When a ghost ship is discovered, its crew presumed dead after trying to reach the storm-shrouded island Akinah, Navani Kholin must send an expedition to make sure the island hasn’t fallen into enemy hands. Knights Radiant who fly too near find their Stormlight suddenly drained, so the voyage must be by sea.
Shipowner Rysn Ftori lost the use of her legs but gained the companionship of Chiri-Chiri, a Stormlight-ingesting winged larkin, a species once thought extinct. Now Rysn’s pet is ill, and any hope for Chiri-Chiri’s recovery can be found only at the ancestral home of the larkin: Akinah. With the help of Lopen, the formerly one-armed Windrunner, Rysn must accept Navani’s quest and sail into the perilous storm from which no one has returned alive. If the crew cannot uncover the secrets of the hidden island city before the wrath of its ancient guardians falls upon them, the fate of Roshar and the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.
Described as ‘a new hefty novella‘ Dawnshard is book 3.5 of the Stormlight Archive, Brandon Sanderson’s bestselling series. Or rather, one of Sanderson’s bestselling series. He’s written a lot of books. Like, really a lot. So many that the word ‘lot’ probably deserves a capital L.
And yet, here’s yours truly. A fantasy fan since forever, and I’ve not read any of them.
Until now.
OK, admittedly jumping into book three-and-a-half of a long-running series of seriously chonky novels probably isn’t the best place to start. But Dawnshard is a novella, and I figured it would be a good taster and a chance to see whether spending time with another epic fantasy would be worth it.
And reader, I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe even a Lot.
Yes, there was an awful lot of world building that I had missed out on from the first three books in the Stormlight Archive (and probably others in the wider Cosmere universe of his books). But the story was well told, with some engaging characters, nicely paced and with some great action, and a sneak peek into the wider world.
I loved the magic, and Radiant The Lopen’s delightful devil-may-care attitude to life. I particularly liked the depiction of Rysn Ftori, shipowner and trader, who lost the use of her legs prior to this book. Sanderson apparently went to great lengths to ensure that he portrayed Rysn’s experience sensitively and accurately. I can’t speak to that myself, but it was very refreshing to see such a strong character and her thoughts on the journey.
At close to 250 pages, it’s more of a short book than a slim novella, and it packs a lot in there. As a starting point for Sanderson’s books it might not be the easiest entrance into the world of the Cosmere, but there were very few things that I couldn’t figure out that affected the overall story.
I guess the key question is whether Dawnshard whetted my appetite sufficiently to delve back into the Stormlight Archive.
Yes, I think it did. Though quite when I’ll find time to embark on such an epic quest is another question.
Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson is published by Titan Books and is out now. Many thanks to Sarah Mather at Titan Books for the copy to review.
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