ReDawn Release Reactions

[Use the Falchion]

A new novella is right around the corner, so it's time for a new thread about reactions! Let's go ReDawn!

[Sparks]

Oh Jorgen.  

Spoiler

I'm bouncing off the wall trying to think where Gran-Gran and Cobb teleported to.  If it wasn't to anywhere on Detritus...then Gran-Gran must be able to bend the rules of teleporting (or she has a new one).  Or.... did she take Cobb to where Spensa is, in the Nowhere?  Can she teleport like the Taynix, to people she's connected with strongly, no matter where they are?  

Great read!  I couldn't put it down.   

Edit: I've always felt since Starsight that the Superiority felt like Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now in ReDawn, it feels even more so, just going full Dai Li unhinged insanity!

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Sparks

[Shard of Reading]

Spoiler

First off, Arturo and Alanik are going to end up dating. Calling it now.

Now, actual book thoughts. I loved this book, I think I might have liked it more than Sunreach. The giant trees were just really cool. (Nothing to do with the story, I just liked them) I think that Gran-Gran and Cobb are going to end up on the Kitsen planet, because the next book is about kitsen. (Yay! I love Kitsen!) I like the book, mindblade cannons are cool, and the superiority sucks.

I just want evershore. 

[Use the Falchion]

Just finished! I liked Sunreach, but I LOVED ReDawn. From the worldbuilding to the slick teleporting action sequences to the escalation of the Superiority to the hints at romance to the gut punch of an ending...yeah, this was the best novella of the bunch yet. I think it also fixes some of the complaints with FM's personality from Sunreach as well. Now for the all important question:

Spoiler

We have FM and Rig getting together in Sunreach. Arturo previous relationship died offscreen so that this one could live - who is going to be paired up in the next novella? 

 

Overall, I think I'd currently rate the Cytoverse:

Skyward

ReDawn

Sunreach

Starsight

 

but all of them are great. 

 

7 hours ago, Shard of Reading said:

I just want evershore. 

I know right?! I think I'm more excited for Evershore than I am Cytonic right now. 

[Shard of Reading]

2 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

We have FM and Rig getting together in Sunreach. Arturo previous relationship died offscreen so that this one could live - who is going to be paired up in the next novella? 

I'm assuming here that it's going to be someone from skyward flight, because that's what these novellas are going to be about, and Jorgen, FM, and Arturo are already taken. I don't think T-stall, Catnip, or Sadie are important enough. (I really want to get more of them, but that's one book to establish a character, and make them fall in love is kinda weird.) So it's probably Nedd or Quirk. (I actually don't remeber how her name is spelled and I call her Kim in my head, but no one else does that, so.... I'm not looking up how it's spelled) Or, it could just be Jorgen mooning about Spensa.

On another note, I'm now imaging Catnip and T-Stall as twins because Alanik can't tell them apart. Plus they argue like they're siblings.

[+Harrycrapper]

22 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

Just finished! I liked Sunreach, but I LOVED ReDawn. From the worldbuilding to the slick teleporting action sequences to the escalation of the Superiority to the hints at romance to the gut punch of an ending...yeah, this was the best novella of the bunch yet. I think it also fixes some of the complaints with FM's personality from Sunreach as well. Now for the all important question:

  Hide contents

We have FM and Rig getting together in Sunreach. Arturo previous relationship died offscreen so that this one could live - who is going to be paired up in the next novella? 

 

Overall, I think I'd currently rate the Cytoverse:

Skyward

ReDawn

Sunreach

Starsight

Out of curiosity, where would you put Defending Elysium in there?

[Use the Falchion]

21 minutes ago, Harrycrapper said:

Out of curiosity, where would you put Defending Elysium in there?

Ah I forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder!

Honestly, probably alongside or right above Starsight. The story is cool and there's a fair bit of fun worldbuilding, but its impact on me was minimal. I don't hate it, and my reread of it last month was really fun, but I'm just not attached to it in the way I am these other stories in the Cytoverse. In fact, it should probably go below Starsight because of that...but I'm not sure I can justify that either.*

(Of Sanderson's short stories that I've read, I still like Firstborn the best.)

 

*I don't hate Starsight, I actually liked rereading the book better as a whole than I did Skyward, weirdly enough. But it's just not my favorite Sanderson book. 

[Philomath]

These novellas have been so fun. I really enjoyed both this and Sunreach. I really enjoyed UrDail culture. I really like that Brandon and Janci are getting into themes that groups of people aren’t monoliths. This started in Starsight, but Redawn brought this up too with different factions among the UrDail and Defiants. Both this and Sunreach also touched on a theme of what does it really mean to live. The difference between survive vs thrive. 

Spoiler

FM debating whether it is worth it to start a relationship with Rig when they live in such dangerous circumstances. Allanik trying to convince the humans that the absence of war doesn’t equate to the best life has to offer. 

Not sure how I feel about the Arturo/Allanik set up. I don’t have a problem with it other than it is fairly obvious and I’m not convinced everyone needs to be obviously paired off with a known character by the end of the series. It just seems like a relationship for relationships sake instead of a natural character progression.

Spoiler

Spensa and Jorgen make sense to me and work. Rig and FM as well. Any more than that is meh so far. 

Some questions I have after the first two novellas. Did the humans ever really even try to see if they had more cytonics than Jorgen, Spensa, and Gran Gran? I feel like that should be investigated. It is supposedly one thing that made them so powerful in the wars. That they had lots of cytonics. Also, I feel like them sitting on the Taynix as hyper drives information is a mistake. I get that they are still learning about them and it is a very new discovery, but getting that information out there would seriously undermine the Superiority. I hope the alliance with the UrDail will help them spread that info. 

[+Harrycrapper]

2 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

Ah I forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder!

Honestly, probably alongside or right above Starsight. The story is cool and there's a fair bit of fun worldbuilding, but its impact on me was minimal. I don't hate it, and my reread of it last month was really fun, but I'm just not attached to it in the way I am these other stories in the Cytoverse. In fact, it should probably go below Starsight because of that...but I'm not sure I can justify that either.*

(Of Sanderson's short stories that I've read, I still like Firstborn the best.)

 

*I don't hate Starsight, I actually liked rereading the book better as a whole than I did Skyward, weirdly enough. But it's just not my favorite Sanderson book. 

Yea that mostly tracks with how I feel. Starsight is...odd. I do decently like it, but it was a bold choice of Brandon to separate Spensa from all the characters from Skyward. It almost didn't work for me because of that. But, for some reason I mostly base my feelings on Sanderson books on the endings and Starsight did end quite well. That's also the reason I like Defending Elysium, I thought the ending was really interesting. And that's also why I would rate Sunreach as the lowest, I think it had the weakest ending. Though I think that is because it was the first one Janci worked on and she was still trying to get a feel for it all. However, I do think the Rig/FM romance worked a lot better than what seems to have been set up for Allanik and Arturo. It just seems a bit gratuitous to develop another romance between two characters, though I guess these are supposed to be YA stories. 

[Use the Falchion]

12 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

Starsight is...odd. I do decently like it, but it was a bold choice of Brandon to separate Spensa from all the characters from Skyward. It almost didn't work for me because of that. But, for some reason I mostly base my feelings on Sanderson books on the endings and Starsight did end quite well

Definitely the same here. I understand the choice, but I think it's also because Brandon has a habit of sometimes skipping over things that we as fans may find interesting. Had we gotten a novella or short story about taking back Platform Prime that also built up Spensa and Jorgen's budding romance, I think Starsight would have worked a little bit better. 

 

12 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

However, I do think the Rig/FM romance worked a lot better than what seems to have been set up for Allanik and Arturo.

I actually liked the Alanik/Arturo stuff. Yes, I'm a little upset about Bryn being sidelined so quickly for a new romance, but she only appeared in one scene, so I'm not TOO upset. I think I liked it because it was more...cat-and-mouse than the other romances. Jorgen/Spensa and FM/Rig have a youthful naivete to them. Arturo and Alanik start out as two people fighting the same enemy but feel the need to watch out for betrayal, to two people who respect each other, to one feeling a little more than just respect. I feel like groundwork was laid well for the romance. Not to mention how much more Arturo we got in this. Naming his slug Naga after Fire Emblem the mythical name for a dragon shows us that he really likes myths and dragons; his willingness to confront Alanik shows us that he's sort of the "behind-the-scenes" man for Jorgen in addition to being his #2; and his relationship with Bryn reflects some of the same problems that FM had in Sunreach - when you're in the upper class on Detritus, people expect the Flight Academy to be a stepping stone at best or a phase at worst. Ironsides gripped about it once, and now we're seeing how it affects characters we know personally. 

Do I like the Rig/FM romance more? Yes, but I'm also sometimes a sucker for that cute naivete than I am the relationship Alanik and Arturo will probably develop. 

 

12 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

But, for some reason I mostly base my feelings on Sanderson books on the endings

Ha! I feel like a great many of Brandon's fans do the same.

 

12 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

Starsight did end quite well

True. I wasn't in the camp going "I need a sequel ASAP!" but I definitely think it had a solid ending as well.  

[Sparks]

20 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

We have FM and Rig getting together in Sunreach. Arturo previous relationship died offscreen so that this one could live - who is going to be paired up in the next novella? 

Ironsides and Cobb, of course!

Brade and Nedd for the runner-up.

[Shard of Reading]

2 hours ago, Sparks said:

Ironsides and Cobb, of course!

Brade and Nedd for the runner-up.

No. Just no. Cobb is a crotchety old man, and I don’t think Ironsides is coming up again. As for Brade, that wouldn’t be something that could happen in a novella. 

[king of nowhere]

i appreciated this book much less than the previous one.

please stop having human-alien romance. Just because you end up liking and respecting your alien buddy, it doesn't mean you want to shtup them.

especially considering the whole race of alanik seems aromantic.

and I know too much about astrophysics and astrobiology to accept redawn ecosystem. sorry

and gran-gran suddenly being able to teleport felt contrary to established fact. she's a weak cytonic, and her main cytonic ability is to perceive her surrounding to make up for being blind. if she could teleport, she had plenty of times when she could have done it

 

aside from that, i enjoied the book.

one thing, with all the stuff about the battle station being still kept functioning with fresh food and beds and everything, I was expecting for there to actually be humans on it. A second group, who managed to hide on redawn all this time. It would have been hilarious.

[ftl]

I liked that in this one, we got a good feel for ReDawn (the location) and it mattered. In Sunreach the alien space flower and station seemed kind of random and its interior was a generic space station, whereas in ReDawn I really got a feel for the giant alien floating trees, the miasma, etc.

[Govir]

On 10/26/2021 at 4:18 AM, Sparks said:

Edit: I've always felt since Starsight that the Superiority felt like Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now in ReDawn, it feels even more so, just going full Dai Li unhinged insanity!

Have you read Defending Elysium, the short story on Brandon's website? If not, go check it out. (It is in the Cytoverse).

On 10/26/2021 at 11:00 AM, Shard of Reading said:

I think that Gran-Gran and Cobb are going to end up on the Kitsen planet, because the next book is about kitsen.

I had forgotten about the Kitsen shadowwalkers. I was thinking that the voices Gran-Gran was hearing were the Taynix, and she was just very strong in listening so could actually *hear* what they're thinking. The cries for help being due to the fact that the Superiority scare them into working.

On 10/26/2021 at 6:11 PM, Use the Falchion said:

who is going to be paired up in the next novella?

I actually think it's going to be Quirk and Nedd. At least, I got a very slight twinge of Quirk "panicking" when they were talking about relationships, and I thought it was Nedd who was really asking.

14 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

and gran-gran suddenly being able to teleport felt contrary to established fact. she's a weak cytonic, and her main cytonic ability is to perceive her surrounding to make up for being blind. if she could teleport, she had plenty of times when she could have done it

When was it established that she was a weak cytonic? (Honestly asking, because I don't remember it. But I also miss a lot of stuff). My memory is that she is an *untrained* cytonic, since she was like 4 pre-Detritus and lost her mother in the jump (which hadn't been explained to Gran-Gran how it worked yet), then they lost *all* their cytonics in the bombing. She didn't hyperjump before because she didn't really know how. Where as "listening" is the basic cytonic exercise they were teaching her at a young age.

______

My thoughts: The first few chapters I was really afraid this was going to be a Starsight scenario and we were just going to be on ReDawn dealing with UrDail issues. Very glad we at least got Skyward flight in there....to deal with UrDail issues.

I don't know how I feel about the Arturo / Alanik budding relationship. The progression seemed like Arturo is suspicious of her in that first talk, and then the next time when Alanik *thinks* he's going to watch she doesn't betray them....I think he was already trying to be there more to protect her. Then the rest of their interactions was Alanik trying to catch on.

My crackpot theory is that Spensa saved the assembly members on the ship, by pulling them directly into the Nowhere. The events of these books are definitely happening at the same time as the events in Cytonic (I assume we'll see Spensa in the Nowhere in that book) because Jorgen has said he's seen Spensa twice. i.e. we could be near the end of Spensa's book at this point, and maybe she's grown in power / can observe Jorgen, but could only talk to him a few times.

Overall I liked this book, but I think I liked Sunreach more. I definitely felt more giddy reading Sunreach, but that may be due to having such a long drought of being with the characters. (Like, I enjoyed Starsight when I read it...but it took reading Sunreach for it to really sink in that I missed the Skyward Flight much like Chaos has said. And I listened to it on 1.5x on my reread because of that). In Sunreach, I really thought FM might die (because of her repeated use of "I have a 100% survival rate"). In ReDawn, I felt like someone *had* to die at the end, to give the story more weight.

[king of nowhere]

7 hours ago, Govir said:

When was it established that she was a weak cytonic? (Honestly asking, because I don't remember it. But I also miss a lot of stuff). My memory is that she is an *untrained* cytonic, since she was like 4 pre-Detritus and lost her mother in the jump (which hadn't been explained to Gran-Gran how it worked yet), then they lost *all* their cytonics in the bombing. She didn't hyperjump before because she didn't really know how. Where as "listening" is the basic cytonic exercise they were teaching her at a young age.
 

you know, you are probably right.

still, gran-gran suddenly manifesting skills she didn't have didn't feel good. too much like a deus ex machina; the saving grace of that scene is that they could have used one of the known cytonics to extract her and cobb anyway

Quote

In ReDawn, I felt like someone *had* to die at the end, to give the story more weight.

and yet, killing jorgen's parents, now the story has less Weight

[ducks]

I could practically feel the plot itself uttering "you have outlived your usefulness" in that scene

[ftl]

17 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

still, gran-gran suddenly manifesting skills she didn't have didn't feel good. too much like a deus ex machina; the saving grace of that scene is that they could have used one of the known cytonics to extract her and cobb anyway

I have definitely noticed that these books sometimes feel rushed, but I think that's just because they're so short. Almost feels like Sanderson is fitting a big novel's worth of plot into a smaller container. If this were a Stormlight book, we'd have gotten three chapters of Gran-Gran experimenting with her old cytonic powers now that they're not considered a defect and it would have built up to that escape. We would have had several chapters of Rig fixing up Alanik's ship and Skyward Flight fixing up the platform they found themselves on. And so on.

The escalation of powers definitely feels like classic Sanderson - at the beginning of the first book cytonics are a distant myth/"defect", now by 2 books + 2 novellas there's a bunch of cytonics, they all are using different powers (including minor characters getting powers), and there's plenty of slugs with all sorts of powers being used to do all sorts of things. If you compare the state of "magic powers" between the beginning and end of some of his Cosmere series/books you often see something similar.

[Use the Falchion]

On 10/30/2021 at 1:42 AM, Govir said:

I actually think it's going to be Quirk and Nedd. At least, I got a very slight twinge of Quirk "panicking" when they were talking about relationships, and I thought it was Nedd who was really asking.

I definitely thought about that too. Given we're probably going to have more novellas between Cytonic and Book 4, I can see something happening there too. Being completely honest though, on my first readthrough and my current listen-through, I thought Kimmalyn was panicking because she wasn't necessarily into guys and was flustered from being put on the spot/hadn't told anyone yet. 

[Philomath]

2 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

I definitely thought about that too. Given we're probably going to have more novellas between Cytonic and Book 4, I can see something happening there too. Being completely honest though, on my first readthrough and my current listen-through, I thought Kimmalyn was panicking because she wasn't necessarily into guys and was flustered from being put on the spot/hadn't told anyone yet. 

I definitely shared your thought too. Definitely got a “she’s not into guys” vibe.

[Nvita11]

ive been loving these novellas it was a real clutch this weekend since i had a long drive

[Govir]

On 11/1/2021 at 8:48 AM, Use the Falchion said:

I thought Kimmalyn was panicking because she wasn't necessarily into guys and was flustered from being put on the spot/hadn't told anyone yet. 

Definitely a fair take, and I could see it playing out like that.

Not that there *has* to be, but there hasn't really been any discussion of non-hetero romantic relationships in the books.

____

On a completely different topic (tangentially gotten to thinking about who we've seen that Kimmalyn may be interested in), I kind of want more screen time for the newer members of Skyward flight. Sadie, T-Stall, and Catnip. They've been around since Starsight (which I only noticed due to a reread), but we hardly know anything about them.

____

Jump number 2! While looking at what the Coppermind has to say about those three, this line stuck out about Sadie:

Quote

Sadie admires Kimmalyn and has a habit of recording her fake Saint quotes, not knowing that they aren't real. Kimmalyn enjoys the attention and likely is highly pleased by someone recording her sayings.

EDIT: Listening to the Shardcast and LadyLameness brings up these exact things. She immediately glommed onto Kimmalyn's hesitation in the relationship discussion as a "I'm not into guys" vibe, and then calls back to this habit of Sadie's of writing down Kimmalyn's Saint sayings.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Govir
Podcast was released

[Solant]

My biggest question is what rank to they need to be promoted to before their taynix will manifest as a Mindblade and Mindplate? 

[Mat]

Not much new I have to say besides a general agreement of everything already said.

I like the theory that Spensa saved Jorgen’s parents and all them (even if the theory isn’t based on anything concrete) but I think that would undermine the ending. But it feels very much like a Brandon thing to do :P. Maybe not a Janci Patterson thing, I wouldn’t be able to say.

I saw the Arturo/Alanik stuff a mile away, I swear… my opinion on it is a bit weird since I think it definitely feels like it was thrown in there for the sake of it being thrown in there and yet I still like it.

The hologram fake-What’sHisFace and fake-Cobb gimmick seemed hollow to me even though it makes perfect sense.

More slugs! A green/blue inhibitor one. Makes me think there’s a fifth for the concussion power.

I really enjoyed the not human viewpoint. Alanik’s sayings and takes on humans were fun to read.

Overall I think I liked ReDawn as much as Sunreach, and both quite a bit. I’ve missed the Cytoverse  

[NorthStar]

I enjoed this novella so much more than Sunreach because the POV character, Alanik, was more fleshed out and had an interesting take on everything. The characters in general appeared more fresh and witty than in Sunreach, which I appreciated. The banter also felt more lighthearted and a little less forced to me.

A lot of people have mentioned romance, so I'll dive into that here too!

I'm not a big fan of the amatonormativity in the novellas. Romance loses its worth if it's forced or fast. Yes, I think Rig and FM could be cute, but their relationship was rushed and unsatisfying. I liked Alanik and Arturo as a pairing more, but it still bothers me that Patterson and Sanderson seem insistent on pairing everyone up, when that's not how it works in real life. Some aren't ready or simply don't want romance. Some want it on their own terms. Everyone is different. (On a slightly related topic, I suspect Kimmalyn could be aromantic, asexual, or lesbian, given that she so vehemently denies having a boyfriend.) 

Okay, romance talk over! Let's get into the worldbuilding and plot. I found it fascinating. I'll admit I don't remember much of it now, but I recall that it surprised me and kept me captivated. The plot was engaging, although it had a few predictable twists, like the Cobb-body-double bit. I loved seeing little teasers of Spensa's journey. (Although Jorgen says he's seen her twice, but in Sunreach it appears that he's only seen her once?) And of course, the ending, which deserves a separate paragraoh for itself.

I'm still in shock about what happened to Jorgen's parents...when I read the part, I spent a full five minutes ranting angrily at the authors. Poor Jorgen...I feel so bad for him and I just know he's not going to cope with any of this well, given his tendency to repress strong emotions. He's one of my favorite Skyward characters and I can't wait to read what he does in Evershore!

[Use the Falchion]

7 hours ago, NorthStar said:

Patterson and Sanderson seem insistent on pairing everyone up, when that's not how it works in real life. Some aren't ready or simply don't want romance.

I mean, Sanderson almost always pairs people up. In the Cosmere it's harder to name eligible characters who aren't paired up or don't have a romance teased than those who are. Heck, one of the most common questions Brandon gets asked about Kaladin is if/when he'll find love. I'm not saying you're wrong, but romance is a big thing for Brandon, and it always confuses me a little when people are upset about Brandon doing something he's always done. It's like having a dog that barks at squirrels, and you take him to your friend's house...where he barks at squirrels. Why would the setting change the behavior?