The foray into the future of the Cosmere (is it still the future if we’re reading now?) is very very interesting.
Like we’ve gotten “future” books in the form of the Secret Projects already. But this one is probably the one furthest ahead in the timeline1.
I really like this book. I mean it. It’s not a mainline story in the Cosmere, but boy is it hella interesting. We finally get a little look into the dragons of the Cosmere, how their powers work, history etc. And even more cool, new Investiture mechanics! The whole Navigator (and also the Aviar) thing for the Drominadian trappers feels very much like how Spren choose their Radiants. But minus the spren.
The 2 POV characters we get, Starling and Dusk, and also intriguing. Starling seems like a regular goody-two-shoes character, and that she is. BUT she has some really poignant moments of character development, specially once Dusk and her meet. Dusk on the other hand is potrayed as an extremely serious character. While I kinda found him a little “boring” in Sixth of the Dusk, here he is possibly even more serious, yet really really fun to read. From being a hardcore “tradionalist”, to being more open to the world. His transition was great, but not jarring in the least. Tbh by the end his traditionalist thinking won the whole day.
One more aspect of this book that I started to realise midway was that like most of Brandon Sanderson books, there is an element of “politics” here too. Specifically colonization. The planet this book takes place on, First of the Sun or Drominad, is quite behind in terms of tech compared to the giants in this timeline. Said giants are now rushing to be the first ones to more or less “take over” Drominad to advance their own plans with little care for the native population.
Sounds like British, French, Portuguese, AND Dutch vs India.
All in all, wonderful book. Great “Secret Project”, possibly Sanderson’s best. The Cosmere is still expanding, even after so many years 💓.
Extended Thoughts
Foreshadowing parts of the Roshar-Scadrial conflict.
In one of the chapters, Dajer mentions some Battle of Ahelela he was a part of. Where the sky around them seemed to burn itself, smokey all around, etc etc. Sounded very much like Dustbringer/Skybreaker powers. Also, Alethkar on Roshar, it’s old name was Alethela (said by Raboniel). Who’s to say that post-WaT Alethkar gets renamed to Ahelela and that one of the warzones of the Roshar-Scadrial War is this place itself?
Footnotes
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I still think The Sunlit Man is more ahead, but okay. ↩