Sunlit Man Full Book Reactions (No Cosmere Edition)

[Chaos he/him]

Post your full book reactions here! To talk about content from other books than this one in this forum (since cosmere spoilers are not automatically allowed), you must use spoiler tags. Please use the cosmere board if you've read all/most of the cosmere.

[therunner he/him]

Zellion..interesting.

Edited October 1, 2023 by therunner

[The flying spider he/him]

Just amazing.....

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Atypical for a Sanderson book. The typical concentration of events towards the ending was much less pronounced. And, this is his possibly darkest book ever. I mean, using your dead relatives as a power source and abandoning your old people as human sacrifices, that is hard core.

[Johnny Silverlight]

A superb book. indeed. Brandon said he wanted to write a story that maintained a constant breakneck pace, and he did so quite well. He did a great job of maintaining a driving momentum that never let up for more than a few moments.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

6 hours ago, Johnny Silverlight said:

A superb book. indeed. Brandon said he wanted to write a story that maintained a constant breakneck pace, and he did so quite well. He did a great job of maintaining a driving momentum that never let up for more than a few moments.

So you agree that the book has no "Sanderlanch"?

[Pandora's shard]

This book was awesome!!! 

It built and built and by the midpoint, as the revelations came, it was like, okay Brandon, you are giving me too much now... 

And now that I have read all 4, here's the order of my favourites of secret novels:

1) Sunlit Man

2) Tress of the Emerald Sea

3) Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

4) Frugal Wizard (couldn't even finish it... Is it alryt to admit?? Well, I have now.. So, can't help.. ) 

Edited October 2, 2023 by Pandora's shard

[+robardin he/him]

11 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

So you agree that the book has no "Sanderlanch"?

Actionwise, maybe not.

Emotionally, I think it still did. Auxiliary's self-sacrifice to enable "Zellion" to regain flight and Shardplate for a while, while set up and telegraphed, was still a pretty powerful hit towards the end, especially Aux's monologue revealing why he'd referred to Nomad as his "squire" and himself as the knight all that time: not just to tweak/annoy him, but also to remind him of oaths sworn - oaths that Aux, as a spren, could not and never had set aside.

Edited October 2, 2023 by robardin

[Storm-It he/him]

There were a lot of quotable lines, but one of my favorites was Rebeke's plea “No more sacrifices. No more lotteries. No more immolating our parents.”

[Treamayne]

Enjoyed the book, and already planning a reread because I am sure I missed things going through it too fast the first time. Was I the only one that felt joy that the Brigade (as scary as they sound) was going to deliver some karma to the TimeTellers? 

23 hours ago, Pandora's shard said:

And now that I have read all 4, here's the order of my favourites of secret novels:

1) Sunlit Man

2) Tress of the Emerald Sea

3) Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

4) Frugal Wizard (couldn't even finish it... Is it alryt to admit?? Well, I have now.. So, can't help...) 

Agreed. It's a tight race between SP1 and SP4 to me for Number One, SP3 as a distant third. While I did finish Frugal Wizard (SP2) and I can see why the people who like it do so - it just wasn't my preferred humour style and so is my least favorite Secret Project. (I also am not a fan of the Alcatraz books and have yet to read Book 6)

[Stigmadiabolicum]

Okay so ive been dragging this out, i loved tress and yumi but been the most excited for this cosmere heavy book the most by FAR. 

I haven't finished it yet (Sigzil is just meeting with cinder king the second time) my only complaint is  missing Hoids voice from graphic audio haha.

Love the world, love the BDUs, love the threnodites..But my one comment is what he meant by "eyes that reminded him of those he had once loved/trusted" really curious about ideas there..i guess within a book only dliscussion and no cosmere spoilers idk if theres any theorizing that we can do, just really made me wonder 

I know Brandon loves his limitations and as much as the dawnshard torment is a nice spin, i enjoy glorious moments of awesome and wish he had more like Wax or Kal, but contemplation is an absolute badass. 

I'm assuming this gets addressed later on, but curious why they can't take shelter at the poles? If its like our world then it wouldnt get as much sun and more night, but i guess its just a temperature or food issue

*Edit. Aah, mountains got it haha, i assumed from the star they were on a dwarf planet so the scales are a lot smaller 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Stigmadiabolicum

[Spearguy]

Very good, it makes me terrified and excited to learn what happens in Stormlight 5. It's also good to know who Zellion is now.

[+Wax he/him]

I liked the book. Very Mistborn / Yumi like feel to the book. I was initially confused by the worldhopper’s name.

I just had some issues. Basically, the touch to have babies concept was a little out there… kind of broke the fourth wall for me “oh, this is to stop this coming up in WoB”. So yeah, this book had an extra dolllop of fantasy.

Not sure about that romance angle there. Aux was eggy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MrsMolly she/her]

I just finished the Sunlit Man today and I wish I had it to read again.  It was so good.  I read Brandon Sanderson's notes afterward and I love that he unapologetically used his favorite Western trope - stranger comes to town and helps the townspeople. He finds a home and wishes he could stay, but the evil pursuing him drives him away again.  Kung Fu, the Mandelorean -

I felt so sad for him at the end.  He's lost his only real sort-of friend and he can't every stay anywhere long enough to put down roots because of the Night Brigade being after him.

I was disappointed that Brandon said in the afterward that he didn't have any more books planned about our protagonist's adventures. 

The world of the novel was so interesting - a tiny, slowly rotating world near a giant sun and the inhabitant's having to move constantly to stay ahead of the deadly sunlight. I have such an interesting mental image of the small craft all latching together to become a floating city.

[Nathrangking he/him]

I have to say that there was something about this particular secret project which hit so much harder than any of the others. Aux's sacrifice was beautiful and saddening. Elegy's developing love for her sister and Nomad/Sigzil regaining his name were so striking in their power that it made me truly empathize with them!!