Previous: Oathbringer

I’m not sure who keeps telling Brando Sando to keep making Novellas, but whoever it is needs to actually read them. I really can’t justify this being it’s own story. Even more than the first, this felt like a different type of filler. Filler with the audacity to be a hardcover.

My issues don’t come with the story at all really. I actually enjoyed Rysn, and thought every time she was on the page she felt real. She had valid concerns about being treated as a disabled person in a world not built for one. I loved these parts, and had never even considered before how impossible something like a wheelchair would be in a place without smooth paved roads. I even thought her ability to naturally lead her crew even though she was constantly anxious about it actually made sense. My issues come with how easily digestible this story is, and how it could’ve been condensed to take place in the interludes of Rhythm of War.

I began reading Rhythm of War before Dawnshard, and picked up after starting part 2 of the former. This made me extra salty, cause of how much time is wasted in Dawnshard. Lopen was mostly fun to travel with, but on more than one occasion I internally asked myself, “Is this what Lopen would have done/said?” Some of his lines really didn’t seem to come from him, almost as if it were written for a different character. Not to say that the un-serious gag-relief can’t experience real emotion, but I figured it would’ve been done in the Lopen way.

I think my real issue is take away the Cosmere setting of the story, and this would’ve been extremely uninteresting. After Edgedancer I was practically begging for more information on the Sleepless and where they come from. After this, I have more questions, and less answers, other than the Sleepless likely originate from another system not related to Roshar.

I hate how much I don’t like this story. I can sorta see the vision by allowing these characters to develop, but I thought Rysn has and still might have the best interlude chapters of all time, and it takes place in the Words of Radiance I’m pretty sure. This one is going to get a 2 out of 5 for me.