A massive pick-up in tone for me from Oathbringer, although I have clear favorites by this point and they’re never around enough (give me ALL the Adolin-as-the-best-himbo vibes) (H/T to Evin for the video) (a reminder that if you need to talk to someone and don’t solely communicate via spanreed help is always available if you need to talk).
The pieces are starting to fall into place, but there are so very many of them that you’re basically Lucy trying to get all the candy off the conveyor belt.
If you’re like me, I suggest reading for plot and whatever you can pick up, and then immediately flipping over to any number of close re-reads or reddit posts that you can find. I finished then very intelligently at 2:30am and then did so for another hour, reminding myself of all the various pieces that I did and didn’t remember.
Your patience with this book probably will depend on how much you empathize with descriptions of mental illness. Most of the people on whom we place this disproportionate burdens struggle to carry them. Soldiers are deeply impacted by witnessing the atrocities of war, and are famously good at talking to people about their worries. People are really great at suppressing what they don’t want to deal with, and when you mix that with magic things don’t get much better.
But really, I think the reason people might struggle with this book is that the smaller villains (i.e., not the Big Band intent on universal domination etc) make points which are hard to rebut. What is the point of a war in which both sides can endlessly regenerate? We know the costs of immortality–it’s a well trod trope by this point–but to see the actual effects (insanity, exhaustion, skill, calcification) feels fresh to this reader at least.
There are plenty of moments here that make one’s little heart sing or shed happy tears or gnash teeth–exactly what you want. No regrets grabbing this from my local library (shout out) and breezing through it. I can already feel myself gearing up for a full re-read now that I have some sense of where it’s all going.