Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (Stormlight Archive, 3)

With Rhythm of War due to hit shelves in a few short weeks, I’ve spent the last few months lingering over a reread of Oathbringer. I raced through it the first time 3 years ago, and I’ve always felt as if I missed something, so this reread was as much about second chances as a second read.

In my original review, I talked of being two minds about the book, with certain sections working extraordinarily well and others falling flat or feeling tedious. While I still think the pacing was a bit uneven, and a few storylines dragged out a little too long, I can honestly say I didn’t find anything tedious about the reread. Maybe it’s because I took the time to enjoy it, swapping other books in and out as the mood struck me, but I appreciated the sweeping, epic feel, and the depth of characters (and growth) far more the second time around.

This volume belongs largely to Dalinar and Shallan, but there are pivotal moments for nearly the entire cast. Dalinar’s narrative was even more fascinating on a reread, with his extended flashback chapters exposing the darkness and sorrow of his past, shedding new light on his actions and attitudes. We come to see him in an entirely new light, with a contrast between personalities so jarring that it’s often painful to watch. Part of that is due to the phantom presence of his wife, a woman whose name and face have been a gaping hole in his memories for so long, and part of that hinges on his pursuit of The Thrill, which he has long assumed made something of a monster of him. I chafed a bit against his conversations with Stormfather and the visions they share, feeling as if Brandon Sanderson spent too much time trying to be clever and mysterious, but they do have a purpose and there are a pair of pivotal ah-hah moments in the dying pages.

In Shallan’s case, she gets to see a lot more action than in the first two books, and her character (or should that be characters?) development is intriguing. Here is a woman so burdened by responsibility, so paralyzed by fear and anxiety, that she literally becomes three women, splintering her personality into three very different personas. She has the first big moments of the book, the first victories against the enemy, and she comes to stand just as tall and proud as any Shardbearer. There’s a character close to her whose death is undone in this volume, and that could have led to some even more interesting exploration of her personalities, but I felt the conflict there was largely wasted. She’s also the center of a love triangle, which irked me a bit, because not every strong woman in epic fantasy needs to be in romance to be valid, but that’s a personal quibble.

As for those pivotal moments for the rest of the cast, this is very much a story of minor characters taking on major significance. It’s hard to talk about that significance without spoiling any aspects of the story, but characters like Renarin, Moash, the Assassin in White, and others get a chance to shine – and what happens to them (or around them) is sometimes the most fascinating part of the story. It takes a long time for their arcs to be revealed, and the ah-hah moments of appreciation come on suddenly, but they twist and turn the story in ways I wasn’t expecting.

In many ways, Oathbringer marks a lull in the series, but it’s an important lull. As much as I chafed against the pacing at times, we finally get answers . . . and we get a lot of them. So much of what was hidden or hinted at in the first two books is exposed here. Mythology is exposed, history is revealed, and we finally get a wider sense of world-building. The story really begins to move away from the epic saga of a ruling dynasty and into the epic saga of a world on the brink of extinction. On that note, the last arc of the book is Sanderson at his very best, and well worth sticking around for. All the book’s flaws are forgiven as all the threads come together and we realize, in hindsight, just how and why so many little things were significant. The final three-hundred pages (a novel on its own for most authors) are all climax, and they are some of the finest he has ever written.

Oathbringer is not a perfect book, and probably the first time I noticed the page count of an epic fantasy doorstopper in a negative way, but I’m glad I had the time to linger over it and find that deeper appreciation I missed on my first read.

Words of Radiance and Way of Kings were some of my absolute favorite books, I read them and listening to them over and over and couldn't wait to read this third book.

I found myself getting bored very early into this book. But I kept sticking through it because I love the characters and the world Sanderson has created. I kept thinking it would pick up in pace. It didn't.

You could easily skip the first 2/3rds of this book and not miss much. There was a lot of viewpoints from characters with very minor roles and while it was nice to see those, at some points it skipped around so much it was confusing and many of them didn't add much to the story. I found myself just wanting to get back to a main character. Lots of talking and politics. There's also a strong undertone in this book of mental illness in the characters and confronting/overcoming this. A far different battle from running bridges and swinging shard blades.

Towards the end it picks up the pacing and there's some amazing answers to major questions. It's a satisfying ending, but I still feel like the book just fell flat of the previous ones.

I have not finished this book. This review may get an edit if I can ever get myself to finish this book.

I really wanted to like this book and I was looking forward to it for quite some time, even starting to read it at midnight.. But man.. It is so dry and so dull all the way to about halfway through Part 2 (which is as far as I've gotten). So many things that I was looking forward to reading about were simply glossed over, such as the reaction to Jasnah somehow still being alive. So far that still hasn't even been explained as to how she survived other than her making some random comment about being able to use Stormlight to heal (Stormlight can heal death??)

Then there was the reunification of Kaladin with his family.... which was COMPLETELY glossed over in less than a chapter and absolutely unsatisfying. Speaking of Kaladin... why is he basically a background character with no plot in this book where as the one character that has annoyed the most readers, Shallan, seems to be about half the book so far? And her chapters are SOOOOOOOOOOO damn boring I'm about to start skipping them. I was hoping she would become a bit less annoying in this book, but she is worse in this one than she was in Way of Kings!

If the book was focusing more on Dalinar I could live with it, but other than the few chapters about his past (very few so far) they have just been boring nonsense about him still trying to convince the other rulers that the Voidbringers need to be fought.

SLOW, LONG, TEDIOUSLY DRY AND BORING SO FAR! Hope it REALLY picks up soon or I wont even be able to finish reading it and this review will stand as it is now.

So.............first off I am a fan of Sanderson. And in fairness I am not done but on page 507 but I just have to stop at this point and say this is the most boring Sanderson book I have ever read. Its not a question of not being able to put the book down it's a question of not being able to pick the book back up. Hugely disappointing. Reviews like epic, 5 stars, really???? Are we reading the same book?? He takes our favorite character - Kaladin and so far has put him in the background and does nothing with him I am all for character development but not at the expense of a story that has gone nowhere - 500 pages of let's unite people against the Voidbringers, and numerous sub stories that frankly are boring me to death. The first two books were good but this is just so bad I don't know how I am going to make it to the end without throwing myself off a cliff first. I keep saying to myself, maybe in a hundred more pages something vaguely interesting is going to happen - still waiting. I will try to update this when/if I finish but it is going to take a miracle at this point to even get this to a two star book.

First off, I have really enjoyed some of Sanderson's books in the past, but is it just me or are his characters increasingly flat and unrealistic? Maybe I didn't notice when I was younger, but the characters just seem incredibly juvenile in this volume. And the way he talks about/portrays women is frankly insulting. The best thing I can say about it is that maybe he is trying to imagine what women would be like in such a victorian culture, but I don't see any redeeming point to it so far. I can't bring myself to finish the book, tbh. It is just so painful to read. The dialogue and characters come across as extremely contrived and Shallan is plain kitschy, even worse than in the last volume. Sorry Sanderson, but I think you need to get out more. You can't write things that you don't know.

How to Destroy an Epic Fantasy Series in Ten Easy Steps:

1. Take the most compelling character from the first two books (Kaladin) and make him a two-dimensional background figure.

2. Take the most annoying character from the first two books (Shallan) and make her ten times more annoying.

3. Give the most boring character from the first two books (Dalinar) a long, meandering backstory that never goes anywhere.

4. Develop a tumultuous and fascinating planetary ecosystem in the first two books, then completely ignore it in the third.

5. Overload an initially intriguing mythology with so many extra details and layers of history it becomes a bloated, tedious tapestry of random deities, events, and magic-speak.

6. Insert generous amounts of modern colloquialisms into character dialogue to instantly take readers out of your world.

7. Introduce a dangerous and powerful threat at the end of book two (the Voidbringers and the Everstorm), then push them to the far background in part three.

8. With the world-endangering threat pushed to the background (see item 7), spend hundreds of pages having characters engaging in dozens of small errands, conversations, and incoherent missions that never amount to anything.

9. Be sure to describe even the smallest of details of every room, city street, and character outfit under the pretense of "world building".

10. Take the excitement and good will generated by your first two books and piss it all away on a self-indulgent, lazy, meandering 1,200 page filibuster.

So, congrats, Brandon Sanderson...you've more than fulfilled all ten criteria and have now permanently lost me as a reader. To anyone considering reading "Oathbringer", avoid it at all costs.

I had high hopes for Oathbringer. Sanderson consistently releases some of the highest quality imaginative fiction around, and he does more than that with Oathbringer. There are finally holes in the narrative that start getting filed in--what happened with Gavilar? What is the rage of the Parshmen all about? Are Sprenn something more than we had imagined? Plus, more Dalinar, more Jasnah, and more levels of mystery than we had imagined. I'm trying not to spoil anything, although I am now annoyed that I have to wait 3 more years for another one of these. I was up all night speed blasting this into my head, and I'm going to pay for it today at work, but it is a price worth paying. I'm going to start a slow re-read immediately, and then I'm going to go back and start all 3 (plus Edgedancer) again in order to pick up on all the things that I inevitably missed based on the rapid read. Anyway, well worth your time, well worth the wait, and keep it up Mr. Sanderson!

I urge you to skip this book! If you are a Sanderson fan, you will never look at him the same way. It is that bad. Please do not make the same mistake I did and attempt to read this edition. Without further ado, Oathbringer review:

It is so sluggish and repetitive. The flashbacks of Dalinar are exactly the same as in they reach the same conclusion and same take away. One was plenty, why oh why do I have to read more flashbacks without adding anything new from the experience. I am struggling to finish (23% in and have been reading 8 days now since it was released) and I will definitely update as I make more progress. When my eyes started skipping scenes I knew something was wrong and came to read reviews here. I was hoping someone said it’s worth the slog (omg 8 days to read less than 300 pages!). Unfortunately, a lot of the 5 star reviews are fake - skeptical? Read them, they are devoid of anything that even hints that they even read one word. Nevertheless, onward I go.

I feel that with such a DARK tone to this edition that we are watching the bad guys who think they are good. I’m down with rooting for bad guys (ala oceans 11) but these characters are dark and evil and I am finding it harder and harder to relate to their cause and goals.

There is a huge emphasis on Shallan and she is so boring. Perhaps because she keeps lying to herself it has become annoying reading her perspective. Her character development is majorly stalled and it’s painful to watch the stagnation.

Another big shock was the R rated scenes; ugh. Poorly done and so unnecessary.

I am optimistic that either this was a one off and the next installment will be great or I have to get passed this terrible slow part and it turns into amazing. Right now, I do not see why Sanderson said he really liked this book and made a point to tell his fans that he really liked this book. Will update as I continue.

- Update Edit -

Finally finished Part one .. whew. It was downright awful. The last 10 pages or so pick up a bit and it’s nice to see our fav bridgeman; but seriously part one was unnecessary.

-Update Edit-

I just finished Part 2 and it has been much better, I’m 45% in at page 554. This section took me 4 days to finish. It was fun, there was growth with some characters, feel good moments, and I wanted to see what was going to happen next. Less Shallan heavy scenes is always a plus and her appearance did not bother me as much as Part 1. The Dalinor visions became more platable as there was attempts to learn from them (I.e. more growth) and was a fun backdrop for other scenes. The two little interjections of the character Lift provided some mystique and almost remind me of Hoid. She seems a little too self aware in this novel but I like her entrances as she seems to be the only one who doesn’t get involved in pettiness.

However, after reading Part 1 and 2, I’m becoming disenchanted with a lot of the characters and do not care if they win or lose. The only characters I have invested in are Kaladin, Lift, and Rock.

Nonetheless onward I go but so far I say skip Part one or start at page 294 and you will have been spared of most of the unnecessary slog. Off to Part 3, hopefully it’s even better than Part 2 and I can give this book more stars.

-Update Edit-

Part 3 was a disaster starting with page 796 (64%) all the way through to the conclusion of Part 3. I am very close to changing this review to one star (it deserves negative stars) and a huge warning to stay away. I don’t think Brandon Sanderson wrote this book. It has deviated from his style over and over again and every thing I liked about his work and writing has been completely ignored by whoever is writing this monstrosity. What is going on? There is legitimate Horror Scenes in this book. Creepy horror, killing children horror, and sexual horror. It is so awful I want to believe that Sanderson didn’t even write this. In fact I am returning my hard copy as I don’t even want to be reminded of what I just went through. This book is wretched trash.

Further, I am seeing borrowed scenes from his other works. There is an Elantris parallel with Shallan and her efforts to feed the poor among other copy paste moments. I can’t even bring myself to finish reading this book. I am going to give myself a few days break and see if I feel the need to continue and update if I do.

You know what’s better than reading Oathbringer? Reading amazon’s 2 star and 1 star reviews of Oathbringer.

I am very very disappointed. I hope this isn’t who Sanderson is becoming as a writer - this book has been pure pain. I feel like I am losing my favorite author :(

- Update Edit -

I haven’t wanted to pick up this book since I finished Part 3 ... I am now changing my star count to 1 star. If you like Sanderson please please skip this one as it’s not a good reflection of who is as an author and is so bad that you may never want to read anything by him, it is just that bad. In the off chance I pick this book up again I will update my review.

- Update Edit -

It has been 2 months since I put this book down and I am sad to report that this book has ruined me. I haven’t wanted to read any books since. How could one book destroy my interest in reading? Why oh why did Sanderson say he liked this book??? I am going to make an effort to put this behind me and not let this experience destroy my interest in reading.

-Update Edit-

After many months I have picked this book up again in an effort to finish it. (I started in November 2017 and here we are mid May 2018).

The writing and editing in part 4 is much better. It took me a few hours to finish this section (approx 207 pages); much better than Part 1 and 3 which dragged on and on.

This section still suffers from many of the earlier problems (too many flashbacks, little to no character growth, overload of meetings, and slow plot progression). The difference in this Part is that the flashbacks are more meaningful, there is finally character growth (albeit small), things are learned during the meetings, and the plot although slow is interesting. If the previous sections were similarity edited this book would read much better as a whole. However, I still do not care for the plight of the majority of the characters. There is even a revelation at the end of Part 4 to which one of the character’s response is - who cares. That is a sentiment I share about the future of this novel.

-Update Edit-

Part 5 is the epic battle scene. It was fine. Took me a few hours to finish (a little over 200 pages). Unfortunately the ending did not redeem the slog and pain of the earlier chapters. It’s incredible that it took me months to slog through Part 1-3 and less than a day to finish 4 and 5. I do not know why the author chose to go so DARK and painfully SLOW early on; a good editor could have fixed this. Alas, that didn’t happen. Do I want to continue this series - no.

My final thoughts : I do not recommend this book. I will give Brandon Sanderson another chance. Thank you to those who encouraged me to finish as it was a satisfying ending.

I love Brandon Sanderson, but the book arrived damaged with crumpled edges and torn book jacket. I was so excited for the brand new book especially since I have a Sanderson collection, but I was extremely disappointed with how the product was handled.

I had been a Sanderson fan and have read everything that he is done. Oathbringer is plain awful. I rarely fail to finish a book and after I had plowed through 1200 pages, I almost didn't read the last 20. There were way too many undeveloped subplots. Characters were not sufficiently fleshed out. It a confusing bore.