Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson
Our first proper glimpse into the Cosmere space age
Disclaimer: Spoilers
Isles of the Emberdark is Secret Project #5 from Brandon Sanderson, introduced as part of the Words of Radiance 10th anniversary leatherbound crowdfunding campaign. While I can’t afford to start collecting leatherbounds, I will pretty much automatically buy any new Cosmere installment. This Secret Project is interesting because it takes Sixth of the Dusk, a novella originally published in the Shadows Beneath anthology and later included in Arcanum Unbounded, and incorporates it into the book as a series of flashbacks. But also, Isles of the Emberdark is set in the most advanced age of the Cosmere we’ve seen so far, where multiple people groups have developed spacefaring technology and are engaged in a galactic arms race. Thus, while this book is a standalone story, I would not recommend it to someone who has not read the majority of the currently available Cosmere works.
A clever summary of Isles of the Emberdark that I saw on Reddit is “Moana meets Guardians of the Galaxy.” Dusk is like Moana, setting sail into the unknown1 of the Cognitive Realm in an attempt to save his people from being conquered by the Ones Above. He discovers that, just as he has learned to navigate the dangerous island of Patji on his homeworld, he is also able to navigate the emberdark. Dusk increasingly comes to accept the rapid change that has been forced upon his people and helps position them favorably so they can shape their own future. Starling and her crew of misfits are like the Guardians of the Galaxy. Starling learns about what it means to be a leader—that, sometimes, you don’t get to make all the choices—and gives up her opportunity to regain her full dragon abilities in exchange for freedom with her crew, which Dusk joins at the end of the novel.
I really liked this book. I think it does a good job of balancing the satisfying personal stories and character development of Dusk and Starling with the broader state of the Cosmere. This is reassuring, since one of the worries I have about the Cosmere is that, as Brandon increasingly zooms out to the perspective of the gods, as exciting as that is, there is the chance that he might lose sight of the “ordinary man,” which I think is where the heart of a story is. I felt this way about Wind and Truth, where some of that human connection and emotion were sacrificed in favor of setting up Roshar for the future of the Cosmere.
Still, I am excited to see more of the future—as well as the past—of the Cosmere, and Isles of the Emberdark delivers some juicy information. Scadrial, specifically the Malwish Empire, is a major player in the Cosmere space age. I assume Roshar is too, but we don’t see much of that planet in this book, perhaps to avoid revealing too much of the second half of The Stormlight Archive. We learn a lot about dragons and how their planet, Yolen, is the source of nearly all life in the Cosmere and the origin of the Shards. Hoid, who apprenticed Starling, is currently trapped inside a vault, and he is (or was) married? We get Tress of the Emerald Sea cameos with the dragon Xisis and Captain Crow. There is a casual mention of Huio, Bridge Four member, who is now an arcanist in Silverlight. And a Sleepless confirms that there are three kinds of mortals in the Cosmere: humans, Sho Del, and Vaxilian.
Here’s hoping Isles of the Emberdark can tide me over until Mistborn Era 3 is published—unless Brandon announces yet another Secret Project before then, about the Grand Apparatus, perhaps?
Whoops, that’s Frozen 2.