• Tag Archives Cosmere

  • OATHBRINGER & RHYTHM of WAR

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The third of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive novels benefits greatly from having read both Edgedancer and Warbreaker (which I thought I talked about before but apparently haven’t) beforehand.

    Sadly I’m not sure it’s really worth the investment; a good 90% of the book is essentially treading water with events and characterizations repeatedly progressing one step forward and then one step back (Shallan’s sections in particular become painful to read). Only the very last section is truly engaging… but it’s engaging in a manner that echoes a cliffhanger, coming across as deliberately manipulative (which of course it is) rather than feeling natural.

    The follow-up picks up after a 1-year time skip and starts off much better. Unfortunately it seems Sanderson can’t help himself here and once again reverts to character (Kaladin this time, though Shallan hasn’t improved) and event regression to pad out the novel’s length. Its finale isn’t anywhere near as satisfying as the prequel’s either, partly because yet another artificial extension has been introduced (related to Odium this time).

    All that combined with Rhythm‘s foreword stating that the series is intended to be ten books long has me thinking I should just cut my losses now rather than continue to plod through thousands of pages of circular developments for just a couple hundred filled with excitement.

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    3. Shadows of Self & The Bands of Mourning Shadows of Self is the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson‘s...
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  • Shadows of Self & The Bands of Mourning

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    Shadows of Self is the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson‘s Mistborn series. Fortunately, as I remember nothing at all about the prequel, reading it does not require all that much familiarity with the setting or previous events; having read Secret History will be enough (though having read the entire series will of course enhance the experience). It’s solidly entertaining from start to finish.

    Bands of Mourning continues from where that left off, but has a distinctively different atmosphere. It’s more of an ensemble story with most scenes involving three or more members of the now core group of Wax, Wayne, Marasi, Steris, and MeLann. While the cast expansion works however, the setting and scope expansion does not. The new city ends up a vestigial speedbump, the airship and related ‘lost civilization’ are badly integrated, and the ‘evil ancient god’ subplot comes across as extraordinarily arbitrary. It does finally resolve the issue of Wax’s uncle (which is nice I guess)… but I just can’t see his replacement as an improvement.

    Apparently there’s going to be one more book to conclude this segment of the series (it was supposed to have been released by now but allegedly got delayed by the creation of an unrelated YA series), but honestly I’m not all that interested in it if it’s just going to effectively be retreading ground the early Mistborn novels already covered.

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  • The Way of Kings & Words of Radiance

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The first novel in Brandon Sanderson‘s Stormlight Archive series reminds me of R. Scott Bakker’s Aspect-Emperor series. Mostly in structure and length, but also slightly in content (it’s nowhere near as dark/gritty or philosophy-laden though… which could go either way depending on your personal tastes).

    It starts out pretty boring while laying the groundwork, picks up markedly by the halfway point, and becomes downright exciting toward the end. Aside from the questionable beginning, the only real issue I had with it were Kaladin and Shallan both acting pretty stupid much of the time. With a book the size of this one you wouldn’t think a mere two characters’ actions could drag it down, but they both end up central to the story it wants to tell. The intermittent flashbacks to Kaladin’s past aren’t particularly interesting either.

    The second novel, Words of Radiance, pretty much entirely redeems Shallan… but Kaladin relapses for a while. I’m also still not fond of the flashback segments (this time focusing on Shallan) and the random character resurrection at the end seems, well, random and ill thought out. That said, overall it’s notably more consistent than the prequel and I’m definitely invested in seeing how the story develops from here.

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  • Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    This collection of short fiction spans Brandon Sanderson’s various existing Cosmere series along with two currently stand-alone ones.

    The first two take place on the world of Elantris, with The Emperor’s Soul effectively being stand-alone with no need to have read anything else (though having read the first two Stormlight Archive books will help conceptually). The Hope of Elantris meanwhile is heavily dependent on having recently read Elantris proper, but honestly isn’t very good at all and would probably be best skipped.

    The next three stories focus on the Mistborn world. The Eleventh Metal is a prequel that’s basically a chapter-length interlude which would’ve worked better placed as a flashback in the first book instead of having been released separately. Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania on the other hand jumps ahead to the Alloy of Law half of the series setting-wise and essentially ends up its own separate thing. This section is then wrapped up with Mistborn: Secret History which is quite long and reveals what was going on behind the scenes during the 2nd and 3rd Mistborn novels. You can read it without being familiar with the series proper (I had forgotten nearly everything about it by this time), but it will likely have more impact if read shortly after finishing those.

    The remaining stories are each from a different world:

    • White Sand is an excerpt from a graphic novel project of the same name, with both the actual comic pages and a plain-text version being included. The plain text version is far better.
    • Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell has a pretty interesting setting combined with pretty annoying character behavior.
    • Sixth of the Dusk is a bit heavy-handed with its messaging and relationship development, but the setting is original enough to forgive it.
    • Edgedancer takes place between the 2nd and 3rd Stormlight Archive novels and should most definitely be read at that point.

    The entire work also features an outside observer framing device which gives a brief introductory overview of each setting along with a glimpse into how they’re connected to one another (these parts probably won’t make much sense if you haven’t read at least the first two Stormlight Archive books). It’s an impressive display and worth the price of admission if you’re a fan of Sanderson’s worldbuilding.

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