[OB] Full Book Reactions / Full Spoilers Thread

[Fineous he/him]

28 minutes ago, Jess said:

This thought occurred to me too, but I haven't really finished thinking about it. For now I suspect that Jasnah et al are calling all magic "Surgebinding" (cf "chickens" "wine") and whatever the migrant humans destroyed their previous world with was probably different. However, two things:

1. I think the ancient humans arrived from Ashyn, which is just next door, so to speak. I think it's entirely plausible that the whole Roshar system, not just the planet that Honor and Cultivation are most involved with, has some overarching theme/mechanic underpinning its various magics. Thus, the pre-migration magic could very well have resembled Surgebinding significantly.

2. The migrant humans are said to have brought Odium with them. The answer could be as simple as "It was actually Voidbinding, not Surgebinding".

Yes, I'm not worried about the fact that it was a different power.  That seemed pretty clear to me.  What confuses me is JASNAH making that mistake.  It is obvious that it had to be Voidbringing or possibly even some sort of racial memory of Adonalsium splitting in the first place.  After all I am pretty certain that we know that all humans were actually created by Adonalsium EXCEPT for the ones on Scadrial, as none of the shards were able to create life on their own, and it was the joint work of both Preservation and Ruin that was necessary to create the humans on Scadrial.

So we can probably infer that all humans other than Scadrial humans have in essence come from another world, and powers of investiture will vary.  Jasnah should have enough of the pieces even without knowing about investiture to realize that story shouldn't make sense.  And she never tells anyone anything until she is sure she has figured it all out.  But she is the one who puts the theory forwards in the first place.

As for them coming from Ashyn, I don't think so, see above about human creation, but perhaps I am mixed up on my Cosmere knowledge?  Anyone else more knowledgeable about the Cosmere than me want to weigh in?

 

Edit*

Just realized didn't make my thoughts particularly clear on why it matters.  It matters because if the powers were given up because of the radiants fearing that they would inadvertently destroy another world, then Jasnah should be the first one to say 'but that doesn't make sense because...' in order to stop any possibility of it happening again.  But she didn't...

Edited November 17, 2017 by Fineous
more thoughts...

[IndigoAjah he/him]

22 minutes ago, Aleksiel said:

@Fineous you are not alone. I think it was actually voidbinding, we have a voidbinding chart in the first book. Also, Ishar sealing the Oathpact raises questions, too: why would Honor give them Honorblades before swearing any oaths? Why not bind the Heralds himself? Does this mean Honorblades predate Desolations? Listeners' lore has it they joined the enemy after spren betrayed them, but nahel bond became a fact after the Oathpact. There are a bunch of things that just don't add up.

 

The cosmere is slowly taking over SA imo, despite Brandon saying he'll avoid that. Nightblood can be explained as a Blade poorly crafted by the Nightwatcher, however Azure is so out of place there's no in-world explanation for her. Hoid and the rest of the worldhoppers were already heavily hinting towards something far more than Roshar, but that could have been swept under the rug for most readers. Vivenna on the other hand can't, at least I do not see how all her out-of-placeness can be explained away without making the readers cosmerely aware unless she's not explained at all just like Hoid and all the cosmere mail, which makes even less sense - who in Damnation provides planetary postal service? All that magic and a bunch of heavily invested beings are communication via letters? 

You are entitled to that opinion. I find it inherently illogical- I don't think Azure stands out any more than any other character seen for the first time with backstory, and again, it's only an imagined problem that people who have read warbreaker assume exists. We'd have to ask people who haven't read the Warbreaker book(s).

 

i can kind of see your point, just can't agree with it 

[Musica she/her]

On 11/16/2017 at 9:19 AM, Leyrann said:

NOOOOOO BRANDON! WHY ARE YOU MAKING US WAIIIIIIT?

I assumed the third one is the Shin's "Ancient of Stone"..did I miss something?

[Mulk he/him]

Re: the whole Vivenna thing - knowing Azure is Vivenna and an offworld means absolutely zilch for understanding the plot.  Some folks are way too focused on the fact that she's an offworlder.  So is Mraize. So is Iyatil. So is Zahel.  So were the other 17th Sharders in the Purelake.  You don't have to know anything about their off-world history to understand for the most part what is going on and enjoy it. Or, if you don't understand, you roll that into the rest of what you don't understand and keep reading until Brandon keys you in on what you need to know to make the pieces fit.  Knowing they are is an easter egg that gives you some depth to analyze from.

Seriously - it's not that hard to find in world explanations for what you see from them. And even if you do suspect the truth, you don't need to know where she is from and all that to know what she's doing now, understand what is going on.  Like, I know what it looks like from that POV because until September, I was there.  I hadn't read Arcanum Unbounded or Warbreaker.  I didn't take Zahel/Vasher and Nightblood to be out of place.  I didn't take Wit/Hoid to be out of place, though I figured he at least knew a lot more than we could see onscreen.  Vivenna/Azure is just more of the same, though more obviously offworld, obviously with some experiences that until now we could only attribute to Jasnah in this series.  But the fact that Jasnah is the only one on-screen (depending on whether you recognize Hoid/Wit encountering Rock or not) to have been bodily to Shadesmar and back prior to part 3 does not automatically mean that no one else ever has or could.

This is an instance where I really think the readers should trust the author a bit more and...you know, actually talk to people who haven't read the other stuff before you just say stuff like this sticks out too much there's no way people can understand it without reading other works.  They won't understand it in all of its depth, but you make a false reasoning from the fact that they won't know it all to say they can't understand or enjoy the book right now without that deeper knowledge.

3 minutes ago, Fineous said:

Yes, I'm not worried about the fact that it was a different power.  That seemed pretty clear to me.  What confuses me is JASNAH making that mistake.  It is obvious that it had to be Voidbringing or possibly even some sort of racial memory of Adonalsium splitting in the first place.  After all I am pretty certain that we know that all humans were actually created by Adonalsium EXCEPT for the ones on Scadrial, as none of the shards were able to create life on their own, and it was the joint work of both Preservation and Ruin that was necessary to create the humans on Scadrial.

reference this:

I typed this yesterday morning - we have never in the books seen the term Voidbinding.  We call it that here, but people on that world DON'T HAVE THAT TERM.  So Jasnah isn't making a mistake.  She's using the word they have available for the magic that is used.  People here get confused because someone coined a term to differentiate it.

[Fineous he/him]

5 minutes ago, IndigoAjah said:

You are entitled to that opinion. I find it inherently illogical- I don't think Azure stands out any more than any other character seen for the first time with backstory, and again, it's only an imagined problem that people who have read warbreaker assume exists. We'd have to ask people who haven't read the Warbreaker book(s).

 

i can kind of see your point, just can't agree with it 

Am I the only one who finds the gradual combining of all the cosmere worlds that show just how much work has gone into the world building of the Cosmere to be super cool?

[Islington]

1 hour ago, IndigoAjah said:

How is that any different to, say, Jasnah? Szeth? Mraize? The only reason she seems out of place is because you KNOW she's from Warbreaker (or more accurately, Warbreaker is her character prequel to give backstory for when she turns up here). Ignoring that cross- world interactions is meant to be a major point in SA anyway, none of those things are any more enigmatic than the first time we hear about any of the new concepts in this book (as in, new to the characters). You are biased simply because you know the origins of her mysteries 

You're saying she's as engaging as two viewpoint characters and a possible major villain. I'm not saying she's bad or that it's bad she's in the book. I'm saying she's distractingly out of place. She states outright that she's from another land. It's almost like, she shows up and the Dawnchant gets translated and you're like "Wait, she's maybe from the same  place as the original humans? Are there aliens in this? Where is she from?Why aren't we following this chick? She's obviously the main character!" It's not good or bad, just a statement. If it increases the world and mystery for you, cool. It took me out of the story. 

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

6 minutes ago, Fineous said:

Just realized didn't make my thoughts particularly clear on why it matters.  It matters because if the powers were given up because of the radiants fearing that they would inadvertently destroy another world, then Jasnah should be the first one to say 'but that doesn't make sense because...' in order to stop any possibility of it happening again.  But she didn't...

We have a lot of extra information. Jasnah doesn't. Its not even certain Jasnah knows about the Cosmere. She would have no way of knowing Odium came later just from texts in Roshar. For all she knows humans always worshipped Honor and Odium has always been the parsh god. The information that that is not so comes from the spren, not any texts. Even the dawn text is not enough as with Odium claiming he is Passion, the parsh could be claiming Honor is a void.

[Mulk he/him]

1 minute ago, Fineous said:

Am I the only one who finds the gradual combining of all the cosmere worlds that show just how much work has gone into the world building of the Cosmere to be super cool?

no you're not. I agree We know Brandon is eventually going to knit it all together, and I look forward to it. I just hope I (and he!) live long enough to see the culmination of it all.

[Fineous he/him]

3 minutes ago, Mulk said:

Re: the whole Vivenna thing - knowing Azure is Vivenna and an offworld means absolutely zilch for understanding the plot.  Some folks are way too focused on the fact that she's an offworlder.  So is Mraize. So is Iyatil. So is Zahel.  So were the other 17th Sharders in the Purelake.  You don't have to know anything about their off-world history to understand for the most part what is going on and enjoy it. Or, if you don't understand, you roll that into the rest of what you don't understand and keep reading until Brandon keys you in on what you need to know to make the pieces fit.  Knowing they are is an easter egg that gives you some depth to analyze from.

Seriously - it's not that hard to find in world explanations for what you see from them. And even if you do suspect the truth, you don't need to know where she is from and all that to know what she's doing now, understand what is going on.  Like, I know what it looks like from that POV because until September, I was there.  I hadn't read Arcanum Unbounded or Warbreaker.  I didn't take Zahel/Vasher and Nightblood to be out of place.  I didn't take Wit/Hoid to be out of place, though I figured he at least knew a lot more than we could see onscreen.  Vivenna/Azure is just more of the same, though more obviously offworld, obviously with some experiences that until now we could only attribute to Jasnah in this series.  But the fact that Jasnah is the only one on-screen (depending on whether you recognize Hoid/Wit encountering Rock or not) to have been bodily to Shadesmar and back prior to part 3 does not automatically mean that no one else ever has or could.

This is an instance where I really think the readers should trust the author a bit more and...you know, actually talk to people who haven't read the other stuff before you just say stuff like this sticks out too much there's no way people can understand it without reading other works.  They won't understand it in all of its depth, but you make a false reasoning from the fact that they won't know it all to say they can't understand or enjoy the book right now without that deeper knowledge.

reference this:

I typed this yesterday morning - we have never in the books seen the term Voidbinding.  We call it that here, but people on that world DON'T HAVE THAT TERM.  So Jasnah isn't making a mistake.  She's using the word they have available for the magic that is used.  People here get confused because someone coined a term to differentiate it.

The term Voidbinding was used multiple times in the book.  Will go back and skim to see who uses it, might just be Kaladin.

[Jess]

13 minutes ago, Fineous said:

After all I am pretty certain that we know that all humans were actually created by Adonalsium EXCEPT for the ones on Scadrial, as none of the shards were able to create life on their own, and it was the joint work of both Preservation and Ruin that was necessary to create the humans on Scadrial.

[...]

As for them coming from Ashyn, I don't think so, see above about human creation, but perhaps I am mixed up on my Cosmere knowledge?  Anyone else more knowledgeable about the Cosmere than me want to weigh in?

When I say they came from Ashyn, I don't mean they ultimately originated there, just that they were there immediately prior to migrating to Roshar. For instance, they could have gone from Yolen to Ashyn, then Ashyn to Roshar thousands of years later (see: the Iriali Long Trail myth).

That said, I think it's premature to assume that Scadrial is the only instance of shards creating de novo humans. It is said that Ruin and Preservation couldn't create life on their own because of their intents; that doesn't mean a different shard couldn't do it. And even if it does take two shards, there are still multiple shards completely unknown to us that could have teamed up to do it.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Jess

[Fineous he/him]

1 minute ago, Jess said:

When I say they came from Ashyn, I don't mean they ultimately originated there, just that they were there immediately prior to migrating to Roshar. For instance, they could have gone from Yolen to Ashyn, then Ashyn to Roshar thousands of years later (see: the Iriali Long Trail myth).

That said, I think it's premature to assume that Scadrial is the only instance of shards creating de novo humans. It is said that Ruin and Preservation couldn't create life on their own because of their intents; that doesn't mean a different shard couldn't do it. And even if it does take two shards, there are still multiple shards completely unknown to us that could have teamed up to do it.

Ahh, got it.  Investiture does seem to vary from world to world, though.  According to the unpublished story The Silence Divine the investiture on Ashyn has to do with people getting powers when they get sick, and that last until they get better.  That is unpublished though, so it might not be specifically canonical yet.

[Muggins she/her]

I was pretty disappointed with this book.  I'd been so excited for it for such a long time, and it felt like a bit of a mess to me.  The overall plot arc was just too chaotic.  The plotting was a lot less cohesive than in the other books; there were several side plots that popped up and disappeared early on, that just gave the book a bit of a unwieldy nature.  I felt it lacked forward momentum, and cohesion.  It picked up near the end of part 3, but it just didn't work for me the way the first two books in the series did.  There was such a huge setup for the Everstorm, but it felt anticlimactic.   The murder investigation felt rushed, and a little pointless, and Kaladin's trip home, then time with Khen, Sah et al. and trip back to Urithiru felt disjointed.  It also lacked emotional resonance for me.  There was never that point where I couldn't put the book down and had to read all night.  It took me a week to read this (I had an advanced reader copy) which is unheard of for me.    I feel like most of the posts here have been pretty positive.  Was anyone else super disappointed?  

[IndigoAjah he/him]

I loved it. Not without flaws, but I thought better than WoR, read it almost straight, getting no sleep at all between starting and finishing and have reread a fair bit of it.

 

agree it's not as tight as it should have been though. But a series of this scale I think will inherently lose tightness 

[Fineous he/him]

10 minutes ago, Fineous said:

The term Voidbinding was used multiple times in the book.  Will go back and skim to see who uses it, might just be Kaladin.

Sorry, got distracted from my original thought, which is even when they do voidbind, everyone is SURPRISED by that fact.  As far as everyone on Roshar thought all the surgebinding powers started with the Honorblades.  So Jasnah should assume that no one had access to any kind of magic before the Honorblades.

[Harbour he/him]

20 minutes ago, Muggins said:

Was anyone else super disappointed?  

I wasnt but i see where your points come from. I absolutely got the feeling of some plot lines being undercooked or ended too soon.

First Part of the book felt like one huuuuge prologue for the main story, and it was very weird to say the least. Brandon clearly set up unexpected Kaladin The Prisoner, Adolin the Investigator, Copycat Murderer lines, with great suspence, and then ended all of them in an unexpected weird way. He literally make Kaladin to fly away and Shallan to solve Adolin's problems.

I remember us speculating all around about Ialai involvment and how that will turn bad for Adolin. We expected Adolin double accusation to be a holy rust moment. It could be such a clever and shocking moment. But then nothing of that happened. Shallan just used Veil and did all the job. Ialai was insignificant treat if was at all.

Most of the guns, hooks and theories Sanderson left in the end of the WoR to make us wait for more pretty much were shot in the First Part or simply dealt with unexpectedly easy (Sadeas murder).

Edited November 17, 2017 by Harbour

[Fineous he/him]

26 minutes ago, Jess said:

When I say they came from Ashyn, I don't mean they ultimately originated there, just that they were there immediately prior to migrating to Roshar. For instance, they could have gone from Yolen to Ashyn, then Ashyn to Roshar thousands of years later (see: the Iriali Long Trail myth).

That said, I think it's premature to assume that Scadrial is the only instance of shards creating de novo humans. It is said that Ruin and Preservation couldn't create life on their own because of their intents; that doesn't mean a different shard couldn't do it. And even if it does take two shards, there are still multiple shards completely unknown to us that could have teamed up to do it.

Also, just went back and re-read that post by Sanderson, and realized he just said 'The first planet with Humans on it was Yolen' NOT that humans originally came from Yolen, Though of course he would have to say it that way because of Scadrial, but it does also leave it open to other possibilities.

[IndigoAjah he/him]

Sanderson's thing is pretending to deal with hooks that come back though.

 

for example, the Adolin murder thing is not over, no more than Kaladin not suddenly forgiving all Lighteyes at the end of WoK

 

and again, like there, people will probably complain...

[Aleksiel]

19 minutes ago, Muggins said:

I was pretty disappointed with this book.  I'd been so excited for it for such a long time, and it felt like a bit of a mess to me.  The overall plot arc was just too chaotic.  The plotting was a lot less cohesive than in the other books; there were several side plots that popped up and disappeared early on, that just gave the book a bit of a unwieldy nature.  I felt it lacked forward momentum, and cohesion.  It picked up near the end of part 3, but it just didn't work for me the way the first two books in the series did.  There was such a huge setup for the Everstorm, but it felt anticlimactic.   The murder investigation felt rushed, and a little pointless, and Kaladin's trip home, then time with Khen, Sah et al. and trip back to Urithiru felt disjointed.  It also lacked emotional resonance for me.  There was never that point where I couldn't put the book down and had to read all night.  It took me a week to read this (I had an advanced reader copy) which is unheard of for me.    I feel like most of the posts here have been pretty positive.  Was anyone else super disappointed?  

It's not what I expected either. There were too many PoVs, some subplots lead nowhere or were barely explored. It felt unfocused and rushed, it lacked the character depth I grew used to in the last two books. I'm glad we didn't get a love triangle, but I wonder why was the Shallan/Kaladin sort of attraction even there in the first place and they never even spoke of Helaran. Elhokar's arch had no resolution, he didn't even die managing to save his son or anything. Sadeas murder turned to have no ramifications for Adolin. The unmade and everstorm turned out pretty underwhelming for the set up they had. The whole trip in Shadesmar was kind of weird. The whole Dalinar Ascension was confusing. Things like that. I wouldn't say supper disappointed, but OB definitely fell short of my expectations and wasn't on the same level as the last two for me. I think people who agree with you might not want to share it because they could be worried the rest of the fandom would be hostile.

3 minutes ago, IndigoAjah said:

and again, like there, people will probably complain...

Would you rather people post only praise? Avoid expressing their opinion? Have only people who praise every single word in the books be on the forum?

[IndigoAjah he/him]

No I just find it an amusing thing that people complained about at the time- that these problems don't magically go away as soon as they are first engaged and apparently solved- like Kal not magically ignoring his years of oppression and his depression. Or Shallan reverting to immaturity of earlier books. Or Vin, in MB, not solving her identity crisis despite it very very superficially being "solved" in TFE. It's seen as false character development, where I would argue it is fair more genuine than pretending issues just disappear.

 

for me it's one of the best bits of character work in the series, but people are entitled to their views just as much

[axehoundlover]

I dont remember where in the book, but it mentions that shortly before the recreance the "parsh" were fighting to reach feverstone keep, which we know from Dalinar's visions is at least where a significant number of KR left behind their oaths. Anyone think it is possible that the parsh had been trying to reach the location of Honor's perpendicularity and had somehow finished the process of splintering him. Thereby killing the spren currently bonded in the nahel bond, and then all the spren belonging to the KR were dead so they left them behind. And it is just assumed by the spren that the spren died because the KR broke their bonds because that is the only way that they knew KR spren to die before that and since.

[MothersMilkInACup]

3 hours ago, IndigoAjah said:

How is that any different to, say, Jasnah? Szeth? Mraize? The only reason she seems out of place is because you KNOW she's from Warbreaker (or more accurately, Warbreaker is her character prequel to give backstory for when she turns up here). Ignoring that cross- world interactions is meant to be a major point in SA anyway, none of those things are any more enigmatic than the first time we hear about any of the new concepts in this book (as in, new to the characters). You are biased simply because you know the origins of her mysteries 

As someone who has yet to read Warbreaker I agree. I thought she was just a semi interesting new character until her tidbits about being from another planet. Then I became interested but she didn't feel out of place or anything. They were in shadesmar and Kaladin had just spoken to someone from another planet anyway. It just added more worldbuilding and gave more of an explanation on Nightblood and Zahel. 

 

That said I loved this book. Dalinar is officially my favorite character of all time. Taln is such a sweet soul, I wonder if Dalinar uniting the three realms somehow healed him for a time. My only slight issue was the radiants showing up together towards the end felt like an Avengers movie moment. It was fun yet felt kind of forced for some reason. Rest In peace Ehlokar you sweet soul. 

 

Also hello sharders, first post. 

[Smokeform]

I really loved the book. I attempted to protect my grades by not reading at school but staying up til two AM probably didn’t help. I am looking forward for Jasnah’s book. Her backstory is going to be great to read. My least favorite part was Moash striving to compete with Amaram for #1 hated character. It makes me think that Kaladin’s next path will be about not protecting the people he likes if it is not right. Favorite part was probably Kaladin seeing his family again or Dalinar doing his unity thing. Does anyone else think the radiant Mraise mentioned that had been killed was Tien? 

[flying_shadow she/her]

7 minutes ago, MothersMilkInACup said:

Also hello sharders, first post. 

Hi! I love your username.

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

1 hour ago, MothersMilkInACup said:

As someone who has yet to read Warbreaker I agree. I thought she was just a semi interesting new character until her tidbits about being from another planet. Then I became interested but she didn't feel out of place or anything. They were in shadesmar and Kaladin had just spoken to someone from another planet anyway. It just added more worldbuilding and gave more of an explanation on Nightblood and Zahel. 

That said I loved this book. Dalinar is officially my favorite character of all time. Taln is such a sweet soul, I wonder if Dalinar uniting the three realms somehow healed him for a time. My only slight issue was the radiants showing up together towards the end felt like an Avengers movie moment. It was fun yet felt kind of forced for some reason. Rest In peace Ehlokar you sweet soul. 

Also hello sharders, first post. 

Welcome to the shard and thank you for a lovely first post that granted us a more clear view of how Azure was perceived . On all characters arriving at the end, yeah, I think Brandon once said that one of the hardest things to do was get all the people to the right place at the same time.

I did feel a bit hollow when the book ended, but I suspect that its because I was reading in a row and I knew I wouldn't get anything else from SA for 3-4 years . So in my mind its really important to have a "happy ending" or at least for the book to end at a comfortable place, as I know in my mind there will not be advancement for years yet. 

To those that feel dissappointed, or that the book was not as tight as usual, everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion. However I think the reason why it feels less smooth is because so much was happening. 

In WoK

Flashbacks: Kaladin had a happy childhood, then Roshone came, he went with the army, Tien dies, then he killed Helaran

Kaladin: Is a slave, carries bridges, inspires Bridge 4, gets ancient powers, saves Dalinar et al.

Shallan: Becomes a ward to Jasnah, learns some scholarship, steals soulcaster, soulcasts, gets poisoned, discovers KR returning

Dalinar: Is a bad politician, gets visions, almost gets his whole army killed, gives Blade for Kaladin and Bridge 4

Others: Szeth is insane and does what he is told, generally murdering lots of people. Adolin is a nice guy, concerned with his people and his family.

In WoR

Flashbacks: Shallan kills mother, father lies to all to cover it, house Davar collapses, Shallan tries to keep it propped up till she kills father

Kaladin: Is a bodyguard, has contact with Kholin family and is brought into their inner circle, Moash brings him in for the assasination, 4v1 duel, he agrees to help kill Elhokar, Syl dies, he is in the chasms, he revives Syl and saves Elhokar, he kills Szeth

Shallan: Jasnah dies leaving her alone, she makes her way to the SP, gains minor influence, enters GB, flirting with Adolin, chasms, shows herself to Dalinar, saves army by taking it to Urithiru

Dalinar: More visions, he gets plot to get Shards from other Alethi and generally brings a few alethi to heel, tries to make peace with listeners, takes army to war, destroys listeners, everstorm arrives, battle of Narak, he binds Stormfather

Others: Szeth is still killing people. Adolin fights duels getting Shards, and leads an important part of the battle of Narak, he kills Sadeas. Eshonai wants peace, but is turned into a Voidbringer and turns all listeners into Voidbringers. Lift is a KR with Nalan chasing her. T is introduced with Diagram on tow.

In OB

Flashbacks: Dalinar is a monster, warlord and killer. Kills, destroys and shatters lots and lots of people and places. Becomes engaged to Evi, almost kills Gavilar, has two children, shows the intense power of the Thrill, kills Evi and burns the Rift, goes to the Nightwatcher

Kaladin: Is a full fledged KR, visits Hearthstone, meets and befriends parsh, has some meetings in Urithiru showing his Windrunner status, goes to Kholinar, enters Wall Guard, leads assault on palace, fails and becomes blocked with having friends on both sides of the battle, watches Elhokar die, runs around Shadesmar, can't say 4th ideal despite knowing the words, has final battle with Fused and Amaram

Shallan: Has problems with her lies/personas, scares Midnight Mother, faces self-confidence problems with Jasnah back, infiltrates cult and has some failures in Kholinar, fails to get them to Urithiru, Shadesmar, lightweaves an entire army in Thaylen city, marries Adolin

(Wow, Kaladin and Shallan had a really bad book when you look at it)

Dalinar: uses his powers, tries diplomacy, has a clash with the church, has some skype chats with many people including Odium, gets coalition for humanity, coalition collapses thanks to Diagram, Odium tries to make him his champion, Dalinar Ascends 

Others: Szeth becomes a Skybreaker and swears himself to Dalinar, he has some bonding time with Nightblood. Adolin meets his Blade, does some Edgedancer-y stuff, fights on Thaylen battle picking up loose ends no-one else is paying attention to. Renarin bonded a corrupted spren. Jasnah almost kills Renarin, but stops, she fights in Thaylen battle, she finds Shallash and Taln, she becomes Queen of Alethkar. Lift brings Azish to coalition, helps Szeth steal gem to trap Thrill-Unmade. T swears himself to Odium in exchange of his city been spared. Venli bonds KR spren and turns slightly away from Odium. Bridge 4 are squires and some become KR. Moash sides with the Voidbringers, kills Elhokar and Jezrien.

 

Looking at it, it is no wonder Oathbringer was not as tight as the other two, to be it would have needed 500 more pages minimun . All in all, I was satisfied and I'm already finding hidden gems I hadn't noticed on first read.

Edited November 17, 2017 by WhiteLeeopard

[Kairos]

1. Dalinar's new status will be confusing. I had the same reaction as the Stormfather(well, with a bit more exhilaration). Connecting the Realms though. Strange that there is a traveling Perpendicularity. That could have very useful implications, literally the easiest way ever to pop in and out of Shadesmar. Also, can he tell the Oathgate spren to let them through now?
2. That Larkin could be very useful. They really need to visit that island, the Aimians obviously had some interesting mysteries.
3. No shardplate. Rather disappointed there by Kaladin, but Dalinar is the one who really needs it.
4. NIGHTBLOOD! Bwahaha, finally back in action, and where he can do a lot of evil-destroying too.
5. Jezrien gets killed with probable hemalurgy. Wondering who gets the spike.
6. Shallan's personalities are...difficult. I get it, but they seem rather inconvenient, and I really want her to get over it. It seems like Brandon is using this series to really explore brokenness in people, and it's beginning to get excessive. 
7. Adolin has some good building, I like where he is now. I wasn't sure after the Sadeas murder, but he feels better now.
8. Vivenna is back, I really want to know about her new sword, and she should explain herself more.
9. People tended to go out of their way to obfuscate things. I'm on Harmony's page, explain clearly for once.
10. Rlain needed more, he just felt abandoned there.
11. Taln's joy was... really amazing. This is a real Herald. How he hasn't bonded a spren from somewhere yet beats me(unless avoiding it intentionally)
12. I was really hoping that Moash would take a page out of Kaladin's book, bond with the Parshmen that he was placed with, become a Radiant, bring them along. Oh how wrong I was.
13. Mraize has an Aether stain? That's intriguing.
14. What are the Dawnshards? We still don't know.
15. I agree with the oft-cited view that the reason behind the Recreasance was....weak. I don't see why that would break the KR.
16. Jasnah. She's so infuriating. Maybe useful, but so...Aes Sedai. I legitimately was happy in WoR when I thought she died.
17. The thing that hit me the hardest was the whole Rift finale. That was just so painful. Dalinar really did go through a lot to get where he is, it's incredible he worked through as well as he did.