibly disappointing. When I heard the initial title of "white sand" combined with the cover of the first volume, it gave me a much more exciting picture in my head than what is actually in the story.
3. It sucks that we don't go to or see the darkside at all in the story. Elantris also teases a wider world that we barely see outside of, but we do see outside of it. (Also the main setting in Elantris is inherently more interesting AND Elantris is going to get a sequel while this story may or may not).
4. The magic system is much more boring than any other Cosmere magic system and it's not even close.
5. The action is mid. Besides the opening chapters, all of the action scenes are over in what feels like 4 pages of fighting, and it's will some of the most boring cosmere powers ever, and the context of the action is the most boring cosmere context ever. "So some assassin's randomly show up!" is literally every single fight scene in this entire book except for like 3.
7. The graphic novel format sucks for this story. In general, I don't think the appeal of Sanderson's magic systems lends itself to the novel format. I imagine if Kenton was thinking more about how to use his single ribbon against 20 ribbons, it would be a more entertaining fight scene. It also sucks because the story isn't that action packed to begin with. Again, it's a political story about convincing people to change their vote.
8. Visually, the graphic novel isn't that great either.

All in all, by far the weakest Cosmere entry thus far except for the hope of elantris.

Time to read: 7 hours 43 minutes

Rating: 8/10

Feeling a Strong 7 to a light 8 on this one. My favorite Wax and Wayne book so far. Though thinking back on Shadows of Self that book also has some great character work for Wax and Wayne and the final twist is so emotionally great. It's good that this book then builds off of that twist and develops a character arc for Wax that emotionally comes together beautifully in the finale, bookending the book quite nicely as it opens up with Wax's... basically childhood rummaging as a future lawman, as well as setting up the choice Wax has to make at the ending of the novel.

Minor thing: The villains are kind of weak. Looking back on it, Lord Ruler kind of hard to top as a villain and Sanderson has never quite been able to match his presence as a character. Ruin is also great but they're more of an entity than a tangible person. Miles is the closest Sanderson has probably gotten to having a villain with presence like Lord Ruler did so far in Era 2.

Suit is cool for the times he does show up, but his screen time is underutilized for the type of character he is. I guess my main problem is that he's not fleshed out enough to care about his ideology, though it is cool to see his internal thoughts and how he says he's committed to the cause for ideological reasons but he does want to rule in his lifetime so there is that element of selfish desire for power in his actions. And now he's dead so no of him I guess lol. ONTO TRELL WHICH IS HYPE.

It's behind both Warbreaker and Final Empire for me pretty clearly (maybe that makes it more of a 7 IDK). But it's still solid. I really liked it. The ending was cool. More worldbuilding is always welcome. I love seeing that. The mistborn series world, seeing it and technology evolve with the power system along with my boy ~~Sazed~~ I mean Harmony, It's probably my favorite thing about Era 2. The characters are also great, but the worldbuilding and power system is my favorite thing, so seeing stuff like the machines made to use allomancy as literal power for machines is jsut great. Finally seeing humans/cultures outside of the "mistborn core city" is also exciting. I also fucking love the wider cosmere hints and teases and the whole "Trell"/other god attacking Harmony/the Planet. It's so great.

ALSO THAT FUCKING ENDING! HOLY FUCKING SHIT! IS KELSIER ALIVE?? WHAT???????

Time to read: 6 hours 6 min

Solid 7/10. The entire emotional ending twist with Lessie made it go from a 6/10 to a 7/10. (although I changed my rating for both from 4/5 stars to 3/5 stars bc it feels more right in my head because it just feels like they are on a lesser tier than the books i have in 4/5). Bleeder's character and her interaction with Wax's character was interesting if not thoroughly explored enough for me to entirely love.
Overall same same with my last Era 2 opinion, although this one had more character development from Wax and Wayne.
I am really really interested in the wider cosmere hints in this book though.
Like there is a newspaper article about an alien monster from another world, what the fuck is that??? And hints about another god?? And the metal spike came from a different god?? Another cosmere god maybe??? Although Trell is mentioned in Era 1, so maybe just another god on the planet. But still, hype.

Overall, probably enjoyed the first book more because the setting and characters were fresh and the allomancy fights and shenanigans were more fun in that book, but this one probably has the better (if less epic) ending and character writing. It definitely feels like a "build up arc" ngl though.