In an update posted on April 16th in the Stormlight Archive subreddit, author Brandon Sanderson revealed a bit of how the next Stormlight Archive book, tentatively titled The Rhythm of War, is shaping up.
Amongst the updates regarding word counts and concurrent progress on Starsight (the sequel to Skyward), was an intriguing outline of what characters might be where after the events of Oathbringer.
Speculation ahead!
Sanderson’s explanation via the update:
Rhythm of War, however, is plotted more like The Way of Kings—meaning the separate books in it are divided by viewpoints.
In TwoK, Kaladin’s complete arc was “book one” of my outline. Dalinar’s was “book two” and Shallan’s was “book three” with all of them being interwoven into the final product, and with Part Five being a capstone epilogue to them all. This novel is similar, though with more viewpoints.
We have what I’m calling the Primary Arc, which focuses on four characters who are all together in one place, their plots interweaving. The Secondary Arc is three different characters, their arcs interweaving, but in a separate location from the primary arc. The Tertiary arc is the last two characters, in a third location.
Though we’re still a ways off from Stormlight Archive Book 4, there’s now some fun speculation we can dig into. Who do you think will appear in which arc? What locations could they take place in? In what other ways might The Rhythm of War be similar to The Way of Kings?
