This is my favorite Cosmere stand alone so far; and I hate it.

[Frustration]

Alright, before we begin, quick disclaimer, I really enjoyed this story, I thought the world was excellent, and it is my favorite Cosmere novel outside of Stormlight and Mistborn. And it's the kind of book I've been needing for years now.

 

That said, I hate it.

 

The problem comes from our dear main character: Nomad/Sigzils/Zellions/this man has too many names.

Every single problem can be traced back to him.

1. His power levels and abilities are wildly inconsistent. In one scene he can form Shardblades, heal really quickly, get shot in the face and keep going, etc. And then in the next he can't do anything. And there's really no consistency in it. How am I supposed to feel any sort of stakes when I know Sig can always just get a powerup when he needs it?

The time that really made it stand out to me was when he's going over the mountains and can't get the water carrier off.

So what does Brando "limitations are more important than powers" Sando have him do? Does he grab one of the bombs that they used easier, perhaps hinted at that they might use them to dig up the Sanctuary? Does he try turning the ship and smashing the container against the mountain?

Nope, he can just make sharp things with Aux again. Because.

 

 

2. I feel nothing from him.

Nomad is apparently on the run from people who will kill him. There should be a sense of urgency, a massive panic throughout the entire book. I felt nothing.

People are dropping like flies left right and center. Aux gets burned away to fuel his abilities. There should be something there, anything. I felt more sorrow over the fact that he wasn't taking Elegy with him than I did at Aux's death.

Usually I get done with a good book and feel that incredible high afterwards that leaves me rushing for days, but I felt, you guessed it, nothing.

 

This book could have easily used 4-5 more revisions, with one focused entirely on the magic and another on the emotional beats.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Frustration

[The Sibling she/her]

3 hours ago, Frustration said:

This book could have easily used 4-5 more revisions, with one focused entirely on the magic and another on the emotional beats.

I think more recent Brandon books feel less well revised than other ones, maybe because he has more pressure to publish things now? Especially with the secret projects, there was not a ton of time to revise them, and he was trying to write Stormlight 5 at the same time.

I also didn't feel too much emotional connection with Sigzil. Throughout the story, his character seemed to change a lot. He didn't seem consistent, and the only real emotion that I got from him was exhaustion. When Aux died there was no grief. I was sad, because I liked Aux. But Sigzil didn't seem sad, and I didn't feel sad for him.

That being said, I really liked this book. Even though I didn't connect with Sigzil very much, there were moment (like the bridge four salute) that were awesome, and the book worked really well anyways. It wasn't as character focused, or at least, it only focused on one character who wasn't that good, but I still enjoyed it more than any other Brandon stand-alone. I hope that maybe seeing Sigzil in Stormlight and having a better explanation as to what happened with him might help to re-contextualise the book and make it a more enjoyable read, but I find it unlikely since Sigzil really isn't the focus of Stormlight.

[PrestoTheMagnificent]

I agree with most points that you give here, especially the powerup and not caring about Sigzil. I had an idea that might make Sigzil's character better for us, but it would make the pacing a lot slower, and perhaps reveal some things that Brandon doesn't want to reveal yet. The idea is simple: Do flashback chapters. That's one of the main calling cards of Stormlight, and it's one of the reasons we care about characters like Kaladin and Dalinar so much. It would probably take at least another revision for pacing, but I think it would be worth it for the characterization we'd get.

[Frustration]

Just now, PrestoTheMagnificent said:

I agree with most points that you give here, especially the powerup and not caring about Sigzil. I had an idea that might make Sigzil's character better for us, but it would make the pacing a lot slower, and perhaps reveal some things that Brandon doesn't want to reveal yet. The idea is simple: Do flashback chapters. That's one of the main calling cards of Stormlight, and it's one of the reasons we care about characters like Kaladin and Dalinar so much. It would probably take at least another revision for pacing, but I think it would be worth it for the characterization we'd get.

A number of times I wondered if we were going to get any, perhaps SA 5 will serve that role.

[PrestoTheMagnificent]

Just now, Frustration said:

A number of times I wondered if we were going to get any, perhaps SA 5 will serve that role.

Yeah, or something in the back half. This point may be moot in a few years, haha. Would have been cool to see them in the book though.

[Meganagem]

I think the magic is inconsistent because it depends on how he feels, if HE feels as though his oaths are broken, etc. He's struggling mentally with whatever choices he's made that have made him go against his oaths on Roshar. I get the sense that he could have his full armour and all that as soon as he gets over his mental and emotional guilt and crap. Honestly, he felt a lot like Kaladin before and during his oaths. Just wading through a mire of self-hatred, doubt, and heaps of guilt. 

When he gets over himself and focusses on protecting the people, the magic is there. He just currently feels as though he's too broken. Navani felt too broken, Adolin feels broken, Dalinar was broken and "repaired", Kal is broken and kinda sorta fixed but not. Shallan is shattered. They're all dealing with all their demons. 

[Mattel]

 

On 10/24/2023 at 6:58 PM, The Sibling said:

I also didn't feel too much emotional connection with Sigzil. Throughout the story, his character seemed to change a lot. He didn't seem consistent, and the only real emotion that I got from him was exhaustion. When Aux died there was no grief. I was sad, because I liked Aux. But Sigzil didn't seem sad, and I didn't feel sad for him.

There is also the very difficult thing of: no matter how much Brandon Sanderson has plotted out in his mind for the future of the Cosmere, he was writing a character that he doesn't know. Sigzil is a character that we are familiar with, yet at the same time, he is still Sigzil, who is a completely different character. I cannot imagine trying to write something like that. As you write a character, you inevitably "discover them," so as Brandon was writing this sort of new character, he changed slightly, but he also had to juggle the fact of Nomad needed to feel familiar, while still being someone we recognize as readers as a different character. Honestly, I'm impressed with how well Sanderson did all things considered.

[Light In the Darkness]

On 10/24/2023 at 2:59 PM, Frustration said:

2. I feel nothing from him.

Nomad is apparently on the run from people who will kill him. There should be a sense of urgency, a massive panic throughout the entire book. I felt nothing.

People are dropping like flies left right and center. Aux gets burned away to fuel his abilities. There should be something there, anything. I felt more sorrow over the fact that he wasn't taking Elegy with him than I did at Aux's death.

Usually I get done with a good book and feel that incredible high afterwards that leaves me rushing for days, but I felt, you guessed it, nothing.

On 10/24/2023 at 6:58 PM, The Sibling said:

I also didn't feel too much emotional connection with Sigzil. Throughout the story, his character seemed to change a lot. He didn't seem consistent, and the only real emotion that I got from him was exhaustion. When Aux died there was no grief. I was sad, because I liked Aux. But Sigzil didn't seem sad, and I didn't feel sad for him.

So, I think that this was, to an extent, intentional. This is clearly a very, very long time after SA. He has been running from the Night Brigade for a while; I think him more or less just being exhausted is exactly what he was feeling. I think He was probably more sad about leaving Elegy than about Aux dying - he already went through most of his grief for Aux, since he no longer had much of a body left. He had already acknowledged his broken oaths, and while sad for the final end, he knew it was coming for a long time. Like seeing someone you care about get in a car wreck, and then not quite die immediately - getting hospitalized, living on life support, until eventually they finally fade the rest of the way. A lot of the emotional impact will be at the event, and then the final passing might mostly encounter you while you're numb. It's a character perspective that we don't get a lot from Sanderson, but it nevertheless is a valid one, and I don't think he intended for anything else, emotionally, except perhaps wanting us to feel more connected to him than it seems like you guys did. I agree that the flashbacks might have helped, but I think a lot of that will be revealed in the rest of SA, so we will see if knowing some of that helps.

On 10/24/2023 at 2:59 PM, Frustration said:

1. His power levels and abilities are wildly inconsistent. In one scene he can form Shardblades, heal really quickly, get shot in the face and keep going, etc. And then in the next he can't do anything. And there's really no consistency in it. How am I supposed to feel any sort of stakes when I know Sig can always just get a powerup when he needs it?

The time that really made it stand out to me was when he's going over the mountains and can't get the water carrier off.

So what does Brando "limitations are more important than powers" Sando have him do? Does he grab one of the bombs that they used easier, perhaps hinted at that they might use them to dig up the Sanctuary? Does he try turning the ship and smashing the container against the mountain?

Nope, he can just make sharp things with Aux again. Because.

On 9/23/2024 at 3:19 AM, Meganagem said:

I think the magic is inconsistent because it depends on how he feels, if HE feels as though his oaths are broken, etc. He's struggling mentally with whatever choices he's made that have made him go against his oaths on Roshar. I get the sense that he could have his full armour and all that as soon as he gets over his mental and emotional guilt and sh*t. Honestly, he felt a lot like Kaladin before and during his oaths. Just wading through a mire of self-hatred, doubt, and heaps of guilt. 

With this I think there is more to it than his emotional state. I think its cause by the progression of his Torment - whatever odd curse was caused by his holding whichever dawnshard. Wit exhibits the same symptom with being unable to hurt others intentionally, but being able to "wiggle out" of it via changing his perception of his actions. Sigzil has done this repeatedly, and the Torment has been growing stronger and adapting to his tricks, making it harder for him to use them. While he still had active oaths to protect others, they overrode the torment completely, but since he broke them/gave them up they haven't done that. At the beginning of the story he is still getting away with some of those mental tricks, and when he manages to hurt someone, the torment adapts to prevent it working again. So he can't make sharp things for a while, until he convinces the torment solidly that it couldn't be for violence against a person, and then when he's able to skim that part of the torment out of himself into the sunheart. So I think his power level shifts are actually kinda cool and actually rather consistent, he's just dealing with a very odd condition. It would have been cool to see him need to improvise in that scene though, like the bombs or the mountain maneuver you mention. So I disagree that he's such a big problem - I think it's probably exactly the story Sanderson intended - but I can understand wanting Sigzil to do something like using the mountains instead of Aux working again, and I concur that it was much harder to connect with him emotionally in this story than with the main characters in most of Sanderson's stories.