logo
Wrong email address or username
Wrong email address or username
Incorrect verification code
back to top
Search tags: The-Stormlight-Archive
Load new posts () and activity
Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2020-05-06 20:48
Oathbringer, Stormlight Archive #3 by Brandon Sanderson
Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

This book quite literally sat on my bedside table for two and a half years. I brought it home from work the day it was released in hardcover in November '17, employee discounts are a beautiful thing, and it just sat. I loved the previous books, but I never felt in the mood. Then the mass market came out and I thought to myself, the Stormlight books I have are mass markets, so let's go ahead and buy that and donate the other one to the library.

 

So I did. And it sat some more.

 

I don't know what took me so long, but it was worth the wait. 'Oathbringer' is a behemoth, but still lighter, at least in tone, than previous books. Epic showdowns and mental anguish occur, but nothing felt as world-shaking as the revelations we've seen. I think Sanderson backed off so he could save momentum. This is only part three of a planned ten-part series after all.

 

'Oathbringer' focuses on Dalinar's backstory, in particular his lost memories of his wife, which had been supposedly lost after a bargain with the Nightwatcher, an entity that grants boons for a terrible, Monkey's Paw-esque price

 

Shallan, meanwhile, has the dissociative break we've all been waiting for, while she, Navani, Adolin, and others explore the city and attempt to form a coalition to defeat the Voidbringers.

 

Kaladin does some brooding. 

 

This was a lot of fun and finally broke the ice on my long-frozen reading mental state. I held off reviewing this for awhile thinking I'd come up with something more to say, but, afraid not.

 

Stormlight Archive


Next: 'Rhythm of War'

 

Previous: 'Edgedancer'

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2018-07-08 00:45
Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive #2.5)
Edgedancer: From the Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

Traveling from the palace of the Azish emperor to the carved out city of Yeddaw, a young Knight Radiant stalks her would be executioner even as a danger to her world stalks the land.  Brandon Sanderson’s Edgedancer is a tale from the Stormlight Archive set in-between the second and third volumes of the main series as it shows the how Lift, the titular Edgedancer, and a long surviving Herald react to the Everstorm.

 

Feeling confined and unsure, the adventurous theft Lift travels to the city of Yeddaw to find more Radiants before they are murdered by Darkness.  The teenager displays her Edgedancer talents to draw the attention of her would be executioner while also exploring the city and trying to figure out its people.  Her tactics pay off as Darkness learns she’s in the city and she follows him to discover what he knows only to find out that Darkness has Radiant apprentices of his own including a man in white.  Eventually Lift is forced to use her connections with the Azish emperor to find out who Darkness is searching for only to discover that his apprentices had made a mistake and that the unlikeable woman Lift has had several encounters will is his target.  But it is during their confrontation that Lift convinces Darkness, the Herald Nale, that the Everstorm hitting the city means a new Desolation has arrived.

 

Although this book comes in at roughly 270 pages, the first 58 being a reprinting of Lift’s Interlude in Words of Radiance, the small hardback volume that it appears in makes it seem longer than it is.  In a postscript, Sanderson wrote that this novella was needed before both characters appear again in Oathbringer thus meaning for that anyone reading the series this short little story is something they might want to quickly read.  Given it’s short length, Sanderson packs a lot into it as he wants to describe the city of Yeddaw as well as continue to develop Lift—who he is not shy in saying he enjoys writing—in both her understanding of who she is and in giving readers hints about what the “Nightwatcher” gave her instead of her request to remain 10 years old.

 

Edgedancer is a quick, fun read about young adventurous character looking to figure herself out and in the process helping an age-old hero begin to regain his focus on what the world of Roshar needs.  Even though you’ll need to have read earlier volumes of the Stormlight Archive to understand the magical system and world it take place in.

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
text 2018-06-12 12:05
adjusting targets
Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

So apparently it's day 162 of the year and I've read 88 books, so I'm adjusting my target this year to 200 from 250, the progress gap was beginning to make me twitchy and this is to be enjoyable, not stressful.  If the progress starts to get to far to the other side I'll readjust.

 

Still think the Brandon Sanderson tome should have count for about 4 books...

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
quote 2018-06-06 13:49
'Shallan grinned. "Have you ever considered, bridgeman, that bad art does more for the world than good art? Artists spend more of their lives making bad practice pieces than they do masterworks, particularly at the start. And even when an artist becomes a master, some pieces don't work out. Still others are somehow just wrong until the last stroke.
"You learn more from bad art than you do from good art, as your mistakes are more important than your successes. Plus, good art usually evokes the same emotions in people - most good art is the same kind of good. But bad pieces can each be bad in tyheir own unique way. So I'm glad we have bad art, and I'm sure the Almighty agrees."'
Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

page 603

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2018-06-06 13:42
heavy, twisty and interesting
Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

This could have been split into 2 or 3 manageable books. By managable I mean will not cause my RSI to flare. At over 1200 pages it's a tome and a half. We're dealing with the fact that things have to be resolved, there's a lot of twisty messy politics, social issues, and pasts coming to haunt people. It's mostly about people dealing with past trauma so they can move on. A lot of it is self-inflicted but much of it is situational and then I got to the end and realised that while there were a few tied threads there were a number left untied and waiting for another book.

It's an interesting read, intresting and complex characters that aren't simple and straightforward but our heroes are mostly trying to do the best they can with the tools at hand and sometimes the tools break and sometimes those tools are humans. politics is a messy, complicated thing that breaks the best and under a war footing can make some strange bedfellows.

More posts
Your Dashboard view:
Need help?