With assassins chasing him, a pressing need to secure votes to preserve the Sand Mages, and darksider visitors unhappy he didn’t reveal his true identity to begin with, Kenton has plenty to keep him occupied. Khrisalla, one of the Darkside envoys, decides to help Kenton secure his votes. He gains some measure of protection against the assassins in Ais, a former assassin. She doesn’t necessarily like Kenton, but does justice to her job. Kenton’s job is only made more difficult when debts are brought up. More than that, though, the reluctance of the people to preserve the Sand Mages lies in the fact that the majority feel they are privileged, and above a capacity serving others. Kenton sets an example himself, going out to a collapsing building and using his magick to stabilise it enough that people can be rescued.
Ok. My bad. I jumped into this story not having read the previous book. I was a bit confused at first, but quickly got a grasp on what the situation was. The ending to this book was, of course, a cliffhanger. I’ll have to wait to see what happens!
I love Brandon Sanderson’s works, and White Sand was no exception. I love that his disparate stories are still set within the same universe, even moreso when they briefly touch. Sanderson has a gift for unusual magick systems. The metal magick of the Mistborn series, chalk magick with The ‘Rithmatist, here with sand magick. I love seeing different magical systems, how they progress and grow. For this book, I like that Kenton is pushing them out of their haughty arrogance. Respect and trust must be earned.
While I enjoyed this book, and will check out the others, I feel that this wasn’t quite up to Sanderson’s level. His books can be rich, and deep, and infinitely complex in ways hard to limit to pictures and dialogue bubbles. A picture is not always worth a thousand words, yeah? If you are new to Sanderson’s works, these graphic novels are not the place to jump into the complexity of the Cosmere. I’d recommend starting with the Mistborn books.
***Many thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
