Book Review: Edgedancer Second Read-Through

This cover image was taken from Amazon.com for review purposes.

Spolier Free Summary: Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson is a novella featuring Lift, a character from the Stormlight Archive.  This was the second time I’d read this.  You can see my initial review here.  Lift is a girl who’s apparently been 10 for about three years. She goes from sneaking into a place to helping a friend become emperor. The only problem is Darkness. He’s an emotionless hunter who seems obsessed with Lift and her pet Voidbringer who may not actually be a Voidbringer. The only thing crazier than her situation, is her idea to actually track down Darkness and stop him before he kills more people. While the rest of Roshar frets over the Assassin in White and the Kings and Emperors he kills, Lift is fighting for those other people.  Those who might not otherwise be remembered.

Character:  Lift is a fun character. She’s witty and unpredictable. She’s super proactive and incredibly sympathetic. The thing that makes her most interesting is she doesn’t put things together the way others might. Her fresh perspective on a situation often turns out right. She almost feels like a YA version of Columbo. I don’t know where she fits on my “list of favorites,” but I’m always happy when she’s is.n the scene, so this novella based on her is charming.

Exposition:  Sanderson doesn’t beat the reader over the head with exposition. This book flows even more swiftly because of Lift’s quick wit. Honestly I know it had to be there (no book can have zero exposition), but I don’t remember any.

World building:  Sanderson calls this Stormlight Archive 2.5, and it first. There are some parts here that might lose a person if they’ve never been to Roshar before. I don’t know how big the impact would be because I read this in order even on my first read of the story, but looking at it another time though made it easier to see how one might get a tad lost. I don’t think it’s that big a deal as long as you can grasp a few of the details of the world.

This photo, by Nazrilof, was taken from Brandon Sanderson’s bio on his website.

Dialogue: There’s a particular amount of plot revealed in dialogue. There’s also some foreshadowing here that I’d recommend people note before other books in the series come out. It’s quick and smart, like most Sanderson books, but I’d recommend anyone read this book a few times because I’m certain some of the names thrown out and characters introduced will grow in importance.

Description: Sanderson is more passive in his description than some might like. I’m not among them. I enjoy a book that’s streamlined for content. It’s still effective. What Sanderson does in this book is hone in on the important details. He doesn’t spend much time on making everything detailed. Instead, he makes sure the details you need to see are vivid.

Overall: I’m always grateful for re-reading books like this because I miss details. In this story, some of the characters introduced and information passed slipped by me the first time. Then again, Sanderson’s books usually do get more rewarding the more times you read them.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Book Review: Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

Spolier Free Summary: Edgedancer is a novella pulled from Brandon Sanderson’s Cosemere collection Arcanum Unbounded.  For the record, I’ve read all the other stories in that collection, but Edgedancer was the new material, so that’s what I’m focusing this review on.  Lift is probably the oddest of the Knights Radiant. She’s rushed of from luxury and an easy life seemingly on the quest for taste pancakes. (Honestly, that excuse worked on me; I’m a man who loves good pancakes.) As she works to find her delectable breakfast food, she finds herself again confronting Darkness, the Skybreaker who tried to kill Lift during the events of Words of Radiance. She finds herself in a race to save someone who seemingly everyone has failed to notice has a special secret.

Character:  Lift is charming, as most Sanderson characters are. I don’t quite find her as compelling as Kelsier, Vin, or Kaladin, but she’s growing on me. She’s certainly powerful. Her draw is her innocence. The way she sees the world is fascinating, and that’s what gives her such charm. She’s proactive. Her competence is somewhat on par with that of Captain Jack Sparrow in it’s seemingly accidental genius. It’s her sympathy that I don’t quite have yet. I think there are reasons for her to be sympathetic, but I don’t really know them yet, and that’s preventing me from falling for her the way I do most characters from Sanderson’s world. I think that’s intentional though as she’s supposed to gain prominence later in the series.

Exposition: This was pretty limited as it’s a novella. We learn what we have to, but the only book I read of Sanderson’s that had obvious exposition was Way of Kings. I felt pretty hammered with exposition in that book, but every other Sanderson novel is wonderfully fluid and driven by character. (NOTE: I still loved WoK, but I got a geography lesson and an economics lesson that really seemed jammed in there for my tastes.)

This image, created by Ben McSweeney, was taken from Mr. Sanderson’s website and posted here for review purposes. Also, it’s beautiful.

Worldbuilding:  We get a bit more sense of scope here. We also learn a bit more about some of what Spren can do. I don’t know that a learn a lot more about Roshar, but we do see a bit more of what Knights Radiant are capable of.

Dialogue:  This was a bit limited. It was natural, and charming. Lift is actually a cunningly clever conversationalist. Her blunt style and mannerism catch people off guard. She’s like a rude friend you bring to a party just to see how people will react. (not in a mean way, more like a “My friend is WAY smarter than you think she is, and I can’t wait for you to try and verbal spar with her” sort of way).

Description: As always, we get a perfect mix of color and sensory cues without getting bogged down in details. Sanderson has the balance I hope to find one day.

Overall: I’m always excited whenever I read a Sanderson novel, and that excitement is crippled when it’s a Cosmere story. Lift honestly wasn’t enough to hold me over to the next Archive novel, but it was a scrap of bread to a starving man. It’s a pleasant little glimpse into not just the world of Roshar, but what’s to come in the second half of the series.

Thanks for reading,

Matt