Dawnshard
Ratings471
Average rating4.2
This is a fantastic little interlude that's assembled with the same care and and quality of all the other entries in this series. This book is kind of a miracle in that It stretches what could've probably been a few pages of exposition into an entire novel that's actually worth reading! I enjoyed every bit of this and was surprised to find that very little felt extraneous or tacked on. It has great pacing, interesting characters, and meaningfully adds to the series as a whole. 4 stars!
Started a bit slowish, but quickly picked up the pace. A mostly calm and interesting read, exploring more side characters and giving them more attention.
A decently fun short and adventure novella but to be honest it wasn't very interesting to me!
A decently fun short and adventure novella but to be honest it wasn't very interesting to me!
Rysn and Lopez are great, but I’m honestly not sure if I care about lore enough if it’s not on a grand scale. Still a lot better than Edgedancer though.
such a fun read! quick little treasure hunting adventure/mystery that introduces some really interesting things into the cosmere. rysn may be one of my fave stormlight characters of them all now, and i appreciated the effort put into making the lopen at least a little bit likeable.
begs the question, should every sanderson book be 300 pages long?
wowow. what a novella. a super fun story that's essentially a piracy adventure, with a splash of new cosmere knowledge thrown in.
Un descanso en esta saga épica. Un tiempo para leer una pequeña aventura con personajes que merecen su tiempo.
Alot of time spent on the journey which I wish was spent on the discovery of secrets which come crashing down all at once. The conflict set up was not explored as mich as I would like. The ending is satisfying and the nod to a greater connected universe and the promise of greater mysteries was well done. Many side characters were not memorable but the main characters were interesting enough.
A fun interlude between Stormlight books, particularly welcome as it allows Lopen, everyone’s favourite Hardazian, to have more of a story. It also sheds light on some of the more esoteric Roshar mysteries.
Dawnshard is a short story or novella based in the Stormlight Archive world and reading it felt like coming back home - I just love this world! The Stormlight Archive series is one of my all-time favourite series of books and this little side quest between books 3 & 4 brings all the things I love, albeit in mini-form, and manages to fill out some side characters from the main series along the way. First, out the gate, I'll say this isn't a standalone story. While it will give you a taste of Sanderson's world, it won't make a whole lot of sense on its own if you haven't read the main series. While I would recommend other Sanderson novellas that could be read on their own merit, this isn't one of them. But if you're already immersed in the series, this is a MUST read! Lopen and Rysn join forces on a seafaring voyage for reasons both personal and on behalf of others looking for answers regarding a mysterious island where myth has it an ancient civilization existed. Let the adventure, humor, and fantastical happenings ensue! Not only do we get a fun story, but also a lot of insight into Lopen, Rysn, and other side characters, which I think will enrich them overall going forward in the series. Besides Sanderson's world-building and the characters that have wormed their way into my heart, the thing I love the most about his writing is the positive outlook he imbues in his characters and throughout the stories he tells and I find it so encouraging and inspiring. Even in this short foray, I found my heart swelling at certain points and found gems to take with me after I finished reading. While I don't think the story completely blew me away, it was a comfort read return to the world I love, and an expansion of many of the pieces we're still learning about it. There are a few surprising reveals that could have HUGE implications to come and this book makes me excited to see where it all leads!
Brandon Sanderson is so good at creating consistently likable characters. I love Lopen, I love Rysn, I love Cord. His prose is so simple and easily digestible, I glide through it like nothing. Sometimes I don't need literature, sometimes I just wanna have fun.
ALSO, ANOTHER WIN FOR (partial) NAUTICAL FANTASY! My fave sub-genre. We need more fantasy books set in boats, we need more sailors, pirates, privateers with magic. I demand it, even.
A solid novella that expands the world and the cosmere. I feel like these types of books are important as they take away the need to build the cosmere from the main books in the series (which I have heard have started to be weighed down to further the cosmere). The nautical theme is something that I didn't realize is something I would naturally like but am loving. The mystery and questions this raises only piques the interest in reading the series further.
The only complaint I have and I've noticed Sanderson has done this in the past is that he will tease a reveal and right when you piece it together, he'll just tell you the next chapter. Now obviously he doesn't do this with every mystery but when he does it tends to be unsatisfying.
Not much to say without spoiling, great novella (miles better then Edgedancer) and a must read if anyone loves the world building of the Cosmere
En este librito de tan solo 200 páginas, te encuentras una historia con una estructura narrativa muy decente, pero cargada hasta los topísimos de información valiosísima para la saga.
Se exploran mil temas de los que quería saber más, conocemos a personajes que ya me interesaban y que ahora han llegado para quedarse...
No había escuchado una reseña ni opinión de este libro nunca, y me alegro de ello ya que me ha pillado por sopresa lo mucho que me ha gustado esta historia y su implicación. Ahora me muero de ganas de “El Ritmo de la Guerra”, qué le vamos a hacer.
Waauw!
Ik verwachtte nu wel dat ik deze novelle graag ging lezen, maar ik had niet verwacht dat het verhaal zo impactvol zou zijn voor de ganse serie! Gewoonweg verbazingwekkend.
Geweldig verhaal, spannend avontuur en fantastisch om deze personages beter te leren kennen. Benieuwd hoe dit zal linken in het grote verhaal!
Mmm, es mala? No. Es tan buena como otros libros de Sanderson? También no. No es que sea una novela horrible, pero es cierto que las comparaciones son odiosas. Me parece una historia alargada de más, quizás no halla conseguido conectar con ella.
I wasn't engaged by this book at the very beginning, probably because it featured side characters from the Stormlight Archive so far whom I'm not that interested in, and seemed to be primarily set aboard a ship. Naval stories aren't my most preferred subgenre and I've read a few consecutively recently so I wasn't thrilled to be honest. But Dawnshard really turns things around.
In this one, Rysn, who has generally been relegated to interludes in previous Stormlight books, is now sent on a journey by Navani Kholin to investigate the mythical island of Akinah, from whence a ghost ship devoid of its crew had appeared. She embarks on the voyage accompanied by Knights Radiant the Lopen and Huio, as well as her assistant Nikli. Secretly, Rysn was also given to hope that Akinah might provide an answer or treatment for her ailing pet larkin, Chiri Chiri.
This is a short enough novella and, at least past the 20-30% mark, makes for an entertaining read. Rysn and the Lopen have not been interesting characters to me thus far which made the beginning of the book drag a bit, but by the end I definitely appreciated them a lot more than I had in the whole series (even if I wouldn't say they're new favourites).
Unlike Edgedancer, where we're introduced to a prominent new character who will be playing a significant part in subsequent Stormlight Archive books, Dawnshard doesn't do any such thing. Instead, Dawnshard introduces things and concepts that are entirely different from anything we've read before in the series thus far, which leads me to believe that this is a set-up not for the rest of the SA books in this first arc, but really a taste of the second arc to come (books 6 to 10). Sanderson has mentioned before that SA will split into two arcs like that, and it makes sense to me if the second arc was going to concern a very different type of magic system set in the same world.
That's as far as I will say without going into spoilers. Also that I always visualize the Lopen as Pedro Pascal.
Una aventura en Roshar con Lopen y Rysn! Es refrescante, divertida y revela secretos que afectan tanto la guerra en Roshar como en el Cosmere.
This would be critically and commercially panned if it was not part of the Cosmere. Dull, generic, unimaginative fantasy
4 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary
Rsyn is, thanks to a gift from a mentor, a newly-minted ship owner, but her crew doesn't really trust her. And her beloved animal companion, Chiri-Chiri, is sick. Happily, she turns up a trade voyage that might address both issues, but it's dangerous.
Review
I've enjoyed Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series, but I'm frankly starting to lose track of all the pieces and players, despite reading the latest books fairly recently. I'm happy to say that these interstitial novellas work better.
There are undoubtedly connections and clues in Dawnshard that flew right past me. I had only a vague notion of who Loper (a key character is), and I don't recall hearing of Rsyn (the protagonist) before. But maybe I did and forgot. The good thing is that none of that knowledge is essential. This book is perfectly readable as a self-contained adventure, and that's how I took it. On that front, it works well. It itself may prove an important element of understanding later books, but previous books are not essential to this one.
Sanderson's prose is smooth and quick-moving, as usual, the characters engaging, the situations intriguing. It does feel fairly limited in scope, but it works reasonably well overall. It's a quick read and I enjoyed it.