For a while, I didn't know why I wasn't getting into this. When one of the characters pulled out a whiteboard to map out their plan, it hit me: I'm reading a transcription of someone's Dungeons and Dragons session! 
The constant references to

sexual violence

also bothered me. The book opens with a nobleman taking a young slave girl away so the dashing hero can save her, and the nondescript heroine is constantly threatened with being sold into servitude. The subject isn't given the proper significance/gravity it deserves. Considering the author's background and the overall tone of a swashbuckling, escapist fantasy, I found that especially incongruous. Let's leave it at that.
Sanderson is a lot like Counter Strike or Taylor Swift; massively popular, and I understand why, but I just can't stand him.