Dawnshard

I just finished reading Dawnshard which is a novella in the Stormlight Archive series.

Before I jump into the book I must share my love of everything that is Brandon Sanderson. I think the first book I read by him was Mistborn which was a recommendation from some friends on my first team at Amazon. I really enjoyed that trilogy and only after finishing it did I learn how insane this author is.

Brandon Sanderson came up with this idea to create a universe that spans multiple series that are all connected but in what he calls the Cosmere. Each series he creates is self contained and you don't need to read other books he has written, but if you do read everything he is written you will slowly uncover some interesting similarities or ways books are connected.

The Stormlight Archive series is going to be his masterpiece. He expects this series to be 10 books told in two 5 part collections. These books are also dense. I am starting book four and it is 1200 pages! You would think that if all his books were this long it must take forever for him to get anything done but he is actually churning out books at an insane pace. He is publishing maybe 2 or 3 books a year across a variety of different series. Each stormlight archive book takes a few years to write but he is writing a ton of stuff inbetween writing these epics. It is mental.

For his second collection of Mistborn books he needed to publish book 5, but couldn't stop writing and ended up finishing book 6 before he even released book 5. He just said he couldn't stop writing and finished the last book over the summer.

Anyways, now onto Dawnshard. Overall I enjoyed the book. At this point it is probably not surprising that I will give this book a positive review. I basically love almost everything this man has created so it shouldn't be a shock.

The following is spoiler free but the links may contain spoilers so be prepared.

I enjoyed Dawnshard for a variety of reasons. The book is a novella that takes place between the third and forth books in the Stormlight archive series. It tells the story of Rysn, a trader and owner of a ship, as she seeks out a mysterious island to return her sick animal (a Larkin) to. The book was great because it gives a lot more focus to some of the other characters in the series who are interesting and entertaining. Lopen is a pretty entertaining character so it is nice seeing a bit more of him. Cord is another character who gets introduced in one of the more recent books so learning a bit more about her was also interesting. The book also explains a bit more about what is going on in the universe. The book is also a novella so it is fairly short. It progresses at a fairly good pace unlike other books I have recently.

I am going to start book 4 now in the Stormlight archive series, Rhythm of War. If you want to read any of the books in this series message me and I can share my Kindle account. I assume that if you know how to contact me (and also read this silly blog) you probably know me personally.