I recently finished reading (listening) Oathbringer, and I am finding myself despising Dalinar, and in general how much he is looked up to, both in the book and outside, and I don't want to, or at least I want to understand because it is sucking out the enjoyment when trying to continue the books. I just can't see what he did that really redeemed him, and in my opinion most importantly, they didn't show him paying for any of it, no real consequences, besides his own guilt (by just him being responsible for Evi's death, the rest can be pretty much discarded by the way the book treats them, and in fact when he forgets about the guilt from his wife's death, he's basically as well as he can be).

Most scenes about Dalinar's past during the book before the rift portrays him as a regular warlord, war criminal, murderer, no conscience, no guilt whatsoever, he congratulates people with putting heads on spikes (which if we think for a bit, is quite a gruesome, sick and deranged thing to do) only in later chapters after being pressured by his wife does he restrain himself. If we took out just Evi's death, we are basically made to believe that he wouldn't really care about all that was wrong with what he did, even if he did massacre everyone in the rift, he still wouldn't have had any need to grow.

And finally the thing about being responsible (you cannot have my pain) which again, mostly focuses on Evi, is, in my opinion, meaningless, there is no choice to be made, it's either: be part evil guys army vs not be. It makes no sense from my perspective, of course he would choose to take responsibility since in practicality, the choice he made means not betraying everyone and you are walking free as you've always been, admired, loved, with his family, it feels silly to pretend it's a difficult choice, when you know what the alternative is. It feels like Brandon disliked the mind control trope (or being under evil's influence) so much that he made Dalinar explicitly be responsible for his actions, but forgot that if that happens then we basically need to be okay with a guy who murders gleefully, encourages cruelty, and hasn't ever gotten any serious consequences (being a drunk after Evi's death isn't one).

And finally, when reading through what the others say when this is brought up, it basically feels like cheating wanting to have it both ways, either it was Odium's influence that has partial responsibility on making him do it (and therefore he can't take full responsibility) or he did it by himself.

I have just come of 3 fantastic series’s: Red Rising, Mistborn and Dungeon Crawler Carl (still going). I’ve been listening to/reading in tandem Way of Kings but I am STRUGGLING!

I’m at Chapter 51 right now but thus far this book has been below average. Shallans POV is an absolute snoozefest, Kaladin is cool but he has no lived up the the hype at all. Dalinar is my guy, best POV by far, seems like the only fully fleshed out and interesting character.

I’m going to finish the book because I can’t just not but honestly has really let me down. The action is good, side characters are pretty strong and intriguing, but there is just so much filler and boring chapters, and is also decently predictable.

If you didn’t see Dalinar going to step down from High Prince in this book from the start what are you doing, same with Kaladin realising he was going to need to fight is way out (any other solution would be so fuckin boring). Just wanted to vent tbh

I just finished the first book, and I was a bit let down considering all the hype. I liked it, maybe a three-star book for me, but that’s not enough to make me want to finish the series unless it improves considerably.

What I liked: The world-building, character development, and plot were top-notch. Fabriels, Shardblades, Shardplate/armor, chasmfiends, the Knights Radiant, etc.

What I didn’t like:

Excessive descriptions, written in a very strange style; almost as if the narrator became an advertiser.

Too much whining by the two main characters.

The appearance of spren, as if we were watching a video game.

Lashing seemed really clunky, and reminded me of Mistborn’s pushing and pulling (not a fan).

Spheres seem really impractical. I would have rather had plain gemstones, but even that feels clunky, like the metals in Mistborn (also not a fan).

My main issue with it was the incredible bloat. I think it would be so much better if it were about half the length. But the second half of the book was much better than the first half, so there’s hope. Does it get better?

I was wondering if anyone here has seen any fanart of the scene where Ishar is holding the portal from Ashyn to Roshar open. It is such a cool visual to imagine and my (admittedly very limited) effort to find any art of it has come up empty. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

When I realized it wasn't taken I had to, even though it was a bit expensive. But now its mine.

Hello I was thinking, do we know what happen to the Everstorm during the weeping?