[OB] Part 1 Reactions

[Truthweaver]

I used to think it would be a cool twist if Kaladin went back to Hearthstone and found out his parents had had another kid. I never thought Brandon would actually do it though. But he did it. It was my secret idea for years I can't believe it actually happened.  

[Devout Pathian]

13 hours ago, Truthweaver said:

I used to think it would be a cool twist if Kaladin went back to Hearthstone and found out his parents had had another kid. I never thought Brandon would actually do it though. But he did it. It was my secret idea for years I can't believe it actually happened.  

Reading this kind of made my day.  I never thought about it until it happened, but it was so awesome.  I really want to see how the brother interact when the younger one is older.

[NamelessThirteenth]

Guess who's back, back again
Jasnah's back, tell a friend
Guess who's back, guess who's back
Guess who's back, guess who's back

[anna]

On 11/16/2017 at 1:59 PM, Aurora the Rioter said:

As far as Dalinar goes.  I quite like him, but I agree with you that young Dalinar, although a boss, is evil.  I want to see him change throughout the book as it progresses into the man we see in book 1.

Flashback Dalinar seems pretty aggressive and stupid, and I don't like that at all.  Having said that, I am looking forward to the character development that turns him into present-day Dalinar.

I still like the theory that shardplate is made from spren, so I wonder how close Kaladin was when he used all the windspren to punch a hole through the storm?

I'm worried about Shallan.  Her personalities are shattering apart like some plains that I could mention ...

[Penumbra]

Am I too late to join in here? Took me longer than expected to get through part 1 but yay finally! It is amazing and I need to rant about it either way. I've shouted out loud in delight/surprise at the pages enough times for my partner to be moderately annoyed by now. 

- Pattern is best spren. That part where he is about to roll up on Shallan's illusion havah and then just stops when he realizes what it is and hums happily made me absolutely melt.

- I CAN'T BELIEVE ADOLIN IS STILL LYING I thought for sure Shallan would've picked up on it by now? Pattern's behavior around him should be quite a hint, no? 

- Renarin has friends, this is the best thing. I'm still so curious to know more about Glys though. 

- The way Shshsh was printed in lighter color was such a beautiful little detail. I've never seen it printed that way before (perhaps because I always had the cheaper paperback versions before?)

And an Edgedancer spoiler:

Spoiler

So both Dalinar and Lift are having their curses messed up by being radiant. Is the Nightwatcher not radiant proof or is this according to some plan of hers? When both Navani and the Stormfather are stumped I'm left to believe it might be due to Cultivation's possible influence ...? Just a small thought.

 

[Tesh]

On 11/19/2017 at 8:15 AM, MasterJack said:

Summary of part 1

• Kaladin's still mopy, so no change there...
• Kaladin punches Roshone in the face, YES!!!!!
• I don't think we'll have a problem with mating as long as Pattern's around
• Amaram's a highprince, NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
• Shallan's has an identity crisis and subsequently defeats an ancient evil who turns out to be a maliciously curious spren, and on top of all that, she continues to create different personalities for herself
• Dalinar's reputation as the Blackthorn comes back to bite him
• Dalinar really needs a steak knife, so that assassination attempt was right on time
• Dalinar is married by the God of Storms, then starts remembering his previous wife's name, how mysterious and unfortunate
• Voidbringers like to play cards and pick flowers, how cute
• And finally, Jasnah's back, so that's good

YESSSSS!!!

When Kaladin punched him, I literally started crying. Storms, that needed to happen. It was so beautiful...

[luckat]

I finished part one a few days ago (and haven’t started part two yet—with Thanksgiving and family stuff I just didn’t have time) and wanted to post few of my thoughts.

• Kaladin’s reunion with his parents was wonderful. I’m really glad he got the chance to go home, but I’m also glad he didn’t get stuck there all book. I hope that means he can continue to check in with his family in the future while still taking part in the main plot of the books. (He still needs to introduce Syl to his parents) Also, his parents had another kid! I wonder what’s going to happen with him. 
• I thought Kaladin’s parts with the awakened Parshmen were interesting. I’m also glad they didn’t take up too much time though—he’s back in Urithiru now, ready to rejoin the other main characters. 
• It was absolutely hilarious to me when Adolin was told to investigate Sadeas’s murder, but then that investigation turned into something else. There have been some consequences for Sadeas’s death, but for the most part it seems to have been set aside for other things (especially since we already knew who killed Sadeas and that the other attack couldn’t have been from the same source), which feels odd given how much it was a cliffhanger in WoR. Hopefully we’ll get back to that soon. 
• I’m worried about Shallan. 
• Pattern is great! “No mating.” 
• We saw one of the Unmade! 
• I don’t know why, but honestly Dalinar’s flashbacks didn’t grab my attention a whole lot in this part.
• Dalinar can bring others into his visions! That might make the talking to world leader parts more interesting. 
• The best part: Jasnah’s back! I was worried she’d be gone for pretty much the whole book again, but only one part in and she’s back. I’m really looking forward to what she has to say, what she gets up to now, and how her interactions with Shallan go since Shallan has changed so much since they were last together. 

And now onto the interludes and part 2. 

[Bort]

On 11/15/2017 at 1:02 AM, Aurora the Rioter said:

...but they (other than Adolin) still don’t know who killed Sadeas.

I don't think this is true. I believe that Renarin knows. I think he saw it. 

[Delightful]

I'm hoping Jasnah is going to knock some sense into Shallan. That poor girl desperately needs help.  

[newimperium]

So having read pretty much everything Sanderson to date, I'm having a hard time getting into Oathbringer.  While I enjoyed the first two books immensely, it's starting to feel - for lack of a better term - old.  The writing just doesn't seem up to par with his other work, and I have to be honest that I hate some of the main characters.

Sanderson definitely made a mistake by making this book about Dalinar, if you ask me. I wasn't particularly fond of him, and now I'm having to read a 1000+ page epic about a character I loathe.

Dalinar killing children in cold blood?  And now I'm supposed to read a whole book about this bastard and root for him? I just want him to die for his crimes. That's called justice. This is basically Hitler surviving WWII and many years later taking over the world again as a "changed man".  Sanderson has made a huge error by making us hate one of his main characters, then asking us to invest anything whatsoever into them.  What needs to happen is that Gavilar, Dalinar and Sadeas should have all been hanged for war crimes. Fortunately only Dalinar is left, but man, does this guy deserve some real comeuppance.

What killed it for me was the young boy, and how Sanderson's own themes rise up to mock him. If it didn't work for the boy, why should it work for any of the characters? He has created a world with certain rules, and yet breaks those rules whenever he wants to force the plot to move in a certain direction. I'm very disappointed because he seemed to be one of the better writers out there, but rarely has an author actually asked me to read an entire book about someone that he wants you to hate.

It's going to be hard to get through this.

[wotbibliophile]

@newimperium I won't tell you to read the book if you do not want to. I will say I read the whole thing and going into it I did not like Dalinar or want to read a book mostly about him. I still don't like Dalinar but there are many many people who were very satisfied with his arc. For me, Dalinar's chapters were better than I expected since we get some interesting information, but I still do not like him.

[Dreamstorm]

On 1/31/2018 at 4:21 PM, newimperium said:

Dalinar killing children in cold blood?

If this is your biggest concern, I'm going to spoiler something on it if you want to find out in advance.  Don't forget Dalinar is heavily, heavily manipulated by the Thrill, which influences a lot of his actions in his younger days.  That's not to absolve him of all responsibility, but just something to keep in mind 

Spoiler

Dalinar didn't kill the boy.

 

[Angsos]

Dalinar got married by an avatar or whatever we consider stormfather, cool and I think Renarin does know about Sadeas, just by his reactions. Pattern is cool

[Delightful]

On 31 January 2018 at 11:21 PM, newimperium said:

So having read pretty much everything Sanderson to date, I'm having a hard time getting into Oathbringer.  While I enjoyed the first two books immensely, it's starting to feel - for lack of a better term - old.  The writing just doesn't seem up to par with his other work, and I have to be honest that I hate some of the main characters.

Sanderson definitely made a mistake by making this book about Dalinar, if you ask me. I wasn't particularly fond of him, and now I'm having to read a 1000+ page epic about a character I loathe.

Dalinar killing children in cold blood?  And now I'm supposed to read a whole book about this bastard and root for him? I just want him to die for his crimes. That's called justice. This is basically Hitler surviving WWII and many years later taking over the world again as a "changed man".  Sanderson has made a huge error by making us hate one of his main characters, then asking us to invest anything whatsoever into them.  What needs to happen is that Gavilar, Dalinar and Sadeas should have all been hanged for war crimes. Fortunately only Dalinar is left, but man, does this guy deserve some real comeuppance.

What killed it for me was the young boy, and how Sanderson's own themes rise up to mock him. If it didn't work for the boy, why should it work for any of the characters? He has created a world with certain rules, and yet breaks those rules whenever he wants to force the plot to move in a certain direction. I'm very disappointed because he seemed to be one of the better writers out there, but rarely has an author actually asked me to read an entire book about someone that he wants you to hate.

It's going to be hard to get through this.

1. Let's not just randomly bring Hitler into everything, ok? Ok. 

2. I felt the first couple parts dragged a little, I did not enjoy Dalinars flashbacks until the middle of the book (and you're not *supposed* to like him. The point is that he was a monster then.).  However, the book got progressively better and cooler, and the avalanche is *phenomenal*. If you can, I'd push through. You're supposed to hate flashback Dalinar, he's a terrible person, and just hang in there a bit and the book picks up. 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Del-light-full