Oathbringer

Well I finished it. Phew. Was a real struggle, particularly part four where our heroes go off on a pointless adventure in a different plane of existence for awhile. So tedious, but when you're 800 pages in on a 1200 page book you're committed. Not sure I'll sink that cost again for a fourth book.

I enjoyed the previous books more. I felt they were about twice as long as necessary but eh, Sanderson mostly told a clean tale. This book feels three times as long as needed. I think 2/3 of the book could be pared down and nothing would be lost.

I'm also annoyed Sanderson abandoned his relatively controlled storytelling. Oathbringer sprawls wide and deep, bringing in a lot of unexplained lore and random side historical characters on brief asides. Worse, many of them have two or three names. Even with liberal use of Kindle X-Ray I had a hard time remembering who anyone other than the POV characters were.

One last complaint: he tries an experimental writing technique with Shallan's POV. I liked the general concept of what was being done, her story. But the specific shifts in narration were really off-putting to me. I think he tried something interesting and fell short.

On the good side I like the long slow meditation on the heroic condition. What it means to try to live with honor, pursue glory, fulfill duty. The development of The Thrill was particularly interesting. The length of the book helps here, it gives him plenty of time to slowly build and reinforce the themes.

Harumpf. Maybe it was a mistake to read three of these in short succession. They're entertaining books but pretty shallow for the time invested.