r/Stormlight_Archive

After trying to make it through Oathbringer multiple times, she finally arrived at the Palace fight scene. We're sitting on our bed, she's listening to the book and she taps my shoulder. With an excited look in her eyes she says, >!"Elhokar, is saying his oath..."!< I'm glad I was there.

After she said that, I just took her hand and held it and let Brandon and Michael Kramer do their work. I held her hand and watched her face as she listened. Crestfallen, heartbroken, all of the above.

She just wanted y'all to know: >!Fuck Moash!<

(Edit: spelling)

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, but I'm reading Wind and Truth and at 200 pages... it just feels like a slog.

So many named characters with absolutely no personality. An incredibly convoluted plot. An impossible number of Radiant and Fused orders to remember. And, it seems like nobody has a character arc anymore. Adolin committed murder and he's too busy thinking about clothes, because that's his one personality trait. Dalinar no longer seems like a complicated person. Jasnah and Navani don't seem dangerous like they used to. I thought Shallan fixed her personality issues, but she's still got three personalities. (Does anyone think it's interesting when she LARPs as a cowgirl or a knight?)

Honestly, I think tying the series so much into the greater Cosmere was a bad idea. The whole series feels small and irrelevant once it zooms out from Roshar to the greater universe; a greater universe whose existence doesn't seem to phase anyone. Nor does anyone seem really interested.

And the great, continent-wide war... feels like it doesn't happen, because everyone just hangs out at Urithiru talking all the time. We hear about the war, but it doesn't feel like it really happens. We don't get to really see the impact on the ground level. Nobody ever seems to die.

I'm really tired of reading about these boring people sitting around Urithiru just talking constantly.

For that matter, it feels like Sanderson has forgotten about all the interesting lore and flavor that made the series so interesting to begin with. The first couple books felt like a really interesting, alien world with some cool characters. This book feels like the world is just window dressing for a bunch of characters to share stiff, boring, unrealistic dialogue. (Which, for the most part, sounds like it was spoken by a constantly-online millennial.)

Am I being too harsh? Does this book get good at a certain point?

Ive finished wok and wor, now on Oathbringer and Im worried I may be wasting my time. Im am audiobook person, so keep that in mind. I have really loved Kal and Dalinar and generally the male and female other characters but Shallan and Lift I just couldn't get into. Shallan at least near the end of wor was getting better, even enjoyable at times. But something about the shallan chapters just made me lose enjoyment during them. I was bored and felt like I was wasting time even listening. There would be awesome story flowing with kal then suddenly I hear the female narrators voice and I just knew I was in for tedium. And I dont think its REALLY shallan as a person I dislike. It feels like how she is written or maybe even read. I had to put down the book for nearly a year because I got so tired of her chapters. (This happened with the wheel of time winters heart as well).

I guess what I want to know, am I through the worst of it? Or will this be the norm in this series? Will all of Lifts chapters be as hard to listen to as her introduction in the interludes? Have any of you experienced this?

Am I going to get downvote nuked for expressing anything other than praise across the board? Be gentle please, Im not a hater I promise.

I'm re-reading wind and truth at the moment, and after the council of monarchs is discussing the loophole in the contract that hoid points out, I realized that the best move imo would be for all the monarchs of their respective kingdoms to name urithiru as their new capital.

Sure, logistically to do so in 8 days would be a tall order, especially for the azish I'm sure, but there'd be no more scrambling over which troops go where, because having all troops at urithiru would simultaneously defend all the kingdoms.

Plus, they could always revert it back after the showdown. And the cherry on top is that since the contract loophole works both ways, jasnah naming urithiru as the capital of alethkar would mean that after the contest, since they control the capital of alethkar, they control all the territories of that kingdom, including kolinar.

I'm not sure if I'm missing anything, this is only my second reread. But the thought popped into my head and it seemed like the best solution for everyone, even if it would be beauracratically hard to convince monarchs to name urithiru as their capital

I'm trying to remember in which book a certain conversation occurred.

It's a conversation between Kal and I think Sigzil about one of the members of Bridge Four being gay and some Azish bureaucratic paper work to change his affiliation.

Can anyone help a guy out?

Guys, I need an opinion. Please, avoid spoilers.

Stormlight Archive is my first contact with Brandon Sanderson and the Cosmere. The books have only been published in my country for the last few years.

When I read WoK, I instantly fell in love with it. WoR was the same thing. I thought both books were nearly perfect, and I was completely captivated by the world and its construction.

When I started Oathbringer, I was initially a bit thrown off by the slower pace. But once it got going, it REALLY got going (it probably helps that Dalinar is my favorite character).

The thing is, I had one major issue with it: the direction of Shallan and Adolin’s relationship.

Romance has never really been my favorite part of fantasy. One thing I liked about Shallan in the first two books was that romance initially felt more tied to survival, status, and her personal goals. I really vibed with that aspect of her character.

Then in WoR, I personally felt there was an interesting dynamic developing between her and Kaladin. I hadn’t even considered them together before, but I liked the friction between them and thought it could lead to something compelling. At least to me, Oathbringer seemed to reinforce some of that emotional tension, so I started thinking: “okay, maybe this is going somewhere.”

But by the end, the resolution of that whole dynamic left me feeling strangely disconnected from the story.

I think it also doesn’t help that Adolin has never really worked for me as a character, and I also struggled a lot more with Shallan’s POVs in Oathbringer compared to the first two books.

Now I feel really conflicted about starting RoW. When I finished WoK, I couldn’t WAIT to read WoR. Same thing going into Oathbringer. But now… I don’t really feel that excitement anymore.

What worries me is that I’ve heard RoW gives a lot of focus to Shallan, Adolin, and their relationship, and I’m honestly already pretty checked out from that entire storyline.

The romance itself isn’t even the core issue. I think the bigger problem is that I already wasn’t connecting with Shallan’s arc in Oathbringer, and Adolin simply isn’t a character I’m invested in.

So I guess my question is: should I persist with the series? Without spoilers, do you think RoW still has enough of the elements that made the earlier books special? I’d really appreciate some honest insight.

I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really LOATHE Sadeas. I love Dalinar though. He’s old, honorable, and wise. He reminds me more of a king than the actual king.

I have a couple questions that have occurred to me in my current re-read. >!From Oathbringer:

1. In a conversation with Kaladin about the genders of his spears, Syl mentions that "some older spren have 4 genders because humans didn't imagine them." Does that mean that Singers have 4 genders (since they were alone on Roshar as far as we know before humans arrived)?
2. Pattern has apologized to Shallan a couple times now for being the one to kill her mother, but he wasn't. Does he actually believe it was him? He has to be aware of Testament's presence by now, right?!<

Hello peoples!

More specifically, hello women, as this is directed at you.

A lot of male authors get backlash from the way they write female characters (I.e, they get it wrong a bunch) - having read the entirety of the Stormlight Archive and enjoyed a lot of the female characters’ POV chapters (particularly Jasnah, she’s such a cool character). I was curious as to the womanly perspective of how Sanderson writes the women of Stormlight Archive.

None of my female friends have read Cosmere stuff, otherwise I’d ask them. I’m writing a book, and a large amount of chapters will be from a woman’s POV, and I’m a dude so I don’t want to fall into the same pitfalls as other authors.

If this is the wrong kind of post for this sub, sorry.

So I’m a little over 100 pages into Rhythm of War and I love this honor amongst warriors. The idea that the Windrunners and the Heavenly Ones have this unspoken code of one on one combat is so cool.

I really enjoy how Kaladin and Leshwi are contesting rather than fighting to the death. This mutual respect is really cool. Maybe I’m missing something but I didn’t expect it, I really like it.

I’m excited to keep reading and see where this leads!

Also, Kaladin… are you okay? lol

I just finished the series and I have seen so many people hating the final book like we are getting five more books, so we will get to everyone again and I personally liked where every ones story is at in this point in time