[OB] Your opinion on Oathbringer

[ICanDream]

There has been negativity surrounding this book (well, as much negativity as a Sanderson book gets!) but also lots of positivity. So I wanted to see what the common consensus on these forums are: is it considered good, or bad.

For me, it was a great book, but I felt it was in WoR’s shadow, which was, of course, an incredible book (and a book that remains my favourite book of all time). 

So what is your opinion on Oathbringer?

[JoyBlu she/her]

52 minutes ago, ICanDream said:

it was a great book

Good 

alright

bad

— but you thought it was great! I’d love to see an option for Great and another option for Incredible (as compared to your WoR experience)

[Blazenella he/him]

I liked Shallan's growth (I HATED WoK Shallan, and tolerated WoR Shallan)

Kaladin got over himself a bit. I got my family into the series and I keep getting asked WHEN DOES HE START GETTING LESS DEPRESSED

Dalinar... 

Nuff said

The Szeth POV's were intriguing

Lift you scoundrel (I love you)

[Song she/her]

I loved it. It felt more convuluted and chaotic that it's predecessors but it contained so much gold. There aren't many books that I will happily re-read the moment I finish them.

It is the middle book of an epic fantasy. That it was so engrossing while still setting up a million future plot points is quite extraordinary.

[Carla Bridge Four]

I loved it, badly.

The idea of Bridge 4 development was so amazing. It speaks of friendship between broken people, of care and love.

Teft stole my heart.

Kaladin acknowledging there are no true enemies.

Renarin's arc...

Maybe I'm being partial, I don't care. I love it.

[StormingTexan he/him]

I thought it was good but not great like WoR. It could have been great if some of the plot lines/character arcs from the two previous books (especially WoR) were explored more. Instead many were dropped abruptly. It felt like too much was going on and getting crammed into this book. On one hand I love how much we learned on the other I felt like a lot of this could have been distributed more over the next two books. Still a "good" book by Sanderson is lightyears above anyone else currently writing in the genre. 

[ICanDream]

23 hours ago, JoyBlu said:

Good 

alright

bad

— but you thought it was great! I’d love to see an option for Great and another option for Incredible (as compared to your WoR experience)

Well, the idea was if your opinion is positive you vote for good, negative bad and neutral alright. So quite good and absolutely incredible would be grouped together

[LH1407]

Despite all the criticism, I think it may be my favourite book so far. The Amaram arc was a bit awkward and the Shadesmar trip was a little long, but the incredible scenes easily made up for it. The other major criticisms I see here didn't bother me too much (Sadeas' murder not amounting to much and the love triangle). I think Oathbringer was a little less "polished" than the other books, but for me it was the most emotionally charged one yet. That's what counts in my eyes.

[wotbibliophile]

I voted that it was good, but it is my least favorite of the three SA books out. There were scenes I think should have been in there. For example Jasnah's return, grief over Elhokar especially from Navani, what happened to Skar and Drehy, Shallan and Adolin getting married. That last one I personally do not care if it is there or not, but with every other pair Sanderson has brought together I believe we have had a wedding scene however brief.

There were threads dropped from WOR like Sadeas (at least kind of), but one dropped thread drives me crazy. Danlan. How is it possible Kaladin did not warn anyone that there was a conspiracy to kill Elhokar that nearly succeeded twice? Now that Elhokar is dead, it is just about irrelevant, but I cannot forgive Kaladin or Sanderson for not mentioning this conspiracy.

[Cameron]

I have to agree with most of the above, it was good but not perfect or as polished as the first two. 

My other disappointment was the lack of '**** yeah' action scenes that have an emotional decision for the character. There was no equivalent to the duel from WoR or when Kalidan first picks up a spear again in WoK. The scene in Thaylen City was a small one, which I loved, and the battle in the palace to an extent but neither had me squeeling in a coffee shop as I read. The only real one was the final battle, but there was no mid-book scene. That said this book had by far the most exposition and really set us up for some loads of those moments next book.

My other criticism would be how the Skybreakers were handled. I don't think Brandon quite pulled it off, close but not there. I still don't yet root for Szethe or any of them in an anti-hero way, maybe his book will fix that. I've seen the law vs right thing done better elsewhere (Les Mis is the classic).

One criticism I keep hearing that I completely *disagree* with is Shallan's personalities. To my mind that was extremely well done and a realistic coping mechanism. I've used it myself (albeit to a less extreme extent) and it's a well documented technique for managing trauma. The way Brandon fit it into Lightweaving was brilliant, I'd love to see him explore that theme even further with other perception based magics (gold misting perhaps?).

 

Overall I think a lot of the 'flaws' are due to it being the middle book of the first quintet and the point where a boat load of knowledge is dropped. And we got a lot of goodies in return so I'm still happy.

 

Oh one last frustration, lack of chat between radiants and their spren in Shadesmer. Their banter is normally top notch and exploring those relationships in the spren's realm would have been cool. (Adolin and Maya were great though).