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?

What moment of Stormlight gave you the feels? For me the moments are: 1) The second time Dalinar visits the Rift. 2) Elhokar’s death. 3) “You cannot have my pain” 4) “Honor is dead but I’ll see what I can do” 5) The Tower

Thanks for the feedback! You got a lot of what I was going for so I guess it isn’t all bad. Serakor is another viewpoint character (my next chapter will probably be from his perspective) so you will learn more about him. In this story none of the factions are entirely right. However, characters will learn they’ve been fighting for the wrong things and such. I didn’t mean for Illyris to come across as so irritating before he gets angry. That will require some fixing. If you think that any of this writing is sub-par, it’s because I’m thirteen. I refrained from putting this in the email or anything as I fear it would make peoples critiques less critical. Thanks again!

Write your critiques to my story here!

Give me your best Stormlight joke! It can be a meme or a pun or whatever! I’m running low on Stormlight and I think the only cure is Stormlight-based comedy (or another Stormlight book Brandon! It’s been a month and a half! Stop slacking!) so yeah, give me my daily Stormlight fill

I’m an introvert and I read fantasy - the genre of the nerds! Im also a nerd in that I love history, science and Star Wars! Am I an impossibility?

Vote for your favourite aspect of the world of Roshar (does not include characters!).

Wow. Take an upvote, sir. You may have changed my opinion on Amaram. I still dislike his Yelig-Nar decision and self, as I think that it detracts from his previous complexity, and he becomes simply evil. However, I now view his character from WoR as interesting and complete. Thank you.

He‘s bad. Not like in-world bad, but just a bad character. In the Way of Kings, I loved to hate him. He came across as a guy who had hidden motivations and the like. In WoR, he was... bland. I thought he would turn him around in OB but nope. He just becomes flat out evil. No nuances there. We already have a big bad with Odium. We don’t need another. IMO the thing that makes Oathbringer really suffer is the fact that it has become so detached from normal people, and everything becomes world-ending. We need character arcs about the individuals, not their abilities. Anyway that was a tangent rant. So what did you guys think of Amaram?

Thanks for the replies. I guess I do understand why people like the Mistborn magic system. I concede that the magic system is more than “a bad diet” but it seems comparable to something I would dream up, whereas the Stormlight magic is something truly out of this world. Then again, sometimes simple is better. You only need to look to the Powder Mage trilogy to realise that this is the case.

I see so many posts stating that Mistborn has the best magic system. This is something I flat out disagree with. The magic of Stormlight has layers, Ideals and intricacies while Mistborn’s magic system is just a bad diet. I don’t dislike Mistborn - far from it - I just think that compared to Stormlight, it falls flat in all areas, including magic systems.

The title is pretty self-explanatory. What’s your favourite?

Hey I’m in for the 15th. Sorry for my inactivity of late, the Christmas period has been frantic.

The avalanche is the climax to a Brandon Sanderson book, when all threads come together, and there is usually a climactic battle. They’re pretty awesome. Also this was a quick reply from me! Whoop!

I’ve heard lots of people say about the HoA avalanche being great, but I just... didn’t think it was satisfying really. To me it felt rushed, and I didn’t buy into the whole ending. I’m not going to specifically mention what didn’t work for me as that would be a spoiler, but yeah, to me it was overwhelming and underwhelming at once - underwhelming because I’d expected something better and overwhelming because it was so weird to me. But that’s just my opinion.

When I first read the avalanche of Oathbringer, my first thought was “wow, that pretty cool” but with more fan girl screeching. But then I wondered if the avalanches have become just too insane. So I thought I’d start this topic. What do you guys think of the avalanches? Are they perfect? Too extreme? And what’s the best one of them? (This is only Stormlight btw, since on this forum not everyone has read Mistborn) My personal favourite was the Words of Radiance ending. I mean in a hundred pages, Syl returned, they worked the Oathgate, they discovered Urithiru, Jasnah returned, the Assassin in White’s honourblade was taken, the parshendi summoned the Everstorm and Renarin was officially revealed as a radiant. Oh, and Dalinar bonded the storming stormfather!

Rate the Stormlight books. It’s pretty self explanatory - give em a percentage out of 100, with 100 being the best.

In Oathbringer, Shallan was the character with the highest word count. Her word count at the end of the book stood at 106,000, while Dalinar, the star of the show, only had 94,000 words. (This is of course not including Dalinar’s flashback chapters.) Shallan had 54 -54! - viewpoints, while Dalinar had 45. So what do you guys think of Shallan’s prominence in this book? Was it a good thing? Or was it very, very bad? For me? I thought it was ok, but I did prefer Dalinar’s chapters, so more of him would have been preferable. Thoughts?

I just used a calculator, and, assuming the figures given on the Statistical Analysis of Oathbringer are correct, the chapter clocks in at 17,839 words. That is the longest Stormlight chapter ever. Just thought I’d share this as I’m interested in word counts, so I found this amazing. For comparison the previous longest chapter, which was Lift’s interlude, was around 10,000 words. So chapter 120, The Spear That Would Not Break, is very long

I really enjoyed that. It’s intriguing and mysterious. Definitely continue So onto the critical part of the critique. The character is interesting but I think her personality should be... stronger? Go in to depth with her more and her feelings. Why did she join the Masters? Did she know they were going to be idiots? These are questions you should ask yourself, and use them to flesh her out more. I think Shy is a good character idea, but she doesn’t feel fully three dimensional. If she is going to be a major character, give hints to her backstory. Also, give her quirks that make her more interesting - these can be small things or big things. For lack of a better example, in Stormlight, Kaladin has depression, Shallan lies to herself and Dalinar is obsessed with honour (or honour if you’re American). These really add depth to a character, and they could help with Shy. Oh, and the dialogue is a bit stiff. On non-character related stuff, you could benefit from expanding the Master’s meeting into a longer scene - one that could be a separate chapter from the first part. You could use this scene to establish plot lines, build characters (those of the Masters) and world build, as well as setting up the antagonist. Also the prose feels a bit rushed at times. I think some more description at the beginning would make the scene at the beginning much more powerful. Overall I very much enjoyed this work. It was great. Please continue to write it. Sorry if I was overly critical - this is my first time critiquing.

After Oathbringer has come out, which is your favourite series? I expect Stormlight to win of course, but I’m not sure how much it will win by.

Thanks for the help! I am a bit difficult at times Is it possible that I not submit tommorrow? I haven’t finished editing what i was trying to get done as my computer was broken. Hopefully it will be fixed soon thanx again

Hey, how do I see what people have posted? I didn’t get anything last Monday. Sorry again if I’m being stupid (it’s a habit of mine)

What were your reactions to the climax? How does it compare to the others? What shocked you most? Who was your favourite character? What was your favourite moment? p.s I accidentally posted this in Stormlight. I edited it after it being there five minutes when I realised what I’d done. Now, it is my apology thread

I didn’t mean for people to actually start fighting; it was just a joke.