Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson : Review

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, a special gift edition of Edgedancer, a short novel of the Stormlight Archive (previously published in Arcanum Unbounded).

Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older–a wish she believed was granted. Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one. Although the young Azish emperor granted her safe haven from an executioner she knows only as Darkness, court life is suffocating the free-spirited Lift, who can’t help heading to Yeddaw when she hears the relentless Darkness is there hunting people like her with budding powers. The downtrodden in Yeddaw have no champion, and Lift knows she must seize this awesome responsibility.

It’s been a little over a year now since I first read Arcanum Unbounded for the first time and I can still remember how much I enjoyed Edgedancer and how disappointed I was when it was over. So when Tor sent me a copy of the new miniature hardback edition of the novella I knew it was the perfect time to reread the book and give it the proper review that it deserves. I was honestly a bit worried that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first time though since I have a bad habit of overhyping books I enjoyed reading and then having them not be as good as I remembered

Happily, that wasn’t the case and the story was just as amazing as I remember it being. One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book is that it isn’t just some unimportant side story meant to tide people over until the next book in the main sequence released. The events in Edgedancer are important and will have a huge impact on future books in the Stormlight Archive. I would definitely recommend that anyone who is reading the Stormlight Archive makes sure that they read Edgedancer after Words of Radiance otherwise they are going to be pretty confused over some things.

One of the things I will never understand is why so many people seem to dislike Lift for some reason — I loved her in the interlude chapters of Words of Radiance and I think the best part of Edgedancer is that we get a much deeper insight into her character. lift is one of those characters that runs around the entire book telling herself and everyone who will listen how selfish she is and how little she cares for other people but then spends the majority of the book risking her life for people she doesn’t know.

Life became one of my favorite characters in the series because she looks and acts nothing like you’d expect from one of the Knights Radiant. She also really reminds me of Matrim Cauthon from the Wheel of Time and I sometimes wonder if Brandon took any inspiration from him for her character. I really can’t wait to see what happens with her next and see how she’s going to interact with the rest of the Knights in the rest of the series.

I think this is one of the best Novella’s that Brandon Sanderson has written so far and it makes me really hope that he does more novellas like this set in the Cosmere. It’s a good way to see whats going on in other parts of Roshar that may not show up in the main sequence of books.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

New Tor Mini Hardcovers Includes: Brandon Sanderson’s Edgedancer, Charlie Jane Anders Collection, And More