Oathbringer

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: Michael Kramer, Kate Reading

Length: 55 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the best-selling author who completed Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series comes a new original creation that matches anything else in modern fantasy for epic scope, thrilling imagination, superb characters and sheer addictiveness.

Return to a planet swept by apocalyptic storms, a world tipping into war as aristocratic families move to control the shard blades and shard plates, ancient artefacts from a past civilisation that can win wars.

As the world tips into a war for control of the mythical artefacts of power made from Shard, characters are swept up into new dangers which will threaten their integrity and their lives.

Huge, ideas-filled, world-spanning fantasy from a master of the genre.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.

©2017 Dragonsteel Entertainment LLC (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

A great continuation to an amazing series.

Such a great book! Brandon really outdid himself with this one. Narration performance from Michael and Kate is astounding as expected.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

I really wanted to like it more than I did.

Any additional comments?

I liked the book, but felt it was lacking compared to the first two volumes. A lot of the story seemed 'filler' and necessarily drawn out while waiting for other things to happen. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of great things about this book, especially with developing and delving deeper into the Stormlight world.

Just felt it left me 'wanting' for things to happen that didn't. I guess we'll be seeing these things happen in future Stormlight volumes, but still.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Good Story

had been waiting for this story for years. now in few day I have to wait for the next book for years again.. Great sequel and awesome narration.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Superb

Surpassed my expectations and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.
Expert narration by Kramer and Reading.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Disappointed

The second book is the best. This one was to slow and many hours could've been cut as they didn't add much to the story.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Just as good as the first two!

I liked it just as much as the first two, maybe even more!

can't wait for the 4th to come out!

Great again

This book feels too much like a screenplay. Especially the last battle. This is not surprising, but a little bit dissapointing.

Epic literature

This 3 volumes epic has literary qualities way beyond what I’d expect to find in the fantasy genre. The depth of characters and imagination and cleverness of the story is phenomenal. Probably the beat fantasy ever written.

One of the best books I've experienced

So many twists and such a wonderfull world.

I'd love to read seperate volumes on several of the characters which speaks to their depth

Exceptional story

This maintains the quality of the previous books. The narration is excellent and provides an immersive listening experience with characters' voices being easily distinguishable and recognizable. A must for any Brandon Sanderson fan.

P.S. I suggest listening The Edgedancer first, as it has some important character development without which some elements in this book may seem strange

Sanderson brewing up a hell of a storm!

When an author produces an audiobook of almost 50 hours in length and it's excellent from start to finish that's a hell of an achievement. When he releases a second such behemoth in the same series and it's just as good I'd label that as outstanding. Mr Sanderson of course thinks even bigger than that, he's apparently planning ten of these incredible publications! He really does put the epic into epic fantasy.

It's amazing to me that he has now produced three such excellent fantasy novels in his Stormlight Archive. If this author can complete this incredible work to such a high standard I would say he's knocking on the door of being considered one of the great authors! Maybe I'm biased but the scale of the achievement would be immense. The sheer depth of the world-builidng (geography, flora, fauna, politics etc), characters and the magic system is mind-numbing.

The narration is excellent from the usual duo with particular kudos to Michael Kramer. The sheer depth of the writing, involvement with the characters and Michael's superb delivery produced some genuinely breathtaking moments. At one point when news of a huge setback arrived I felt like I was standing next to Dalinar in that meeting chamber myself. Shivers down the spine.

Not surprisingly given the title Dalinar is a significant focus in this book and his back story is particularly effective and hard-hitting. He is a magnificent character of flawed nobility. Shallan also gets a lot of focus and I enjoyed her struggles with multiple personae.

Given all that I couldn't give this book anything but five stars but now for what feels almost like a bit of heresy. It is my least favourite of the three to date. I do love the fact that Sanderson tries to cover so many POVs in incredible depth, how he fleshes out the back stories and gives so much colour to his world. However, it does mean that the main story moves at an almost glacial pace and often just as it seemed that great things were occurring it would get sidetracked. I do actually think that this book could have done with a tighter edit, possibly around a 10 per cent trim to help it keep greater forward momentum. It just felt a little unbalanced to me especially as Kaladin my favourite character takes a step aside for much of this one. In many ways this volume feels like its purpose was to build a massive platform from which to really launch the main story line towards a spectacular conclusion over the remaining books. In that light I genuinely believe that this is on course to become one of the all-time great series.

If you are new to the Stormlight Archive please don't try and start here, there really is too much fantastic background and much of the nuance of this text will be lost to you resulting in a much drier experience.

So bravo Mr Sanderson. You truly are on track to produce one of the greatest fantasy literary achievements of all time. The challenge for me is living long enough to see the end of it!

35 of 39 people found this review helpful

Just epic!

Wow! Another epic instalment to an epic story.

I had this on pre-order for months, and then took my time listening to it. I didn't want to miss anything....if you're a fan of the Stormlight Archive, this another instalment to savour. Sanderson at his epic best!

So much has happened since Book 1, that there is no way a newcomer to Stormlight could pick things up at this point. There are references to previous events, but this book isn't bogged down by rehashing what has gone before. At one point, I felt as if we were entering "padding it out" territory (my pet hate when it comes to books in a series), but when I stopped to consider, I realised that I was suffering instalment compression - and the action I was attributing to a previous book had actually happened in this book.....bottom line, there's a lot going on, and this book seamlessly picks up from the previous and the plots just thicken, and twist, and the characters develop even more depth etc. There might have been a few of scenes / areas which I didn't think particularly stacked, but not enough to even remotely damage my overall enjoyment of this book. (eg, I haven't quite got my head around Shadesmar and how humans and spren can be living there? A Google search shows there are better minds out there than mine who have explored this - perhaps I shall spend a few indulgent hours exploring this further)

What I always appreciate about these instalments is that each wraps itself up neatly. With Oathbringer too. Yes, there is more to come, and there are some nice hooks left open with new questions raised at the end, but I've not been left on a precipice in angst about who lives or dies. It's so clearly part of a longer story, but is completely satisfying in itself as an instalment. Thank you Mr Sanderson!!

I don't want to give too much away with this review. Besides I couldn't do it justice anyway. Instead, I will just say that if you're a Sanderson or Stormlight fan, you are unlikely to be disappointed. I am ready to put the next book on pre-order.......

(Narration also consistent with previous books which, if you're listening to them back to back, is important).

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

bit of a slog

I found the bulk of this book less interesting than the previous two. The final 10 hours are great, but in order to reach them, I had to crank up the narration speed (something I've never previously done) to more than double.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

struggled to finish

there is very little sense of urgency to any of the plots and many of the characters became homogeneous and redundant. before this, I couldn't imagine setting down a Sanderson.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

high expectations let down by rambling story

I was really looking forward to this book but it was way too long with a story that really didn't go anywhere. I doubt I will both with the 4th installment

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

bored

struggled to finish . first two books where superb. disappointed with this book . shame as was really looking forward to it

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

I could not carry on. it became tedious and dull

I really wanted to like this series. It had promise, and after doubts half way through book one, the story picked up enough for me to get Book 2, which i found enjoyable enough, and that finished with enough pace that I thought book three would continue with. Half way into book 3 though and i've come to the realisation it just isn't going anywhere. I mean Brandon can really draw these things out. It is so plodding to the point of boredom. After close to 100 hours of listening, I can count on one had the amount of significant memorable things that have actually gripped me, the rest is talk of storms and rocks.

I am actually going to bale and quit this one. Something i have very rarely done with a book. I just can't see the point in continuing. The world building is complex, but not that enthralling or descriptive. There are lots of names and people, however they are not fleshed out enough to care about.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good but turns into a grind

I've found all the books in the stormlight archive hard going at first but ending really strong. This was similar except I found that I just wanted to get this book over with. the ending was epic and I loved it. but because of how the lead up felt like a huge grind I wasn't as impressed as I was with the previous book. for this was the only issue. i enjoyed exploring the world and "magic" systems as part of this book but it was just too long of a build up for me and I ended up powering through to just get the book finished. Shame really as it really effects the story rating I've given it. if I wouldn't read it again then I can't justify giving it more than 3 stars

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I felt betrayed by the author by the end of this

The first and second books were spent building up Kaladin as a main character, the third was spent diminishing him and his abilities. I had so much emotional investment in his story, so it was hugely frustrating that he was barely in the third book, and when he was, he failed at every turn. His abilities were made trivial by literally everyone else in the book suddenly becoming more powerful. You can say Sanderson is defying convention all you want, but it made for a truly unsatisfying experience. I trudged through the interludes and the overdone time skipping only to find there was no payoff at the end. I am not reading another book in this series, I wish I had stopped at book two.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Average at best

I loved the first two books, however the presentation was mediocre. This installment in the series is filled with ideas and threads that add nothing to the overall progression of the story. it rambles through long winded descriptions of little of significance. it was a struggle to finish and I stopped and restarted several times. The series has lost its way

1 of 1 people found this review helpful