Why The Wind and Truth Goodreads Rating Keeps Going Down (SPOILERS)

Was Wind and Truth good? It depends on who you ask.

For dedicated fans of fantasy, for the cosmere enthusiasts, this is one of the greatest books ever. It is Sanderson at his most authentic, with his gloves off. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages (an entire book) are spent in the spiritual realm exploring lore that is absolutely irrelevant to the plot but extremely interesting for cosmere fanatics.

For the casual Sanderson fans, the book was a mess. While the cosmere fanatic loves lore dumps and knowing every intricate detail about the Roshar and the greater cosmere, the casual fan just doesn't care. Like, can we move the story along already? Page 1 to around page 1000 of this book was filler. Okay, that's an exaggeration, there were moments I loved in those pages, but 80% of it was unnecessary. For cosmere fanatics, however, those portions with extraneous lore will be analysed in the many years leading up to Stormlight 6. Good for them.

So this is why the Goodreads rating keeps dropping. When Wind and Truth was first released, I think I remember the rating being above 4.7. Now it has dropped to 4.50. The reason for this is simple: cosmere fanatics consumed the book in record time and gave it what they believe is a fair rating. However, casual fans who just want a good story have now gotten their hands onto the book, and they have no tolerance for bloat.

Wind and Truth was Sanderson's love letter to his most dedicated fans, and I'm happy they enjoyed it.

Edit:

  1. I agree with some of the comments about the unreliability of Goodreads, but I would like to leave a reminder that all previous Stormlight books (novellas excluded) have a rating of at least 4.61. Even if you think Goodreads is not reliable, the stark drop in ratings from the previous books is telling.
  2. For purposes of this post, I define "dedicated fans of fantasy" as people who enjoy fantasy simply because it is fantasy. This, for example, would be someone who would love the millions of pages of info dumps we were subjected to in the spiritual realm, simply because it is fantastical.

If you are a hardcore fantasy fan who did not enjoy Wind and Truth, please do not think I am questioning your love for or dedication to fantasy.