Dragonsteel Prime

I can see why Sanderson calls this a curiosity. There are elements cannibalized (and improved on) for the Stormlight Archive, and because this isn't canon, this particular story will never be finished in that form.

The bones are damn good, though. I love Sanderson in all his varied forms, but Stormlight is stylistically my favorite, and this feels very similar, even beyond the elements he plundered, and [You Know Who] is pretty much fully developed and the fantastic character he always is in his regular Cosmere appearances.

I would not recommend this before Stormlight, because it feels like it might pull a couple punches away from it, but it is an excellent read. It's also an interesting look at his process, to see how he built kernels here into master strokes in Stormlight. Well worth it for Sanderson fans, maybe not standalone material for others because you'll never get a resolution.

Dragonsteel Prime is a curiosity as the subtitle suggest . This book is not cosmere cannon but rather what i might call a 1st draft of ideal that would evolve to become cannon within the cosmere.

Many of the ideas in this book we find for those who are cosmere fans, have made there way into the Stormlight Archive such as the shattered plains, bridge crews and the start of what would become the magic systems of Roshar but still highly undeveloped.

This is not the full prime story of dragon steel but rather just the 1st book which when the cannon version is release I fully expect it to be very different as much of the elements within this book made there way into the stormlight

I did find some inconsistency in the story, specifically with horses, while its stated numerous times that the horses are too weak to carry people, there are also numerous times when someone has been riding a horse. for example. But also in some ways predictable, likely because I have previoulsy read the stormlight so already had an idea of how some things would work on the shattered plains or at least a general idea of what would happen to our main character Jerik

This prime version of Dragonsteel you can really start to get a feel for the ideas behind the magic systems that would eventually make it into other Cosmere books, primarly what I found was the start of lightweaving and soulcasting, however still just more of exploring how this would work, vs being a fully developed magic system.

If you are a fan of the cosmere, I think you would likely know who TOPAZ is, and he pays a key role in this story as he begins to explore his powers as well.

Overall it was a good read, but not on par with the cannon works of the cosmere, but that is also not expected in a prime version of the as of yet unfinsihed story.