Wind and Truth

 Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, 1330 pages.

This book marks the end of the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, and ties the many interwoven threads to their conclusion. It is difficult both to summarize the fifth book in a series, and also one that is well over 1000 pages, so I'm going to be very brief. This book takes place in the 10 days between the agreement between Dalinar and the god Odium at the end of the last book, and the contest that they agreed upon. Both sides are desperately trying to gain or keep ground before borders solidify at the time of the contest. Meanwhile, others seek answers from the ancient past and the Heralds to find any long-term advantage against Odium. 

For the first section of this book I finally experienced some of the issues that people who don't like these books have complained about. There was a perspective character whose story I didn't care much about, and I was impatient to get back to story lines I cared more about, while also feeling like the perspectives shifted a little to fast to really settle into any story. That being said, once it hit its stride I found myself completely hooked as usual. There were a whole lot of really standout scenes in this book, in addition to the answers to many deep lore questions. I love that characters in this series, which despite being classic high fantasy is ultimately about mental health, are able to not only make meaningful progress, but to maintain that growth from book to book. The end of this book managed to really surprise me, and I am ready to settle into the expected tragically long wait until book six.