by Brandon Sanderson (2016)
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Picture this: you’re deep in the heart of Urithiru, the ancient tower-city piercing the storm-wracked skies of Roshar, and Dalinar Kholin—broken warlord, haunted visionary—steps into a vision that rips open the scars of his past. His hands slick with phantom blood from the Rift massacre, he confronts not just his younger self’s atrocities, but the god Odium himself, a force of hatred that whispers promises of power while shattering worlds. The air crackles with stormlight, your pulse hammers as Dalinar bonds the Stormfather, swearing oaths that bind his soul and summon tempests. That’s the raw, visceral plunge into Oathbringer, where every page feels like clinging to a highstorm-lashed bridge four stories up, wind howling, death inches away.
Sanderson doesn’t just build a world; he hurls you into it, body and soul. Kaladin Stormblessed soars on windspren amid the chaos of Shadesmar, his spear a blur against thunderclasts that claw from the stone, every swing laced with the desperation of protecting his spearhead crew turned family. Shallan’s fractured mind splinters further as Veil and Radiant clash in Kholinar’s shadowed alleys, her Lightweaving illusions dancing on the edge of madness while she uncovers the City’s rot from within. And Venli, the Parshendi singer whose betrayal sparked it all, navigates the voidbringers’ awakening, her every choice echoing with the weight of her people’s lost history. The battles—Thaylen City’s harbors aflame, ships splintering under Fused assaults—deliver that gut-punch rush of Words of Radiance’ duels amplified a thousandfold, but it’s the quiet horrors, like Moash grinding Eshwai’s gemheart to dust, that linger like crem-soaked boots.
What sets Oathbringer apart in epic fantasy’s sprawl is its unflinching pivot: Dalinar seizes the narrative reins, transforming from supporting stormlord to the axis of salvation and ruin. No other series marries such rigorous magic—surgebinding’s oaths as literal chains—with character arcs that evolve across tomes, where spren bonds demand brutal self-reckoning. The interludes alone, from Azure’s Wall siege to the doggedly human Wit spinning truths amid despair, pulse with life that lesser books merely sketch.
If you devoured the bridge crew’s defiance in The Way of Kings or Shallan’s cryptographic unravelings in Words of Radiance, this is your fix—bigger, bolder, with twists that redefine the Desolations. I’ve reread it four times, each pass revealing new layers in Roshar’s fractured history, and it still grips like the first.
Grab Oathbringer tonight—before Odium claims another soul, it’ll claim yours in the best way.
Author portrait: Photo: Niccolò Caranti | License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Browse all book recommendations • Epic Fantasy Novels — Adventure-first. Keeping the door open.
