I disagree pretty heavily with your take on Nomad at the start of the story. IMO the story never really wants you to believe he's a scoundrel who doesn't care. If it did it wouldn't have Aux constantly pointing out how he used to be better. His characterization instead came across to me as someone who deeply cares but has been beaten down again and again to the point where he's become jaded and bitter. He felt like Kaladin at some of his lowest points in Way of Kings except instead of being suicidal he was in full survival mode where anything not related to his immediate needs are ignored. But at his heart he's still a windrunner and still deeply cares about helping people. You say it felt like he was playing a part, and IMO that's exactly how it's supposed to feel. He's trying to convince himself and those around him that he's a heartless scoundrel so he doesn't get pulled in and attached because he knows he needs to keep fleeing and he's too tired to keep getting involved. His character arc isn't about him realizing he's actually a good person, it's about him allowing himself to be that person. He is someone full of guilt for past mistakes and abandoned oaths. He is someone traumatized and abused to the point where he has tried desperately to shut off his conscience and his heart that cares for the people around him for his own protection. He doesn't want to get drawn in and attached because he is afraid of emotional pain and of taking up responsibility again for people other than himself. His growth isn't the "I've had good inside me all along" like the grinch whose heart grows 3 sizes, it's more "my mistakes don't define me and I can choose to do what is right even though I failed to do so before".
I just read your comment before watching the vid (still going to) but everything you said here is pretty spot on. It was pretty clear what brando was going for with his character.
Exactly! I never had the impression he was a world weary beaten down 'scoundrel.' The general feeling I had through the early book was that he had reasonably recently fucked something up and hurt someone some how and felt like bad about it and was narrating his self hate fest pity party.
21:00 About the Sigzil stuff if he picked up the DS when he's 39 and hes a young man in stormlight, (early 20s) the major changes to his charachter wont happen till late era 2.l, most likely.
I like creators like you and Mancarryingthing, who simultaneously produce super short hilarious videos, but then also occasionally just drop these more serious longer videos dissecting some topic in detail. It makes for better variety and balance of content.
Regarding what you said about the Cosmere being kind of like physics, I remember when I was reading Oathbringer, when a character is "flying" to a village by falling that direction, I calculated Roshar's terminal velocity and compared that to the distance and time it took the character to travel, and the math checked out exactly.
While it's a very beloved book, don't feel discouraged if you don't get hooked immediately! It is indeed very good, but it took me quite some time to actually get into it-it has several prologues and storylines that can take quite some time to really get started!
The Sunlit Man was the first book I've read where the Stormlight Archive is mentioned. I was reading the Secret Projects in order, and when that red book with black pages showed up, it actually made me say "wow." Right now, I'm in the last two hundred pages of Rhythm of War, and I will probably take the chance to re-read The Sunlit Man. I also felt that the descriptions in the book were often simple or lacking; when I was reading it, I didn’t know how to imagine the planet in my head. I also struggled to read the first fifty pages, often having to go back and re-read them. The Sunlit Man is an action movie made book, it makes you read it fast. The constant chase is not only in the story but in the prose as well. Just as there is no time to explore each world whenever Zelion worldhops, there is no time to stop and describe every detail he encounters because the clock is ticking. If he stays put, the Night Brigade will find him within a matter of hours. You get the sense from his behavior that he is the same person from the Stormlight Archive, but now, he’s ancient, like the Heralds, and tired. He wants to care about people but knows he can’t afford to. The special connection he forms with the people of Canticle connects his very soul to the world in a way that apparently hasn’t happened to him in a long time. This connection forces him to confront the truth: he’s not the person he feels he should be, but rather the person he feels he can’t be anymore. He literally doesn’t call himself by his own name until the end of the book. It may not make a good job at describing the world but it does show you the toll that time and responsibility have taken on him.
I still like hoid, but I also will not be voting for him for president. He'd probably do a fantastic job, but only so far as it doesn't go against his own interests. I feel like he would let the whole country crumble and burn in order to get what he wants. With tears, perhaps, but he would let it happen.
I think its a pretty interesting premise to suggest that Hoid is the main villain of the Cosmere. I'm going to have to ruminate on that one for a while.
Rather than letting it burn to get what "he wants", I think it’s more accurate to say that he‘d do so to get what "he thinks is important". By his own quote in WoR, there’s little that frightens him more than a man trying just that, and it also fits better with the quote spoken from him in warning to Dalinar you‘re referencing (the actual quote uses "need" instead of "want")
I think the narrator did a great job with the cinder king, he really gives him that “Myehehehe I’m EVIL” voice in the most ironic way possible and I love it
I’m not ready to give up on Hoid. There’s still so much we need to learn about him. He probably had reasons for giving the Dawnshard to someone who is generally good, when he could have done something much worse.
For the scadrian facility it made sense to me to be described that way - it's Sigzil emphasizing that it's not some sanctuary or hope like the beaconites expected, just a normal laboratory. But I generally agree that when reading Sanderson's books I often have trouble visualizing the environments. The illustrations are what really sell Canticle as a beautiful and alien environment.
Immersive prose really depends on how visual-brained you are. I'm low on the visual brain scale. It takes full focus to mentally picture an image, and that's something that never happens when I read, so additional immersive descriptions are purely annoying to me. They take me out of the story because I basically have to sit on my hands until I get to something that's actually relevant. Meanwhile, some people are unable to think of something without picturing it. For those people, NOT having that description is annoying, because they're forced to visualize, and can't do it well.
same for me. I can overlook SOME visual descriptions (and I do mean "overlook," not "visualize"), but if it gets too much, then it's just like the text is taking a break from the part of the book that my brain can actually compute, so I just zone out. Then I'm left between the choice of trying to reread that description 5 times until I can finally visualize it, (before forgetting it again a few hours later) or just keep reading with that nagging suspicion that I've missed out on something important. (In addition, "zoning in" again after "zoning out" can't always be timed perfectly to the end of that visual description, so I might even miss out on the plot relevant things that happen immediately after the visual description.) It's why I'll never read Lord of the Rings
I don’t remember exactly when Sanderson said it, but his original plan for the cosmere was adventures like this one, where the reoccurring mc (hoid) wakes up on a planet and needs to find out how investiture works there so that he can juice up and teleport out. I think it’d be kind of fun if we got more sigzil/zellion adventures like this one, as kind of episodic stories that grow the cosmere but don’t carry a whole ton of weight (aside from the all the lore and ✨drama✨ that would no doubt be involved (looking at you hoid and kel))
When I read wheel of time for the first time, I developed a tolerance to prose. Not specifically long, or bad prose, most prose I don't notice. I read the whole book in a day the first and second time I read it. That read it fast thing that was talked about, basically sums up why I am confused when people comment on his prose.
I can see your arguments about Brandon’s prose but for me I actually really like how sparse he is with visual descriptions here. I’ve never been able to imagine visuals based on text so when authors spend huge paragraphs describing something it pulls me out completely.
Having listened to the audiobook and without access to the drawings, I had no issue visualizing the world in my head, thought there were plenty of descriptions.
One criticism I have of Sanderson's writing, which I think is a contributing factor to most of the flaws therein, is that he rushes himself now in a way that he didn't before. The fan base has built up a big meme about how Sanderson writes 20 books a day, and I think he takes pride in that, so much so that he doesn't take the time to truly revise and improve upon his writing. Sanderson has improved over the course of his career, but not as much as you would expect out of somehow who's written dozens of books. If, whenever he had time to sneakily write a secret novel, he instead took that time to do further revisions and meditations on his existing projects, I think his books could truly find what they're missing.
I think this is very fair. As much as I loved the year of sanderson project, it's hard not to feel that some of these books would be stronger with more time put into them. He seems to just have a lot of ideas, and wants to turn as many of them into books as possible.
@@genericallyentertaining Considering that Sanderson is already planning on bringing other authors into the Cosmere, I hope that he gives some of his ideas to them to work on so he can better focus on his core series and writing style
He has said many times that he hates revising. He loves writing out a first draft and then hates going back over to polish it. I'm a huge fan, but I think this hatred of revising and lack of self discipline with an important part of the writing process is his biggest weakness.
I love both book reviews and scketches ^-^ I more or less share your thoughts on this book. I mean, I read it really fast, as you said, Sanderson seems to write his books to be read this way. And I didn't think too hard about some points of the story until I finished it. This happens to me a lot with Sanderson's novels, while I'm reading them I'm thrilled, but the moment I finish I start thinking "well, it was fun, but it isn't as good as it seems".
This is going to sound insane, but I think the story lasts 12 hours? 13 at most. While they're calculating the time to get over the mountain Sigzil works out that their hours are about half a standard hour? Given the final showdown happens practically at the spot sigzil arrives that means the whole book is 13-14 hours.
Excellent review. You really made me think about how many modern words he uses. It certainly doesn't help his prose style. Your'e also right about how introspective his characters always are in his books.
Really enjoyed this review - I think it was so insightful, and genuinely helped me sum up a lot of my negative thoughts on the book. Also, it is a shame you won’t vote for Hoid because the other option is a more evil Hoid.
Most of my thoughts (agreeing or disagreeing) have already been covered by more timely comments, but I do have one thing. I agreed with your comments about prose - particularly with words like "cringeworthy"; I think B$ wants the later-timeline stuff to feel more modern and so he uses words like that, but it doesn't always work - though I don't think I'm bothered by it as much as you seem to be. I also think a lot of it was due to the nature of the secret projects. However, what REALLY bothered me throughout the four books was that there were sentence fragments EVERYWHERE, and usually they would have been easily resolved by just removing the period and continuing into the next sentence. It was like some weird cousin of the comma splice.
I also just finished The Sunlit Man! Really loved it, I read it at a breakneck pace which maybe helps based on your criticism haha. I totally get your point about the lack of descriptions, I think in particular I would have liked to see more scenes from the perspective of the people that live on Canticle (I'm surprised we never got a perspective chapter from Rebeke). But for me personally I find "immersion" in books nearly impossible because I struggle to visualize basically anything, so those sorts of descriptions are basically just useless words to me that are at best thematic and kind of interesting but at worst frustrating and boring. SPOILERS BELOW: Agreed that Elegy's arc was awesome, I think she was the most interesting character by a lot. I wish that either Nomad had more of Sigzil's specific mannerisms and speech patterns, or he was really different in an actually meaningful way. I agree that the forced "meanness" at the beginning was just hollow, he was never actually a bad guy and that was pretty obvious. But all in all I think his arc was more about forgiving himself than becoming a better person, so him not really being a bad guy didn't take away from his arc for me personally.
Brandon talked about immersion in his podcast recently and he basically said while he tries his best to keep the immersion for his readers as much as possible, he never really relates to people with those kinds of criticism for any piece of fiction. he always reads/watches stories fully aware that its a piece of work because he is constantly thinking about it from the writers perspective. personally I relate half with him half with you, I barely lose my immersion but when I do it doesnt really bother me, but I might enjoy the work better if it keeps me immersed better. other than that I fully agree with the criticisms about the structure. the books really are feeling a bit too same-y. also agree on this book feeling like a small section of a much bigger story. I will almost certainly like this book a lot more when I reread it after knowing that bigger story. But I disagree a lot on your criticisms regarding Nomad's character. your whole read on Nomad's character was really off imo. what ctom42 in this comment section said is how I understood his character. your hoid take is really interesting lol, you honestly make a good point, was hoid the main villain all a long ?
Your part about the Immersion was an eye-opener for me. For me it’s not the details that get me immersed. The bigger worldbuilding and unique magic system get me immersed. I liked this book for not focusing on the small details that add nothing to the story or the worldbuilding on a grander scale. Fun to hear that you get immersed by smaller details.
Every Sanderson fan should read Tyrion chapters (the part where he travels) from ASOIAF to see how an author can do a great job of world building. Dance of the Dragons is especially great where he travels on river Rhoyne. I personally feel like I have visited Rhoyne.
I so agree with the criticism of Brandon's writing. Especially in contrast to Jordan as one of his influences, Brandon writes so little "fluff" descriptions. Every scene passes so quickly with the focus on the thoughts and feelings, with no time to stop and smell the roses.
I am also getting tired of Hoid, funnily enough. One major point of contention for me was receiving my Tress box which said something like "story tellers don't tell you what to think" inside, then as I was reading Tress noticing just how often Hoid bends that rule
That's a good one, but I always think of Mistborn, where he assures Kelsier that Shan Elariel is a Soother *after* Vin learns the same information. He goes so far as to mention that she keeps a pouch of brass on her. But he doesn't mention or even hint that Shan is Mistborn. If they had relied on his information, if Vin wasn't convinced that pretty much everyone around her was secretly Mistborn, it could have easily gotten her killed.
Nathan, have you read the Realm of the Elderlings? I personally feel like Wit is basically the Fool from the initial 9 books. With certain differences of course. Just how mbot is basically Paragon from that series.
I really want to start reading sanderson but he wrote SO MANY BOOKS and there's an order in which you should read them and I feel like the longer I wait the harder it'll be to start and I'm stuck in a loop where I'm too scared to start but if I don't start soon I never will anyways sorry about the rambling just wanted to put that out there
honestly see the sinopsis of some of them and just start on the one you like more, if you enjoy it, keep on going, no need to stress about it really, just go on and read
Id recommend reading Mistborn book 1. I read that series without knowing there were other series out there so just read it and then only read the others if you like that book
Start with Warbreaker. Next Mistborn Era 1 (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages). Then Elantris. Next, his anthology of short stories, except skip the Roshar (Stormlight Archive) stories until you get to that. Now Mistborn Era 2. Then SLA (there is a short story between books 2&3 and between 3&4). Then anything I missed.
When you say that the books desperately wants you to think that Nomad is only about survival, then you say it is really obvious he does care. Then you are like this feels false he is playing a part. I think that should show the book does not want you to think that. Instead the 'tell' is the introspection showing how he used to be and that he is trying to behave differently. He's not a scoundrel, he is as you say not a bad guy but he has become tired and drained and has self disgust because of what has occurred. What it is supposed to show the reader is we know something that he does not. Indeed he has never really fallen as far as he thought, that is why he can make that work. Anyway YMMV but that is why it worked for me. Also little note that I have used cringeworthy in common parlance and words like beautiful and horrendous I absolutely use and hear regualrly. I know I am not typical but just wanted to throw that out there :) Absolutely fine with the fact it threw you and doubtless others out of the story. You explanation of what you didn't like is very helpful and clear. Even without agreeing with you on several points I do find your explanation of your views reasonable and balanced.
Sunlit man is the only Brandon Sanderson book they have at my local library. Well besides Defiant. I still don’t understand the train of thought that leads someone to buy sunlit man over mistborn as your first cosmere book.
IMO this is not a good entry to Sanderson's world. It requires previous knowledge of other works to understand what's going on. I've heard Sigzil described this way: Sigzil in the Stormlight Archive is Hal from Malcolm in the middle. Sigzil in Sunlit Man is Walter White. Also, with each of your upcoming book reviews I want you to do an additional alt-history worldbuilding version.
the presence of certain words kicking you out of the story is, I think, a fair point, but I don't think it's a flaw in the prose as much as it is an experience differential. those words don't stand out to me like they do to you because I *do* hear those words used in a conversation. Brandon could definitely stand to freshen up his adjective pool, though, definitely agree there
I think he took a lot of shortcuts with the secret projects and it shows. This is most obvious in Yumi where there is a huge info dump at the end explaining something that was otherwise completely incomprehensible.
Yeah... Sunlit Man was... a book. Like, I *liked* it. I did. But there's just some things about it that kinda put into perspective a lot of my broader problems with Sanderson's work. And it's not really *just* the Sunlit man. Realistically, the foundation was first shaken when I read Rhythm of War and outright disliked it, eroded further when I read Lost Metal and found it enjoyable but ultimately disappointing as a close to that era of Mistborn, and basically shattered by a combination of Tress and Sunlit Man (I had far, *far* more problems with Tress). I still like Sanderson's work and certainly don't think he's a bad author, he's just no longer even close to contention for my favorite author. Like, kinda similar to what you said about Nomad, one of my biggest issues with Sunlit Man is that he's just kind of a hard protagonist. Broadly speaking, I enjoy the general arc of someone learning their better than they think they are and turning from an ultimately self-centered perspective to a more alturisitc one. But for Sigzil, I kinda just... don't really see it? The fact that we're missing so much of what brought him that low makes it hard to get invested in the first place and doesn't so much get me excited to see what happened as apathetic to the current state of affairs. And like you said, a lot of his 'misanthropy' comes across more as him just being a rude jerk. Which. Just makes me kinda not like him. And I'm kind of just a little sick of the Cosmere at this point? Like, I found it more interesting as a theoretical when you could find the threads connecting things and draw conclusions about the implications in individual stories. But now that it's actually moving towards being a fully interconnected story of a setting told across several works... Eh. I don't know that it's bad, I just don't care. Especially since I've grown a bit frustrated with the sheer degree of focus placed on explaining the magic systems, though admittedly this is going to be more a Tress complaint. I'll cop to this just being personal taste, but I don't really care about how the magic works so long as I can understand it. Early systems of Investiture felt like they struck a good balance with making themselves very understandable without slowing the story to explain details that only matter to the audience. Now... Well, we get scenes like Tress making a vine-cannonball which I just didn't care about. All I needed there was 'shell breaks, water hits spores, vines happen'. And speaking of complaints that might be more Tress directed, stars above I am sick of Hoid. My general opinion of him for a while now has been 'I liked him until he started talking'. It was cool to have this one character who always shows up; it was fun to try and figure out who he is in a given story and what he's doing there. But now? He's an unlikable jerk who isn't nearly as funny as Sanderson seems to think we should find him. While I had *many* problems with Tress, the largest one was that I couldn't stand him as a narrator. And like you said with Sunlit Man, he's just not a good person and while that's not necessarily a problem for a character, it makes it hard to buy him as one of the fundamentally most benevolent people in the broader setting, which is the role I'd assumed he was supposed to hold for a solid decade. Then with the setting itself, I kinda found Sunlit Man a bit hard to get into for two reasons. First, because Canticle is just Crematoria from the Chronicles of Riddick. Sure, ideas can be reused across stories, but that was one thing that just took me out a little. Second and more importantly, I've discovered that I don't really think I'm all that interested in the space age of the Cosmere. I'd been skeptical from way back when Sanderson explained his plan for Mistborn's eras to culminate in a space-faring adventure, but now? I mean, again, it's a personal taste thing, but it's a bit frustrating when you get into a series because it's fantasy and you like fantasy only for it to slowly pivot to sci-fi which I'm just a bit more tepid on. And I don't think Sunlit Man really did enough to convince me that Cosmere sci-fi will be all that interesting. Like, to your comments on feeling a little Star Wars-y, it kinda felt like just 'generic spaceships which just so happens to have Investiture doing stuff occasionally'; not sci-fi enough to really feel interesting as sci-fi but not fantasy enough to hook me in that direction either. Sorry for the fairly incoherent wall of text. I do look forward to more book reviews and hope you do end up making a video discussing flowery language; as someone of a more loquacious bent, it sounds very interesting to me.
My first Sanderson book, and indeed the first time I had even heard of him, was from The Way of Kings, a hardcover copy with no sleeve. I found it at my grandma's house while visiting her for a holiday. I don't know why I felt compelled to ready it--it didn't stand out from the other books on her shelf--but I was hooked almost instantly. I read almost half the book during the time I was there and, when it was time to go home, she graciously let me take it with me. When I had finished it, I immediately bought Words of Radiance using some gift cards I had saved up. And it was just as incredible, if not more so. In the time between then and the release of Rhythm of War, I didn't read any of his other books: I only had eyes for The Stormlight Archive. But when Rhythm of War released, I was severely disappointed. It just didn't _feel_ like the previous books; it was as though someone else had written it. And then Oathbringer was somehow even worse. I honestly can't even tell you what happens in those two books, outside of 1 or 2 plot points: I barely even recall reading them in the first place. Since then, I have read many of his other books, and most of them are good, great even, but none of them come even close to The Way of Kings or Words of Radiance.
He did not really break his oath to his spren, the dawnshard simply beginned to eat the soul of his spren when he spended all his investiture, he gave the dawnshard to someone else before it ate all the soul
The dawnshard began to consume Auxiliary, who is a highspren. At the current point in the Stormlight Archive (Rhythm of War) Sigzil is bonded to an honorspren, though. So either Sigzil killed the honorspren by breaking his oaths, the spren got destroyed with Anti-Stormlight, or something else happened to the bond.
I like Hoid, despite and sometimes even because, he is not a good person. I mean, he sure has his nice moments with Shallan, but the fact that he IS a bit jaded from living so long, that he IS willing to take down and let planets burn for his goals... Idk it's great. He is a wacky lil' guy... Until he isn't. It's interesting✨
Yeah, he's definitely complicated, and I'm sure there are some factors that influenced what happened with Sigzil that we don't know about yet. But the main thing that bugs me is the relative lack of sympathy he expressed for Sigzil in this book; it's like, even if Sigzil did have to take up the Dawnshard for the good of the Cosmere, the least you could do is give him a helping hand now that you sent the Night Brigade chasing after him for the rest of time.
I like Hoid, but I would never want to meet him, because if I meet him, that either means I am so traumatized the cosmere is about to make me superhuman, or he's going to traumatize me so much I become a superhuman.
When I was 12 I used to think exactly the same. That those that use the word cringe are in fact themselves cringe. Now I realize that caring about that and thinking in that way is cringe. Gives strong ego and “not humble” vibes. Skrrrt 😂😂😅😅🎉slay
To add to this, I really hated the scene where he put his boots on the table. Like there is no reason to act like an asshole to those people other than making the reader think he is a bit too edgy.
Sigzil is not thinking about the reader in that moment, he is purposefully trying to antagonize these people and distance himself from them so that he doesn't grow attached and doesn't try to help them and ultimately feel bad for failing them (like he failed so many others in the past). It's a defense mechanism. Great characterization.
05:00 It seems like Nomad has to get 20k BEUs each time he skips, thats a fortune of investiture, if he stole that much from an average planet its likey he ruined a couple civilizations by now (he has to drain the equivlent of half a warbreaker godking from each planet) So it makes sense he feels like he's not a good person anymore.
Yeah, the implications of that are crazy! It seems plausible that he has done some pretty horrible things by this point...but we never get to see them.
We also know that U'tol, the planet he ends the book on, is famous for some disaster that happened there by the time hoid tells the story of SP3. And considering Nomad isn't aware of the spread of Fainlife off of Yolen, it's likely he's the one at fault.
I strongly disagree with your take on "cringeworthy", in that I think it's an example of the Tiffany Problem. I've heard "cringeworthy" used frequently my entire life, and only when the internet started using "cringe" as an adjective in its place did "cringeworthy" disappear from my social lexicon.
@@AtaraxianWist That's interesting, actually. Perhaps my dislike of this word can be traced back to ineffable personal taste, while what I say in this video is my attempt to rationalize that taste. But on an aesthetic level, I just think it's an awkward word.
It makes sense that he would have changed a lot in the intervening years, but yeah, he's so different at first that it's a little disorienting. But tbf, it seems really hard for a time gap this big where we are missing crucial information about what happened in the intervening books not to be disorienting.
@@genericallyentertaining Oh yeah for sure. I don't think Sanderson did it by accident obviously but it WAS jarring. Still liked the book though, really scratched the SA itch I'd been having in between books a bit.
Finally? The book isn't even a year old :D I finally read The Lies of Locke Lamora. Finally is well said, when it is 18 years old :) Just being pedantic keyboard non-warrior :D
You don't post book reviews.....😂❤ love you man YOU HAVE OTHER STUFF TO DO?!?! Lies Ps: Totally agree either way all your points...especially the cons. Could listen to you rant for hours. I'm ALL about descriptive language; and there's not enough here.
I like Sunlit man, but the absolutely mad dash pace of the book makes it a little hard to get invested in the characters. There wasn't enough time to get to know the characters or really care. If there had just been a hundred more pages to let us become invested in the plights and trials of the characters it would have been so much better. It felt like Sanderson had great character arcs planned, but rushed himself in getting from point A to B. Overall the book felt sort of mediocre. I also agree that the descriptions are mediocre, it makes it hard to connect with the world when it feels like the entire planet is just a barren rock.
I think as far as the discount Han Solo criticism goes sigzil is lying to himself so yes he says he doesn't care but he's just trying to convince himself that he doesn't
It's very similar to how Kaladin constantly tries to convince himself that if he could just not care about these people, it won't hurt so much when they inevitably die.
In Mistborn, I believe it's mentioned that nobles sometimes abuse their children in order to try to get them to "snap" and become Mistings. And in the Stormlight Archive, there are references to cults - such as the one Teft's parents were a part of - that attempt to do much the same thing. We don't get a lot of detail about this, but there seems to be a strong spiritual aspect to this abuse, since "cracks in the Spiritweb" are what allow someone to become Invested on these worlds. (Hence why a disproportionate number of Knights Radiant struggle with mental health issues.)
Sort of. He Skipped there, so... yeah. Basically, he got enough Investiture to create a mini-perpendicularity for like a milisecond and that worked kind of like an oathgate, instantly bringing him to another planet with most of his Investiture expended
I dont like the modern colloquialisms in fantasy either. I remember being pulled out of the story reading "cringe worthy." On the other hand, I also dont like how nitpicky some fans can be in regards to your vulcan/volcano analogy, and how they will ask the author a question along those lines. Then the author really has no other recourse then the copout "well thats not the word in their language but I, as the author translated it into the closest word we have in ours."
I need an advise from you book worms in comments here. Is there a book with the character that really cares only for himself on the extreme and will do literally anything to achieve his goal? Like sacrificing your family that you really care about in a blood ritual to gain power? Someone that is cruel not only to others but to herself, cutting his fingers with the strait face only to find out the future of the next day or something like that. If necessary, be the most righteous person on earth or become the devil himself, someone that defines, create or manipulate the morals and don't obey them, only to achieve his goal ? I know only one book that like this and I can't find another one, i really want to find another book that is like that.
@@genericallyentertainingughhhhhhh damned phone spellcheck made me look like an idiot...... AUX. Yes it crushed my soul. I i'm also not sure I completely understand what happened to him… Because aren't the deadeyes dead spren technically? But they are not really dead dead… Not as we understand it. They still walk around and talk and stuff. Admittedly it has been a while since I have read the entire archive, so there's probably a point of magic system that I am missing here. But still I don't want to let go of hope...... So what is he now? I hate to think that that is the last we see of that character.
I feel like you missed a lot in your read. You seem to be trying to project what you wanted to see in story on to the book instead of looking for what was there. An example is your impression of the passage describing the Scandrian research post when Zellion and the locals arrive. For the whole book, Zellion has been explaining to the locals that this place is not a sanctuary, and that they will not be taken in. That passage, in its general and obvious lack of description and explanation, tells you exactly how inadequate the place was as a sanctuary. Together with the dismissive behaviour demonstrated by the scientists, and the major reveals we get from Zellion’s perspective, several points are driven home for, not just the reader, but also the locals Zellion led there. Most importantly that this is not a sanctuary.
I understand this argument in principle, and I get that the tone of the scene is meant to feel anticlimactic. But something about the scene just feels...off. I can't help but think that the point of this scene, which is that the Scadrians are being insensitive and cold and that there was never a hope of them offering refuge to the Beaconites, would have been better made if Sanderson had emphasized more the power differential between these two groups, and he could have done this by highlighting all the ways this base and its inhabitants would feel alien to the people native to Canticle. The scene feels mundane when it could have been disorienting and devastating. But you're right that this is also a reflection of my own preferences.
@@genericallyentertaining I agree. The solution, I think, would have been a different POV character. Zellion knew what to expect and so didn’t focus on anything worth describing.
Spoiler: ... Does anyone else feel like "Zellion" does not sound like a Threnodite name at all? The Threnodites are Space Puritans; they tend to have names that are based on the Bible, or virtues. "Zellion" sounds like a generic cool fantasy name that doesn't really fit in that aesthetic.
12:54 .. observation.. the word “horrendous” is one frequently used by myself and some of the people around me.. 😁 Maybe you’re not talking to enough people from a different book demographic?? 😂 lol I hate talking to people usually myself.. but the ones I DO interact with routinely either cock their head and ask for “normal English” or they use most all the words I do.. and one particular, fellow neurodivergent introvert, uses words that make me tell him to knock it off.. 😂😂 the over educated boomer.. 😛 lol
Do Americans really not use "horrendous" and "cringeworthy" regularly? As a Brit, I find it quite hard to think of Americans without those words leaping to my tongue.
Man if you had issues with the prose of this book, just wait till you read the Stormlight 5 previews lol. Just some appetisers: Edgy tattos "I'm game" Goofy Poopspren Oh and also what would probably be at least a whole page of talking about Syl's coochie (chapter 10, if you are morbidly curious) Evne without all those specific examples, the overall prose just feels way too modern and amateurish, and compared to even his works like The Way of Kings, i just find that disappointing and frankly, sad
way to bite the hand that feeds you. people will never read sanderson after listening to this. great job destroying the very thing that gets you views on youtube. 😒 this is the same reason why star wars keeps cancelling shows. nothing is perfect. enjoy what sanderson writes because he doesn’t have to. 🤦
brandon in a race to get 2 books out before your next book review
He already won. It's a lost cause at this point.
Not even a joke, he will be releasing 2 books very soon.
I disagree pretty heavily with your take on Nomad at the start of the story. IMO the story never really wants you to believe he's a scoundrel who doesn't care. If it did it wouldn't have Aux constantly pointing out how he used to be better. His characterization instead came across to me as someone who deeply cares but has been beaten down again and again to the point where he's become jaded and bitter. He felt like Kaladin at some of his lowest points in Way of Kings except instead of being suicidal he was in full survival mode where anything not related to his immediate needs are ignored. But at his heart he's still a windrunner and still deeply cares about helping people. You say it felt like he was playing a part, and IMO that's exactly how it's supposed to feel. He's trying to convince himself and those around him that he's a heartless scoundrel so he doesn't get pulled in and attached because he knows he needs to keep fleeing and he's too tired to keep getting involved.
His character arc isn't about him realizing he's actually a good person, it's about him allowing himself to be that person. He is someone full of guilt for past mistakes and abandoned oaths. He is someone traumatized and abused to the point where he has tried desperately to shut off his conscience and his heart that cares for the people around him for his own protection. He doesn't want to get drawn in and attached because he is afraid of emotional pain and of taking up responsibility again for people other than himself. His growth isn't the "I've had good inside me all along" like the grinch whose heart grows 3 sizes, it's more "my mistakes don't define me and I can choose to do what is right even though I failed to do so before".
Exactly! I was completely baffled by his assessment of Sigzil’s character. That wasn’t him at all. What you’ve written here, that was him.
I just read your comment before watching the vid (still going to) but everything you said here is pretty spot on.
It was pretty clear what brando was going for with his character.
immediately went to search for this comment once I reached the nomad section
Exactly! I never had the impression he was a world weary beaten down 'scoundrel.' The general feeling I had through the early book was that he had reasonably recently fucked something up and hurt someone some how and felt like bad about it and was narrating his self hate fest pity party.
Honestly I get the feeling this review is a brilliant entry point into Brandon Sanderson's books as a whole.
Brandon Sanderson saw Mortal Engienes and thought: “Bet!” and made his own with black jack and investiture
21:00 About the Sigzil stuff if he picked up the DS when he's 39 and hes a young man in stormlight, (early 20s) the major changes to his charachter wont happen till late era 2.l, most likely.
I've been WAITING for this one.
Sorry it took so long!
I like creators like you and Mancarryingthing, who simultaneously produce super short hilarious videos, but then also occasionally just drop these more serious longer videos dissecting some topic in detail. It makes for better variety and balance of content.
Regarding what you said about the Cosmere being kind of like physics, I remember when I was reading Oathbringer, when a character is "flying" to a village by falling that direction, I calculated Roshar's terminal velocity and compared that to the distance and time it took the character to travel, and the math checked out exactly.
Hey, I'd like to know more about this. Would you be willing to run me through some details? 😃
I only just got ahold of The Way of Kings, I’ll hit this eventually! Byyye!
Byyee!!
Don't forget Edgedancer & dawnshard, respectively between books 2 & 3, then 3 &4
Have fun on your journey!
Come back in 2 years!
While it's a very beloved book, don't feel discouraged if you don't get hooked immediately! It is indeed very good, but it took me quite some time to actually get into it-it has several prologues and storylines that can take quite some time to really get started!
The Sunlit Man was the first book I've read where the Stormlight Archive is mentioned. I was reading the Secret Projects in order, and when that red book with black pages showed up, it actually made me say "wow."
Right now, I'm in the last two hundred pages of Rhythm of War, and I will probably take the chance to re-read The Sunlit Man.
I also felt that the descriptions in the book were often simple or lacking; when I was reading it, I didn’t know how to imagine the planet in my head.
I also struggled to read the first fifty pages, often having to go back and re-read them.
The Sunlit Man is an action movie made book, it makes you read it fast. The constant chase is not only in the story but in the prose as well. Just as there is no time to explore each world whenever Zelion worldhops, there is no time to stop and describe every detail he encounters because the clock is ticking. If he stays put, the Night Brigade will find him within a matter of hours.
You get the sense from his behavior that he is the same person from the Stormlight Archive, but now, he’s ancient, like the Heralds, and tired. He wants to care about people but knows he can’t afford to. The special connection he forms with the people of Canticle connects his very soul to the world in a way that apparently hasn’t happened to him in a long time. This connection forces him to confront the truth: he’s not the person he feels he should be, but rather the person he feels he can’t be anymore. He literally doesn’t call himself by his own name until the end of the book.
It may not make a good job at describing the world but it does show you the toll that time and responsibility have taken on him.
As someone who doesn't visualize when I read at all, I'm glad there isn't distracting descriptions that don't add to anything.
I still like hoid, but I also will not be voting for him for president. He'd probably do a fantastic job, but only so far as it doesn't go against his own interests.
I feel like he would let the whole country crumble and burn in order to get what he wants. With tears, perhaps, but he would let it happen.
I think its a pretty interesting premise to suggest that Hoid is the main villain of the Cosmere. I'm going to have to ruminate on that one for a while.
Rather than letting it burn to get what "he wants", I think it’s more accurate to say that he‘d do so to get what "he thinks is important". By his own quote in WoR, there’s little that frightens him more than a man trying just that, and it also fits better with the quote spoken from him in warning to Dalinar you‘re referencing (the actual quote uses "need" instead of "want")
I think the narrator did a great job with the cinder king, he really gives him that “Myehehehe I’m EVIL” voice in the most ironic way possible and I love it
I’m not ready to give up on Hoid. There’s still so much we need to learn about him. He probably had reasons for giving the Dawnshard to someone who is generally good, when he could have done something much worse.
Literally just finished Sunlit man again and saw this in my for you page 10 minutes later. Perfect.
This book definitely made me picture sanderson writing it rather than seeing the characters and environments vividly the way a fantasy book should
I love how you can see many points of improvement for a book, it it doesn’t let it take you away from the good points and your overall enjoyment
For the scadrian facility it made sense to me to be described that way - it's Sigzil emphasizing that it's not some sanctuary or hope like the beaconites expected, just a normal laboratory. But I generally agree that when reading Sanderson's books I often have trouble visualizing the environments. The illustrations are what really sell Canticle as a beautiful and alien environment.
I love your reviews! So glad you're doing them again 😊
Sygzal is playing the part of nomad, that scene literally involves him going like man im a dick head
Immersive prose really depends on how visual-brained you are. I'm low on the visual brain scale. It takes full focus to mentally picture an image, and that's something that never happens when I read, so additional immersive descriptions are purely annoying to me. They take me out of the story because I basically have to sit on my hands until I get to something that's actually relevant.
Meanwhile, some people are unable to think of something without picturing it. For those people, NOT having that description is annoying, because they're forced to visualize, and can't do it well.
same for me. I can overlook SOME visual descriptions (and I do mean "overlook," not "visualize"), but if it gets too much, then it's just like the text is taking a break from the part of the book that my brain can actually compute, so I just zone out. Then I'm left between the choice of trying to reread that description 5 times until I can finally visualize it, (before forgetting it again a few hours later) or just keep reading with that nagging suspicion that I've missed out on something important. (In addition, "zoning in" again after "zoning out" can't always be timed perfectly to the end of that visual description, so I might even miss out on the plot relevant things that happen immediately after the visual description.)
It's why I'll never read Lord of the Rings
We are all rutting for Hoid all the time and the biggest plot twist is going to be the villain reveal of Hoid in the space era of the cosmere
I don’t remember exactly when Sanderson said it, but his original plan for the cosmere was adventures like this one, where the reoccurring mc (hoid) wakes up on a planet and needs to find out how investiture works there so that he can juice up and teleport out. I think it’d be kind of fun if we got more sigzil/zellion adventures like this one, as kind of episodic stories that grow the cosmere but don’t carry a whole ton of weight (aside from the all the lore and ✨drama✨ that would no doubt be involved (looking at you hoid and kel))
When I read wheel of time for the first time, I developed a tolerance to prose. Not specifically long, or bad prose, most prose I don't notice. I read the whole book in a day the first and second time I read it. That read it fast thing that was talked about, basically sums up why I am confused when people comment on his prose.
Man, this Sunlit Man sounds pretty damn fire 🔥 and this channel is also pretty damn fire 🔥
I can see your arguments about Brandon’s prose but for me I actually really like how sparse he is with visual descriptions here. I’ve never been able to imagine visuals based on text so when authors spend huge paragraphs describing something it pulls me out completely.
I was thinking of how people used to mock Robert Jordan about his excessive detail. You really just can't please everyone.
Having listened to the audiobook and without access to the drawings, I had no issue visualizing the world in my head, thought there were plenty of descriptions.
One criticism I have of Sanderson's writing, which I think is a contributing factor to most of the flaws therein, is that he rushes himself now in a way that he didn't before. The fan base has built up a big meme about how Sanderson writes 20 books a day, and I think he takes pride in that, so much so that he doesn't take the time to truly revise and improve upon his writing. Sanderson has improved over the course of his career, but not as much as you would expect out of somehow who's written dozens of books. If, whenever he had time to sneakily write a secret novel, he instead took that time to do further revisions and meditations on his existing projects, I think his books could truly find what they're missing.
I think this is very fair. As much as I loved the year of sanderson project, it's hard not to feel that some of these books would be stronger with more time put into them. He seems to just have a lot of ideas, and wants to turn as many of them into books as possible.
@@genericallyentertaining Considering that Sanderson is already planning on bringing other authors into the Cosmere, I hope that he gives some of his ideas to them to work on so he can better focus on his core series and writing style
He has said many times that he hates revising. He loves writing out a first draft and then hates going back over to polish it. I'm a huge fan, but I think this hatred of revising and lack of self discipline with an important part of the writing process is his biggest weakness.
I feel like Hoid is the Loki of the Cosmere.
I didn't know you even did book reviews!
Right? Me either lok
More book reviews, please.
I love both book reviews and scketches ^-^ I more or less share your thoughts on this book. I mean, I read it really fast, as you said, Sanderson seems to write his books to be read this way. And I didn't think too hard about some points of the story until I finished it. This happens to me a lot with Sanderson's novels, while I'm reading them I'm thrilled, but the moment I finish I start thinking "well, it was fun, but it isn't as good as it seems".
I just relate to Sanderson characters because I am very introspective.
10/10, always love hearing your thoughts on this stuff. Thanks a bunch for sharing!
This is going to sound insane, but I think the story lasts 12 hours? 13 at most.
While they're calculating the time to get over the mountain Sigzil works out that their hours are about half a standard hour? Given the final showdown happens practically at the spot sigzil arrives that means the whole book is 13-14 hours.
Yeah, i lost track because the hours on that planet are seemingly a lot shorter than ours, but it clearly wasn't very much time.
Just found you through your subatomic particle sitcom vid (absolutely hilarious) and found out you’re A COSMERE FAN??? HOW BASED CAN ONE PERSON BE??
Excellent review. You really made me think about how many modern words he uses. It certainly doesn't help his prose style. Your'e also right about how introspective his characters always are in his books.
Really enjoyed this review - I think it was so insightful, and genuinely helped me sum up a lot of my negative thoughts on the book. Also, it is a shame you won’t vote for Hoid because the other option is a more evil Hoid.
Most of my thoughts (agreeing or disagreeing) have already been covered by more timely comments, but I do have one thing. I agreed with your comments about prose - particularly with words like "cringeworthy"; I think B$ wants the later-timeline stuff to feel more modern and so he uses words like that, but it doesn't always work - though I don't think I'm bothered by it as much as you seem to be. I also think a lot of it was due to the nature of the secret projects. However, what REALLY bothered me throughout the four books was that there were sentence fragments EVERYWHERE, and usually they would have been easily resolved by just removing the period and continuing into the next sentence. It was like some weird cousin of the comma splice.
I also just finished The Sunlit Man! Really loved it, I read it at a breakneck pace which maybe helps based on your criticism haha. I totally get your point about the lack of descriptions, I think in particular I would have liked to see more scenes from the perspective of the people that live on Canticle (I'm surprised we never got a perspective chapter from Rebeke). But for me personally I find "immersion" in books nearly impossible because I struggle to visualize basically anything, so those sorts of descriptions are basically just useless words to me that are at best thematic and kind of interesting but at worst frustrating and boring.
SPOILERS BELOW:
Agreed that Elegy's arc was awesome, I think she was the most interesting character by a lot. I wish that either Nomad had more of Sigzil's specific mannerisms and speech patterns, or he was really different in an actually meaningful way. I agree that the forced "meanness" at the beginning was just hollow, he was never actually a bad guy and that was pretty obvious. But all in all I think his arc was more about forgiving himself than becoming a better person, so him not really being a bad guy didn't take away from his arc for me personally.
Everyone who started the cosmere with sunlit man, assemble!
Wait, for real?? What was it like?
Brandon talked about immersion in his podcast recently and he basically said while he tries his best to keep the immersion for his readers as much as possible, he never really relates to people with those kinds of criticism for any piece of fiction. he always reads/watches stories fully aware that its a piece of work because he is constantly thinking about it from the writers perspective. personally I relate half with him half with you, I barely lose my immersion but when I do it doesnt really bother me, but I might enjoy the work better if it keeps me immersed better.
other than that I fully agree with the criticisms about the structure. the books really are feeling a bit too same-y. also agree on this book feeling like a small section of a much bigger story. I will almost certainly like this book a lot more when I reread it after knowing that bigger story.
But I disagree a lot on your criticisms regarding Nomad's character. your whole read on Nomad's character was really off imo. what ctom42 in this comment section said is how I understood his character.
your hoid take is really interesting lol, you honestly make a good point, was hoid the main villain all a long ?
Your part about the Immersion was an eye-opener for me. For me it’s not the details that get me immersed. The bigger worldbuilding and unique magic system get me immersed. I liked this book for not focusing on the small details that add nothing to the story or the worldbuilding on a grander scale. Fun to hear that you get immersed by smaller details.
I agree with most of your points. Great review!
Every Sanderson fan should read Tyrion chapters (the part where he travels) from ASOIAF to see how an author can do a great job of world building. Dance of the Dragons is especially great where he travels on river Rhoyne. I personally feel like I have visited Rhoyne.
Could not disagree more. I very much dislike GRRM’s style of worlbuilding and overall style. Just get on with the story bro.
I so agree with the criticism of Brandon's writing. Especially in contrast to Jordan as one of his influences, Brandon writes so little "fluff" descriptions. Every scene passes so quickly with the focus on the thoughts and feelings, with no time to stop and smell the roses.
I am also getting tired of Hoid, funnily enough.
One major point of contention for me was receiving my Tress box which said something like "story tellers don't tell you what to think" inside, then as I was reading Tress noticing just how often Hoid bends that rule
Best example of Hoid being a snake is the emperor's soul, he betrays shai and nearly gets her executed.
That's a good one, but I always think of Mistborn, where he assures Kelsier that Shan Elariel is a Soother *after* Vin learns the same information. He goes so far as to mention that she keeps a pouch of brass on her. But he doesn't mention or even hint that Shan is Mistborn. If they had relied on his information, if Vin wasn't convinced that pretty much everyone around her was secretly Mistborn, it could have easily gotten her killed.
Any thoughts about Sando’s personal reading order?
he clearly haven't read the cosmere
What the heck, I've been subscribed for months and I didn't know you did book reviews! Anyways pretty cool
19:53 WORM reference?
Nathan, have you read the Realm of the Elderlings? I personally feel like Wit is basically the Fool from the initial 9 books. With certain differences of course. Just how mbot is basically Paragon from that series.
I really want to start reading sanderson but he wrote SO MANY BOOKS and there's an order in which you should read them and I feel like the longer I wait the harder it'll be to start and I'm stuck in a loop where I'm too scared to start but if I don't start soon I never will
anyways sorry about the rambling just wanted to put that out there
honestly see the sinopsis of some of them and just start on the one you like more, if you enjoy it, keep on going, no need to stress about it really, just go on and read
Id recommend reading Mistborn book 1. I read that series without knowing there were other series out there so just read it and then only read the others if you like that book
Start with Warbreaker. Next Mistborn Era 1 (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages). Then Elantris. Next, his anthology of short stories, except skip the Roshar (Stormlight Archive) stories until you get to that. Now Mistborn Era 2. Then SLA (there is a short story between books 2&3 and between 3&4). Then anything I missed.
When you say that the books desperately wants you to think that Nomad is only about survival, then you say it is really obvious he does care. Then you are like this feels false he is playing a part. I think that should show the book does not want you to think that. Instead the 'tell' is the introspection showing how he used to be and that he is trying to behave differently. He's not a scoundrel, he is as you say not a bad guy but he has become tired and drained and has self disgust because of what has occurred. What it is supposed to show the reader is we know something that he does not. Indeed he has never really fallen as far as he thought, that is why he can make that work.
Anyway YMMV but that is why it worked for me.
Also little note that I have used cringeworthy in common parlance and words like beautiful and horrendous I absolutely use and hear regualrly. I know I am not typical but just wanted to throw that out there :)
Absolutely fine with the fact it threw you and doubtless others out of the story.
You explanation of what you didn't like is very helpful and clear. Even without agreeing with you on several points I do find your explanation of your views reasonable and balanced.
Sunlit man is the only Brandon Sanderson book they have at my local library. Well besides Defiant. I still don’t understand the train of thought that leads someone to buy sunlit man over mistborn as your first cosmere book.
Ah the Comsere my favorite setting.
I loved this book and also read it pretty late! Cool beans
IMO this is not a good entry to Sanderson's world. It requires previous knowledge of other works to understand what's going on.
I've heard Sigzil described this way: Sigzil in the Stormlight Archive is Hal from Malcolm in the middle. Sigzil in Sunlit Man is Walter White.
Also, with each of your upcoming book reviews I want you to do an additional alt-history worldbuilding version.
the presence of certain words kicking you out of the story is, I think, a fair point, but I don't think it's a flaw in the prose as much as it is an experience differential. those words don't stand out to me like they do to you because I *do* hear those words used in a conversation. Brandon could definitely stand to freshen up his adjective pool, though, definitely agree there
I think he took a lot of shortcuts with the secret projects and it shows. This is most obvious in Yumi where there is a huge info dump at the end explaining something that was otherwise completely incomprehensible.
Jippie, a book review! (Also love the skits & funnies tho no worries)
Yeah... Sunlit Man was... a book. Like, I *liked* it. I did. But there's just some things about it that kinda put into perspective a lot of my broader problems with Sanderson's work. And it's not really *just* the Sunlit man. Realistically, the foundation was first shaken when I read Rhythm of War and outright disliked it, eroded further when I read Lost Metal and found it enjoyable but ultimately disappointing as a close to that era of Mistborn, and basically shattered by a combination of Tress and Sunlit Man (I had far, *far* more problems with Tress). I still like Sanderson's work and certainly don't think he's a bad author, he's just no longer even close to contention for my favorite author.
Like, kinda similar to what you said about Nomad, one of my biggest issues with Sunlit Man is that he's just kind of a hard protagonist. Broadly speaking, I enjoy the general arc of someone learning their better than they think they are and turning from an ultimately self-centered perspective to a more alturisitc one. But for Sigzil, I kinda just... don't really see it? The fact that we're missing so much of what brought him that low makes it hard to get invested in the first place and doesn't so much get me excited to see what happened as apathetic to the current state of affairs. And like you said, a lot of his 'misanthropy' comes across more as him just being a rude jerk. Which. Just makes me kinda not like him.
And I'm kind of just a little sick of the Cosmere at this point? Like, I found it more interesting as a theoretical when you could find the threads connecting things and draw conclusions about the implications in individual stories. But now that it's actually moving towards being a fully interconnected story of a setting told across several works... Eh. I don't know that it's bad, I just don't care. Especially since I've grown a bit frustrated with the sheer degree of focus placed on explaining the magic systems, though admittedly this is going to be more a Tress complaint. I'll cop to this just being personal taste, but I don't really care about how the magic works so long as I can understand it. Early systems of Investiture felt like they struck a good balance with making themselves very understandable without slowing the story to explain details that only matter to the audience. Now... Well, we get scenes like Tress making a vine-cannonball which I just didn't care about. All I needed there was 'shell breaks, water hits spores, vines happen'.
And speaking of complaints that might be more Tress directed, stars above I am sick of Hoid. My general opinion of him for a while now has been 'I liked him until he started talking'. It was cool to have this one character who always shows up; it was fun to try and figure out who he is in a given story and what he's doing there. But now? He's an unlikable jerk who isn't nearly as funny as Sanderson seems to think we should find him. While I had *many* problems with Tress, the largest one was that I couldn't stand him as a narrator. And like you said with Sunlit Man, he's just not a good person and while that's not necessarily a problem for a character, it makes it hard to buy him as one of the fundamentally most benevolent people in the broader setting, which is the role I'd assumed he was supposed to hold for a solid decade.
Then with the setting itself, I kinda found Sunlit Man a bit hard to get into for two reasons. First, because Canticle is just Crematoria from the Chronicles of Riddick. Sure, ideas can be reused across stories, but that was one thing that just took me out a little. Second and more importantly, I've discovered that I don't really think I'm all that interested in the space age of the Cosmere. I'd been skeptical from way back when Sanderson explained his plan for Mistborn's eras to culminate in a space-faring adventure, but now? I mean, again, it's a personal taste thing, but it's a bit frustrating when you get into a series because it's fantasy and you like fantasy only for it to slowly pivot to sci-fi which I'm just a bit more tepid on. And I don't think Sunlit Man really did enough to convince me that Cosmere sci-fi will be all that interesting. Like, to your comments on feeling a little Star Wars-y, it kinda felt like just 'generic spaceships which just so happens to have Investiture doing stuff occasionally'; not sci-fi enough to really feel interesting as sci-fi but not fantasy enough to hook me in that direction either.
Sorry for the fairly incoherent wall of text. I do look forward to more book reviews and hope you do end up making a video discussing flowery language; as someone of a more loquacious bent, it sounds very interesting to me.
My first Sanderson book, and indeed the first time I had even heard of him, was from The Way of Kings, a hardcover copy with no sleeve. I found it at my grandma's house while visiting her for a holiday. I don't know why I felt compelled to ready it--it didn't stand out from the other books on her shelf--but I was hooked almost instantly. I read almost half the book during the time I was there and, when it was time to go home, she graciously let me take it with me. When I had finished it, I immediately bought Words of Radiance using some gift cards I had saved up. And it was just as incredible, if not more so. In the time between then and the release of Rhythm of War, I didn't read any of his other books: I only had eyes for The Stormlight Archive. But when Rhythm of War released, I was severely disappointed. It just didn't _feel_ like the previous books; it was as though someone else had written it. And then Oathbringer was somehow even worse. I honestly can't even tell you what happens in those two books, outside of 1 or 2 plot points: I barely even recall reading them in the first place. Since then, I have read many of his other books, and most of them are good, great even, but none of them come even close to The Way of Kings or Words of Radiance.
@@sethbettwieser did you read Rythem of War before Oathbringer, or did you just mix up the names?
@@mineton1293 You're right, I had the names switched. Just goes to show how incredibly forgettable those books were for me.
One day, one dey you'll post another Discworld review...
I just reread Going Postal right after finishing The Fifth Elephent for the first time, I have never enjoyed a reread that much before.
He did not really break his oath to his spren, the dawnshard simply beginned to eat the soul of his spren when he spended all his investiture, he gave the dawnshard to someone else before it ate all the soul
The dawnshard began to consume Auxiliary, who is a highspren. At the current point in the Stormlight Archive (Rhythm of War) Sigzil is bonded to an honorspren, though. So either Sigzil killed the honorspren by breaking his oaths, the spren got destroyed with Anti-Stormlight, or something else happened to the bond.
@@TheEmetic In Sunlit Man, Sigzil specifically says that he foolishly abandoned his oaths, killing his honorspren.
@@rustygray5058 ah, misremembered that, I guess. My point that he was bonded to 2 seperate spren holds though.
Wait their are illustrations I listened to the audiobook
All the secret projects do
I did like this book but it's really just a simple story and a lot of fanservice. Theres nothing wrong with simple stories but i enjoyed tres more.
You do book reviews??
I like Hoid, despite and sometimes even because, he is not a good person. I mean, he sure has his nice moments with Shallan, but the fact that he IS a bit jaded from living so long, that he IS willing to take down and let planets burn for his goals... Idk it's great. He is a wacky lil' guy... Until he isn't. It's interesting✨
Yeah, he's definitely complicated, and I'm sure there are some factors that influenced what happened with Sigzil that we don't know about yet. But the main thing that bugs me is the relative lack of sympathy he expressed for Sigzil in this book; it's like, even if Sigzil did have to take up the Dawnshard for the good of the Cosmere, the least you could do is give him a helping hand now that you sent the Night Brigade chasing after him for the rest of time.
I like Hoid, but I would never want to meet him, because if I meet him, that either means I am so traumatized the cosmere is about to make me superhuman, or he's going to traumatize me so much I become a superhuman.
When I was 12 I used to think exactly the same. That those that use the word cringe are in fact themselves cringe. Now I realize that caring about that and thinking in that way is cringe. Gives strong ego and “not humble” vibes.
Skrrrt 😂😂😅😅🎉slay
To add to this, I really hated the scene where he put his boots on the table. Like there is no reason to act like an asshole to those people other than making the reader think he is a bit too edgy.
Sigzil is not thinking about the reader in that moment, he is purposefully trying to antagonize these people and distance himself from them so that he doesn't grow attached and doesn't try to help them and ultimately feel bad for failing them (like he failed so many others in the past). It's a defense mechanism. Great characterization.
05:00 It seems like Nomad has to get 20k BEUs each time he skips, thats a fortune of investiture, if he stole that much from an average planet its likey he ruined a couple civilizations by now (he has to drain the equivlent of half a warbreaker godking from each planet)
So it makes sense he feels like he's not a good person anymore.
Yeah, the implications of that are crazy! It seems plausible that he has done some pretty horrible things by this point...but we never get to see them.
We also know that U'tol, the planet he ends the book on, is famous for some disaster that happened there by the time hoid tells the story of SP3. And considering Nomad isn't aware of the spread of Fainlife off of Yolen, it's likely he's the one at fault.
I strongly disagree with your take on "cringeworthy", in that I think it's an example of the Tiffany Problem. I've heard "cringeworthy" used frequently my entire life, and only when the internet started using "cringe" as an adjective in its place did "cringeworthy" disappear from my social lexicon.
@@AtaraxianWist That's interesting, actually. Perhaps my dislike of this word can be traced back to ineffable personal taste, while what I say in this video is my attempt to rationalize that taste. But on an aesthetic level, I just think it's an awkward word.
@@genericallyentertaining In that, I wholly agree with you. It's not a great word.
I hear it fairly often, but it also threw me out of the story, I think it just has too much connection to modern meme culture
I like book reviews
If I wasn't told it was Sigzil it would've taken me a good while to realise he was. Kind of weirdly written in that regard.
It makes sense that he would have changed a lot in the intervening years, but yeah, he's so different at first that it's a little disorienting. But tbf, it seems really hard for a time gap this big where we are missing crucial information about what happened in the intervening books not to be disorienting.
@@genericallyentertaining Oh yeah for sure. I don't think Sanderson did it by accident obviously but it WAS jarring. Still liked the book though, really scratched the SA itch I'd been having in between books a bit.
Finally? The book isn't even a year old :D I finally read The Lies of Locke Lamora. Finally is well said, when it is 18 years old :) Just being pedantic keyboard non-warrior :D
Came for sketches. Stayed for reviews
You don't post book reviews.....😂❤ love you man
YOU HAVE OTHER STUFF TO DO?!?!
Lies
Ps: Totally agree either way all your points...especially the cons. Could listen to you rant for hours. I'm ALL about descriptive language; and there's not enough here.
I like Sunlit man, but the absolutely mad dash pace of the book makes it a little hard to get invested in the characters. There wasn't enough time to get to know the characters or really care. If there had just been a hundred more pages to let us become invested in the plights and trials of the characters it would have been so much better. It felt like Sanderson had great character arcs planned, but rushed himself in getting from point A to B. Overall the book felt sort of mediocre. I also agree that the descriptions are mediocre, it makes it hard to connect with the world when it feels like the entire planet is just a barren rock.
I think as far as the discount Han Solo criticism goes sigzil is lying to himself so yes he says he doesn't care but he's just trying to convince himself that he doesn't
It's very similar to how Kaladin constantly tries to convince himself that if he could just not care about these people, it won't hurt so much when they inevitably die.
I literally have no idea where you got the star wars comparison from, literally no clue
What are they systematized ways of crushing peoples spirits that’s he’s referring to?
In Mistborn, I believe it's mentioned that nobles sometimes abuse their children in order to try to get them to "snap" and become Mistings. And in the Stormlight Archive, there are references to cults - such as the one Teft's parents were a part of - that attempt to do much the same thing. We don't get a lot of detail about this, but there seems to be a strong spiritual aspect to this abuse, since "cracks in the Spiritweb" are what allow someone to become Invested on these worlds. (Hence why a disproportionate number of Knights Radiant struggle with mental health issues.)
Did Nomad enter this new planet via a Perpendicularity?
Sort of. He Skipped there, so... yeah. Basically, he got enough Investiture to create a mini-perpendicularity for like a milisecond and that worked kind of like an oathgate, instantly bringing him to another planet with most of his Investiture expended
@@NataliaPunko 😮
I dont like the modern colloquialisms in fantasy either. I remember being pulled out of the story reading "cringe worthy."
On the other hand, I also dont like how nitpicky some fans can be in regards to your vulcan/volcano analogy, and how they will ask the author a question along those lines. Then the author really has no other recourse then the copout "well thats not the word in their language but I, as the author translated it into the closest word we have in ours."
I need an advise from you book worms in comments here.
Is there a book with the character that really cares only for himself on the extreme and will do literally anything to achieve his goal?
Like sacrificing your family that you really care about in a blood ritual to gain power?
Someone that is cruel not only to others but to herself, cutting his fingers with the strait face only to find out the future of the next day or something like that.
If necessary, be the most righteous person on earth or become the devil himself, someone that defines, create or manipulate the morals and don't obey them, only to achieve his goal ?
I know only one book that like this and I can't find another one, i really want to find another book that is like that.
Sounds like grimdark stuff.....
Aux arc destroyed me.
Yeah I hate Hoid now too
Yeah. That last scene with Aux was really sad.
@@genericallyentertainingughhhhhhh damned phone spellcheck made me look like an idiot......
AUX.
Yes it crushed my soul. I i'm also not sure I completely understand what happened to him… Because aren't the deadeyes dead spren technically?
But they are not really dead dead… Not as we understand it. They still walk around and talk and stuff. Admittedly it has been a while since I have read the entire archive, so there's probably a point of magic system that I am missing here. But still I don't want to let go of hope......
So what is he now? I hate to think that that is the last we see of that character.
Brando's "won't work on for a long time" is about 5 months.
You're a dead ringer for your brothers/friends. But I like you best.
Honestly, I never understood why people liked Hoid 😅
I feel like you missed a lot in your read. You seem to be trying to project what you wanted to see in story on to the book instead of looking for what was there. An example is your impression of the passage describing the Scandrian research post when Zellion and the locals arrive. For the whole book, Zellion has been explaining to the locals that this place is not a sanctuary, and that they will not be taken in. That passage, in its general and obvious lack of description and explanation, tells you exactly how inadequate the place was as a sanctuary. Together with the dismissive behaviour demonstrated by the scientists, and the major reveals we get from Zellion’s perspective, several points are driven home for, not just the reader, but also the locals Zellion led there. Most importantly that this is not a sanctuary.
I understand this argument in principle, and I get that the tone of the scene is meant to feel anticlimactic. But something about the scene just feels...off. I can't help but think that the point of this scene, which is that the Scadrians are being insensitive and cold and that there was never a hope of them offering refuge to the Beaconites, would have been better made if Sanderson had emphasized more the power differential between these two groups, and he could have done this by highlighting all the ways this base and its inhabitants would feel alien to the people native to Canticle. The scene feels mundane when it could have been disorienting and devastating. But you're right that this is also a reflection of my own preferences.
@@genericallyentertaining I agree. The solution, I think, would have been a different POV character. Zellion knew what to expect and so didn’t focus on anything worth describing.
Kudos on the use of sesquipedalian, one of my favorites and I don't think I've ever encountered a single use of it by someone in the wild.
I also still haven't finished all secret projects. Brando Sando really is too fast.
dude i agree with you 100%. also yeah. Hoid sucks. I've never understood why people like him.
Spoiler:
...
Does anyone else feel like "Zellion" does not sound like a Threnodite name at all? The Threnodites are Space Puritans; they tend to have names that are based on the Bible, or virtues. "Zellion" sounds like a generic cool fantasy name that doesn't really fit in that aesthetic.
12:54 .. observation..
the word “horrendous” is one frequently used by myself and some of the people around me.. 😁
Maybe you’re not talking to enough people from a different book demographic?? 😂 lol
I hate talking to people usually myself.. but the ones I DO interact with routinely either cock their head and ask for “normal English” or they use most all the words I do.. and one particular, fellow neurodivergent introvert, uses words that make me tell him to knock it off.. 😂😂 the over educated boomer.. 😛
lol
Do Americans really not use "horrendous" and "cringeworthy" regularly?
As a Brit, I find it quite hard to think of Americans without those words leaping to my tongue.
(I don't disagree with the critique of Sanderson - I absolutely disagree that these are 'unusual' words!)
People definetely say the word cringeworthy? Like that’s a wierd complaint.
Yeah I definitely don't think Hoid is a great guy. We had a lot of good vibes from him slapping Kelsier, but since then....
Man if you had issues with the prose of this book, just wait till you read the Stormlight 5 previews lol.
Just some appetisers:
Edgy tattos
"I'm game"
Goofy
Poopspren
Oh and also what would probably be at least a whole page of talking about Syl's coochie (chapter 10, if you are morbidly curious)
Evne without all those specific examples, the overall prose just feels way too modern and amateurish, and compared to even his works like The Way of Kings, i just find that disappointing and frankly, sad
bro tell me you're lying
please
@@eliangauto2200 I wish I was lol.
"'he starts to wonder about and get into the world, then thinks, oh I can't do that anymore', and it's like, *why?'"
Man, I laughed a lot at that
way to bite the hand that feeds you. people will never read sanderson after listening to this. great job destroying the very thing that gets you views on youtube. 😒 this is the same reason why star wars keeps cancelling shows. nothing is perfect. enjoy what sanderson writes because he doesn’t have to. 🤦