In "Neverending Stories," his piece for The Baffler's April issue, J.W. McCormick described Sanderson's writing as "supermarket fantasy." I didn't agree with that assessment until I tried to listen to Oathbringer, and in the process reevaluated The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance.
Oathbringer is the third tome in Sanderson's supposed opus, The Stormlight Archive. It took me two tries to finish. It's bland.
The more I learn about this world, the less interesting it is. And there is SO MUCH to learn that it overloads you. It all mixes together into this flavorless grey goop you gotta power through for FIFTY-FIVE HOURS.
The result is that I simply stopped caring about this world and these characters. I found myself pining for the simpler times of The Way of Kings, where the world was mysterious and the characters faced (for the most part) smaller challenges with personal stakes.
For example, in the first two books, Shadesmar is this eldritch horror parallel universe with some sort of mysterious connection to the real world.
In this book, you find out it works like the real world. They've got cities. They trade. They have prejudice. It's just another version of the real world.
There are also twists that you can see from a mile away. And humor I can only describe as "Reddit." I am OK with these things if the story and characters are interesting. But they aren't.
What's frustrating is that the bones are decent. Shallan is trying to find out who she is, Dalinar is dealing with grief and addiction, and Kaladin is learning to accept the help of others.
But the plot is muddied by side character POVs, new magic systems, and what I think is supposed to be political intrigue but is just boring, predictable conversations. And (this is a pet peeve of mine) all the nations are stereotypes. One does trade, one does bureaucracy, one does military, and so on. It's just... not interesting.
The ending picks up a lot, to be fair. But a lot of the battles amount to some version of the meme "I have the power of god and anime on my side."
Oh no! The hero is on the ropes. What'll they do? As long as they believe in themselves and their friends, they'll win.
Not sure I'll continue with this series. I may after a break, though.
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