Book Review: Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive #3), by Brandon Sanderson

Genre: Epic Fantasy
Date Published: November 2017
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 1243 pages/55 hours

Goodreads | Audible

Synopsis: The eagerly awaited sequel to the New York Times best-selling Words of Radiance, from epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson at the top of his game.

In Oathbringer, the third volume of the New York Times best-selling Stormlight Archive, humanity faces a new Desolation with the return of the Voidbringers, a foe with numbers as great as their thirst for vengeance.

Dalinar Kholin's Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost. The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified.

Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar's blood-soaked past and stand together - and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past - even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.

My Rating:

 ★★★★★

.....For being just plain awesome!

My Thoughts:

It took me about 3 weeks to finish it, but I finally did it!

Boy, talk about epic fantasy. This was one heck of a long series!

But don't get me wrong. Just because it was super long, doesn't mean I didn't like it.

Quite the contrary, really. I loved it!

As always, Brandon Sanderson brings to the table an action-packed, highly detailed, and intriguing installment to a fascinating fantasy series. I personally liked how the pace builds as you read along; it's starts out fairly steady, then it gets increasingly exciting, until finally you're at the last 300 pages and you're having trouble putting the book down because darn it, it's getting good!

The character development and the relationships between the characters was also pretty interesting. I don't want to spoil anything, but with the previous book, I complained about the fact that there was a hint of a future love triangle (I hate love triangles). Well, it turns out I was right, but it was well done. (view spoiler) Won't say more :)

There's more than just that love triangle, or course. Oh, so much more! Let's just say I loved a lot of the characters, and had a lot of fun reading about them.

The world-building is so complex as well. I kept looking up things on fan sites to make sure I understood everything (I'm just weirdly thorough that way). Plus, in case you didn't know, Brandon Sanderson has linked many of his fantasy novels into the same Cosmere, which means there are Easter Eggs hidden throughout this book that link this series with the other series in the Cosmere. Granted, you don't need to read the other Cosmere books in order to enjoy this one (this series is excellent as a standalone), but I had a lot of fun finding and looking up the hints that were scattered everywhere.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this book, and I'm looking forward to when the next installment eventually comes out. Sanderson is a great fantasy novelist. I would definitely recommend the Stormlight Archive books to fantasy enthusiasts. And I would recommend that you read the hardcopies, because these novels include drawings and maps to help enhance the reading experience (the audiobook was good too. I ended up both reading and listening to this story).

Enjoy!