Sunlit Man Full Book Reactions (Cosmere Edition)

[Elegy he/him]

That was a ride! Nomad is a great protagonist, the whole world and the premise are great, and having a story unapologetically connect the dots between all the different Cosmere mechanics was fantastic.

Although I feel like Brandon's side-characters have been getting worse in the last few years. The most important two or three characters are pretty much always great, but not so much beyond that. The Cinder Kind in particular felt pretty clichéd and silly, and I did not like Elegy at all

... which is very conflicting to me.

Anyway, one huge thing I disliked: Having the Night Brigade show up in the sky in the middle and then not make them a relevant part of the plot even in the finale was a major disappointment. One of the very, very few times that Brandon made a promise and did not deliver at all. Nice epilogue though! (I'm a fan of Threnody stuff, if it wasn't apparent, so anything we get about that is great, and there was a lot of that here!)

My ranking of the secret projects would be:

1. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (masterpiece)
2. Tress of the Emerald Sea (great)
3. The Sunlit Man (pretty good)
4. Frugal Wizard's Handbook (eeeeeh)

That said, I'm really feeling fatigued by now. I still believe it would have been better to have half a year between the Cosmere books at least to properly digest them (although the 3 months between Yumi and Sunlit were still better than the one and a half between Lost Metal and Tress). I usually read every Sanderson book in the months after it comes out, but Defiant will probably have to wait a while.

Mind-blowing year from a Cosmere lore perspective though 

[alder24]

That was a great journey. I like it, not as good as Yumi, I can’t decide if it’s better than Tress, but boy, there was a loooot of Cosmere here, so much information given to us, but not in big infodumps, but spread across the whole book - I love that. Sigzil turned out to be a very complicated and tragic character, and his character arc was done very well. I teared up when he told how Aux was killed and once again when Aux died for good. That was so sad. The side characters were fine, Rebeke was enjoyable to read, Elegy too, but that's it for me, others were in the background. I was really hoping for more Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually but he just disappeared after his first appearance. Shame. And that was definitely UTol at the end! 

There is so much about Cosmere that the book is definitely for fans. Mechanics of Connection, Investiture, Threnody, Scadrial and so much about Dawnshards - all of that is a bit overwhelming. We’re gonna pick this book apart for years here, that’s great. 

I’m really happy that the book did not reveal too much of SA5, it was vague enough that I don’t even know if Sigzil picked up the Dawnshard during SA5 or some time after (how old is he in RoW? Was it said? He was 38 when he became the Dawnshard). It gives us hits to theorize and that’s great.  

Aux was a Radiant? He swore the Oaths. They bonded maybe in CR? It makes me think that it’s some kind of Adolin-Maya situation, and Aux was a deadeye, which got revived by bonding with Sig and becoming a Radiant, then Sig bonded Aux as well. If yes then it seems like Skybreakers abandoned Nale en masse. Otherwise I don’t know how Aux just bonded Sig as Radiant.

I’m however disappointed with the Night Brigade. I was terrified when they appeared in the skies, the book built them up for so long, and I was really expecting them to show up and confront Sigzil at the very end. Nope. However they are a scary force, an army of red-eyed Shades commanded by what means? With the ability to wipe out planets? That’s scary - I still pity those Scadrians in their ship. Threnody indeed joined the game, but who paid the Night Brigade to hunt Nomad? Those guys are scarier.

Who on Storms tried to mess with Sigzil’s Dawnshard to trigger its self-defense mechanism? And this was years after Nomad became Dawnshard. What happened? And who got the Dawnshard next? 

The Scadrials were shown in a very interesting light. They are split into numerous fractions, there is no solid unity in the space era, but those are Malwish, which have interesting implications for Era 3. They’re like the one in SotD, obeying non-intervention policy, but trading and supplying local rulers for their own benefits, not caring about tyranny or suffering this might cause. Their tech is impressive, AI Awakened Steelminds? Wristbands with targeted Steelpush without getting pushed back? Cool, I really want more! Sigzil doubted he could defeat them, so Scadrial will be a fair challenge for Roshar in the future. And apparently Deadeye are still a thing in one form or the other, as him having a blade wasn't any problem form them, Oaths are, yet they weren’t scared of this either.

What Shard is the investiture of Canticle associated with? I really was thinking that Autonomy was meddling here and the Cinder King was her Avatar but apparently that wasn’t the case. What’s in the center of the planet ? And what Shard corrupted investiture to create Cinderhearts? So many questions for which we’ll be waiting until the space era starts.

Overall that was a loooot of information to consume. Future will be fun.

Edited November 11, 2023 by alder24

[Elegy he/him]

Just reread Sigzil's chapter in Oathbringer (Chapter 35) ... Now it hits different when Kaladin says:

Quote

"Sometimes I wonder if you're wasted in Bridge Four. You should've been a scholar."

And a bit later, Sigzil says:

Quote

"I don't want to be huddled over a ledger when Bridge Four takes to the air. I want to be first into the sky."

"First into the sky" is also the title of the chapter. And maybe this was something prophetic for him to say, who knows, maybe he really was "first in the sky" in the sense that he was the first of Bridge Four to walk the stars?

Anyway, it's always amazing to go back after a character has become more important and see all the roots of what was to come in little hints. I had a similar experience with Lopen after reading Dawnshard.

[Elegy he/him]

On 10/3/2023 at 6:35 PM, Treamayne said:

So, I really enjoyed the book (and really sad that the Spren of a Skybreaker's Plate wasn't mentioned to clear that raging debate - opportunity missed).

We have the answer now:

Quote

Questioner

I was wondering if the Skybreakers' armor spren... what spren they are?

Brandon Sanderson

Well... Do you have any guesses?

Questioner

Stormspren?

Brandon Sanderson

No, not stormspren, good guess. Any other guesses?

Gravitationspren. We're going with gravitationspren for them. So you should see some little hints of that in future books.

And this isn't too much of a spoiler 'cause we will be releasing all of these when the RPG comes out, 'cause you gotta know how to get your armor when you play the RPG.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

I don't understand why he didn't just put it in the book though 

[PandACT he/him]

I'll always be a sucker for the era 4 space stuff, and that might have been enough to make Sunlit Man even more fun than Yumi in my opinion! Another controversial opinion: something horrible happened on Scadrial instead of Roshar, and that's why there's an interstellar cold war. Sure, it was more satisfying for the scientists in the bunker to be scumbags, but neo-colonialism is happening on a wider scale and Harmony already didn't want to give technology for free on Scadrial! Radiants don't have any motivation to export resources from colonized planets, as much as I love the metallic arts... Regardless, the Year of Sanderson was a great gift and I'm excited to see how the theories tie in to the next Stormlight 

[Silver Phantom he/him]

Just finished Sunlit man and I liked it

I am holding of full judgment until we see how it ties in (yes I know it is going to be awhile) I feel that it’s incomplete. It almost feels like a Novella  that takes place in between two stormlight books.

I do thinks its really good, however I am worried that he is not going to touch it for awhile 

[CuratorOTL IG]

I just finished this, and it honestly sent me for a bit of a loop. I knew it was going to be more serious, but I did not expect it pull at my heartstrings like that. Definitely my second favorite SP(Beneath Yumi).

Cosmere-wise? This gives us some very important bits of information, like BEUs as a measurement in the future. It's also a deeper glimpse of Dawnshards(I havent read the novella, so this is my first glimpse), and how they interact with other forms of investiture, notably sentient kinds. Also, and most importantly, we see Hoid actually being serious and transparent for once. I think the closest we've come to this type of honesty from him is with Shallan in Oathbringer.

Anyways, very good book, very well done. Of course, it's Brandon, so that all but guaranteed.

[Lord Spirit he/him]

Overall, pretty good! I think my rankings of the secret projects would be

1. Tress

2. Frugal

3. Sunlit

4. Yumi

My biggest thought was: assuming the radiants survive SA5, based on what Sigzil said (which is still how I think of him), the Night Brigade seems insanely power. He seems to imply that the radiants would lose to the night brigade on roshar, which is a scary thought considering how powerful the radiants (specifically the windrunners) are.

Also, if he abandoned his oaths, shouldn't he have a deadeye blade like shallan? unless it couldn't leave roshar.

[Clockwork King he/him]

I Thought it was an amazing and well-done book with a healthy combination of cosmere characters. my only qualm with the book was the main antagonist and side characters. the Cider King (a cool name though) was an under done and half-baked villain with very little detail and story. Of all the secret projects I have read, it would probably be 3rd. with Yumi being first and Tress 2nd