Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
This is the third book in the Stormlight Archive, and at 55+ hours for the audiobook for just this volume, it really tests dedication to the epic. This book starts out with our heroes having fled to Urithiru, trying to find out the secrets of that mysterious city. Meanwhile, King Elocar wants to find out what’s happening in his homeland, as no one has heard any news out of the palace and every message from his queen has been cut off. Adolin has been charged with finding out who killed Sateus, which is pretty awkward since we know who did it. Shallan is trying to track down mysterious and possibly supernatural serial killers.
So the first part of the novel is kind of like a murder mystery as Shallan tracks down the creepy bad guy, and a political novel while Dalinar tries to convince the other rulers of Roshar that he is not just a bloodthirsty warlord trying to become hegemon. Then Elocar takes a group of people to Kolinar to figure out what’s going on and we have Shallan, Kaladin, Elocar, Adolin and some other characters sneaking around in the city and trying to purge the evil influences that are controlling the capitol. Then there’s a long section that takes place in Shadesmar that’s a “travelers in a magical world trying to get home again” plot, and then we’re back to Sanderson’s wheelhouse–lots of dudes fighting with giant swords, often literally flying and hovering in the air as wind and mystical lights shine around them, like an anime.
There are some cool character arcs in this, and some character arcs that somewhat disappointed me. I like that pretty much all of the characters are broken in some way. This whole damn planet needs therapy. Kaladin befriends some parshman refugees and starts to see that the “us vs them” thing isn’t going to work for him anymore. Elocar deals with his grievance of being usurped from his throne in a rather dramatic way. Szeth comes back too, and starts studying under some weird cult offshoot of the radiants. Teft and Moash also have their struggles, the former with his drug addiction and the latter with trying to come to terms with being ousted from bridge four for his actions in the previous novel. I really wanted to see Elocar have a redemptive arc, but I guess there’s enough characters in this novel as it is.
Dalinar (of course) is the central character of this novel as he starts to uncover his memories of what happened when his wife died. As we learn more about his past, he seems less like the noble high prince and more like a ruthless killer. Like, is everyone wrong to trust this guy? He’s really fond of killing people. Plus there’s the drinking problem. But Dalinar is the lynchpin of this whole series, so he and his spren figure things out, more or less. In fact, he has a giant crisis-of-conscious battle that took up a giant chunk of the battle scene. Personally, I found that kind of irritating and confusing. There was the whole thing about Dalinar trying to convince Odium to name a champion and have a duel, and then I was like “wait, did Odium name Dalinar as his champion, or was that not the intent here?” because it got all very woo-woo and emotional, where it was like a battle of morality. Some ambiguity is cool, but I still feel like I hardly know who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy, which is frustrating in a battle between good and evil.
Shallan is the second-most important character in this book, I think. She’s coming into her own with regards to her powers, but as she puts more of herself into her illusory characters, her personality starts to splinter, almost like split-personality syndrome. There’s some sexual tension between her and Kaladin, though not too much because neither one of them have game. We still know very little about the ghost bloods, what they do or what they stand for, which is a pretty lousy way to run a non-profit organization if you ask me. Why are people keen to join the ghost bloods if no one knows what the point of them is?
I feel like Kaladin’s plot arc in this book isn’t as interesting or in-depth as the previous two books. He has a lot less to prove. He’s still my favorite character, but he doesn’t really grow that much in this book. (Maybe in the next one …?) Jasnah remains a flawless android, and Adolin remains a boring and bland warrior Ken doll despite his less-than-perfect action at the end of Words of Radiance. Renarin has a lot going on, but it’s all very mysterious and confusing, and we don’t have a lot of his point of view so it’s hard to tell what’s happening. There’s a new character introduced, High Marshall Azure, but by the end of the book we know almost as little as we did when the character was introduced. Szeth has quite a few scenes, but the dramatic scene where Szeth encounters the Kolins and says “hey, sorry about all those assassinations … we cool bro?” Yeah, that was a dud. I didn’t get the dramatic scene I was craving, and it made me sad. I mean, no one even brought up the fact that HE WAS DEAD IN THE PREVIOUS BOOK and now he’s not. Surely that’s worth remarking on? There’s more of a plot arc with Venly, the parshwoman who started the whole “bring back the dark gods” plan, and I like that she might also have a redemptive arc, so that’s fun.
The first 2/3rds of the book were a great mix of tension with slower character-building scenes, and I was really into it. I feel like the book started to really drag when we got to the Shadesmar scenes. I could have done with a lot less of that. I’m still invested enough in the series to want to read the next book, but I’m definitely at the point where I want some answers. Luckily, I started this late, so I don’t have to wait as long to find out what happens. Don’t “Wheel of Time” on me bro …
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