Dawnshard (Stormlight Archive 3.5) by Brandon Sanderson Review
This novel was intended to be a novella. One day however, we all woke up and saw that, Surprise!!, the novella had grown up to be the full length novel we had hoped it would become. I’m going to try to stay away from major plot and Cosmere spoilers, since this book hasn’t gotten a wide release yet-in fact, it hasn’t even made it to printing! The digital version was given to backers of the Way of Kings 10th anniversary edition Kickstarter from summer 2020. If you haven’t read it yet, it is available on most ebook platforms.
The story follows Rysn, a minor character from Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives series as she undertakes a quest to a faraway island in hopes of saving her pet Larkin. One of the most notable character traits for Rysn (besides being incredibly intelligent) is that she is paralyzed from the waist down. One of the major obstacles for her is learning to gain mobility and Sanderson (with help from some amazing beta readers) made this aspect of her character so amazingly true to life .
Joining her on this quest are The Lopen and others from the main storyline. Most of these are seen in the main series, but we get a significantly larger view into their characters. The structure of the Stormlight Archive only allows for a few viewpoint characters, so it is nice to get to see other characters shine in this side novel.
Also contained in this approximately 200 page book are a few things that have huge impact for the Cosmere in general and potentially Roshar in particular as we go into book 4 this week. No spoilers on specifics, but it does seem like Sanderson has decided to go bigger on the Cosmere lore compared to what we were getting previously.
Final word: this is an amazing story and a great ride. I definitely recommend it, but only AFTER reading Stormlight 1, 2, and 3.
