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A review by nhborg
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
4.0
3.75
I was long overdue reading this! It’s been a long time since I finished Words of Radiance (November 2022!!), and even a few months since I finished Oathbringer pt. 1 (July 2024). Well, here we are.
I gotta start by saying that I in general love this series. «The Way of Kings» and «Words of Radiance» are some of my all-time favorites, and I feel truly connected to the characters and the world. I think Brandon Sanderson must have had strokes of genius for some of his writing and world building. Unfortunately though, he’s kind of like Taravangian; he has his genius moments, but he also has his simple moments. He is the kind of author who in my experience ranges between 2 star to 5 star ratings, and Oathbringer is the first book where I’ve noticed this fluctuation in The Stormlight Archive. The rest of this review will point out some things I want to discuss about Oathbringer.
• First of all, how come Jasnah can return from the dead without anyone making a big deal out of it? I was shocked to hear how she was still alive, but it seemed like no one from the TSA universe were. It felt absurd that she just slipped right back into her daily habits when everything else in this series is given a dramatic moment.
• I’ve never before seen a depiction of dissociative identity disorder (DID) in a fiction book. I think it’s interesting how there are connections being made between fake appearances/masks, reality escape, and personality split - all explicitly enabled by Shallan’s Lightweaver abilities. However, it had a tendency of feeling overexplained and dragged out. I thought she would be healed by the end of this book, but seems like Veil and Radiant are here to stay. Despite the alluring idea of a DID character arc, it sucks to be stuck with 2 additional POVs of dull archetypes.
• There’s definitely no lack of identity crises in here. In Oathbringer, all of the main characters (and some side characters) experience nervous breakdowns of struggling to accept themselves. I usually love reading about existential crises, so how come I list this as a weak point? Well, the effect is diminished when almost every single POV communicates the same string of thoughts about their doubts and guilt. Although the point is to equalize them as haunted souls that are strong enough to endure and grow from their failures, the impact kept getting diluted for each time the same literary formula was used. I also honestly think Brandon Sanderson did a poor job writing about PTSD here; it feels too basic and not genuine enough get deeply invested. The characters started feeling more like plot devices rather than real human beings.
• I enjoyed the quadruple perspectives on the dawn of the invasion of Thaylen city (Urithuru, Thaylen City, the Fused + Odium, Shadesmar), but the finale quickly turned exhausting. The style involved jumping between a million different POVs and writing a short paragraph for each of them in turn, and frankly, none of them were particularly interesting. There were 100-150 pages near the end of the book that felt so incredibly dragged out despite the high tempo and epicness. I believe the whole finale could have been boiled down to 10-15 well-written pages and still express the same key plot points. I’m not a fan of epicness in itself being used to drive the story forwards; we need a more stable ground and deep-reaching build-up to truly feel the implications of what’s happening.
• Related to the former points, WE DON’T NEED THIS MANY POVS. Brandon Sanderson thinks that it’s necessary to glimpse into the brain of every single character to find them interesting, which couldn’t be further from the truth. It becomes overwhelming and annoying and reveals the limitations of his writing because everyone starts feeling like the same person. Take us back to Kaladin, Shallan and Dalinar + interludes for exploration.
• The whole thing with Szeth / The Assassin in White felt so awkward and improbable. Just like that, huh.
• Brandon Sanderson is a master of writing and publishing books at an incredible speed, but I wish he could sometimes slow down and prioritize quality over quantity. Oathbringer felt rushed and like a shell of what the series started out as. A lot of media nowadays starts out amazing and is gradually reduced to something unrecognizably bad, and I hope that’s not the case here.
It ends up at a whopping 3.75 stars, rounded up to 4. Overall, I still enjoyed my time, but I thread into the next books with caution (I’ve been told it doesn’t exactly go uphill from here). Oh, what I would give to be proven wrong!
I was long overdue reading this! It’s been a long time since I finished Words of Radiance (November 2022!!), and even a few months since I finished Oathbringer pt. 1 (July 2024). Well, here we are.
I gotta start by saying that I in general love this series. «The Way of Kings» and «Words of Radiance» are some of my all-time favorites, and I feel truly connected to the characters and the world. I think Brandon Sanderson must have had strokes of genius for some of his writing and world building. Unfortunately though, he’s kind of like Taravangian; he has his genius moments, but he also has his simple moments. He is the kind of author who in my experience ranges between 2 star to 5 star ratings, and Oathbringer is the first book where I’ve noticed this fluctuation in The Stormlight Archive. The rest of this review will point out some things I want to discuss about Oathbringer.
• First of all, how come Jasnah can return from the dead without anyone making a big deal out of it? I was shocked to hear how she was still alive, but it seemed like no one from the TSA universe were. It felt absurd that she just slipped right back into her daily habits when everything else in this series is given a dramatic moment.
• I’ve never before seen a depiction of dissociative identity disorder (DID) in a fiction book. I think it’s interesting how there are connections being made between fake appearances/masks, reality escape, and personality split - all explicitly enabled by Shallan’s Lightweaver abilities. However, it had a tendency of feeling overexplained and dragged out. I thought she would be healed by the end of this book, but seems like Veil and Radiant are here to stay. Despite the alluring idea of a DID character arc, it sucks to be stuck with 2 additional POVs of dull archetypes.
• There’s definitely no lack of identity crises in here. In Oathbringer, all of the main characters (and some side characters) experience nervous breakdowns of struggling to accept themselves. I usually love reading about existential crises, so how come I list this as a weak point? Well, the effect is diminished when almost every single POV communicates the same string of thoughts about their doubts and guilt. Although the point is to equalize them as haunted souls that are strong enough to endure and grow from their failures, the impact kept getting diluted for each time the same literary formula was used. I also honestly think Brandon Sanderson did a poor job writing about PTSD here; it feels too basic and not genuine enough get deeply invested. The characters started feeling more like plot devices rather than real human beings.
• I enjoyed the quadruple perspectives on the dawn of the invasion of Thaylen city (Urithuru, Thaylen City, the Fused + Odium, Shadesmar), but the finale quickly turned exhausting. The style involved jumping between a million different POVs and writing a short paragraph for each of them in turn, and frankly, none of them were particularly interesting. There were 100-150 pages near the end of the book that felt so incredibly dragged out despite the high tempo and epicness. I believe the whole finale could have been boiled down to 10-15 well-written pages and still express the same key plot points. I’m not a fan of epicness in itself being used to drive the story forwards; we need a more stable ground and deep-reaching build-up to truly feel the implications of what’s happening.
• Related to the former points, WE DON’T NEED THIS MANY POVS. Brandon Sanderson thinks that it’s necessary to glimpse into the brain of every single character to find them interesting, which couldn’t be further from the truth. It becomes overwhelming and annoying and reveals the limitations of his writing because everyone starts feeling like the same person. Take us back to Kaladin, Shallan and Dalinar + interludes for exploration.
• The whole thing with Szeth / The Assassin in White felt so awkward and improbable. Just like that, huh.
• Brandon Sanderson is a master of writing and publishing books at an incredible speed, but I wish he could sometimes slow down and prioritize quality over quantity. Oathbringer felt rushed and like a shell of what the series started out as. A lot of media nowadays starts out amazing and is gradually reduced to something unrecognizably bad, and I hope that’s not the case here.
It ends up at a whopping 3.75 stars, rounded up to 4. Overall, I still enjoyed my time, but I thread into the next books with caution (I’ve been told it doesn’t exactly go uphill from here). Oh, what I would give to be proven wrong!