I had no idea what to rate this book O_O;.

For the longest time I was at 5 stars: The world-building was immense and intricate, there was an intriguing eons' long conspiracy to unravel, forces of magic and man outmaneuvering each other... The high fantasy was accessible, expressed in digestible chunks, and repeated often enough that a glossary or an appendix wasn't really needed to get the gist of who belonged to which province or allegiance... Anything I didn't understand, I wasn't supposed to understand, and the protagonists were depicted as being equally ignorant of new, fantastical terms or names they came across.

But about a third of the way in the repetition became annoying dead weight :/. This is almost a 1,300 page book, so when I say "a third" I mean "SEVERAL HUNDRED PAGES!!!!" That is a LONG time to keep rehashing what's been said/done, instead of MOVING FORWARD with the plot O_O. WE GET IT! Kaladin is struggling with depression, Dalinar is struggling with regrets, Shalan is struggling with guilt, round and round and round their thoughts go, and where the plot goes, NOBODY KNOWS! Meanwhile, the most interesting parts of this book, imo, are Szeth's chapters, which were each brief interludes of awesome magical assassinations lost like needles in the haystacks of philosophical, self-flagellating chapters belonging to everyone else! I love all the characters, I love that they struggle to find or forge honorable choices in a bleak, cutthroat, war-torn world, make no mistake. But hearing someone worry about choices instead of BEEPING MAKING THEM ALREADY is just not interesting when it's done for /too/ long. At some point, the book needed to be more than thoughts.
But the book seemed to be making /promises/ that EVENTUALLY a choice would have to be made, an action taken, a plot moved forward... AT SOME POINT (this book kept promising) the story was going to go full Red Wedding, baby bird. All I had to do was be patient and trust Sanderson. So, rather than knocking this book down to a 2, like I normally would for "Boredom", I kept faith, and was reading more of a 4 star into it...

But then the last 100 pages happened... And some of the twists are revealed... And I don't think the book earned them :/. I think, for a world which introduced superheroes, shadow monsters, lifeforms merged with rocks, parallel dimensions, visions, fairy folk linked to feelings and natural elements, a witch who will grant both a wish and a curse... FOR ALL THAT, the "big reveal" of book 1 is just "people are greedy creeps, and we Other people we don't understand."... People Be People?! THAT'S all you have to say?! After all that magic?! People are terrible to people - WELL DUH, I KNEW THAT, I didn't need a 1,300 page fantasy novel to tell me humans are awful, sheesh!

I really really REALLY want to knock this book down some more stars for not living up to its promises. The reveal was not worth the wait. BUT, I have it on good authority from other readers I trust, that this book is barely the tip of the iceberg, and I should keep going. I have been wrong many times before: Red Rising, Shadow and Bone - I can't judge a series by its first book. But these books are looooong, and how long am I supposed to wait for the payoff to my investment? Also, I can't deny that while I was reading, I was immersed. The world was alive, I cared about the characters, I reveled in its uniqueness.... I don't think it's fair that I demote the book a bunch of stars for its twists in the last 100 pages, when I enjoyed the intrigue of the first 1,000.

It's a toss up :/. Know, if you pick up this book, it's meticulous, it's detailed, it's long-winded -_-;. You're basically sitting down to read The Dark Crystal. There is a lot to love, and a lot that can feel plodding or preachy, and in the end it's up to you whether the ending is satisfying or just hippie-dippie-ish. Enter at your own risk, and pace yourself.