The first book I read in October was Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson. This is the third book in The Stormlight Archive series, which I started last spring. I actually started reading this book in August after the bar, but it was so long and so much was going on in my life that it took me until the beginning of October to finish it.
Again, this is the third book in a series, so I can’t promise there won’t be spoilers for the first two books. If you’re new to The Stormlight Archives series, go check out my review for The Way of Kings, and if you’re not caught up on the series, you can read my reviews for Words of Radiance and the novella that comes between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer, Edgedancer.
Oathbringer starts up directly after the end of Words of Radiance. Again, it follows Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, and everybody else we’ve come to know and love in this world. In as much as you can say that any one of these books has a main character as its focus, Kaladin is the main character of The Way of Kings, Shallan is the main character of Words of Radiance, and Dalinar is the main character of Oathbringer. So we get a lot of his backstory and finally learn what he asked the Nightwatcher to take from him when he visited her. It’s horrifying. In the present, Dalinar is trying to unite the ravaged countries of the world to fight against the voidbringers, who have taken Alethkar and many other countries. It doesn’t go so well. Meanwhile, Kaladin has gone to find his family, and along the way he discovers the former Parshmen turned voidbringers may have some legitimate grievances. Shallan, on the other hand, is really struggling with some serious PTSD that manifests as her trying to be anyone but herself–since she can create illusions, she does this literally.
I really liked this book, but there were a few major things that kept me from loving it as much as I loved The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Edgedancer. I’m going to start with those, and then I’m going to gush.
This book started slowly. Part of the reason it took me so long to get through. I’d say the first quarter to a third of it dragged much more than the other books. I also felt less attached to Dalinar than I did to Kaladin and Shallan, so I had a hard time with him being the focus. This definitely changed over the course of the book, but it weighed me down in the beginning.
That love triangle that was hinted at in Words of Radiance took shape in this book. As I feared, it was a disappointment, but not for the reasons I thought it would be. I normally hate love triangles because they feel like drama for the sake of drama, and they take up too much time in the plot. This love triangle didn’t feel developed enough to matter. Like I didn’t realize that this was the love triangle until it came to a head in a conversation between Shallan and Adolin at the end of the book. Like Shallan’s only sign of interest in Kaladin was in weird looks. Granted I don’t have a lot of experience in flirting so maybe a lot went over my head. As it was, I just felt like the love triangle was shoved in there for the sake of having a love triangle—it felt neither natural nor necessary—and the resolution was rushed and annoying.
Finally, there were a ton of point of view characters in this book, like a ton more than even the previous books, and at important scenes, like the final battle, it became a bit hectic and hard to follow, especially since a bunch of new characters were introduced during the final battle.
But given the size and complexity of this book, these are really minor complaints. The plot of Oathbringer is brilliant and intricate. There are some amazing battle scenes, and some awesome political intrigue. And oh the character development! Dalinar’s character development is amazing, but there’s also great character development from Shallan, Adolin, Elhokar, Jasnah, Renarin, Kaladin, and even the voidbringers. Like great character development. And as much as I complained about the beginning dragging, this book pulled me in at about the one third mark and I finished in about three days, which is a lot given that the second two thirds was about thirty-five hours long (I was listening to the audiobook).
This book was a wild ride, and I loved almost every minute of it. The parts that I didn’t love were more like mildly annoying than bad. I feel like reading this series has opened whole new horizons of reading for me, because now I’m not nearly as daunted by larger fantasy books as I once was. I am dying for the fourth book to come out. I read that Sanderson is estimating 2020? I’m really hoping that’s right.
In the meantime, what other epic fantasy series should I try? Wheel of Time? Game of Thrones? Something I haven’t heard of? And if you’ve read The Stormlight Archives I’d love to discuss.