Book Review: "Isles of the Emberdark" by Brandon Sanderson

Dusk is a trapper of supernatural birds called Aviar on the island of Patji, who is also his god. But now, his way of life is starting to get phased out as his people is now slowly getting industrialized, thanks to the help of the mysterious Ones Above, invaders from another planet who seem very interested in the Aviar.

Realizing that the Ones Above are only helping his people because they want the Aviar, Dusk embarks on an adventure in the Emberdark through the same magical portal that turns ordinary birds into Aviar. He's not exactly sure what he's looking for, as long as it can bring salvation to his people...

Elsewhere in the seemingly-infinite Emberdark, a young dragon called Starling is exiled and so she is stuck in human form. Along with her also-exiled ragtag crew, she's deep in debt and on the brink of losing not just the ship, but also their freedom. And so, when she finds a map to a hidden portal between the physical world and the Emberdark, she desperately seizes the opportunity, even if it's a long shot...

In the preface to Isles of the Emberdark, Brandon Sanderson stated that this book was originally meant to be the sequel to one of his many novellas, Sixth of the Dusk, but since writing a sequel to a relatively obscure novella is obviously not a commercially viable move, he decided to put the novella in the novel, and use it as flash back chapters between the present day chapters, and that's one of the reasons why this book feels a bit unique within the context of Sanderson's oeuvre.

Even ignoring the fact that half of the first part of the book is just a retooled version of an old novella, this is still a pretty long book at almost 500 pages. And while slower paced Sanderson books are not new, usually they're slower paced because of the breadth and epicness of the story, but here, with only two main characters, the reason it's slower paced is because the book focuses more on the inner conflicts of the two main characters (and to a lesser extent, the characters around them) rather than the world itself.

And speaking of the worldbuilding, the fact that it's not the focus of the book is clearly intentional. Since this book takes place in the far future of the Cosmere (the shared world where Sanderson's big series take place), we only get glimpses of the worlds that we have seen in Sanderson's other series, making it so that the important parts of the evolution of the worlds are saved for their respective series.

All we know is that people from Scadrial (where Mistborn takes place) and people from Roshar (where Stormlight Archives takes place) are at a cold war, where they don't have direct conflicts with each other, but instead, they're trying to colonize different planets (among other things) in order to get as much advantage as possible over the other. And thanks to the Aviar, Dusk's planet just happens to be one of the planets that both Scadrians and Rosharans want to have.

This conflict between Scadrial and Roshar means that while this book is technically readable for people who have no knowledge of the Cosmere, there are a lot of references and allusions that might go over such reader's head (even some of the side characters are those we've seen in other Cosmere books), which can either be annoying or will just make the readers want to read the rest of the Cosmere.

While this book might not be the best introduction to the Cosmere, it's still a pretty good story on its own, and for the Cosmere fans, it is the perfect standalone novel, with just enough teases to get people excited for the next installments of the Mistborn and Stormlight Archives.

The two main characters, Dusk and Starling, are like your average Sanderson main character, which means that nothing about them is subtle, everything about the characterization is spelled out, which is just the way Sanderson usually does characters. And at least this time it works because both their arcs make sense and complement each other very well.

And that wouldn't have been possible had the book not been this long. Yes, there are moments that seem a bit pointless or dragging a bit when you first read it, but in the end, all of those serve the purpose of enriching the characters.

Because of that relatively slower pace, the book does feel even longer than its actual page count, but by the end it's definitely worth it. This slower pace also allows the book to explore themes that Sanderson has explored elsewhere, but from slightly different angles. Themes like colonialism, the price of progress and freedom are prevalent all over the text from start to finish, and while, as always, Sanderson doesn't say anything particularly new about the themes, they're still done quite well and they fit the story perfectly, so it never felt like he's just shoehorning something that doesn't belong in the story.

Brandon Sanderson's fifth and final (for now...?) Secret Project, Isles of the Emberdark is thankfully another good one. Despite the fact that this doesn't feel like the stereotypical Sanderson book with its slower pacing and focus on the characters, it still has a lot for everyone. For non-Cosmere readers, this might not be the most beginner-friendly Sanderson book out there, even just within the Secret Projects (Tress of the Emerald Sea is still the best in that aspect) but you'd still get a pretty good story about a guy trying to deal with the price of progress while fending off colonization, with a diverse set of compelling characters from many different backgrounds. And for Cosmere fans, you'd get that, and also some hints on the future of the Cosmere, and how everything would work, particularly when it comes to characters from Roshar and Scadrial, it's just a small part of the book, but Cosmere fans will definitely not want to miss it. 4/5.