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scockroft's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Every Sanderson book I read immediately becomes the best book I have ever read and Oathbringer is no different.
dillonbrantley's review against another edition
5.0
While possibly my least favorite of the first three Stormlight books, Oathbringer still does so much to expand on the world established throughout the previous books that it is certainly worthy of a 4.5/5.
The action is intense, yet filled with just enough intrigue to keep you guessing as to the outcome (as you'd expect from Sanderson). More mysteries are resolved only to lead to new ones revealing themselves.
The action is intense, yet filled with just enough intrigue to keep you guessing as to the outcome (as you'd expect from Sanderson). More mysteries are resolved only to lead to new ones revealing themselves.
althaea's review against another edition
5.0
I just love these books/the cosmere the more books I read and on the 2nd read through!
readwithiffy's review against another edition
5.0
This book has so much going on. I loved Dalinar from the get go, but he shines so much in this book. His character arc is top tier and all his moments including his flashbacks were just so good. He’s such an interesting character I can’t even put it in words. All of the cast tbh are really fleshed out and 3d, it’s refreshing. I loved the politics and seeing how Dalinar interacted with other leaders on Roshar, those were one of my fav chapters.
So many characters I enjoyed even more in Oathbringer. Specifically Shallan, I understand her so much better now. Her struggles hit too close to home, she had such fascinating chapters too.
so many inspiring quotes that are gonna stick me and THE REVEALS! the sanderlache insane. The last 20% was just a straight banger! So many characters and so many things coming to a head.
bridge 4 having their own POVs too omg teft saying his ideal had me crying wtf 😭😭
laughed, cried, screamed.
j_r_bennett's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
shandyt's review against another edition
4.0
4.25 stars. This is definitely my least favorite book of the series so far. However, it does little to tarnish my overall love for the Stormlight Archive, and even the 'least good' of a Brando Sando-penned series is still better than many other authors' best. The reason I have such strong feelings about it is that it comes so close to being perfect, while missing the mark due to some minor and easily fixable things. My frustration is shot through with love.
That said, these are my spoilery nitpicks:
There was no mention of Kaladin returning to Urithiru except for when Adolin comes to tell Shallan about Jasnah's return. It would have been nice to see a reunion between Kal and Bridge Four, or even Kal and Dalinar. If that was impossible, then it could have been noted with something as simple as three sentences of Shallan seeing her drawing of the chasm fiend as she flipped through her sketchbook, being reminded of the time they endured the High Storm together, and then being unsure of how to feel now that he's back.
The same scene is also used to reveal Jasnah's arrival in Urithiru, again, offhandedly. The only real reaction we see to her having returned, aside from Shallan's encounter with her in the gem room, is a near-throwaway line from Dalinar that no one could have witnessed her tearful mother-daughter reunion with Navani and accused Jasnah of being heartless. Why didn't we get to see that? Why do we spend so long in Shadesmar and lose out on these great, heartfelt moments? All Sanderson had to do was tack on a couple extra paragraphs at the end of some Dalinar/Navani scene, where their conversation is interrupted by a guard saying something like, "Brightlord, Brightlady, come quickly. There's been an arrival." Then they could rush downstairs, see Jasnah brushing the dust of travel from her clothes, and Navani could say, "Oh, Almighty!" and that's it! That's all it needed.
Why was there no mention of Rock's family until the moment Bridge Four rescues them in Chapter 37? Only two chapters earlier, Sigzil was talking to Kaladin about which of the men had partners and families, and yet there wasn't a word about any of Rock's family other than his mother and siblings until he was introducing his wife and kids to his friends. And speaking of which, nobody in Bridge Four expressed any real surprise that Rock had apparently been hiding the existence of his family from them this whole time. Since there wasn't even a hint that Rock had kids before this (at least that I remember), it comes off as an asspull, which ruined some of the magic for me. It would have been easy to drop some subtle foreshadowing in Chapter 35 that wouldn't immediately give it away, but that astute readers could guess at and feel satisfied when proven correct.
Also in Chapter 37, there was no mention of the physical Bridge Four until they're using it to cross the plateaus. It was dropped down a chasm at the end of WoR and assumed lost, but OB handwaves that away with an, "Oh yeah, we found that, by the way." It's not even the fact that they found the bridge that irks me, but that it isn't brought up until the very moment they're using it. This issue could have been fixed with a single line earlier in the book about how it had become their new mascot in Urithiru since its recovery. That said, the men's sorrow as they realize this is their final bridge run is quite poignant. I just wish it hadn't been cheapened with a hasty retcon.
I don't have much to say about the Shadesmar segment being boring that anybody else hasn't said. Seems like that's the one opinion most fans can agree on. I will, however, say that it's all the more infuriating because of the imbalance of book time spent on Shadesmar and not on other, important details.
There was very little comment from Kal/Shallan/Adolin on how strange it was to be in Shadesmar, away from the material world. Adolin is a level-headed guy, but it's still bizarre how incurious about the place he seems. Even Shallan has only been there once. I would have loved to see more attention paid to little details like the fact that Kaladin can actually touch Syl, and Shallan can touch Pattern.
How did we see multiple High Storms when the group were in Shadesmar, and not a single Everstorm? Brandon said he was waiting to reveal what they look like in Shadesmar until later, but that doesn't answer the question of how they never saw one, or even got a secondhand description from a spren. Did Odium know they were there, and choose to hold back? If so, why didn't anybody in the material realm comment on the unusual gap between Everstorms?
Amaram was wasted as an enemy, just like Sadeas was wasted, and Ialai was wasted. (Hopefully Ialai comes back in some way, but given the damage to her social cachet at the end of OB, it's doubtful.) It's a matter of personal taste, but the "gems take over my body and I turn into an overpowered fight monster, but surprise, my own body is killing me" thing was boring and predictable. Amaram was interesting because he was a foil for Dalinar, and he truly believed he was doing the right thing. He had conviction where Dalinar had self-doubt. It was such a cool parallel, and ruined when Amaram jumped the shark and joined "TEAM EVULZ!!" for no reason other than that he was there when Nergaoul moved in.
It's hard to tell where in their character development arcs some of the characters are, particularly Shallan and Szeth.
At the end of Oathbringer, Shallan seems to have recovered somewhat from her disturbing personality issues, but it's clear they're not over and done with. "Maybe I'm not as lost as I was before," etc. But has she really taken a step forward, or is manifesting Veil and Radiant as separate entities just lying to herself in a new and different way?
Szeth is even harder to peg down, because it's difficult to determine what the end goal of his arc is. The Skybreaker portions of the story suggested he's becoming more independent, and less inclined to blindly follow orders. Is he meant to be learning to trust himself? If so, why is it a step forward for him to pledge himself to Dalinar? Why would he choose to follow a man he's had two whole interactions with, in which both of them were trying to kill each other? And is setting out to realize justice upon the rulers of Shin a positive development for him? I suspect he'll get there, discover the retribution he intended to bring isn't just at all, and he'll call off the slaughter.
Speaking of Szeth joining Team Radiant, why did everybody accept his presence after the battle without comment? Surely Jasnah, Navani, and other people affected by his assassinations have something to say about the Assassin in White lurking outside Dalinar's door. The Azish were already having trouble trusting Dalinar, so having their late emperor's assassin on staff can't be helpful. A neat and easy solution to this would have been to have Szeth voluntarily offer himself up into custody while the facts come out and he gains Dalinar's trust. It would have been an interesting parallel to Kaladin's time in prison, and may have helped Kal make peace with him, too.
Where is the fallout from Taravangian's betrayal? Do the other nations know one of their supposed allies is responsible for ordering all the assassinations?
Did Taravangian really only confess so he could get out in front of a potential confession from Szeth? It's uncharacteristically sloppy of Big T not to have a neater contingency set up, even in the event that things had gone according to the Diagram. After all, if Dalinar had died, who's to say Szeth wouldn't have gone to somebody else and told them about the Oathstone?
Why isn't Dalinar himself taking Big T's betrayal more seriously? He even says, when they're discussing who opened the gate to Urithiru and let in the Fused, that he doubts Taravangian was responsible, though he hopes he's become less blindly trusting after Sadeas. At that point it's just plot-contrived ignorance, the 'idiot ball'.
How did Dalinar learn to read and write so quickly? He's clearly an intelligent man, but some quick googling set the ballpark for learning basic writing skills between a few weeks and a few months. There couldn't have been more than a few days between Dalinar asking Navani to teach him and sitting down to begin writing. If he were using his Bondsmith skills, it would make sense for the knowledge to come instantaneously, but that's not what happens. It's just not believable.
Looking back, most of my issues with the series stem from things getting glossed over, rushed through, or shunted into secondhand accounts instead of showing up in the narrative. All the events and implications surrounding the battle at Thaylenah are particularly egregious. I've seen some of these questions raised by other reviewers, in my googling to answer them for myself, and a reply that comes up over and over is, "There just wasn't enough time to explain that detail during X Event, with everything else going on." Another is, "It would have hurt the flow for this to happen." This is a total cop-out. If Brandon Sanderson had to cut out these very important scenes for reasons of time or flow, then he's failed at plotting. He's failed at pacing. Because there IS a way to make it work. You trim things from one place, rearrange others; it can be done.
That said, these are my spoilery nitpicks:
Spoiler
Why did we not get to witness the Parshmen transform, and instead get secondhand accounts? That would have been a really powerful moment to open the story with, instead of Eshonai's account of the night of Gavilar's murder. That prologue could have been saved for book 4 with her other flashbacks, where it makes more sense for it to go. (Side note, what are those mysterious spheres ol' Gav had? Was the one he gave Szeth some sort of fabrial?)There was no mention of Kaladin returning to Urithiru except for when Adolin comes to tell Shallan about Jasnah's return. It would have been nice to see a reunion between Kal and Bridge Four, or even Kal and Dalinar. If that was impossible, then it could have been noted with something as simple as three sentences of Shallan seeing her drawing of the chasm fiend as she flipped through her sketchbook, being reminded of the time they endured the High Storm together, and then being unsure of how to feel now that he's back.
The same scene is also used to reveal Jasnah's arrival in Urithiru, again, offhandedly. The only real reaction we see to her having returned, aside from Shallan's encounter with her in the gem room, is a near-throwaway line from Dalinar that no one could have witnessed her tearful mother-daughter reunion with Navani and accused Jasnah of being heartless. Why didn't we get to see that? Why do we spend so long in Shadesmar and lose out on these great, heartfelt moments? All Sanderson had to do was tack on a couple extra paragraphs at the end of some Dalinar/Navani scene, where their conversation is interrupted by a guard saying something like, "Brightlord, Brightlady, come quickly. There's been an arrival." Then they could rush downstairs, see Jasnah brushing the dust of travel from her clothes, and Navani could say, "Oh, Almighty!" and that's it! That's all it needed.
Why was there no mention of Rock's family until the moment Bridge Four rescues them in Chapter 37? Only two chapters earlier, Sigzil was talking to Kaladin about which of the men had partners and families, and yet there wasn't a word about any of Rock's family other than his mother and siblings until he was introducing his wife and kids to his friends. And speaking of which, nobody in Bridge Four expressed any real surprise that Rock had apparently been hiding the existence of his family from them this whole time. Since there wasn't even a hint that Rock had kids before this (at least that I remember), it comes off as an asspull, which ruined some of the magic for me. It would have been easy to drop some subtle foreshadowing in Chapter 35 that wouldn't immediately give it away, but that astute readers could guess at and feel satisfied when proven correct.
Also in Chapter 37, there was no mention of the physical Bridge Four until they're using it to cross the plateaus. It was dropped down a chasm at the end of WoR and assumed lost, but OB handwaves that away with an, "Oh yeah, we found that, by the way." It's not even the fact that they found the bridge that irks me, but that it isn't brought up until the very moment they're using it. This issue could have been fixed with a single line earlier in the book about how it had become their new mascot in Urithiru since its recovery. That said, the men's sorrow as they realize this is their final bridge run is quite poignant. I just wish it hadn't been cheapened with a hasty retcon.
I don't have much to say about the Shadesmar segment being boring that anybody else hasn't said. Seems like that's the one opinion most fans can agree on. I will, however, say that it's all the more infuriating because of the imbalance of book time spent on Shadesmar and not on other, important details.
There was very little comment from Kal/Shallan/Adolin on how strange it was to be in Shadesmar, away from the material world. Adolin is a level-headed guy, but it's still bizarre how incurious about the place he seems. Even Shallan has only been there once. I would have loved to see more attention paid to little details like the fact that Kaladin can actually touch Syl, and Shallan can touch Pattern.
How did we see multiple High Storms when the group were in Shadesmar, and not a single Everstorm? Brandon said he was waiting to reveal what they look like in Shadesmar until later, but that doesn't answer the question of how they never saw one, or even got a secondhand description from a spren. Did Odium know they were there, and choose to hold back? If so, why didn't anybody in the material realm comment on the unusual gap between Everstorms?
Amaram was wasted as an enemy, just like Sadeas was wasted, and Ialai was wasted. (Hopefully Ialai comes back in some way, but given the damage to her social cachet at the end of OB, it's doubtful.) It's a matter of personal taste, but the "gems take over my body and I turn into an overpowered fight monster, but surprise, my own body is killing me" thing was boring and predictable. Amaram was interesting because he was a foil for Dalinar, and he truly believed he was doing the right thing. He had conviction where Dalinar had self-doubt. It was such a cool parallel, and ruined when Amaram jumped the shark and joined "TEAM EVULZ!!" for no reason other than that he was there when Nergaoul moved in.
It's hard to tell where in their character development arcs some of the characters are, particularly Shallan and Szeth.
At the end of Oathbringer, Shallan seems to have recovered somewhat from her disturbing personality issues, but it's clear they're not over and done with. "Maybe I'm not as lost as I was before," etc. But has she really taken a step forward, or is manifesting Veil and Radiant as separate entities just lying to herself in a new and different way?
Szeth is even harder to peg down, because it's difficult to determine what the end goal of his arc is. The Skybreaker portions of the story suggested he's becoming more independent, and less inclined to blindly follow orders. Is he meant to be learning to trust himself? If so, why is it a step forward for him to pledge himself to Dalinar? Why would he choose to follow a man he's had two whole interactions with, in which both of them were trying to kill each other? And is setting out to realize justice upon the rulers of Shin a positive development for him? I suspect he'll get there, discover the retribution he intended to bring isn't just at all, and he'll call off the slaughter.
Speaking of Szeth joining Team Radiant, why did everybody accept his presence after the battle without comment? Surely Jasnah, Navani, and other people affected by his assassinations have something to say about the Assassin in White lurking outside Dalinar's door. The Azish were already having trouble trusting Dalinar, so having their late emperor's assassin on staff can't be helpful. A neat and easy solution to this would have been to have Szeth voluntarily offer himself up into custody while the facts come out and he gains Dalinar's trust. It would have been an interesting parallel to Kaladin's time in prison, and may have helped Kal make peace with him, too.
Where is the fallout from Taravangian's betrayal? Do the other nations know one of their supposed allies is responsible for ordering all the assassinations?
Did Taravangian really only confess so he could get out in front of a potential confession from Szeth? It's uncharacteristically sloppy of Big T not to have a neater contingency set up, even in the event that things had gone according to the Diagram. After all, if Dalinar had died, who's to say Szeth wouldn't have gone to somebody else and told them about the Oathstone?
Why isn't Dalinar himself taking Big T's betrayal more seriously? He even says, when they're discussing who opened the gate to Urithiru and let in the Fused, that he doubts Taravangian was responsible, though he hopes he's become less blindly trusting after Sadeas. At that point it's just plot-contrived ignorance, the 'idiot ball'.
How did Dalinar learn to read and write so quickly? He's clearly an intelligent man, but some quick googling set the ballpark for learning basic writing skills between a few weeks and a few months. There couldn't have been more than a few days between Dalinar asking Navani to teach him and sitting down to begin writing. If he were using his Bondsmith skills, it would make sense for the knowledge to come instantaneously, but that's not what happens. It's just not believable.
Looking back, most of my issues with the series stem from things getting glossed over, rushed through, or shunted into secondhand accounts instead of showing up in the narrative. All the events and implications surrounding the battle at Thaylenah are particularly egregious. I've seen some of these questions raised by other reviewers, in my googling to answer them for myself, and a reply that comes up over and over is, "There just wasn't enough time to explain that detail during X Event, with everything else going on." Another is, "It would have hurt the flow for this to happen." This is a total cop-out. If Brandon Sanderson had to cut out these very important scenes for reasons of time or flow, then he's failed at plotting. He's failed at pacing. Because there IS a way to make it work. You trim things from one place, rearrange others; it can be done.
hermitcliffe's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
mushrocolpse's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
HEAVY world building
postnick's review against another edition
5.0
After 400k+ words, I don't have anything other than awestruck. The emotions were high, the Sander-Lanch is real. I was so close to all out tears many times in this book.
The "Conclusions" kind of feels like an ass pull to me, I may need to review what exactly happened again, but man oh man what a story.
I've gotten so many amazing quotes out of the book on my kindle, I really need to pick out the best!
The most important step is always the next step!
The "Conclusions" kind of feels like an ass pull to me, I may need to review what exactly happened again, but man oh man what a story.
I've gotten so many amazing quotes out of the book on my kindle, I really need to pick out the best!
The most important step is always the next step!
masonantwine's review against another edition
5.0
The Stormlight Archive just keeps getting better. The best book to this point. The grandest in scale. The most emotional. Any time I turned the page and saw a Dalinar flashback chapter I’d fist pump. More and more intriguing characters getting more and more attention. This book shines and it excels. I want to permanently live on Roshar as The Stormlight Archive is in my Roman Empire (obviously joking, living on Roshar would be a nightmare). These books fill my soul with glee and may takeover my whole personality someday.