Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, Book #3 of the Stormlight Archive
Introduction
The former city of the Knights Radiant, Urithiru, has been discovered and the order of the Knights Radiant has been revived. The Everstorm has returned along with the Voidbringers, called the Fused. Dalinar Kholin, the Uncle of the Alethi King Elhokar must try to unite all humans to fight the Voidbringers. His memories are coming back which complicates his problems. War has come to the world of Roshar and Dalinar is the only one who can win the war for the humans.
Summary – Three Viewpoints
There are three main viewpoint characters in this long novel. Dalinar is the novel’s main character. He has the flashback chapters which detail why he does not remember his wife and what happened up to the time that he lost his memories. Kaladin is the leader of his bodyguard and is the first member of the Knights Radiant order of windrunners. Kaladin’s flashbacks were in Book 1. His focus in this novel is to discover what the Voidbringers are planning.
Shallan’s flashbacks were in Book 2. Her struggle is with dealing with her other personalities which are taking over more and more of her life. She created these personalities to cope with the terrible things that have happened to her in her life. The personality Radiant trains with the Shardblade and is the ideal Knight Radiant. The personality Veil pretends to be worldlier than Shallan and associates with the underground gang called the Ghostbloods. Shallan also has trouble figuring out her relationship with her fiancé Adolin, who is Dalinar’s elder son. Shallan’s talents are creating illusions and creating items by surgebinding of stormlight. She is a member of the Knights Radiant Order of Lightweavers.
Summary – Voidbringers and Parshmen
The Voidbringers attack Kholinar, the Alethi capital, and the people gathered at Urithiru lose contact with them. Dalinar sends Kaladin to find out what is going on there. Kaladin first stops by at his hometown to make sure that his parents are well. He discovers that the Parshmen have been awakened.
The Parshmen are a non-human race that have been the slaves of the humans and have been in a state that is called dull form which decreases their intelligence. The Alethi have been fighting the Parshendi on the Shattered Plain since the Parshendi had Dalinar’s brother, Alethi King Gavilar, assassinated by the assassin in white. The secret they discover is that the Parshmen are actually Parshendi in the dull form. Some Parshendi, called the singers, have brought the Everstorm back and have awaked the Parshmen out of dull form. The Everstorm brings the Voidbringers who are called the Fused. The Fused are singers melded with ancient powerful spirits of Parshendi trapped by the Heralds in another plane. The Fused seek to overthrow the humans and retake Roshar as their own. The original Knights Radiant had discovered a secret about the Parshendi and had forsaken their vows.
Summary – Dalinar’s Visions
Dalinar has visions of the past which are brought to him by the Storm Father. The Storm Father is a Spren. Spren are creatures that are bonded to Knights Radiant and serve to focus their use of Stormlight. Kaladin’s spren is Sly, Shallan’s is Pattern, and Dalinar’s is the Storm Father. Dalinar is a Bondsmith and discovering the nature of his powers is important to his struggle. Dalinar hears the words unite them in his visions and he interprets that to mean that he must unite all the countries that have Oathgates.
Oathgates are used by Knights Radiant to teleport people and things from one Oathgate to another. The first two Oathgates that they control are at the Shattered Plains and at Urithiru. There is a total of ten Oathgates that circle the main Oathgate at Urithiru. Dalinar knows of other gates at Kholinar in Alethkar, Azir in Azir, Vedenar in Ja Kaved, and Thaylen City in Thaylenah. He brings the rulers of the countries to Urithiru to convince them to help him defeat the Voidbringers.
Dalinar sends a group to Kholinar to find out what happened there. The group includes Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, and Elhokar. They face many trials and discover the secret behind the fate of Kholinar suffering tragedy along the way.
A climatic battle looms at Thaylen city where Dalinar has gathered his allies and awaits the coming of the Voidbringers. Dalinar must face his past and suffer unexpected disappointments in his mission to save the human race on Roshar.
Recommendation
This is a great book. It expands on the first two books and intensifies the conflict. The reader learns more about the lore of the Heralds, the desolations, the Voidbringers, and the Everstorm. Dalinar’s loss of memory is explained in full and Dalinar shines as a conflicted hero. Kaladin is the true hero of this series and learns more about himself and his abilities. Shallan fights her other personalities and finds a way to be happy about herself.
Oathbringer was Dalinar’s shardblade until he gave it up to Sadeas to save Kaladin’s bridge four crew. Sadeas is dead now and Dalinar has the shardblade back. Oathbringer the shardblade played an important part in the flashbacks that occurred before Dalinar’s loss of memory.
Opinion
In my opinion, about the only misstep of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson is the handling of Adolin. He was the fourth main character in the first two books. He doesn’t appear as a viewpoint character until halfway through this book and is reduced to having only commentary about his clothes and looks. I expected a little more than that from Adolin.
A pleasant surprise is the development of Szeth-son-son-Vallano, the assassin in white. I think that he has an important part to play in the next two novels of the series and I am looking forward to understanding his role in this series. I wonder how Shallan will continue to deal with her multiple personalities and her relationship with Adolin. The flashback character for book 4 is Eshonai and book 5 is for Szeth. This series continues to amaze and I look forward to reading the next two volumes and the next group of five volumes in the coming years.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34002132-oathbringer
Link to my review of Promise of Blood (Book #1 of the Powder Mage Trilogy) by Brian McClellan. The Powder Mage Trilogy has an interesting magic system like The Stormlight Archive series. The system uses gunpowder as the magic element.
Link to my review of Black Prism (Book #1 of the Lightbringer Series) by Brent Weeks. The Lightbringer series has an interesting magic system like The Stormlight Archive series. The system uses turning light into luxin as the magic element.