Full Dragonsteel Prime Spoilers

[AonEne he/him]

I'm so glad everyone can now read this book, it's terrible and I love it. This is the book that got me to really fall in love with Hoid. Also Ryalla! My girl! And Frost! And Jerick, a disaster (affectionate). 

[Eternal Khol he/him]

Been waiting for everyone to be able to read/talk about this one! Tis one of my favorites!

I love that everyone can finally meet meet and read all these characters but mostly my guy Bat'Chor! who is still canonically the closest thing Hoid has had to a best friend

Theres a lot to unpack and talk about but a couple Cosmere relations/tidbits id like to specifically mention are that, first, i love that even back then Brandon had the Dragons as these amazing mythical beings that could receive/answer prayers! Just always thought it was such a cool element and i loved to see being used back then and even now!....  Second, Frost is for sure Drephrast right!?! The leader of the Dragons!? And third.... "The Father".... thats got to be proto-Adonalsium?!

Its definitely worth a read and even though it is not canon, for those looking, i feel like the little nuggets or echoes of truth in it has helped better form the idea/story in my head of why in the Canon Cosmere, the Shattering happened

 

Edit: B$ has also said that a coupe characters from Dragonsteel Prime were in Aether of Night... I wonder who it is

Aether is supposed to be the first appearance of a Shard and Dragonsteel was supposed to be the story of the Shattering... so im assuming that some of the Dragonsteel characters eventually became the Shard(s) in Aether.... maybe Aronack was supposed to be Decay!???! It seems to fit with how Aronack was described in Dragonsteel and Decay in Aether

Edited March 30, 2024 by Eternal Khol

[Aronack]

What makes you so sure Aronack isn't a nice shard like Invention? He just really likes technology is all...

[Eran of Arcadia]

Well that was . . . whelming.

Certainly his writing improved between now and then. And the whole bridgeman arc, which is probably my favorite part of Stormlight, is kind of half baked here. And the magic system seemed too much like "explaining new powers when they're needed," which he got better at. But hey, some of the characters were kind of intriguing.

[Shardmancer he/him]

Sooo Fun.

Thoughts on the Story: Overall, I appreciate how the writing evolved and how the characters underwent development, Sanderson has always been great at that and you can see the infancy of what evolved to his style today. It’s particularly fun to witness Pre-Kaladin (Jerrick) transformation into supermode, progressing at lightspeed character Arc. Ryalla’s portrayal is also fun—I enjoyed how she merged the slave-version proto-Shallan with nobility, Shallan had the wit that is missing a bit with Ryalla but as a slave I can't blame her. The pacing, a hallmark of Sanderson’s work, remains strong. Although the narrative occasionally jumps between different points of view, it still maintains a cohesive overall arc.

Highlights:

• Hoid: His presence is always captivating, even in his early days. His quirky wit endears him to readers.
• BatChor: A fun character who I always looked forward to his POV, I could see him going through some Moash style evil arc. 
• Axi and Magic: Exploring the prime version of world magic and the distinct systems within each realm was thoroughly enjoyable. The core principles of the three realms remain consistent but this seemed closer to an open magic system then Sanderson staple of Hard Magic. 

Areas for Improvement:

• Worldbuilding: While the world is richly imagined, I’d have appreciated more exploration, especially in Fallamore and the Shattered Plains and Shodel. 
• Slow Parts: Melleran and Yoharn felt somewhat bland. Instead, I’d have preferred additional focus on BatChor and General Tzern.
• Sho Del: A deeper dive into this aspect would have been welcome. We had 1 POV chapter, it almost felt out of place. 
• Magic System Explanation: A bit more clarity on the power systems—whether it adheres to a hard magic system—would enhance reader understanding.
  
  Overall a fun ride and I enjoyed hunting for some pre-cosmere easter eggs! 

 

[+Child of Hodor]

On 4/8/2024 at 12:24 PM, Shardmancer said:

Highlights:

• Hoid: His presence is always captivating, even in his early days. His quirky wit endears him to readers.

On 3/29/2024 at 11:34 PM, AonEne said:

I'm so glad everyone can now read this book, it's terrible and I love it. This is the book that got me to really fall in love with Hoid. Also Ryalla! My girl! And Frost! And Jerick, a disaster (affectionate). 

As someone who usually finds Hoid annoying if he's in a book too much I have to say this is the most I've enjoyed Hoid, ever, outside of some Hoid+Design stuff but that's mostly about how the delightful Design plays off him. 

His personality is basically the same. Same types of jokes, same jabs at a Sadeas-esque noble. Same running off to do other stuff. Same telling downtrodden heroes stories to influence them. I just find him much more engaging. It's nice to see him not know things and be afraid more. He's usually incredibly smug giving cryptic, know-it-all answers to questions. 

It's sort of nice to already know the basics of the magic system going in "Oh this is Division. This is Lightweaving" otherwise I would be much more bored or frustrated with the "learn the magic system" sections. They aren't done as well as they would be later. 

On 3/30/2024 at 2:08 AM, Eternal Khol said:

Edit: B$ has also said that a coupe characters from Dragonsteel Prime were in Aether of Night... I wonder who it is

LOL. I forgot about B-Money. 

[Treamayne]

Overall, I can see why this one went unpublished. I'm happy to have read it, but I'm not sure if I will read it again. Much more of a downer ending than normal (likely due to the series it was planned to become - like another Prime version). It seems obvious that Brandon had not yet really "codified" his three laws yet, as there is not much clarification on Microkinesis or the other abilities shown.

Jerrick's story does seem much more in-line with the standard fantasy hero trope (peasant beginnings, raised up, becomes a leader and has magic) - except the ending of course.

Loved Bat'Chor's arc, though the "dialect" was not handled as well as his later works deal with it.

Enjoyed the Korean/Hanja references for the Tzend language. 

Still confused over Trexandos, which seemed to sometimes refer to a city, sometimes a country (neither of which appear an any of the maps - unless it was supposed to be "Tronos" on the map - much like the map shows "Karg" but the text only uses Jarg) - I kept getting Trexandos and Tzendor confused for the first half of the book. 

Decent skeleton of a story and I look forward to the final version in a decade or three. . . 

On 4/7/2024 at 9:39 PM, Eran of Arcadia said:

Certainly his writing improved between now and then. And the whole bridgeman arc, which is probably my favorite part of Stormlight, is kind of half baked here. And the magic system seemed too much like "explaining new powers when they're needed," which he got better at. But hey, some of the characters were kind of intriguing.

Concur. I can certainly see why Brandon decided the Shattered Plains would work better on Roshar. I was surprised at how many scenes were direct parallels - I had known for a long time that he moved the Shattered Plains arc from Dragonsteel to Stormlight, but Rock , Gaz, the rescue of Tzern that became the Tower fight to rescue Dalinar. I had not realized that so much was directly moved over, then adjusted. Then you have the WonderTwins character building with WoKP - where it seems that (WoKP spoilers~ish):

Spoiler

• Jerrick + Merin = Kaladin
• Ryalla + Shinri = Shallan

Quote

Peter Ahlstrom

The red-headed attendant who is Jasnah Prime's ward is named Shinri Davar. Brandon considers her to be not the same person as Shallan at all, unlike Merin who he does consider to be the same person as Kaladin, if his life had gone differently. She has a completely different plot from Shallan's.

In Prime, Jasnah is much more of a main character than Shinri is.

Miscellaneous 2014 (Nov. 14, 2014)

 

 

Edited October 14, 2024 by Treamayne
SPAG

[mario]

I was somewhat confused with the end of this book. Can someone explain what happened at the end?

Who was the God/power that destroyed Topaz and helped the evil side to win? and why?

I also wonder why the end was so gloomy...

[Nitpicking]

On 11/17/2025 at 11:29 AM, mario said:

I was somewhat confused with the end of this book. Can someone explain what happened at the end?

Who was the God/power that destroyed Topaz and helped the evil side to win? and why?

I also wonder why the end was so gloomy...

I'm pretty sure we aren't told enough to identify the entity at the end, for the same reason it's so gloomy: it isn't the end of the story. It's the end of Book One of a series.

[Eternal Khol he/him]

13 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

I'm pretty sure we aren't told enough to identify the entity at the end, for the same reason it's so gloomy: it isn't the end of the story. It's the end of Book One of a series.

Was it not the “Fifth god”? which Topaz learns right before his head is cut off, is actually Emperor Aronack