The Stormlight Archive/Back Cover Text

The back cover of each book in The Stormlight Archive contains text, often called a blurb, that is written from an in-universe perspective. It is as of yet unknown who the author of each text is, but it has been confirmed that each one comes from the perspective of one of the Sleepless.

The Way of Kings

I long for the days before the Last Desolation.

The age before the Heralds abandoned us and the Knights Radiant turned against us. A time when there was still magic in the world and honor in the hearts of men.

The world became ours, and we lost it. Nothing, it appears, is more challenging to the souls of men than victory itself.

Or was that victory an illusion all along? Did our enemies realize that the harder they fought, the stronger we resisted? Perhaps they saw that the heat and the hammer only make for a better grade of sword. But ignore the steel long enough, and it will eventually rust away.

There are four whom we watch. The first is the surgeon, forced to put aside healing to become a soldier in the most brutal war of our time. The second is the assassin, a murderer who weeps as he kills. The third is the liar, a young woman who wears a scholar's mantle over the heart of a thief. The last is the highprince, a warlord whose eyes have opened to the past as his thirst for battle wanes.

The world can change. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return; the magics of ancient days can become ours again. These four people are key.

One of them may redeem us.

And one of them will destroy us.

Words of Radiance

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

The ancient oaths have at last been spoken; the spren return. Men seek that which was lost. I fear the struggle will destroy them.

It is the nature of the magic. A broken soul has cracks into which something else can be fit. Surgebindings, the powers of creation themselves. They can brace a broken soul; but they can also widen its fissures.

The Windrunner, lost in a shattered land, balanced upon the boundary between vengeance and honor. The Lightweaver, slowly being consumed by her past, searching for the lie that she must become. The Bondsmith, born in blood and death, striving to rebuild what was destroyed. The Explorer, straddling the fates of two peoples, forced to choose between slow death and a terrible betrayal of all she believes.

It is past time for them to awaken, for the Everstorm looms.

And the Assassin has arrived.

Oathbringer

A new storm has come.

Ash and red lightning sweep the land, awakening our ancient enemies. The Unmade—shadows of the Enemy's soul—stir, while the eyes of men open. This war is not, and never was, what they thought it to be.

We may soon hold Surges again, for Radiance has returned to some, and shines toward others. The Captain, broken by loss, seeks reconciliation. The Spy, broken by cruelty, seeks completion. The Stonewalker, broken by oaths, seeks truth. The Traitor, broken by ambition, seeks freedom.

And finally the King. Broken by war, he seeks the past. That which was abandoned. That which he must not know.

For those secrets will crush him as they did the knights who came before.

Rhythm of War

There are secrets we have kept for so long. Watching. Sleepless. Eternal. And soon, they will no longer be ours.

The One Who Is Three seeks the captured soul, but does not know it. The imprisoned spren, so long ago forgotten. Can she free her own soul in time to find knowledge? The knowledge that damns all people of Roshar?

The Fallen Soldier caresses and loves the spear, even as it gouges his own flesh. He steps ever forward, ever into the darkness, without light. He can bring none with him, but that which he can kindle himself.

The Broken Sister sees her mistakes, and thinks she is one herself. She seems so far from her ancestors, but does not realize they carry her upon their shoulders. Toward victory, and toward that most important silence.

And the Mother of Machines, most important of them all, dances with liars at a grand ball. She must unmask them, find their hidden truths, and present them to the world. She must admit that the worst lies have been the ones she tells herself.

If she does, our secrets will finally become truths instead.