[OB] Oathbringer Writing

[Kiara.Hammond]

Hi all! I'm new to 17th Shard and love the Cosmere Collection!

 

Half-way through Oathbringer now and was just curious as to what other readers have thought so far about the writing style. I'm finding this book a bit of a disappointmet in terms of character development, plot arc, and just overall style of writing in general. It seems a step down from his previous unique way of phrasing dialogue and visually describing scenes.  

It could just be me growing a bit tired of the series, but I've been curious to hear other reader's takes on this (in fact it's why I decided to join 17th!)

Thanks!

Kiara

Edited January 16, 2018 by Greywatch
Added [OB] because it was missing.

[The Thinking Herald he/him]

According to Reddit's Oathbringer updates from a little over a year ago (I think this is right, anyone correct me if it was WoB or AMAs that provided this info) there was a lot of story that Brandon had to cut from Oathbringer, since it was getting too long and Tor wasn't sure they could publish the paperback. The novels did get progressively longer as he wrote them (I think it was a 50% jump from WoK), so he probably had to cut some of his style and more purple-leaning prose for the sake of the plot.

While I say this, however, I do know what you feel. I myself only started SA this year, and it seemed slightly off and lacklustre to me. While I agree with you that this could have also have been from series-fatigue, I think that, looking back on the two main (to me) fiction stories of 2017 (Oathbringer and the Last Jedi) (no spoilers), they had, I suppose, a similar issue. That being with the pacing being slightly inconsistent. In several plotlines, the pacing of the plot in both seemed fast and had me on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out what happened next. In others, however, I didn't really care what happened and wanted to get back to the "good" plotlines.

In the end, for me, it's a combination of Brandon having to have cut prose from the novel, series-fatigue, and slightly wonky pacing that dragged down Oathbringer ever so slightly for me. Just my two cents.

P.S. Go finish the book! It gets real good.

[Stormrunner1730]

I do see what both of you are saying about certain parts of OB being slow/long-winded.  However, I think alot of that is necessary for everything he is setting up.  (Side note- This and The Last Jedi were also my most aniticipated entertainment pieces of 2017 haha.  Although I absolutely loved The Last Jedi).  Yes, the book is long winded (All of the Stormlight Archive books are haha), but there is a ton of good world building and character info throughout the book.  I personally love all of the political negotiations, but that could be because I'm interested in that stuff in general.  

As far as Brandon's prose goes... In general his prose works because it "stays out of the way".  His language is not as beautiful or cool as, say Rothfuss, Martin, or Tolkein.  However, the's not trying to be like them (at least not in terms of language).  Brandon focuses on and excels at character, plot, and world-building.  His language is therefore more oriented towards serving those goals.

[maxal she/her]

11 hours ago, The Thinking Herald said:

According to Reddit's Oathbringer updates from a little over a year ago (I think this is right, anyone correct me if it was WoB or AMAs that provided this info) there was a lot of story that Brandon had to cut from Oathbringer, since it was getting too long and Tor wasn't sure they could publish the paperback. The novels did get progressively longer as he wrote them (I think it was a 50% jump from WoK), so he probably had to cut some of his style and more purple-leaning prose for the sake of the plot.

I believe these are false rumors. Brandon also commented elsewhere the parts he removed mostly were sentences and words here and there: not actual story lines. I know this is common belief to think Brandon removed entire story arcs, but each time the author commented on the "trimming" down, he specifically said it was superficial, made to make the narration more compact.

This being said, did I find Oathbringer unsatisfying? In certain ways, yes. I am not a huge fan of the story arcs Brandon chose to write within this book, neither am I a fan of the ones he chose not to write. It seems to me the decisions made, with respect to the narrative, where done for climaxes purpose, with an end goal which turned being too precise to truly be enjoyable. I am also criticizing the massive addition of several minor viewpoint characters (Jasnah, Renarin, Teft, Bridge 4, Moash, Venli, Szeth, Lift: these were too many, I would have dropped a few): I felt it was too many, just as I am criticizing the fact only Dalinar/Kaladin/Shallan are allowed to have decent sized story arcs. I found there was a lot of repetition within the three main protagonists story arcs: too many chapters of Dalinar talking to the same people, arguing over the same elements, having the same thoughts, too many chapters of Kaladin eating stew with new people just so he could "get to know them", too many chapters focusing on Shallan's internal issues, too many to make any of those story arcs really interesting, IMHO. On the reverse, too many interesting story arcs were dropped and/or ignored. There was no follow-up on Adolin murdering Sadeas and/or on Adolin's character. Amaram was transformed into a cardboard villain and everything with respect to the Alethi internal politic was removed from the story without it being explained why all the Highprinces are suddenly pleased to follow Dalinar and his Radiants. The majority of the most emotional scenes did not happen within this book or happened "off-screen".

In the end, it wasn't so much an issue of pacing, I never minded slowed paced sections of stories, but the fact the slow paced sections all focused on story elements I didn't care so much for while not addressing the ones I did care for. The romance is another one which I have seen very few readers say they were fully satisfied with it.

I have no issue with the actual writing and/or prose of the book, neither do I have issues with the length of the book, but I have issues with whom the author chose to focus within his narrative and how he ignored the cliff-hangers he himself inserted within his own story.

[Kiara.Hammond]

58 minutes ago, maxal said:

I found there was a lot of repetition within the three main protagonists story arcs: too many chapters of Dalinar talking to the same people, arguing over the same elements, having the same thoughts, too many chapters of Kaladin eating stew with new people just so he could "get to know them", too many chapters focusing on Shallan's internal issues, too many to make any of those story arcs really interesting, IMHO. On the reverse, too many interesting story arcs were dropped and/or ignored.

 

Yes!!!!!! I agree! I think you just clarified/solidified my main issue with OB.

[maxal she/her]

48 minutes ago, Kiara.Hammond said:

Yes!!!!!! I agree! I think you just clarified/solidified my main issue with OB.

It is one of the issues some readers have had with the story. We also have to keep in mind Brandon wrote an excellent book with WoR, a book which spoke to a wide range of readers, probably a wider ranger of readers the author intended to write for to begin with. Oathbringer has pleased a lot of readers, but there are some whom were left unsatisfied as the book failed to address the narrative elements which drew them to the story to begin with.

In one way, it is a praise to Brandon he managed to engross so many "atypical" readers with his series. The downside is some of those readers were disappointed with OB.

My hopes are Brandon will infuse into book 4 what has made WoR such an excellent book.

[Ammanas]

@maxal Would it be fair to say that Brandon's editor should shoulder most of the blame for the problems you listed?

[maxal she/her]

22 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

@maxal Would it be fair to say that Brandon's editor should shoulder most of the blame for the problems you listed?

I did not mean to offset any blame onto anyone: enough people have come forward and said they loved the book. Some have however been disappointed: reasons for it usually are similar and they usually have to do with the characters arcs, how they were done and/or not done. I have asked myself why, why did it turn out this way for some of us and the answer I came up with has to do with the readership. Brandon's readership is very large and diverse, it seemed probable some readers, such as myself, got mislead as to how this story would unfold. I definitely expected more inter-character conflicts and dynamic which usually are what I find the most interesting in stories. It didn't happen.

I however don't think it is fair to blame the editor: the editor loved the book. The majority of readers loved the book. If I was left disappointed by it because it failed to address narrative elements which were important to me, then who's to blame? I do personally think there were narrative choices made for OB which did not lead to the optimum narrative, but ask another reader and he'll disagree.

[Ammanas]

Thanks for your answer! I hope my question didn't come across as aggressive.  It was asked in earnest.

[maxal she/her]

17 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

Thanks for your answer! I hope my question didn't come across as aggressive.  It was asked in earnest.

I didn't come across as aggressive: it was a legitimate question to ask and it gave me the opportunity to further clarify my thoughts.

[Llarimar he/him]

20 hours ago, Kiara.Hammond said:

Half-way through Oathbringer now and was just curious as to what other readers have thought so far about the writing style. I'm finding this book a bit of a disappointmet in terms of character development, plot arc, and just overall style of writing in general. It seems a step down from his previous unique way of phrasing dialogue and visually describing scenes.  

I very much agree with this.  I loved the process of reading Oathbringer, but afterwards I found myself strangely disappointed by the book.  Now of course, all this is relative, because being "disappointed" by a Sanderson book for me is about the equivalent of absolutely loving a non-Sanderson book (I feel like he stands on a higher tier than most of his contemporaries in the fantasy genre).  That being said, Oathbringer is probably my least favorite book of his so far for multiple reasons.  Most of them were explained perfectly by  @maxal, so I won't bother going through them again.  

There is one thing in particular I would like to add though - the final battle sequence (I won't reveal major spoilers in case someone hasn't read it).  The battle is extremely long and not very exciting in my opinion, comprising a surprisingly large portion of the final act, with long sequences of pure action that are written with little emotion or strong dialogue, and dozens of different viewpoint characters that really get exhausting.  This was a major letdown for me, since you want the end of the book to be the best part of the story, as it was in WoK and WoR (the final act of WoR was a major high note compared to the rest of that story, in my opinion, which really improved my opinion of the book). 

In addition, the emotional resonance of OB was much lower than previous books, its relevance to the the larger cosmere was disappointingly small (there were many cosmere cameos, but very little new information that we learned), and it definitely suffers from "middle story" syndrome - like the Last Jedi, as @The Thinking Herald noted - I like that comparison since I also was let down by the Last Jedi.  In many ways OB failed to capitalize on the momentum built up in WoR, especially with regards to character development (in particular Amaram, Shallan and Adolin, as others have said).  

Sanderson's writing is much more focused on content than it is on quality (as @Stormrunner1730 noted), which is a difference between him and many other fantasy authors, who write with very flowery prose but are less innovative with plotlines and worldbuilding.  This normally doesn't bother me about Sanderson (in fact, I usually prefer his writing), but it did bother me a bit in OB - the writing was noticeably flat and uninflected, hitting all the major plot points but really lacking in descriptiveness and vibrancy.  

I have a lot of faith in Sanderson and I definitely feel like future installments in Stormlight will be better than this one.  Even if they aren't, honestly, I'll still buy, read and enjoy them, but I really feel like the series will do nothing but improve after this.  

[StormingTexan he/him]

This book did feel a lot different that the first two. It almost feels a lot more segmented like multiple books combined in to one volume which I guess it is. The overall story combined feels less fluid than the previous ones to me. The pacing seemed almost too fast at times then WAY too slow at others (part 3 mainly for me) instead of a steady burn. I love Brandon's avalanches at the end of books but this one felt there were mini avalanches at the end of multiple parts which seemed to make the beginning and middle of some parts really slow in comparison. 

 

[JoyBlu she/her]

11 hours ago, Llarimar said:

the writing was noticeably flat and uninflected

I felt that way at the end, especially regarding Amaram, And I felt that the chapters were short (especially in part 1) but most of the book I felt held deep, majestic, chapters that were little mini-masterpieces. I felt that the world-building / themes that connected / bridged those brilliant chapters were missing. 

@maxal as always, i quite enjoyed your analysis. You seemed to say many thoughts that were itching inside my brain but had not fully formed yet. Which brings me to my next point. 

I loved WoR. I read it right after reading WoK and I read it in the summer. My kids were out of school, the days were long, I read outside while my kids played with friends, I believe I fed my kids snowcones on a few occasions for dinner while reading those two books back to back. My house didn’t need as much attention because we were basically living outside that month. I reflected on the book while exercising outside, while doing laundry and other mundane but necessary tasks.  It was a relaxing time in my life. 

Contrast that to OB coming out in November.  Talk about a stressful time of year. It didn’t help that I chose to camp out to get a low numbered book. (It was freezing and I didn’t sleep hardly at all) but Yes, I would do it again if given the chance. My kids are all back at school, they need help with homework and I had to have  nutritious meals for them on a consistent basis. Not to mention all the Holiday prep, (Thanksgiving & Christmas) a lot of which must be done when the kids are away at school lest they figure out what actually goes on behind the curtain. I had relatives come and visit, and had to host and entertain when my brain wanted to just read!!! 

My life was stressful, there was no time for reflection, and I did not enjoy OB as much as the first two books. I was living with people and interacting with people in real life who had finished OB before me  (I took 2 weeks to read it, my son was done in 2 days). Obviously it’s because I was making his dinner!!!! But i felt pressure to finish it so I could discuss it with them. 

Under normal circumstances I would not have started a book of that length during that time of year. I loved the parts in both WoK and WoR where I cried.  The parts where I set down the book and just couldn’t believe what Amaram had done to Kaladin. When I discovered that Shallan had a shardblade and was a double murderer.  I set the book down and my brain connected all of those pieces and it was so rewarding. The closest I got to that in OB was discovering Vivenna. 

Another thought to consider— I read and responded to all the sample chapters for OB. I read many comments of others as well. I loved every minute of those sample chapters. I can’t help but wonder how having week after week to reflect and digest those three chapters and then diving into the feast of the rest of the book influenced my OB experience. It made me see things I may have missed. But I think it also disconjointed the experience for me. The book wasn’t as continuous because of that  (but I’m not complaining)  

Did I like OB? Yes. Did I love it? No — but that doesn’t mean I won’t grow to love it. I didn’t love those first parts of Way of Kings the first time I read them, but after I read WoR, I liked those first parts of WoK so much more. Perhaps there is more set-up going on in OB than we realize. It’s not the end. I am planning on doing a full read through of OB this summer. Perhaps the more relaxed me will enjoy it more. 

 

 

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

Oathbringer is wierd. Some stuff, like the arcs of Dalinar, Kaladin and Elhokar, were great in both concept and execution. The climax of Part 3 ranks among the best Brandon climaxes, for me. Some things at the ending climax is awesome too. Some of the flashbacks were really powerful. Rocks chapter was beautiful. A bunch of the Taravangian-Dalinar scenes are masterpieces. Pattern is unbelievably funny. Odium is a great villain. Taln had two lines and became a fan-favorite.

Some stuff are pretty great in concept, but not in execution. Amaram, for example. The Venli and Moash chapters felt a bit like a drag too, but there is great stuff in there. And Shallan... she is confusing. Adolin is a mixed bag.

And some of it are things I don´t like. Things I disagree with. Choices I wouldn´t have made. Amaram can probably go in here as well. Aesudan too. Some parts of Adolins arc and story too. Some minor characters get very little screen-time. Mraize and Vasher hardly makes appearances, Iyatil isn´t even in the book. Bridge Four gets a lot of focus. Lift... she is a bit much at times. 

In the end, I like Oathbringer. I prefer it over WoK, which is a little slow for my taste, but I do think WoR is a better book. Oathbringer is simply wierd, because there is a lot that worked much better than in previous books (I think Kaladins story here is better than his previous arcs, same for Dalinar) and also stuff that didn´t really work as a lot of people wanted them too (Amaram, Adolin). 

I feel like this post sounds pretty negative, so I´ll just add a note here that says I really do love the book, and SA, and Brandon and his work. 

EDIT: On another note, for some reason I found @JoyBlus entire post really nice, and kinda beautiful. Good post, mate.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Toaster Retribution

[MonsterMetroid]

2 hours ago, JoyBlu said:

I felt that way at the end, especially regarding Amaram

I agree Amarams fight felt... kind of like the last boss fight in a video game wehre the AI of the boss is so bad you can cheese him. Like it was him trying to go for his shardbow, draw aggro, gim trying to go for dalinar, draw aggro. I dont know it felt really bizzare. Then a cutscene happens and rock save you. That confrontation of the book was pretty disappointing to me, In general I enjoyed the rest though.

[Cosmé he/him]

19 hours ago, Llarimar said:

its relevance to the the larger cosmere was disappointingly small (there were many cosmere cameos, but very little new information that we learned),

I dunno. Kaladin, Shallan, & co’s journey through the cognitive realm is only our second good look at it, after Secret History. And this is our first real look at “civilization” inside the cognitive realm. Towns, spren factions, merchants, and fight scenes.

Getting to see Unmade and Fused also greatly expands our understanding of Roshar.

 

I also felt a bit disappointed, but Way of Kings is a very, very hard book to beat. To me, Way of Kings is #1, Oathbringer #2, and Radiance #3. All very good, but WoR had some slow scenes in it too. 

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine he/him]

8 hours ago, JoyBlu said:

I felt that way at the end, especially regarding Amaram,

5 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

and also stuff that didn´t really work as a lot of people wanted them too (Amaram, Adolin). 

I have to say that the first time through OB, the battle between Amaram and Kaladin was a big let down. I constantly thought what an anticlimatic battle this is, why doesn't Kaladin get his moment of revenge, his moment to right the wrongs of the past.

That said, the first time through, Oathbringer displaced my favorite book of all times, Plutarch's the Noble Lives of Grecians and Romans (which is in the public domain, and if you haven't read it you can get an ebook of it right here). More on how OB is the best book ever later.

Initially I thought the fight between Kaladin and Amaram was incredibly anti-climatic, but that's really just because the focus was shifting so much. The action was just too frenetic, and the first time through I was focused on every aspect of Part 5. The second time through, it was an amazing confrontation, and it was advancing (in a minor thesis kind of way) Odium's agenda. The whole there is no responsibility line, while Dalinar (the major thesis) is struggling with just that same dilemma. On the second read, it's far more brilliant than the first. The struggle between Kaladin and Amaram would have been an incredibly satisfying end to a whole book series, but here it's just the dispatching of a minor villain. Awesome!

I believe like Brandon Sanderson that a good life is a moral life, I believe that everyone that has not killed their conscience deserves the chance to Stand Up and Do Better. I actually went to my first book signing ever, so that I could get copies of the SLA autographed for my two daughters with the words "Journey before destination". If the signing had been timed so that it was after I had read all of OB, it would have been "Stand Up, and Do better".

 

These are just the emotional/philosophical reactions to OB. From a literary perspective, OB is leaps and bounds beyond TWoK or WoR. Brandon is amazing, every day he wakes lying prostrate on his bed he says "Stand Up and do better" and he does. His writing has gotten so much better over even the course of the SLA. And as @Stormrunner1730 said, Brandon's writing is amazing precisely because he tries to diminish the role of the authorial voice:

On 1/16/2018 at 2:44 PM, Stormrunner1730 said:

As far as Brandon's prose goes... In general his prose works because it "stays out of the way".  His language is not as beautiful or cool as, say Rothfuss, Martin, or Tolkein.  However, the's not trying to be like them (at least not in terms of language).  Brandon focuses on and excels at character, plot, and world-building.  His language is therefore more oriented towards serving those goals.

He writes cinematically, if you think about, all of your favorite scenes from Brandon's books can probably play through your head right now. It's like he sees his role to be the projectionist, the one that makes sure he doesn't get in the way of the amazing story you can create in your head with just the slightest of guidance on his part. All of this takes work, he is the master of understated visual metaphor (by this I mean visual metaphor that doesn't put forward how amazing and great the creator of the metaphor is, but rather that the visual metaphor is so powerful and compelling that you forget for a time that you are reading). I do think though that Brandon has one concession to the genius of his creation, which is personified in his work as Hoid. Given the dialog when Hoid is around, can we truly fault him for this concession of genius, that we would gladly concede on multiple other fronts?

I think not, but getting back to the topic (holy crap this is getting long) Oathbringer is the most taut narrative that BWS has come up with to date. The extended visual metaphors that he came up and pulled off (Shallan looking for Re'shephir and seeing Urithiru like the circulatory system of a dead body, seeing 4 out of the 9 UNMADE and having them all be AWESOME!) I think part of the problem is the scale of OB, he's starting to draw the skein too wide, he's creating the foundation of a problem that 1 or 2 isolated individuals can't possibly hope to tackle. But I think this is the point, it's a struggle across all of Roshar, across 3 realms, involving 2 gods and the splintered remains of another. At a certain point the camera has to pull back, it can't all be about Adolin crapping in his shardplate. Bigger fish need a bigger frying pan, this involves a certain amount of delineation for what the extents of that frying pan are.

I just want to say, I LOVED THIS BOOK! There is no other book that has kept me so rapt, had me weeping at some times, had me shaking my fist at others than this one.

I too am dissatisfied with how a lot of plot points weren't addressed/tied up, but after watching the first Star Wars Trilogy, I was mad about certain things at the end of Empire Strikes Back, but giving Brandon the credit that he is do, I think he is intending for us to be mad about those things.

Oathbringer is my favorite book of all times, I used to like Plutarch's Lives better, but this has officially been displaced. I can give no higher praise than this, but if I could I would. I LOVE OATHBRINGER!!!

Edited January 18, 2018 by hoiditthroughthegrapevine
Eidted for clarity, qualified some things.

[maxal she/her]

@JoyBlu: This was a really nice story you shared. It made me think of how I first read WoK during my second maternity leave during a bright and warm summer. It does make a difference with reading OB during gloomy November, while being sick and over-whelmed at work.

6 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Oathbringer is wierd. Some stuff, like the arcs of Dalinar, Kaladin and Elhokar, were great in both concept and execution. The climax of Part 3 ranks among the best Brandon climaxes, for me. Some things at the ending climax is awesome too. Some of the flashbacks were really powerful. Rocks chapter was beautiful. A bunch of the Taravangian-Dalinar scenes are masterpieces. Pattern is unbelievably funny. Odium is a great villain. Taln had two lines and became a fan-favorite.

Some stuff are pretty great in concept, but not in execution. Amaram, for example. The Venli and Moash chapters felt a bit like a drag too, but there is great stuff in there. And Shallan... she is confusing. Adolin is a mixed bag.

I am thinking some of my reasons for being so ambivalent over Oathbringer come from the plan and the book structure. It seems to me Brandon has a very precise idea of how those books need to be structured, but at the same time, there is a lot he wants to tell. So while I feel the too strong focus on Dalinar/Shallan/Kaladin is preventing other interesting characters much needed growth, the multiplication of the minor viewpoint characters can be over-whelming.

Take Bridge 4, for instance. I love those viewpoints and I thought giving a narrative to a group of people as opposed to one individual was a brilliant idea, but it happens with a book also giving voices to Jasnah, Renarin, Lift, Venli, Taranvangian, Szeth, Navani and Moash. Yesterday, I was watching Masterchef Australia  and one of the participants was cooking for his idol. He tried to impress her, so he cooked a lot of elements: his plate had so much going on, it was dizzying. Taken individually, each element was good, but grouped together, it was too much. This is exactly what the judges told him: the flavors do not mix well together, there is too much going on. This is exactly how I feel about Oathbringer: taken individually, each narrative is not bad, some are even excellent, but grouped together, something is missing. They do not mix well.

6 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

And some of it are things I don´t like. Things I disagree with. Choices I wouldn´t have made. Amaram can probably go in here as well. Aesudan too. Some parts of Adolins arc and story too. Some minor characters get very little screen-time. Mraize and Vasher hardly makes appearances, Iyatil isn´t even in the book. Bridge Four gets a lot of focus. Lift... she is a bit much at times. 

In the end, I like Oathbringer. I prefer it over WoK, which is a little slow for my taste, but I do think WoR is a better book. Oathbringer is simply wierd, because there is a lot that worked much better than in previous books (I think Kaladins story here is better than his previous arcs, same for Dalinar) and also stuff that didn´t really work as a lot of people wanted them too (Amaram, Adolin). 

I agree minor characters previously introduced were ignored within the narrative. I also wondered about the relevance of having Lift's viewpoint during the final climax. She just had her own novel, viewpoints didn't seem necessary within OB. 

The last paragraph does reflect my thoughts: the book did not deliver on too many readers expectations and what it had to offer in exchange just weren't enough to dispel the disappointment. Well, they weren't enough for me, I can't speak for others.

[ICanDream]

16 hours ago, Cosmé said:

I also felt a bit disappointed, but Way of Kings is a very, very hard book to beat. To me, Way of Kings is #1, Oathbringer #2, and Radiance #3. All very good, but WoR had some slow scenes in it too. 

You’re the first person that I have ever met that thinks that WoR is the worst Stormlight book. Normally, it is considered the best. 

[Stormrunner1730]

I actually think they get progressively better.  Kaladin is my favorite character in the series, but I think his best moment is when he swears his Third ideal at the end of WOR (even though WOK is his book).  Oathbringer is my favorite because we're finally seeing promises from the first two books fulfilled.  You can tell that this is the book that Brandon has waited his whole career to write (until we reach book 10 haha).

[Drag0nR3born]

I loved Oathbringer.  That being said, it is my least favorite SA book.  It has incredible parts, great parts, and a few slow parts.  I love Brandon's writing and the SA is still my favorite book series ever.  I agree with most of what has been said for the good and bad of the book.  I think I was disappointed due to the build up I did in my mind.  I frequently do this when I am excited about something being released whether it is a video game, movie, music album, or book.  I build up my expectations to standards that are impossible to meet then I feel slightly disappointed.  I was expecting Oathbringer to melt my brain from sheer awesomeness like the first two books but it never quite got there even as great as it was.