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.
