Arcanum Unbounded
is a 2017 collection from Brandon Sanderson collecting all of the short fiction
that had been written and published for the Cosmere to that point. This means there are short stories, novellas,
and novelettes featured, all generally longer than one may expect from a
typical piece of short fiction. As such I
have decided to split the review for the collection into four separate reviews,
generally splitting up by systems, three connected to previously released
series and one covering the miscellaneous pieces of standalone short
fiction. This third covers ‘The Threnodite
System’ and ‘The Drominad System’ sections of the collection, containing the short
stories “Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” and “Sixth of the Dusk”. The excerpts from White Sand are being
skipped as I intend to write a review for the omnibus edition of that story
once it is released.
“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” is an
amazing long title that sounds like something that wouldn’t be written by
Brandon Sanderson. Because of this
readers perhaps should temper expectations based on the title alone since it
really does fall into a lot of similar ideas that Sanderson generally falls
into. It’s also perhaps the weakest short
story from this collection, not really fulfilling a lot of what it sets out to
do nor really having the chance to explore its setting like the others. It is also quite short, at least in terms of
a Sanderson story, exploring the planet of Threnody very little nor really
explaining a lot of what the planet has to offer. The plot should be interesting, Silence is secretly
a bounty hunter and is protecting the waystation she owns one night which
becomes complicated when the shades of the dead rise. Yet, this almost feels like Sanderson didn’t
really have a completely fully formed idea when the opportunity to write this story
came about from George R.R. Martin. It’s
one of those short stories that just didn’t really gel for me as Sanderson is
clearly attempting to write a horror story that becomes tense, but something ends
up lacking the tension that would have been the desired result in a short story
like this. There’s just a failure to
really come together and the sakes while high don’t feel great since the
supporting characters clearly have complexities to be explored that can’t be
done in a short story like this. 5/10.
“Sixth of the Dusk” is described as both a short story
and a novella at various points which is interesting because it kind of feels
like a blend between the both. This is
one of the few pieces from Sanderson that genuinely feels like characters are
from vastly different cultures that have grown independently on a planet, something
that is a bit of a problem with a lot of fantasy and science fiction stories that
make its setting one homogenous culture, often called the planet of hats. “Sixth of the Dusk” takes place on the First
of the Sun, a planet that has a mainland civilization and an island civilization,
the mainland being seen as technologically advanced while the islands are seen
as primitive. Sixth of the Dusk is our
main character, named so due to the naming system of his people, named for the
time at which he was born. He is tasked
with stopping some great catastrophe that he does not know and comes into
contact with Vathi, a clerk, and the story explores their manipulations due to
the Ones Above exploiting them and their culture. The Ones Above are a space faring civilization
and it is clear Sanderson wants to explore colonialism, something that he does
in The Stormlight Archive in depth, but hadn’t fully done at the point this
novella was written so it doesn’t quite fall as well. “Sixth of the Dusk” does, however, excel at
character interactions and at feeling as if the First of the Sun is a great
world. It’s a simple story, but the plot
keeps moving and the central mystery unravels quite easily as Dusk continues his
travels. 8/10.
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