Eric Spire

Imagine a series you liked all of a sudden changed gears and wrote a prequel teen graphic novel style book as the final book in the series, where it had been adult epic phantasy. It’s a lot like the difference between Mystborn and the later “Wax and Wayne” novels. The most disappointing things are the story. Instead of continuation, it’s like a rapid introduction of multiple new magic systems that didn’t exist before. They happen to make everything possible, but have no groundwork laid and just happen to the story. And an entire group of characters, the spren, go from barely aware and just awaken, to having full personalities, memories, and in some cases, back stories that make no sense. It’s a total fail on every level. What a bummer. I read Sanderson because he was about to take over WOT, and this was introduced to mystborn, which was great. I suspect he’s team writing, like books put out by Tom Clancy. There just isn’t a way to keep up with the volume of releases if he isn’t. This book shows what a bad idea that is. If this silly graphic novel style is where he’s going, I’ve outgrown him. Super sad, as he really held the title in epic fantasy, but clearly thinks he can change taste by forcing readers to endure this “new style.” There is so much more wrong - random homosexual relationships, awkward heterosexual scenes, creeper moments. But those fails are in addition to the basic story, magic system, and general style fail. 😣 😠