still has five years away...I think its good to do them now.What's the Work?
Literature/Elantris is the debut novel of Brandon Sanderson, mostly standalone but with set up for a full trilogy, that will release...sometime...
It follows the nation of Arelon, where people at random can become Elantrians, who are effectively immortal demigods. A couple years before the story something went very wrong and the Elantrians effectively became walking corpses, and the whole nations kinda collapsed. Arelon has somewaht rebuilt itself since, but is a bit volatile. A particular issue is that people have not stopped becoming decayed Elantrians, which really causes a conundrum when the popular Crown Prince, Raoden, becomes an Elantrian...right when he was supposed to marry Princess Sarene from the neighboring Teod.
But that's not Arelon's biggest problem, as they, along with Teod are one of two countries that follow the religion of Shu-Korath, while there's the empire of Fjordell, which follows the rival branch Shu-Dereth. And they're not very tolerant. The leader of Fjordell, Wyrn Wulfden the Fourth sends a Derethi Gyorn, a warrior priest, Hrathen, to covert Arelon in three months, otherwise Fjordell will wipe the country out. But if Hrathen suceeds, Wyrn will accept Arelon under Shu-Dereth...right?
Yeah. Not quite.
Who is Wyrn Wulfden the Fourth? What has he done?
Wulfden became the Wyrn as a young man, very interested in spreading Shu-Dereth.
What's the Work?
The Sunlit Man is the latest Cosmere book, focusing on a character named Nomad on the run across planets from the Night Brigade, a bunch of vicious mercenaries who want to use him for a Human Sacrifice that will allow them to find a Cosmic Keystone that could devastate worlds. The book focuses on his time on one planet, Canticle. Canticle is a hellish place that gives Threnody a run for its money as the worst Death World in the Cosmere, although evidental doesn't dethrone it as Canticle's inhabitants fled there, finding it preferable to Threnody, albeit more to civil conflict than the environment. The sun is a deadly lazer on Canticle, and the inhabitants must perpetually flee on ships and stay on the night side of the planet, and to do this they need to sacrifice some of their own to the sun, their charred remains serving as fuel. There's also a rather brutal local despot, that Nomad runs into. Fun place. To touch on some other potentials:
- The Night Brigade is pretty bad, but their appearance here is an early set up for later appearances, without much page-time (literally one page). Additionally their actions are mostly just mentioned currently, without much showing of the effects. While we do get an Admiral leading them, she's evidentially going to be the Villain Protagonist of the Night Brigade's own books, and given that protagonists being this is rare as it is, and Sanderson's typical White and Gray Morality I'd be very surprised if he wrote a main character without any redeeming features. In summary, way too early for these guys, and will probably only get maybe a Token Evil Teammate later on.
- The despot is enabled by some scientists who brush it off as terrible things happening on backwater planets like Canticle, however they fall under more of the Banality of Evil than truly vicious evil. Also despite their rationalizations for supporting the despot they do have some distaste for what he gets up to.
Who is the Cinder King? What has he done?
The only bit we get on the Cinder King's backstory is that he was once an lowly executioner dissatisfied with his life, who ran into a Worldhopper from Roshar, and killed the man. Seeing the man's various tales of other planets, specifically conquests, the executioner decided he was special and was destined to unify all his people. His ego promptly went into the stratosphere, and he started calling himself the Cinder King.
- The Cinder King: I always felt like there was more for me to do. A greater destiny. Surely I wasn't meant to just live life in an endless rotation on the run from the light. I was important. In these books, I learned what I was to do, offworlder. I was destined to unite all of my people.Well, Nomad had heard that somewhere before.[...]The Cinder King: Your planet shouldn't have different countries you should have conquered and unified it all.Nomad: Conquest doesn't remove countries, it removes lines on a map. Unity requires something else.The Cinder King: I thought, from what I read, you'd appreciate what I'm building here. I thought you might be inspired to find a taste of home.Nomad: Wrong taste, try some curry powder next time. It has a much better flavor than tyranny. Less nutty.The Cinder King: [Neck Lifts a subordinate] I am the most powerful man on Canitcle, offworlder, you see how they can't protest or resist? How they serve me regardless of how I treat them? I have absolute power over these." Once before I rose to before I rose to my destiny, I was a man who marched prisoners to their fates. There, I realized that true power is not in the ability to kill, but in the ability to control the killers.Auxiliary: Well, that's a perfectly normal and reasonable way of thinking, the knight observes sarcastically. I'm sure he's absolutely the most well-adjusted man on the planet, eh?Nomad said nothing. He wished this sort of sentiment was rarer. He'd seen it in guards, in watchmen, in soldiers. He saw it in this eyes of anyone who got a thrill from having others in their power. The stronger the person they could push around, the more intoxicating they found it. [...] The worst kind of bully. Many were deeply afraid, which was why they lashed out. Those you could eventually help. This kind of man though...Well, it was refreshing. He'd faced far, far too many enemies with pictures of their kids in their pockets. Killed far too many people who never deserved it. But here was a man Nomad could run through with a hot poker and only feel bad for the poker.
