★★★★★ Kaladin and Sylphrena dance

Wind and Truth

Brandon Sanderson

Some books contain a moment so perfect, so luminous, that it glows up an entire series. I think of the scene in Lloyd Alexander's Chronlces of Prydain in which Fflewddur Fflam burns his harp, or the reunion of Molly and Foxglove in Ben Aaronovitch's Lies Sleeping, or Cordelia's return from her shopping trip in Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar.

Wind and Truth, the latest installment in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive contains such a moment. It is when Kaladin, trying to imagine something that would make him happy, realizes, "He wanted to go dancing with Syl." Kaladin, "an old spear who wouldn’t break," is a grizzled veteran who has been a solider, a slave, and a leader and who has survived the hardest of lives. Sylphrena is an honorspren -- that is, she is an audible, visible, and occasionally tangible embodiment of Honor. She and Kal are bound by oaths, not to each other, but to Honor. Sylphrena is thousands of years old-- she is known to other honorspren as "Ancient Daughter". Syl takes the form of an irresistible metal weapon: a spear, a sword , even a flute with which Kal fights. In calm times she appears to Kal in the form of a young lady who floats on air. Syl has the kind of sense of humor you get if you read academic works on the nature of humor and try to apply them. The jokes with which she attempts to cheer Kal are so awful that they are sometimes hilarious. Kal askes her for a dance.

“Hey,” he said to her, “feel like a kata?”
...
Syl was a glowing silvery arc in his hands as he moved through the sequence. Each step sure, each grip perfect, stretching and straining his muscles. Just because it wasn’t practical didn’t mean it wasn’t difficult. He spun, whipping the spear into attacks. Then—as he leaned forward, thrusting the spear in a long one-handed lunge—the shape of it fuzzed, and he was holding her hand.
He spun Syl, her skirt flaring as he moved through the next step of the kata. He’d never learned to dance, not properly. Tarah had laughed when she’d found out, and so he’d never told anyone else. When would stern Kaladin Stormblessed ever have time for dancing? He was too busy saving the world.
This was different. This he could do, because there was no wrong way. He merely had to do what felt right. He spun with Syl, then yanked her back, spear landing securely in his left hand as he added steps to the kata. The springy ground seemed to propel his spins, as if he were light as air. He whipped the spear to the side and Syl unfolded, rotating in a spin, her hand in his. Faintly touching.

A moment like this appears light and easy. In reality, they are the most expensive things a writer can write. There is a reason why each of the examples I cited above occurs in the course of a long series of novels. Kal and Syl's dance landed for me because I have read close to a million words of Stormlight Archive. I know and love Kalidin and Sylphrena of old.

I am not going to say much more about the plot of Wind and Truth. It contains many such moments. I chose to highlight Kal and Syl's dance because it is one I can reveal without spoiling much. And also because I have always felt that Kalidin's story, more than that of any other character, is at the heart of the Stormlight Archive.

As the publisher's blurb says, Wind and Truth is the story of ten days leading up to a contest between Dalinar and Odium, which, aside from epilogs, is how it ends. However, the bulk of Wind and Truth is about the history that led up to the contest. We learn much more about the gods of Roshar, the origins of spren (the most intriguing and creative element of Sanderson's world-building). I found all the explanations immensely satisfying.

At some point I will go back and read the entire Stormlight Archive from beginning to middle. I say "middle" because Wind and Truth, while an ending of a sort, is the midpoint in a planned ten-book series.

Wind and Truth on Amazon

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