/lit/ - Literature

The Sunlit Man, Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson (2023)

The Nomad's Skip has gone awry and he finds himself stranded on a planet unknown to him. He lacks a sufficient amount of breath-equivalent units of Investiture to Skip again. To escape he'll need to find a power source. In doing so he becomes involved in the rather small planet's problems, namely there's a tyrant trying to subjugate the world to his rule. The sunlight melts and remakes the surface of the world every day. The populace is constantly either running away or hiding from it.

Sanderson said this book was an experiment as to whether he could write epic fantasy at a breakneck pace. The story starts with action and continues on for rest of the time at about the same speed. The climax was a bit more, though it wasn't relatively that much more by comparison to how Sanderson's books have tended to go with an explosive ending. This was a bit frustrating to read because it showed that Sanderson can write without including many hundreds of pages of not doing all that much at a glacial pace. I would prefer there to be far less pages for many of the books. That doesn't seem like it'll happen.

So, how much of the Cosmere does this book reference? A lot. Mostly that's because this novel is probably the furthest in the Cosmere timeline of anything that's been published. That makes this easily the most science fictional book set in the Cosmere yet. Some of the stuff shown is definitely far in advance of our technology. However, fantasy is still very present. This only whets my appetite to see how Sanderson will combine magic and technology in the many years to come. One of the most relevant works are the Stormlight Archive, as the protagonist is a character in those books. Who he is and where he's from is explicitly stated, so it's not something that has to be puzzled out. The other is Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. That's where the populace is from, which again is explicitly stated early on. Aside from that, having read Warbreaker would be somewhat helpful as background information. There's a bit from the Mistborn series, but it would only be minimally useful to have read them. There's a few others, though it's mostly trivial stuff. It's weird to think that a lot of what's shown here may not be relevant to the main Cosmere series for a decade, or decades for that matter. Also, yes, Hoid makes a brief appearance.

So, yeah, it was just a fun time all around. I appreciated the literal change of pace. I may be overly interested compared to the average reader with seeing how the magical and technological systems of the various Cosmere worlds interact with each other. The future Nalthis of Warbreaker continues to play an outsized role in these books considering it only has a single book currently. I also like having the Cosmere in everything from now on as Sanderson has already said, despite the problems that causes for the casual or singular series reader.

Rating: 4/5

>>22260820
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson (2023)

Yumi and the Nightmare painter is different from almost all of Sanderson's other work, as these secret projects have all been, in that it's romance-oriented. I'd specifically describe this novel as a romantic comedy with dramatic elements featuring an atypical body swap that results in a stranger in a strange land scenario, though they stay together. Sanderson explicitly states his inspirations in the postscript. The starting idea came from the manga, Hikaru no Go, though he cites Your Name, Final Fantasy X, and a story he can't remember the name of as influences. I'd also throw Loop Hero in there as well, mostly as a joke. The influences are decidedly Southeast Asian and so is this new setting, as it's based on South Korea (where he served as a missionary) and Japan. The interior art is by Aliya Chen, which in combination with everything else previously mentioned really gives this a feel of being a Western light novel in everything but name.

The two main characters are Yumi and Nikaro. Hoid is the narrator and almost nothing else. Yumi is a priestess of the spirits who has been raised in a very traditional, orthodox, and conservative manner that's filled with with rituals and abnegation of the self. Most of the story is her coming to realize she's her own person. It could be described as her Rumspringa. Nikaro, the Nightmare Painter, is almost always referred to as Painter. To paraphrase Hoid, he's a essential frontline worker who is underpaid and feels unappreciated. As a Nightmare Painter, he, along with his many colleagues, prevent incursions from literal manifestations of living darkness. Although this is basically a romance, it's still Sanderson, so the most they do is some light touching and a single kiss. However, because it's also influenced by manga tropes, it has a few awkward situations of them being nude together, including at a hot springs. The mutual nudity is part of the interior art, though nothing sensitive is shown.

I don't have much to say about the worldbuilding. It suffices. Nikaro/Painter is in a near contemporary setting that somehow has developed to that level despite the entire world being shrouded in darkness and the population seeming to be relatively minimal. The main gimmick is the Hion, which serves as their magic as technology, though in a rather mundane way. Yumi's setting is a harsh wasteland of flying foliage, burning ground, geysers, and a dependence on spirits to be technology. Both settings are rather inhospitable in their own ways. As for the story itself, which seems to take place rather deep into the Cosmere timeline, it's about them trying to figure out why they body swap and how to resolve that. Through the course of doing so they learn more about themselves, each other, and where they're from. The story probably isn't that important by comparison to them just being together.

Rating: 3/5

>>21884047
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England - Brandon Sanderson (2023)

This non-cosmere book most reminded me of a cross between H. Beam Piper's Paratime series and Philip K. Dick's We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, though by the end neither of those were that accurate. In the postscript Sanderson details how this book came to be and one of its primary inspirations was Jason Bourne, which it does lean heavily into that with its amnesiac protagonist who has a certain set of skills, though he's lacking in most other ways.

As can be seen on the cover, the wizard has a gun. That's because this is science fiction with some thriller elements set in an alternate Earth that has fantastical characteristics. Wizard is a semantic misdirect and there's no time traveling. There's an attempt to explain it all scientifically, though possibly not enough to where it could be considered Hard Fantasy. A reader can also expect many of Sanderson's recurrent themes such as redemption, persistence despite repeated failure, having your own world, being powerful relative to others, and chaste romance.

The main problem I had with this is that it lacks substance, which is fitting because so does its setting, as explained in-universe. Reading this felt like something that one reads to have read. It may well be an exemplar of highly readable mediocrity. The other problem was that I thought there was tonal dissonance with how humorous it tries to be, which is to say the humor didn't work for me this time. A lot of is because it's entirely out of place because it's for the reader rather than people the protagonist is talking to. The most reoccurring joke is him briefly reviewing stuff. There's also a bit of light poking at contemporary events and social trends.

There are several pages of art in this, many in a form similar to a four panel comic. Those that didn't have anything to do with the events of the book seemed entirely out of place, even if they were meant to show what other possibilities there were for the technology that allows the story to occur.

Fortunately for this book it's one of the secret projects, which will probably give it a wider readership than it would if it were by itself, because I don't really know who this would be for. Some of his other non-Cosmere works have similarities to this, but not enough to mention, and I didn't like them. Giving this a three may even be a bit high, but 2.5 seems a bit low, as there wasn't enough that I thought was worse than mediocre and enough that was better than decent.

I don't know what Sanderson's intentions for the ending were, but it allows for the slightest possibility of unifying everything he's ever written. The most likely interpretation though is that it's provide an idea of what may happen after their story has ended. I personally would find it very amusing if he did unify everything though. Maybe he can do that with one of his final works before retiring.

Rating: 3/5

>>21553468
Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson (2023)

Sanderson wrote that he intended this to be adjacent to a grown-up fairy tale and in that regard I think it's a complete success. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. He also wrote that it was only shared with his wife, as a gift to her, and I think the passion of that also comes through. It's different in meaningful ways from anything I've ever read from him, which may be a problem for those expecting more of the same that's typical of his Cosmere writings. It's by far the most humorous work I've read from him, not so far in that I'd call this a comedy or a satire, but it goes a long way towards that. His humor for me has mostly been a miss, but I found it amusing enough this time around. He's definitely become more proficient in a style of humor of being crude and lewd in an obscured way. His practice of making suggestive political and social commentary while also providing life lessons is also here as well. I don't find anything wrong with that, but some might.

The primary theme for this novel is about taking chances and pushing your boundaries because then you may discover what truly motivates you in life, and it may well be something you hadn't even the slightest idea that it could be. It's a tale told by Hoid of self-discovery, courage, determination, friendship, loyalty, and of course, love. If you find those ideas to be trite, then this book will have substantially less to offer you. For me it was a considerable amount of visceral joy, especially near the end.

What was most surprising for me is how little I minded the length considering its content. Usually when I'm reading Sanderson I think that it could be much shorter. It's not even that he's necessarily better at short length, he has some awful short fiction. The content for a full three-quarters of the book is being on ships sailing. I don't know if that makes it nautical fantasy, but there's certainly an argument for it. There's not much to do fill several hundred pages worth of being on a ship other than discussion, experimentation, and a few dangerous events on the high pollen seas. Yes, the seas are filled with pollen, twelve varieties around the world that each have their own magical effects.

There's a twist, but considering the extensive foreshadowing it receives to where it's all but stated multiple times, I don't know if it really counts as one. I thought I caught it early on, but at the end, the book literally tells the reader when the earliest point they could've known and how. Considering how obvious it was in retrospect, I was rightfully put in my place. As to whom Hoid is telling all of this, it's indirectly stated near the very end, but that requires having read the relevant novella and remembering. As to why he is, I guess that's just a Hoid thing to do.

I'm very pleased by this simple and straightforward story that's filled with heart.

Rating: 4/5