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Is It Worth it to Read Aether of Night?


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I'm 180 pages in (out of 762), and I'm pleasantly surprised. It's rough, obviously, but it's not bad. It's only 150k, so shorter than most Brandon books, and the part I've read is pretty action-packed, so it moves much faster than Elantris or Warbreaker.

There's some interesting magic too. It often feels like a very early version of Roshar. If that interests you, check it out.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would say it is for a couple of reasons. First, even though it is an early work and the manuscript isn't fully copyedited, it's still a fun story in its own right. It's got some flaws that Brandon's acknowledged but the story's perfectly enjoyable on its own terms and it's got some fun characters and neat concepts. I've read it and the White Sand prose and while the latter feels a bit more polished, I had more fun reading Aether, if that makes sense. It's also very worth reading if you're interested in seeing how Brandon's grown as an author and how some things that we're familiar with in his published works had their origins in earlier pieces like this. For example, the meta-plot of Mistborn Era 1 had its genesis in Aether and we can track some of the development of the spren of Stormlight Archive through a chain of unpublished works.

As mentioned we've also been told by Peter that Aethers are already canon to the Cosmere, even if the novel Aether of Night itself is not. If you keep an eye out, you'll be able to spot the evidence for this in one of the published books:

Spoiler

It's the chunk of crystal in Mraize's trophy collection in Words of Radiance that catches Shallan's attention.

And lastly, since Brandon has announced plans to eventually do something with Aether, it might be worth reading sooner or later, just so you can compare the original to the (undoubtedly far superior) final product, whenever we get it.

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On 03/11/2017 at 3:18 PM, MasterJack said:

Hey everyone. I have my manuscript copy of Aether of Night, but I'm wondering, is it worth it to read? I have so many books I want to read, and no time for them all. In this context, is Aether of Night worth reading?

I get what you're saying. So little time and so many books to read - games to play - life to live. I suppose it depends on how much you enjoy BS's writing. Personally, I'm captivated, and a chance to read a piece he wrote way back when, before he was published, has to be a definite 'top of the pile' peach. After, of course, I finish Oathbringer.

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Not that I'm aware of at least. It would be a lot of effort for something that wouldn't be suitable for inclusion on the Coppermind (unpublished and not canon) and it's all subject to revision depending on what Brandon ultimately does with the rewrite, so there's probably not much motivation to do something like that. And the draft comes in an easily searchable/scrollable format which makes it handy for casual skimming.

On the other hand, we Sharders are an obsessive lot so it's always possible someone has written up a private summary for themselves.

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