Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
(Book Three In ‘The Stormlight Archives’ or ‘The Way of Kings Series’)
While Kaladin Stormblessed visits his hometown, Hearthstone, the rest of Bridge Four are eagerly awaiting his return in the tower city of Urithiru. They claim to miss their new abilities, which come with spending so much time with a Knight Radient, however their feelings are more likely, if only in part, to be that of missing the Knight Radiant himself too, even if they don’t admit as much! Hearthstone like most of the rest of Alethkar, to Kaladin’s utter surprise, hadn’t yet suffered under the once docile Parshmen, turned Voidbringers, mythical creatures of nightmare and destruction, thought so terrible that they could only exist in myth. If they were so bad, why had they not started destroying mankind as reported to have occurred in the any of the Desolations? Alethkar, Kaldin soon finds out is still in ruins, despite the Voidbringers not largely attacking any one in particular, as the by-product of their transformation the Everstorm (similar to the Highstorm except it blows in the opposite direction), has done enough damage for the two of them. Because of the direction the Everstorm blows, Alethkar and therefore greater Roshar, Dalinar Kholdin later finds out, is utterly defenceless and finds itself at the mercy to the storms destructive power. That is all of Roshar save Urithiru, which, located above the cloud cover, is too high for the storm to affect. Yet dark forces always seem to find a way…
Tensions in Urithiru and all across Roshar begin to rise, which is to be expected, since the end of man seems inevitable in light of another Desolation. Dalinar Kholdin bonded with a fragment of the Stormfather himself sets out to avert this the only way they see possible, with a united Roshar. However the Kingdoms of Roshar are reluctant to trust the ancestor of a conquer, The Sunmaker, who also happens to be the infamous ‘Blackthorn’, despite what he may preach of peace and that mankind uniting was their only chance of surviving the Desolation or in other words an apacolapse. What if Dalinar’s words are not enough to convince the world’s leaders? Would war be the answer? Luckily the Oathgates and Knights Radiant could provide the solution he’s been looking for but, will they be enough?
Teen Rating: Words are simply not enough to describe how good The Stromlight Archive is in my opinion but, I’ll give it a go. I’ve been waiting eagerly, counting down the days to Oathbringer’s release and now that I’ve finally read it, it’s an understatement to say it blew my expectations away, despite the fact they steadily grew higher and higher with each passing day until it’s release. If you’re a book lover or if you simply like all things fantasy related and you haven’t read the Stromlight Archives yet, you might want to give it some thought because these are possibly the best series of books I think I’ve ever come across. 5/5 14+
