The Stormlight Archive
Our next stop on our journey through the Cosmere is Roshar, the planet that is home to the Stormlight Archive series.
If Brandon Sanderson is a master of epic fantasy, then the Stormlight Archive is his masterpiece, or at least is set up to be, once it is finished. We are currently three books into a planned ten-book series, split into two five-book arcs. (Book 4 is scheduled to be released November 17, 2020.)
Now, you may ask, how can I claim that it is his masterpiece if we aren’t even quite a third of the way through the series?
This is a fair question, but I think that this series already has things that make it stand taller than the rest of the Cosmere so far.
First, there is the worldbuilding, which is always an essential part of epic fantasy. Whether it be the unique flora and fauna of the world, the many diverse cultures of the world, or the rich history of the world, we are given a more immersive experience than in any of Sanderson’s other epic fantasies.
Tying the worldbuilding and the story together is the scope. No other story that Sanderson has given us feels as big as Stormlight does. The worldbuilding goes a long way to achieve this, but it is also tied up in the way that many of the POV characters travel long distances, or are separated from other POV characters. Roshar feels like a big world full of interesting people. When you read Stormlight (or, what is out so far of it), you feel like you have only scratched the surface of this world, and that there could be a lot more interesting people with interesting stories here that we aren’t seeing.
(Quick note: The Interludes in Stormlight help to build the world and to give a sense of scope. But many of them also contain important information for understanding the overall story better. DO NOT SKIP THE INTERLUDES, no matter how random and tangential they may seem.)
Next, there is the magic system. Sanderson is known for creating unique hard magic systems, or magic systems with firm rules, limits, and drawbacks. He does it again here, but by having the magic be tied to a process of taking oaths and bonding to spirits called spren, he successfully manages to incorporate a benefit of soft magic into his hard magic system: magical power-ups for his characters can be tied to personal character growth. This allows him to reap the benefits of both hard and soft magic systems simultaneously, which in turn makes the magic an even better storytelling tool.
Stormlight also has Sanderson’s largest cast of well-realized, three-dimensional characters, each of whom could be the sole protagonist in a smaller-scale work. Not only that, but the characters actually do switch off which is the primary main character of a given book. This allows for the story to become a vast tapestry of interweaving threads, rather than just one or two threads moving along a story arc.
And speaking of story, the story of Stormlight seems to have already met or surpassed the cosmic significance of any of the other novels or novel series in the Cosmere, and that is with seven more books still left in the series!
The three characters we have spent the most time with in these first three are Kaladin, a former soldier-turned-slave who wants to die, Shallan, a young woman trying to save her family from going bankrupt, and Dalinar, a warlord troubled by strange dreams and an honor code long abandoned by the leaders of his time. Each struggles with their dark past and the realization that they are fighting for much more than just themselves, their families, or their people. They are fighting for the survival or Roshar.
Just as with the rest of the books in the Cosmere, I absolutely do recommend this series.
That being said, if the idea of being only three books into a ten-book series scares you off, then go read the rest of the Cosmere first. Mistborn Era 1 is complete, Warbreaker and Elantris are standalone novels, and Mistborn Era 2 only has one more book left to be released. That being said, Sanderson is splitting Stormlight up into two five-book arcs, so we are over halfway through that first arc, at least. Stormlight 4 has a release date of November 17 of this year, and Brandon Sanderson expects to have Stormlight 5 ready for publication sometime in 2023.
Novella
Edgedancer
Edgedancer is a novella about the character Lift from the Stormlight Archive. Lift is a young girl with a unique relationship with the magic of the Stormlight Archive series. This novella allows us to get to know her character better, as well as to explore a part of that world that we haven’t really seen in the main books.
We follow her as she leaves behind the opulence of her current living conditions to roam the country. Has she just gotten restless? Or is her subconscious driving her to seek something? Or is she just after some really good pancakes? She and her spren, Wyndle, must figure that out together.
I enjoyed Edgedancer quite a bit, but then, I like the character of Lift. There is a sizable portion of the Stormlight fandom that does not. And, at least so far, nothing in Edgedancer is essential to understanding Stormlight (that may change in future books, as Brandon Sanderson has indicated that Lift’s role in the series will be growing). So, for now, read The Stormlight Archives first (or at least the first two books, since Edgedancer contains spoilers for Words of Radiance, book 2 in Stormlight), then decide if you want to explore the character of Lift more.
Edgedancer is available as a standalone novella or as part of Arcanum Unbounded, Brandon Sanderson’s collection of Cosmere-related shorter fiction.
The Stormlight Archive is a world-spanning story, so it is likely that any novellas or short stories on Roshar will be supplemental to that series, like Edgedancer.
You can continue on this journey with me to Threnody, home of the novella Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell.
Or you can click here to return to the general Cosmere post.
