Scan barcode
vagorsol's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I understand what Sanderson was trying to do in this novella. I really do. But it just didn't work. A lot things he tried executing just fell flat and I felt very lukewarm and frustrated at the end, mostly because of how much potential that was lost because of the execution.
I acknowledge that I'm probably highly biased because I was reading mainly to see Siris and Isa's relationship develop so I didn't particularly care about Raidriar or Uriel's POVs, but in retrospect a lot of what was attempted just didn't work for me. For me the multiple POVs were kind of clunky, and robbed potential development. No real worldbuilding happened, and the few lore tidbits we get just vaguely establishes what happened in the far past (and not even for the main character). In general, there was just a lot that could have been developed better, and I feel like if he had more pages, Sanderson could have (this extends to the first novella as well).
In conclusion: the page count limitation is the real antagonist. If I were to hire Sanderson to write a book for a video game I developed, I would simply not give him a page count restriction. RIP to chAIR but I'm different.
I acknowledge that I'm probably highly biased because I was reading mainly to see Siris and Isa's relationship develop so I didn't particularly care about Raidriar or Uriel's POVs, but in retrospect a lot of what was attempted just didn't work for me. For me the multiple POVs were kind of clunky, and robbed potential development. No real worldbuilding happened, and the few lore tidbits we get just vaguely establishes what happened in the far past (and not even for the main character). In general, there was just a lot that could have been developed better, and I feel like if he had more pages, Sanderson could have (this extends to the first novella as well).
In conclusion: the page count limitation is the real antagonist. If I were to hire Sanderson to write a book for a video game I developed, I would simply not give him a page count restriction. RIP to chAIR but I'm different.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Minor: Child death and Gore
The violence and death is heavy in the first few chapters, but lessens in amount and detail afterwards. Character death happens after that point, though—some permeant, some not.