Booklog 34/2022: Brandon Sanderson: Dawnshard – Stormlight Archive Novella

[jacey]

I like Sanderson’s writing generally, but I haven’t read any of the Stormlight Archive before. This (supposed) novella’s write-up said that it had characters who had been minor (overshadowed) characters in previous books, taking centre stage, so I figured it might be a good way to sample this world. Sadly, it isn’t, or at least I didn’t get on all that well with it. There were a lot of unexplained words and concepts that were not particularly easy to get via context. However I persevered and reached the end. It’s difficult to judge length when you read on a Kindle, but this felt like a novel, not a novella. OK, the book itself… The main character in this story is a paraplegic ship owner, Rysn, sent to investigate the mysterious island of Akinah, together with her ailing pet Chiri-Chiri, last of the larkins, and Lopen the one-armed windrunner. No ship has ever returned from the island. It’s Rysn’s job to find out what’s going on.