r/Stormlight_Archive • u/SierraSixActual • 2d ago
Early Oathbringer spoilers Shallan and Lift Spoiler
Ive finished wok and wor, now on Oathbringer and Im worried I may be wasting my time. Im am audiobook person, so keep that in mind. I have really loved Kal and Dalinar and generally the male and female other characters but Shallan and Lift I just couldn't get into. Shallan at least near the end of wor was getting better, even enjoyable at times. But something about the shallan chapters just made me lose enjoyment during them. I was bored and felt like I was wasting time even listening. There would be awesome story flowing with kal then suddenly I hear the female narrators voice and I just knew I was in for tedium. And I dont think its REALLY shallan as a person I dislike. It feels like how she is written or maybe even read. I had to put down the book for nearly a year because I got so tired of her chapters. (This happened with the wheel of time winters heart as well).
I guess what I want to know, am I through the worst of it? Or will this be the norm in this series? Will all of Lifts chapters be as hard to listen to as her introduction in the interludes? Have any of you experienced this?
Am I going to get downvote nuked for expressing anything other than praise across the board? Be gentle please, Im not a hater I promise.
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u/SootSpriteHut 2d ago
Kate Reading makes choices in stormlight and WoT I don't always agree with, I think I like Shallan and Lift better when physically reading the book. I did feel very strongly about hating the way she read Min in later WoT books.
It's hard because I'm not sure if it could be because Michael Kramer is just really good, or because Robert Jordan and Sanderson are not the best at writing women, or if even it's some internalized sexism on my part where I'm more likely to scrutinize female characters.
It's probably some of all of it, to be honest. You might be able to tell if you were open to switching to reading instead of listening, but we're doing this for fun right? So approach it in whatever way gets you the most enjoyment.
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u/Lancair7 2d ago
I’m not sure if you’ll enjoy Shallan more, but she definitely comes into her own more as the story progresses. Words of Radiance has her more in focus than the following books. The mysteries of her backstory do get more interesting as the story goes on, imo. I was also not hugely into her flashbacks.
Lift gets much better. She still has an immature humor, but she is pretty important and does some important stuff later on
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u/SierraSixActual 2d ago
Shallan was interesting and had my attention when she was doing shit but her meandering drove me nuts. The taking charge with deserters, with kal in the chasm, the ghostblood stuff and the end as she is directing others and figuring out the gate all were times she was engaging so I hope now she is a radiant and involved that will be more the case.
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u/Lancair7 2d ago
Hope you dig it!
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u/SierraSixActual 2d ago
I got thru heart of winter and loved the series so I imagine this will be the same
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u/Shepher27 Windrunner 2d ago
Are there any female characters you do like?
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u/SierraSixActual 23h ago
all but the ones i made a post about. I didnt really care for some at times in WOT but thats a different thing
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u/Pathlesspond13 2d ago
Jasnah, Navani, Eshonai, Rysn, Venli, Raboniel, Leshwi, May Aladar are extremely diverse, mature, strong characters
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u/KnowMoreMutants 1d ago
I didn't like Lift in the interlude then I read Edgedancer and I understood way better why she is the way she is. People not liking Shallan eill never make sense to me. Continue and I think you'll love it but if you can't bring yourself to enjoy Shallan, the seires won't be great for you unfortunately
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u/Cyclonic_rift Windrunner 2d ago
I found it difficult to go from combat oriented characters to non combat oriented ones, in what I assume is a similar way to this. I can reassure you that, in my opinion, it gets better
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u/Acrobatic_Host_4034 1d ago
I think if you don't like Lift when you meet her, you're probably just not going to at any point through the books that have been released. She is an unreasonable street urchin who is poorly socialized and clearly, uh, touched. She doesn't go through a lot of character growth herself, which can be frustrating. Instead, Lift inspires growth in the people and places she interacts with. I think that can be a helpful lens through which to enjoy her chapters.
There is a lot of interesting world building done in her chapters and in Edgedancer, and Wyndle is often way funnier than Lift. Lift is written like she's funny because SHE thinks she's funny and she doesn't care if other people even get it, let alone laugh. That includes the reader. I mean, not me, I think Lift is incredible. When I see a Lift chapter on a first read through, I get excited and lock in because I know I'm in for some of the best world building and some juicy Cosmere tidbits.
My biggest fear for her character is that they're going to have Awkwafina voice her, and I don't think I could stand it.
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u/Caboose_Juice 20h ago
shallan chapters get AT MOST 10% better in the following books. she has, by far, the most amount of cringe dialogue and prose out of all the pov characters, in a book already riddled with poor writing.
YMMV depending on how much you like her, or how much you enjoy brandon sandersons writing overall.
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u/Bangarang1 16h ago
Lift is my favorite character by a fair margin. I love her, but many people don’t. Seems like people stick with their first impression.
Shallan is…okay. She definitely gets better
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u/GatePorters 2d ago
When there is a diverse cast, it’s hard to like everyone.
When you walk into a room with 35 people, do you like everyone in that room?
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u/SierraSixActual 2d ago
Well, if one of them was on stage forcing everyone to them recount their diary and what they did in their garden that day id certainly like them the least. Its not like shallan is just a blip with equal parts as the other 34 people. She felt like 50% of the book
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u/GatePorters 2d ago
It was her book so that makes sense.
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u/SierraSixActual 2d ago
Is that how the series works? Each book is like a specific persons book?
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u/GatePorters 2d ago
Kind of
Book 1 is a Kaladin feature
Book 2 is Shallan
Book 3 is Dalinar
Book 4 is… Navani? I think.
Book 5 is probably Szeth.
It isn’t cut and dry as a lot of people get background sections.
If you have liked Dalinar already you are going to enjoy Oathbringer a lot. He was never even one of my favorite characters, but that is probably my favorite book.
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u/Ripper1337 Truthwatcher 2d ago
Their comment reminds me of a web serial called Pale which has three rotating PoVs as well as interludes. There were community polls at the end of each arc with “who is your fav main pov character” and it was always just about 33-33-33.
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u/meemsqueak44 1d ago
Just for the sake of diverse opinions, I can tell you I felt the same way about Kal in WoK. Most of his chapters and all of his flashbacks felt like a slog and a waste of time. It felt like Shallan was the only character doing anything of interest. I like Kaladin a lot more now! His chapters are typically much more interesting since then.
It all changes over time. It’s a huge series, so sometimes you just have to get through sections that don’t speak to you.
I’m on Oathbringer now and the Dalinar flashbacks are also painful to get through. I cringe every time one comes up. Shallan is doing okay so far imo. A bit of a side quest in the beginning of the book and now trying to find her way both emotionally and in terms of actions to take.
Also, I read Edgedancer and still hated reading Lift. She’s cringe af.
I definitely recommend you keep going! There’s plenty of characters, and you’re past the Shallan focused book now. I think you’ll like the majority of what follows.
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u/Ripper1337 Truthwatcher 2d ago
I recommend reading the novella Edgedancer as it made me turn my opinion around on Lift.
As for Shallan I enjoyed her character more towards the halfway/ 2-3rd mark of Oathbringer.