Two-and-a-half stars, rounding up thanks to the more interesting last third of the book. But jeez Louis, this book was actually quite bad! Let me just spitfire some things that were just plain bad writing in this book:

- Why yes, I do want to get a B.S. in fabrial engineering. Navani droning on and on about this made me just zone out.
- Why yes, do please tell me again (for the 100th time!) that Taravangian is dumb/smart depending on the day. You did not make this point very clear in the previous novel, so do please repeat it every other sentence when it is a Taravangian chapter.
- Why yes, do let every single character suddenly have PTSD and a total problem with what them the characters they had become until that point. I have no problem with mental health as a topic, but come on, everyone?
- Editing. This book could easily cut 400 pages and still contain 98% of the content it told. I mean, what really happened in this book? How was the story actually driven further? Most of this could have been covered in half a dozen chapters. I listened to the audiobook, which damn near 50 hours!

Really, Sanderson is already known to be quite formulaic, but this book felt like a tick-the-box session on steroids.