#like about the implications for the larger Cosmere

[seeking-urithiru]

Wednesday

44°, cloudy again

I have to do some traveling today. High speed weaving on interstates incoming. Safely™️, of course.

I just finished Sixth of the Dusk. I’ve had this on my shelf for over a year, the only unread section in my copy Arcanum Unbounded. It. Is. So. GOOD.

***kinda sorta spoilers below***

I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to read it! I skipped it for a couple of reasons: the illustration at the front made me think it was a horror story, it didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the Cosmere at large. Looks like I was wrong on both counts.

This story is one of my favorites so far in the Cosmere. It’s got birds, an ocean, killer islands, and aliens. Brandon does in this what he does so well: creating a lived in world, where not just the characters, but the setting itself feel like they have depth and history that goes beyond the page.

So, aliens, or the Ones Above as they’re called in the story. We never meet any of these folks, but they are described throughout as these godlike beings who show up and communicate with the inhabitants of our story. They’re off world worlders, which in and of itself isn’t strange for a Cosmere book; what is weird is they don’t seem to be showing through Shadesmar. Rather, they get to the planet via space travel from another planet in the solar system. In addition, they seem to have malevolent intentions evidenced by their urging of our setting’s inhabitants toward technological advancements for the sole purpose of justifying an invasion. That is a follow up I’d love to read.

I also love the magic birds. And the lovely thesis for the story: never move without asking yourself, is this too easy?

[lunaticbookblog]

Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson

This post does not include discussion of Edgedancer or Secret History as I’ve read them previously and did not reread them here.

Arcanum is worth flipping through if you’re Cosmere obsessed. Some of the short stories are more worthwhile than others. There are description blurbs for many of the systems of the Cosmere which are very informative.

Thoughts on them, in no particular order:

Allomancer Jak … was something. In my opinion, the most skippable story in the collection. I’m perfectly happy with AJ only being the occasional broadsheets blurb.

The White Sand snippet was interesting, but I’m not sold on reading a graphic novel. Other than The Sandman, graphic novels aren’t really my thing. My interest is mostly related to larger Cosmere lore introduced in Lost Metal and possibly hinted at in Tress of the Emerald Sea.

Eleventh Metal didn’t really add much to the Mistborn series. It only confirmed suspicions about Ruin’s involvement in everything. Worth reading if you want more Kelsier.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell was a great mini stand alone story if you’re into suspense and mild-horror. Got invested early and thought it was a great inclusion. Did not seem to have a lot of lore implications, but does add a bit of context to The Sunlit Man.

Don’t have much to say about The Hope for Elantris. Might make more sense if I’d read Elantris.

The Emperor’s Soul is my second favorite of the collection. Shai was one of the most personally relatable characters in the Cosmere. The story touches on topics of philosophy and theology and just what generally makes a person. Weirdly reminds me a little bit of Cyberpunk 2077, but with magic rather than a tech.

Sixth of the Dusk is by far my favorite story in this collection. Basically set in a Cosmere version of Polynesia/Australia (where all the wild life can and will kill you). One of my favorite environments described in the Cosmere, and one I’d least like to visit in real life. Story was incredibly suspenseful. The writing did so much work in such a short amount of time. Honestly, it’s proof that Sanderson can write a good story in under 100 pages. It’s another example of Sanderson using a dart board with random words to make a magic system. In this case, magic birds. There’s serious hints towards larger Cosmere involvement without giving any concrete answers. Very intriguing.

“That was the nature of the waters. You never knew what lurked below.”

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Conservatism in Brandon Sanderson’s Writings; or, Reflections on Revolution in the Cosmere

I’ve only read The Stormlight Archive and Warbreaker, so this is based on an incomplete picture, but the combination of those two have given me an impression of Sanderson’s ideas on social structures, appropriate and inappropriate responses to institutional injustice, and revolution. These ideas strike me as being essentially conservative; I’m tempted to say Burkean (hence my alternate title), but I don’t know Burke’s writings well enough to be sure if that’s correct.

To be clear: this is not a ‘call-out’ post. I personally disagree with some of Sanderson’s themes, but I’m trying to understand, engage with, and debate them, not flatly condemn them.

My interpretations here are primarily based on two storylines: Warbreaker, and Kaladin and Moash’s arcs in Words of Radiance. Both of these two storylines, and their resolutions, seem grounded in the following political ideas:

1) Injustice and cruelty are the result of bad, or flawed, people; not of bad systems. And people can change. The solution to a system that seems unjust is to improve the people within it, not to tear it down.

2) Those who seek revolution are basically self-serving and vengeful, not interested in the good of others or that of society.

3) Radicals and those who seek revolution have a blinkered political perspective, flattening societies and people into stereotypes rather than acknowledging their complexity.

1. People, not systems

For the first point: both Alethkar and the world of Warbreaker have systems that are fundamentally founded on entrenched and institutionalized inequality. In Alethkar it is the division between lighteyes and darkeyes (and the different ranks thereof). In Warbreaker it is the position of Returned, who can only exist by daily taking life-force/spirit from others - typically from the poor. Nonetheless, the narrative justifies the maintenance of both systems, primarily on the basis that the ruling classes contain good people (e.g. Dalinar, Adolin; Siri, Susebron, Lightsong); one of the major themes in TWOK and WOR revolves around forcing Kaladin to recognize that some lighteyes are good, and others, like Elhokar, have the desire and capacity to improve.

The basic political conflict is, to me, expressed by two lines following Kaladin’s (second) defeat of a Shardbearer. The first is Dalinar’s, when he states what Kaladin should do about institutionalized discrimination against darkeyes: “You want to change that?...Be the kind of man that others admire, whether they be lighteyed or dark...That will change the world.” This fundamentally rubs me the wrong way - it’s the Booker T. Washington theory of how to address racial inequality, and history has proven time and time and time again that it doesn’t work. If Kaladin did that, people would say, “Wow, that Kaladin, what an unusually exceptional darkeyes!” and continue to treat the rest of darkeyes just the same.

The second line is Kaladin’s when he refuses the shardblade that would make him lighteyed: “I don’t want my life to change because I’ve become a lighteyes. I want the lives of people like me...like I am now...to change.” This, I completely agree with - but later events would suggest the narrative may not. (And the fact that Kaladin doesn’t used his increased status in later books to push for change on this front frustrates me.)

To give another example: when Sadeas treats bridgemen as cannon fodder and their lives as utterly disposable, the problem is treated as being that Sadeas is a bad person (and facing certai. tactical constraints) - not the fact that Sadeas and the other brightlords has the power to treat darkeyes’ lives as disposable in the first place. When Kaladin is imprisoned for challenging Amaram to a duel - in effect, imprisoned for being darkeyed, since a high-nahn lighteyes would not have been punished for issuing such a challenge - this is treated as Kaladin’s fault, not the fault of a system that treats him as having fundamentally less worth than Amaram.

There’s no focus in the books on getting rid of the unjust system - by any means, violent or non-violent, bottom-up or top-down - just on having the ruling class become better people, which is expected to alleviate some problems without fundamentally altering the social structure.

2. Revolutionaries are selfish

The most open expression of this idea is in TWOK, where Moash says outright that he’d like to keep the same system but flipped, with darkeyes on the top and lighteyes on the bottom. Vivenna’s endeavours towards revolution are also portrayed as driven by bigotry against Hallandran culture. And Kalladin’s desire to remove Elhokar is shown as driven by a desire for revenge, with any larger goals or motives being mere rationalization. Likewise, the main antagonist of Warbreaker is shown as having destructive, not constructive goals.

While this is ceratinly true of some revolutionary movements, in Sanderson’s works it is shown as invariably true, with no revolutionary characters being driven by genuine justice or the desire to improve people’s lives. This provides a stark contrast with the number of virtuous characters who are shown depicting or upholding the existing social systems.

3. Radicals see society in shallow and stereotypical terms

This is a big part of the characterization of both Vivenna and Kaladin. For Vivenna, the main example is that she initially sees her people - from a largely rural nation - as fundamentally virtuous, and is horrified by the ‘criminals’ they have to live among in the slum. When she’s made to see that those ‘criminals’ are in fact members of her people, she sees them as victims tragically corrupted by the terrible (urban) culture they’ve immigrated to. She generalizes; she doesn’t want to recognize the fact that some of her people prefer life in the city - despite marginalization and poverty - to life in their country of birth, and wouldn’t want to return. She spends most of the book being gradually forced to break down her stereotypes of her culture as good and Hallandran society as corrupt.

Kaladin, for his part, continually stereotypes lighteyes. In his youth, it’s a kind of internalized caste-ism - he’s constantly disappointed and mistreated by the lighteyes around him, and he keeps on thinking that the people doing it aren’t ‘real’ lighteyes, ‘real’ lighteyes are noble and honorable and he’ll get to fight for one someday. After being betrayed one too many times, he switches to thinking that all lighteyes, invariably, are corrupt, exploitative and evil; it takes a lot to get him to trust Dalinar, and for well after that he continues stereotyping every lighteyes he meets (Adolin, Renarin, Shallan) as spoiled and uncaring even after evidence to the contrary. Even in Oathbringer stereotypes are his default reaction to lighteyes he doesn’t know. He also tends to ignore the fact of major differences in variations in status and life with the two main castes, by nahn and dahn. It’s treated as one of his more persistent character flaws, and contrasted with the more open and merit-based attitudes of the main lighteyed characters.

I’m not really comfortable with this portrayal. Kaladin’s entire life, and everything he’s suffered, have been defined and determined by being lighteyes. He doesn’t have the luxury of being ‘eye-colour-blind’ . Does he make invalid assumptions? Yes, especially about Shallan. But Kaladin thinking of Adolin as a spoiled brat and Adolin calling Kaladin ‘bridgeboy’ are not the same kind of thing; calling someone from a discriminated-against group (who is an adult of about your age) ‘boy’ has implications that both the author and reader are aware of; it is, intentionally or not, an expression of power and superiority, and it is quite justified that it would guve Kaladin a negative impression of Adolin! More broadly, mistrusting lighteyes is basically a trauma-induced defense mechanism for Kaladin, and understandable given what he’s been through. Adolin’s thinking, early in Words of Radiance, that “he was all for treating men with respect and honor regardless of eye shade, but the Almighty had put some men in command and others beneath them; it was simply the natural order of things” is to my mind far more offensive than Kaladin’s personality hostility to lighteyes, but the only main character who the narrative treats/criticizes as being bigoted on the basis of eye color is Kaladin. Adolin’s treated by the narrative as a great person who Kaladin needs to be nicer to, and the aforementioned attitude is never addressed again; it’s not part of his character arc like Kaladin’s view of lighteyes is.

In short, Sanderson’s works are strongly grounded in the idea that the quality of a society is grounded in the personal goodness of its people (including the goodness of its ruling class) more than in the creation of just and equal social structures; and that attributting a society’s problems to structures that create and perpetuate injustice rather than to the choices of individuals is basically wrongheaded. I agree with him on the importance of individual goodness and choices; I disagree with his minimization of the need to dismantle unjust social structures.

[moash]

ok so worth mentioning also i stalled out writing my fic bc i had trouble thinking of a legitimate reason why someone who wasn’t simply trying to keep their own power and protect the old establishment would not side with odium (ignoring that there’s larger cosmere implications bc the average person does not know about those) pretty much all i came up w was that his society required the regular sacrifice of singers to be fused hosts, but even then supposedly after they win the fused won’t be coming back (probably a lie) but like genuinely the society odium is constructing is like better than the existing society, more equal, giving land and control back to the indigenous population, they treat their prisoners more humanely, like why would someone like, for random example moash, want to betray odium and work for the kholins again

[sourdoughreads]

I've just finished the 4th iteration in Brandon Sanderson The Stormlight Archive, The Rhythm of War, and I can't explain just how much this book has wrecked me.  Brandon Sanderson is a master with characterization and world building and these books will work there way into you heart and emotionally destroy you with every bit of conflict and turmoil that he throws at these characters.  I was waiting for Rhythm of War for over a year and oh boy was it worth it, cause I honestly don't know what to do with myself now. There will be more of me talking about my Brandon Sanderson suffering in the future, but the rest of this review is more for the people who are not familiar with The Stormlight Archive. But for the many fans of this series on tumblr.

My Review - hfescjasdbghjkadbjklgbjhalbfjhbakjfbajs!!!!!!vzHFbdhjalobfj!!!!

 Okay. With that out of my system, the more general review.  This was cross posted on facebook for my family and friends who are just being introduced to the series.

The Stormlight Archive is a hard epic fantasy, the books are long and the story and imagery is sweeping and epic in a way distinct to that genera.  The world or Roshar isn't your typical Lord of the Rings style fantasy world however.  All the settings and native creatures are strange and alien even down the the grass that grows there and the weather patterns.  It can take some time to get used to the world because of this, but even if your a little confused at first stick with it, cause it's all eventually explained in a way that makes for good pacing and the rest is given to you through well placed context clues that help avoid anything close to an info dump.  Things like the 6 year war against the Parshendi people that the books start out with and the war camps of the shattered plains.  If you have a question trust that Brandon Sanderson will answer it in an organic way that helps move the story forward.   

This all makes for and extremely captivating fantasy world that you just can’t look away from.  With twists and turns that interconnect in amazing and satisfying ways as the lore is expanded and more of the world is revealed.  Going so far as to connect to a larger connect universe of books called the Cosmere which includes The Mistborn books, Warbreaker, and Elantris.  All of which I also highly recommend.

With all of that said though, the characters are the true star of the books in my opinion.  Though it includes more characters over time it starts you with only 3 perspectives to follow in the beginning.  Kaladin, a spearman turned slave sold to one of the war camps of the shattered planes and force to face a truly horrific situation.  Shallan Davar, a young girl on a mission to become the ward of the infamous and cold genius princess Jasnah Kholin and save her family.  And Dalinar Kholin, uncle to the Alethi King, who has began receiving visions seemingly from God and has to face the implications of that both for the future and politics of his family's kingdom with the help of his son Adolin.  Watching these stories come together is absolutely amazing and keeps the anticipation high.  

All of these characters are so well written that you can't help but fall in love with them and become invested in their stories.  Many of which have very realistic portrayals of mental illnesses such as depression and ptsd along with several others.  When these characters experience loss you feel it with them, when they are hurt you can’t help but want to help them.  That mixed with some great political intrigue makes these books 100% worth sinking many hours of reading into.

I Highly recommend these for any lover of epic fantasy, especially if you want books big enough to really sink your teeth into and get lost in. I don’t usually like giving books numerical ratings but this one is definitely and 11/10

[mattskitchen67]

OK! I read Arcanum Unbounded (a.k.a. Only Brandon would call that a novella, & other stories) and I have thoughts. Lots of thoughts. Pretty sure that while I’m obviously not done with The Cosmere, I’ve been thoroughly indoctrinated.

So too much to briefly sum it up ,so I’ll give my reaction to each story:

The Emperor’s Soul--Fantastic opening to the collection. I think this novella is going to be my go-to recommendation to anyone thinking about checking out Sanderson’s work before committing to an entire book. Loved the story and how it explored the magic-system and its implications. Really relevant to my own interests as a writer as well.

The Hope of Elantris--Confession time: I only got a third of the way through Elantris before dropping it. I just didn’t vibe with it tbh. So I’m not the audience for this short story. The story behind why he wrote it is really cute, but I’m surprised I powered through as much as I did. Elantris fans would probably like it though.

The Eleventh Metal--Nice little additional backstory for Kelsier. Nothing really more than that. Neat and enjoyable though if you like that character (which I very much do, so I did).

Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, episodes 28 through 30--I liked the Allomancer Jak bits in the Era 2 books, so this was also fun. Weird that this is where the explanation for Era 2 Koloss ended up, but at least I finally got it since I was really curious about that sense Alloy of Law. Fun, but not really a selling point of the collection.

Mistborn: Secret History--OOOOOOOOKAY! This is A LOT. Major spoilers for Era 2 of Mistborn. I’ll use [Redacted] because... yeah... but even then if you read this you’ll definitely piece it together, so if you’re not caught up on Era 2, don’t do that.

You know what? I really missed [Redacted]. I missed him so much. That being said! I am very glad this story was on the side and not crammed into the original books somehow. In hindsight, I can see how it was foreshadowed, even in Era 1, but I’m glad as far as the original trilogy was concerned, [Redacted] was permanently gone. Secret History got a little too “Look what was really going on just behind the scenes, lol” at times, but considering the premise, that’s to be expected and most of the time it felt earned.

I like that we get an explanation about [Redacted]’s resurrection right after The Bands of Mourning (the book had a great cliffhanger/reveal ending) but the whole thing still feels kinda weird. Let me explain. To me, [Redacted]’s role as a living character ended in The Final Empire, so the fact that he’s back and has grown beyond his previous role, is just kinda weird. Not necessarily unwelcome, but weird.

It’s interesting that he’s back, and I really liked his character arc and all the character interactions in this story, but I just don’t know where this is going. If he shows up in the final Era 2 book, and/or whatever he’ll do in future Mistborn eras, I can easily see myself looking back on Secret history a lot more fondly. We have the set up for [Redacted]’s future role in this world and series, but we don’t know what it actually is yet, and until then I can’t say how I feel. But i assume and trust it will build to something really cool (hopefully).

I have so much more to say about this (everything with Fuzz and the reveal of the larger cosmere, GAH!) but I’ll leave it off here. Really dug this.

White Sand Excerpt--The graphic novel trilogy is on my tbr list, and I’ll probably get to it once I’m caught up with Stormlight/after the new Stormlight comes out and I read it. The setting is cool, and the magic system of controlling sand by using your body water as fuel is really good for a desert world. But there weren’t any character or story hooks that personally hastened my interest in the graphic novels. Knowing that Khriss is in them is really the one thing that has my interest, so far.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell--Maybe my favorite story in the collection. Fantastic. Great characters, characters, setting, story, horror, just all around great. No words, it speaks for itself, just read it.

Sixth of the Dusk--I made the mistake of starting this right after reading Shadows, so i initially was unfair to this one because I don’t like it as much and it has a much slower pace. But by the end it held its own. I especially liked how the ending tied everything together. Really well done.

Edgedancer--Wow people weren’t kidding that the in-between novellas were mandatory reading (maybe, I haven’t read Oathbringer yet). It’s a real good time. Lift is great. I loved her in her Words of Radiance interlude, and i was really happy to see that this would focus on her. I’m really interested in how she’ll get tied up in the main plot of the books (I assume it hasn’t happened yet, but maybe I’m wrong).