Rhythm Of War

I finally finished Rhythm of War from Brandon Sanderson. I did a post a few weeks ago complaining about how long it was and how I was unable to finish the audiobook in one two-week checkout period. I only made it halfway through the book with my first checkout, and when it was gone, I started a new book. I even said this:

It kind of feels like taking a load off. Now I can listen to a book that I may actually finish in time, so it won't feel like spinning my wheels. 

I started listening to Red Rising and got three hours in, when all of the sudden, I got a message from Libby saying that Rhythm of War was available for me again. I don't know how that was possible, because it was on hold by many people when I returned it, but I didn't look the gift horse in the mouth. 

Instead, I returned Red Rising and checked Rhythm of War back out. I was loathe to have wasted the three hours, but I figured three hours of investment versus twenty-five hours of investment didn't really compare. I'll get back to Red Rising soon and finish it up when I can. I can hold three hours worth of content in my mind a lot better than I can remember twenty-five hours, so the sooner I got back to Rhythm of War the more likely I was to enjoy it.

And I did enjoy it. The book is more my style, I believe, than what I was getting from Red Rising. Red Rising reminds me of Divergent and man of those other clones that came out in the dystopian gold rush of 2011 when everyone was jumping on the band wagon with The Hunger Games.

As I complained before, however, the book is just too long. The story it tells is enough to be a whole trilogy, and each book in this series probably should be just that. 

The biggest problem is that the series is still being written, so I can't just jump to the next book while all the details are still fresh. The fifth book is set to come out in December, so at least I'm not right on top of the releases. I could manage to read the next book before I completely forget the last one. I didn't manage that with Rhythm of War. I could not remember a single thing that had happened in its predecessor. It was like reading a book from the middle of a series without having ever read any of the others before it.

The other gripe I have is the incorporation of modern stuff in the book. Some people dig that kind of stuff, but to me it seems boring. When I read a book like this, I'm not looking for something that puts all the modern stuff we deal with in a sword and sorcery context. The book centers on a character who is a valiant warrior, but he can't keep it up, because he is having PTSD. He steps away from the battle and has a hard time finding a new place in society. He starts a friggin' support group for warriors who are losing their marbles.  

While I fully support this in modern day real life, I'm not interesting in seeing it in my fantasy epics. I'm sure many of you reading this are pulling your hair out and screaming that it is exactly what we need in our fantasy epics, and that warrior culture as portrayed in Middle Earth or Ansalon is partly to blame for the stigma that those who suffer from PTSD face. You might be right. I'm not saying you aren't. I just didn't find it compelling to read about. Every time we got to a chapter about that I wanted to skip to the end.

Otherwise, though, the book was great. The story is complex and massive. There's so much to be had in the book. I'd recommend it to anyone who asked, particularly if they were planning on buying a book, because you will definitely get your money's worth out of a thousand page tome like this.

Now that I'm done, I'm moving on to...no, not the rest of Red Rising. I have to wait for that one to come up on holds again. I'm moving on to David Brin's Sundiver. That's part of my effort to get everything on my bookshelf read. Rish got me a ton of books from his friend Jeff when he moved to Germany, and many of them, I'd never read before. They've been sitting on my shelf, shaming me, for years. On and off over the years I've tried to work my way through them...and now I'm back onto that effort.

I'll see you again when I finish that one.