Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

40 reviews

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Another excellent story, I do wish it was a tad shorter, like maybe 200 pages less, otherwise, very keen to see how the rest of this story unfolds. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Ableism

chels_ro's review

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

coming off the back of words of radiance this book definitely falls into a mid series lull. Dalinar’s backstory does not disappoint but his main plot in the book becomes slightly repetitive. while Sanderson is usually very good at balancing character perspectives i found at some points the amount of perspective changes becomes overwhelming and makes other characters,

particularly Kaladin and Adolin,

have less to do this time around. however there are some major highs to level out the story and Sanderson’s mid series lull is still much better than what most people are writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and War

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Genocide, and Colonisation

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I swear to follow the will of Dalinar Kholin. This is my oath.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Genocide, Mental illness, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Medical content

bearystarry's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Fatphobia, Genocide, and Homophobia

timtalkinbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Feels like the one Sanderson wanted to write when he started Stormlight. (At least the one he wanted to write for the first arc. I can't imagine what that man has cooking up for the next five books.) 

Immediately feels more confident and mature, more intense emotionally and physically and just like he had every word of it planned out when he sat down to write it. 

Of course, the Dalinar flashbacks are incredible and tragic. They build to an incredible payoff as yet another Stormlight character learns that they can be more than their past and scars. 
I'd still give the edge to Kaladin finally realizing he has to protect everyone at the end of Words of Radiance, but I'm also freshly out of the book so that might change as I have some time to let it breathe. 
Heck, I probably shouldn't be writing this until I let it all sink in, but here we are. 

Again, I think my main criticism of Sando as a whole is those lore dumps. 
For the most part I think he writes them well and staggers them enough to where it's not overwhelming. Other times it's pages and pages of characters talking about ancient Roshar history and it can be a real snooze. 
They are necessary, and I can think of a better way to get it all in there. It gotten to a point  where I will most likely have to find some comprehensive recap on this series before I read Wind and Truth this winter. 
I've latched on to the BIG bits but I'm sure there's stuff I've already forgotten. 

I'm so glad I decided to read Mistborn back in 2023, Sanderson has really ignited my love for reading and fantasy again. So any gripe I have with this book I won't count against it. It's incredible, thrilling and genuinely emotional. 

I was thinking about taking a break when I finished but now I'm probably gonna jump right into Dawnshard here soon. Don't want to leave Roshar just yet. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Dalinar, while an incredible character, is shown to be a war criminal in his past. His blood lust and anger leads to his wife's death at his hands. Not graphically described, but still a very tough moment in the book.

errie's review against another edition

adventurous dark

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katrinarose's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think this is my favorite so far in the series. The character development, plot twists, and grand finale were so well done. I didn’t know how I’d like the focus on Dalinar since I enjoyed Kaladin and Shallan’s perspectives more in previous books but his backstory ended up being very compelling. This didn’t make a 5 star rating for me just because the pacing didn’t feel very consistent, there were some exciting parts throughout but a lot that dragged for me, and it took me almost 5 weeks to finish. I wish the drama of the last part was extended a bit into the other parts more. There’s a lot I could say about the individual plots and characters (just a few notes: Lift’s appearance/knowledge was strange and kind of unfounded despite her having a whole novella; Shadesmar was a huge drag) but I’ll leave it at that. Very interested to see where book four goes after that ending!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and War

rheagoveas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction and Mental illness

gordosaurusrex's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Absolutely loved Oathbringer, I think it's my favourite so far of the Stormlight Archive. The pace really kicks off towards the end which is super exciting. Didn't realise how diverse the cast of characters were either, not only in the fantasy races having different skin tones, but also with what I found to be realistic depictions of PTSD, addiction, different sexualities, mental health and neurodivergence. Half a star knocked off for the fact I sometimes found it hard to remember names, situations and relationships between characters when they weren't mentioned for a large portion of the book/came back from a previous book. The world does feel real though with all this depth so it's a double edged sword. Regardless, I'm hooked and can't wait to read the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and War

Moderate: Addiction