Soren
Pushing through just to finish a book is never a good thing. This was such a challenge to finish.
Yes. The first half of the book was difficult to get through because nothing important really happens. Just a set up to make the reader feel whiplash by the end. But the last half of the book was what made this such a challenge for me. The romanticization of pain, violence, and suffering in the guise of "high stakes" while inserting "spicy" scenes in the middle is just not my cup of tea. I've read sm*t with and without plot that are leagues better than this.
I haven't read any of his books in a long time and this one reminded me of his older writing style for the first five books. Perhaps it's only because I've gotten older since I last read them. Either way, it was a fun read and it was nice reading about the original trio on a new adventure. I'm glad he's writing more stories about them.
Welp. I did it. Was it worth spending hours and hours trudging through these pages? A little. I enjoyed parts of it. The grandiosity is what gives the book its appeal but the execution fell so flat for me. I'm more of a character-driven story reader but I feel like they were stretched so thin that I feel like I didn't even have to make conclusions myself. The book literally fed me who these characters are "supposed" to be. IMO, there's a lack of nuance in majority of the characters, i.e. Sadeas, Adolin, Navani, even Dalinar and Shallan.
The biggest problem I had with this book isn't the length. I crave for long reads because I do enjoy the mundane sprinkled in between action-packed scenes. The problem for me was it's lack of dynamics when it comes to the story. And no, it being the first book to a 10-book series is not an excuse. A book is a story in of itself and should be able to hold on its own while giving hints of what is to come. I'm not talking about the hidden secrets, schemes, and the overarching "villain" of the world. Again, the grandiosity is what gives it's allure. But by itself, it felt like it was just one fleshed-out scene divided in chunks and over-stretched. The first 200 pages and the last 100 pages were pretty much the entire story. Cut the middle pages and it's still going to be the same.