Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: A Cosmere Novel

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: A Cosmere Novel by Brandon Sanderson

There is a nightmare painter and a girl from another world. They discover what things are like on this world. One world is more "magical" while the one they are visiting is technology based. They discover some of the odd things like fashion in the tech world. It is an interesting fish out of water story. Then some of the Cosmere and shards parts get brought in. There is also discovery that the lead never made it to the school he wanted it. Book feels like it goes o a bit too long.

Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive

Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Wind and Truth is about as long as the Old Testament.  It also deals with religion and warfare. There are quotes from other "works" that are generally previous books in the series. The scope ranges from individual actors, to Cosmere level discussions. Most of the narrative takes place in a few days times. However, there are chapters that go back thousands of years. In this world, there are gods and people. The gods themselves are also "people" and have their foibles. Dalinar Kholin has challenged the god Odium to a duel. Odium used to be somebody else and we hear his history in some of the flashbacks. There are other characters like Jasnah and Szeth and Pattern. They are fighting battles, discussing slavery and other things. It is difficult to keep track of everything that is going on.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: A Cosmere Novel (Secret Projects Book 3)

this is another Sanderson "secret project" with audiobook available at the library, but not Audible. In this one, two people from different worlds. They are shocked to experience the other's world. One is more technologically advanced, while the other is more conservative. The values differ in each world. Even the understanding of art and science differ. The two people come together and come to a greater understanding, experiencing worlds through a different experience. It does suffer from the "length" problem of fantasy books. I got lost at times, but was able to keep going.

This Woven Kingdom

The Jinn have greater strengths than humans. Humanity made "peace" with the Jinn which eventually lead to the Jinn being oppressed. The book focuses on a Jinn girl who is destined to be a leader. She is highly educated and well trained in physical defense and dressmaking. However, she is currently living on the streets and happy to get a job as the lowest of servant girls. 

The crown prince of a kingdom likes to be out at war. The kingdom is struggling to secure a stable water supply. Another kingdom sits in the path that could provide it, yet they are regularly at odds. This crown prince comes home because his grandfather is near death and he is next in line to be king.

While walking outside, the girl is jumped by a street urchin. She is able to easily defeat him, but offers him bread at her currently place of employment. The boy attempts to commit suicide when he is confronted about his crime. The prince sees this. He thinks the girl is a spy and carries the boy to treat him and help find the supposed spy. This ends up endearing him to the common people, but causing the nobles to question his sanity.

The current King wants his son to choose a spouse from the nobility so that he can produce an heir. It seems obvious that the future king and future Jinn leader will eventually get together. However, they seem a million miles apart. There is plenty of action and a bit of fantasy and romance as the events unfold.

There are plenty of conflicts as the story unfold. There seems to be a fairy tale ending, but there are plenty of twists and surprises. It is never good to make a deal with the devil.

The Great Hunt: Book Two of The Wheel Of Time

Aes Sedai are women with special power. When a man is involved it is even better. There is some sort of "human leash" that causes others to feel what somebody feels. This makes it impossible for them to hurt the other person because. There is palace intrigue and people out in the country. Some women try to go out to a mission to their hometown to help solve things. Women seem to be both powerful and subservient. There is a hierarchy where people want to achieve new positions. The story ends.

Rhythm of War: Book Four of The Stormlight Archive

Rhythm of War is long. the audiobook clocks in at over 57 hours. (Thank goodness for 3x listening speed!) There are a lot of characters and a lot of things happening. It is also filled with increasing conflict among values. The honorspren are bound to honor. But what honor? My favorite part was the trial. It was filled with twists and turns as each side did something that was beneficial for the other. In the end, the "star" from one side ended up destroying the whole case after discussing their willingness.

The different beings continue to struggle to come to their own identity. They are challenged when they see negative things happen at the expense of others. Yet, without the others they cannot achieve their true potential. There are many corollaries to our current life. (Sanderson has even mentioned that Fantasy and Science Fiction are just ways of expressing today's concerns in different environments.) Some of the beings also are very parochial in their skills, not believing that any outsiders are capable. And there is also the researcher that makes potentially world-breaking discoveries. Plenty of things are going on, though it can be hard to keep track of the overall narrative.

Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive

Oathbringer is a long book, even by Brandon Sanderson standards. The story centers around the arrival of the voidbringers, and the negative implications on society. The world consists of humans as well as other living beings with different attributes. In this universe, eye color determines social class. Even after a great upheaval that would negate any previous social standings, people would still revert back to their old ways.
I was confused with the various characters in the story. There seemed to be a few different groups that were fighting against each other, along with a few competing religions, with some magical deities. Despite being in some fantasy world, many concerns of modern society are displayed. Some people discover that a woman may in fact be the best leader. People eventually find out that their homeland was actually taken from another people. There are questions over what is right and ethical based on the their current situation. (There is a ton of violence, ranging form the destruction of a town to the "end of the world".)

Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

Arcanum Unbound is a collection of short stories in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe. It is presented as a double abstraction, with an in-universe historian providing the background of the planet and the situation, as well as the author providing commentary on the story. Being fantasy, some of the stories are novella length on their own. There are some that focus on characters familiar to readers of other books he has written, while other stories are minor or new characters that have not had any significant appearances. Some served to add background to characters and events in his other novels. Others, were more random ditties. It felt like a fun dumping ground for interesting thoughts and stories that did not fit into the primary novel sequence.

The different titles (from Sanderson's website
“The Hope of Elantris” (Elantris)
“The Eleventh Metal” (Mistborn)
“The Emperor’s Soul” (Elantris)
“Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes 28 through 30” (Mistborn)
“White Sand” (excerpt; Taldain)
“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” (Threnody)
“Sixth of Dusk” (First of the Sun)
“Mistborn: Secret History” (Mistborn)

Words of Radiance

Words of Radiance is written as a number of interleaved stories that eventually come together at the end of the book.
As with the first book in this series, I liked the story of Shallan best. I had trouble distinguishing among some of the light-eyed nobles. We also learn more about the Voidbringers. They seem to be a bad force that destroys the world, but we also gain some sympathy towards them.

We see the characters go through great trials and emerge the more powerful. Khaladan, in particular, must repent from his approval of an assassination attempt in order to regain his powers. (And in the process, it seems like a new "bad guy" is being set up.

It is a very long book. The start is a little tough to get through, but it does pick up the pace and moves along well afterwards.

Eye of the World

I really liked Brandon Sanderson's young adult Alcatraz books. That inspired me to try out some of his mistborn books, despite my poor experience with other high fantasy. They were actually good books (though not quite up to the Alcatraz quality.) Sanderson has also written the final books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. He was chosen to do so after Jordan's widow was impressed by his Mistborn books. I want to read the Sanderson books. However, since they are in the end of the series, it would probably be best to start with book one. Hopefully the series would be as good as Sanderson's.

Thus, I am starting on Eye of the World. The book is really slow going. I'm halfway through and not a whole lot has happened so far. There has been some conflict. People fled a village. There is some gender-linked magic. There are some half-human monsters that fight.

Now I've made it to the end, and there still hasn't been a whole lot of stuff happening. Its tough to understand what the purpose was of all the words. The characters seem fairly flat, the action is pedestrian. I fell asleep listening to part of the audiobook and didn't seem to miss much. Apparently, Jordan tried to write his novel in the style of Tolkien. At least he got the tedium part right.

There are people out there that like the work of Tolkien and Jordan. Alas, I am not one of them. If they were shorter books, I might consider slogging through. But a dozen big fat novels? Nope. I think I'll be skipping to the end to get to Sanderson's novels. At least has a track record of fantasy that I can handle.