Sixth of the Dusk (edição: 2014)

Different

Sixth of the Dusk is a Cosmere novella set in a world with Investiture but no Shard and the way Investiture works here is quite interesting.

The setting is interesting as well, a collection of tropical islands that act as home to Aviars, birds that grants talents to their owners. These islands are guarded by trappers, which act as somewhat guardians of the islands.

Then there are the homeislanders, which are essentially the “regular” inhabitants on this world. When compared to the trappers these are more technologically advanced.

And finally, the Ones Above, a group of people that come from a different planet and who have powerful technology unlike anything ever seen in this world.

What I really liked about this short story, apart from its originality, is that it seems to hint at where the Cosmere is going to be by the time we get to the SciFi Mistborn trilogy. ( )

I think this might have been one of my rare Sanderson misses. Maybe I just wasn't quite in the mood for something of his that I knew would be short. I like his normally long-spanning epic series. That's no problem. But his short fiction? Even if it has some really cool world-building elements?

Well, the magic birds that give abilities and especially the one that allows Dusk to see his dead bodies everywhere was pretty damn cool. But I couldn't really get into all the 'trapper' this and 'trapper' that, nor could I really get into the characters. Alas.

It may have just been me. Sorry, Mr. Sanderson! I usually so look forward to your stuff, too! :)

I probably would have appreciated a much larger and growing plot in this world, just assuming this was the opening gambit. It was, after all, only 59 pages, which must have only been a 2 day write for him. :) ( )

78 points/100 (4 stars/5).

Sixth of the Dusk is a trapper on some extremely dangerous islands known for very special birds. Finding a woman in his hiding spot, Dusk knows there is trouble, but what kind of trouble is it?

This was a really good novella, it was super interesting. While part of the Cosmere, I'm really curious to see how this connects with the story as a whole. I was very unsure of what was going on in the beginning, the world-building took a while to to clarify.

The characters in this novella are interesting, though there are only really two of them. Mostly I just really love the world in this one. It is pretty interesting. I have many theories on what is happening with everything in this world, but nothing concrete. I'm loving the mystery. ( )

As this is a pretty short novella, you can't really expect a lot of story development, compared to the epic stories of the other, much longer sanderson books. Considering the length, there is a surprising amount of worldbuilding and character development going on here.

My biggest gripe with this book is that it is supposed to be set in the shared universe of Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive. First, before reading the description of this book, I didn't even know they were shared (and I am not quite sure how that's supposed to work, considering the global events that take place in both books. Different times on the same planet? Different planets?).

I can see how it would somewhat fit into the Stormlight Archive world, but... Well, having both stories take place in the same universe just seems to make everything a bit more complicated than it would have to be, and I have not found any obvious links between this story and the others.

Beside that gripe, the book has an interesting premise (as we have come to expect from Sanderson). The execution is good, but as I said before, there is only so much you can put into such a short book. All in all, this was one of the weaker Sandersons, but still an interesting read. ( )

This is Sanderson's most impressive work of short-form world-building so far. The main character, Dusk, is a trapper who specializes in catching/raising magical birds who grant powers. Catching these birds requires navigating islands where literally everything is out to kill you, from plants to beasts to insects.

Dusk's kind are becoming a dying breed, however, as science advances and more and more people want to find out just how these magical birds work, where they come from, why the magic is confined to this specific archipelago, etc. This relationship is made even more complex by the recent arrival of an advanced alien race (The Ones Above) who appear benevolent, but are unwilling to trade their technology until the native people become more technologically advanced themselves. Their motives, however, may not be quite that simple.

I don't even have the words for how good this is. Just read it. ( )