Edgedancer - Brandon Sanderson

Book Review

Edgedancer

Book 2.5 of The Stormlight Archive

Written by Brandon Sanderson

Published in 2016

50/100

Art by Sam Green

Edgedancer is its own worst enemy. In its best moments, it gives readers a fun little fantasy romp with incredibly compelling concepts for fantastical cultures and races. The Sleepless are now among my favorite races and species in the Cosmere simply because of how interesting of a design they carry. The action set pieces, especially towards the end of the novella, are filled with the classic Sanderson style that I've come to expect. Coming from someone who tends to zone out watching fight scenes in television and movies, let alone books, I've never been as engaged as I have in a battle or a duel as when I am reading a Sanderson novel. Like I've said, the world and action and even some of the characters are so compelling you would think my rating would be much higher, but they are all grossly tainted by the viewpoint through which we see these things. Lift, our main protagonist and the only viewpoint in this novella, is terribly insufferable. It is implied she made some sort of deal with the Nightwatcher and is now stuck at age ten. Sanderson really goes into it with the ten-year-old talk, with quotes such as "She stuck her tongue out at him, a totally rational and reasonable way to fight a demigod." that just come across as more cringey than anything else. When I read The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, another book by Sanderson, I remember a reviewer saying Brandon was trying too hard for a Pratchett-esque tone for his humor, and that sentiment could not apply more with Edgedancer. So much of the dialogue feels like an attempt at clever wordplay and almost all of it is cringey. Most of it isn't even very clever, either. "Your pancakfulness" made me audibly groan. I truly don't think this story would carry as many flaws as it does if Lift was not the main character, but the novella also only feels like it exists to provide more context on the character. It ends up in a weird limbo state for me where I enjoyed the story enough to wish it wasn't told through Lift while acknowledging it probably would not work if it wasn't about her. One last unfortunate thing I must mention is that there are two really interesting scenes in this book that I assume make it required reading for future installments. I wouldn't skip this one, but you may end up wishing you had.