If it isn’t already somewhere
There was one a week or two ago, but it’s worth starting a new one to make it more visible, especially now that more people will have read it.
My take: it’s fine. Not that it is bad, but compared to his usual high standards, it is not as good as most of the other books. So, it is one of my least liked Cosmere books. (I’ll have to gather my thoughts and come back when I have more time to explain my reasons.)
I understand where you are coming from because I feel the same way about Yumi. I definitely enjoyed Tress more, I think I enjoyed Yumi more than Lost Metal but I still want to digest it a bit more.
I definitely enjoyed Tress more, I think I enjoyed Yumi more than Lost Meta
This is about where I stand. I liked Yumi, it was good, and definitely better than Frugal Wizard, but I I liked Tress more.
Tress felt like a full cosmere adventure, with multiple layers to the magic system. Yumi’s magic system felt a lot less defined and versatile. He paints and the nightmares become docile. She stacks rocks and the spirits like it. Hion lines are electricity, but pink and blue instead of positive and negative. That was kinda it.
Meanwhile, Tress has an entire panopoly of different, color coded spores, including one that seems to tie back into Stormlight. We got a little further insight into what Elantrian magic has to offer, and see how advanced awakening technology gets.
Tress had the spirit of something like The Goonies - escaping from a mundane life into a crazy world of excitement. Yumi had the spirit of something like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - young kids just kinda slacking off and escaping their responsibilities with a frantic rush to clean up some messes before they got in trouble.
Ferris Bueller is a good movie and all, but it doesn’t instill the same kind of excitement that something like The Goonies does. One is extraordinary and the other is like “yeah that’s chill.”
i’m curious what makes you say it is not up to his usual high standards and not as good as the other books.
i will admit that i was meh on it the first time i read it, but … on reread, i loved it; it’s a great meditation on the nature of art and creation. i think it works better if you think of it as story that hoid is telling, like a long form version of one of his stories embedded in the stormlight books.
This is my favorite of the 3 secret projects so far. Nikaro and Yumi both had really satisfying story archs. I can relate to the conflicts they had in their relationship. It was really fun having Design being the stand-in for Hoid this book. She made me laugh in nearly every scene when the noodle shop was featured.
I bought just the eBook for the year of Sanderson and when I finished this book yesterday I immediately went out to Dragonsteel’s website and purchased the leatherbound.
I just started reading it this week, and earlier tonight read that section where Yumi meets Akara the first time, telling her to her face she must be his concubine.
I found that incredibly funny, giggling in front of my wife for a minute or two. It’s a joke with a build up for some 5 or 6 chapters. How to convey that?
I don’t understand a lot of the magic yet, I suppose it’s another deep dive on Connection, but I had a hard time grasping that in the Lost Metal . If that’s the arc of the Cosmere, Brandon will have to explain some more.
