The book was written for Arcanists

[Sythrin]

So… My general opinion. I thought the book as a story was fine? I guuess?

Not the best story of Sanderson. I thought the 2 POVs/plotlines kinda did not mix well? Dusk and Starling barely interacted with each other. Starling kinda did not make a big impact on Dusk story except at the ending as a ride and for him to have purpose. It kinda felt like everything else, he would have managed on his own. He would have realised that the cave qas a trial, he probably would have realised that his people power of navigating is unique and he would have probably tamed the snake god by himself as well. In terms of characters… Starling was nice i guess. I was a bit perplexed how much modernized Dusk became in the short time. It was explained but it still kinda felt forced that Dusk all of sudden started to think in more elaborate senteces later. (I have not read the backstory in the books as I have read Dusks story in the arcanum, so I am not sure if Sanderson rewrote his personality there a bit). The crew and the villain, were not that appealing ether. Especialy the secret police woman? Did not feel as she mattered in the story, was just there to make dusk uncomfortable.

Unironiclly I thought the most interesting characters in the book, could have been Crow and Xisis. They felt more deep than some of the others.

This books feels more like a revelation and teases for theorists and cosmere lore junkies (like me). It was fun to finally see more of dragons, silverlight and the current political spectrum of the cosmere. But sooooo many other things were rather teased or new questions opened. We did not see other Aviar abilities, Starlings past and Yolen or dragons are still pretty mysterious, so many places were just mentioned but almost nothing elaborated. We did not even find out which aether rejected/died of the girl or on which aether runs airships. I can kinda excuse that we saw almost nothing of Scadrian technology explanations. We know of starships that fly with stealfields and that awakend metalminds are something akin to AIs that can probably use invesiture/feruchemy. But those things are probably going to be a bit elaborated in the upcoming books. But a bit too bad we did not see how the Maelwish guns work, as thex seem to shoot some of energy projectile.

[lacrossedeamon]

I mean Dusk's main goal was to find allies. Without Starling he would not have managed that.

The backstory is rewritten a little bit to insert Cakoban in there and retcon the mainland but I'm not sure how much that effected Dusk's personality and thought process.

Saja (the MP) possibly survived and might appear in later works.

Zephyr aethers are used for ship propulsion. We don't know if just the bud died or if the actual core Zephyr aether died.

[Sythrin]

11 hours ago, lacrossedeamon said:

Zephyr aethers are used for ship propulsion. We don't know if just the bud died or if the actual core Zephyr aether died

Are we sure thats it? Could it not be another aether. Maybe one we dont know of?

Or the heat aether? Could be used for transport as well as they seem to be more stable?

[lacrossedeamon]

5 hours ago, Sythrin said:

Are we sure thats it? Could it not be another aether. Maybe one we dont know of?

Aditil has a "sky" colored hand implying she was bonded to the Zephyr aether and they explicitly mention Zephyr aethers being used as the propellent for the Dynamic with the implication that the Malwish use the same type as well.

[HSuperLee]

I half agree with Sythrin on this. I was profoundly uninterested in Starling's part of the story and was disappointed whenever the book switched to her perspective. Dusk's story, however, had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Just watching him try to survive in a new and hostile environment, experimenting and making discoveries, was exhilarating. I would have liked the book more if it had been longer and we'd seen more of Dusk's exploration before he encounters the Scadrians. I think we were supposed to be more endeared to Starling's crew more than I ended up being. Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I think I'm getting tired of the "ragtag bunch of misfits become a found family" trope.

[listerfeend]

My biggest complaint with this book was over in book 1. The jarring, and constant, shifts from "present day" to "five years ago" was kind of annoying. 

[teknopathetic he/him]

It was weirdly written for arcanists, but refused to get into specifics about the Aviar powers.