Book ReviewArcanum Unbounded

Hey! What's up, you guys? It's Connor, and
today I'm going to be doing a very long overdue book review on Arcanum Unbounded
by Brandon Sanderson. This is the Cosmere novella and short story bind up. I was
sent this book to review a long, long time ago, and I ended up just being
really busy. I left the country, so I.

Never got it done. But today I'm going to
be doing a review on it for you guys, so first off if you guys don't know, Brandon
Sanderson writes most of his adult fantasy books in what's called the
Cosmere which is one giant universe, and most of the adult fantasy books that he
writes are set place on a planet of a different solar system each. So Elantris
is in one solar system. Warbreaker's in another.

The Stormlight Archive's in a
third, and the Mistborn series is in a fourth. But there's some other books and
some other short stories that he's written that are also in different solar
systems within the same universe. So some of them are collected in here. I'm gonna
keep this review spoiler-free, so you don't have to worry about me spoiling
any of the things from any of the Cosmere books or anything like that.

And the way
that I'm going to do this review is I'm going to go through each story, and give
you my rating for it, and also tell you where and at what point you should read
each story so that you don't spoil yourself for stuff, and also it ties
everything together. So the first story that's in this book is called The
Emperor's Soul. It's set on the same world that Elantris is set on, but you don't
have to read it in any particular order. You could read Emperor's Soul tomorrow, and
you would be perfectly fine.

It would not spoil anything. It's also my favorite
novella that I've ever read ever. I own a hardcover copy of it just
by itself. I love it so much.

Elantris and The Emperor's Soul are set in the solar system of Selish, and on the planet people are able to use different symbols
to channel magic, practically. And so in the Emperor Soul this woman who gets
captured for being a fraud and everything like that... She's forced to
rewrite a human's soul (which is not supposed to be done and it's super, super
dangerous) because the emperor has become a vegetable. And so now the main
character has to try to learn about the emperor as much as she can in order to
save him and by doing that save herself.

If you have not read that one I
definitely, definitely recommend it. Five stars! Check it out. The second story
that's in here is also in the Selish solar system, and it's
told during the time that Elantris takes place. And so you don't want to read that
one until you finish Elantris because it'll spoil some things that happen in
Elantris, but after you finish Elantris and you have some more questions about
some of the things that were happening in the background, you should check out
the hope for Elantris and learn a little bit more about what was happening during
the main event of Elantris.

I ended up giving that short story
four stars. I really enjoyed it. I didn't expect that to have been a thing. I
didn't even know it existed, and every short story has a preface and an
afterword where he talks about what went into writing that short story, why he
wrote that novella; those kinds of things.

And the reason why he wrote The Hope for
Elantris or just mainly why he named the character in The Hope for Elantris - what
he named her - I thought that was so sweet. And so I ended up giving that one four
stars and enjoyed it. The next set of stories that were in this bind up were
in the Scadrial system... ScAdrial system? I don't know how to pronounce these
words.

... Which is where the Mistborn series takes place. The first short story that
is in here is The Eleventh Metal, and that one can really be read at any point
as well because it takes place before the first book in the Mistborn trilogy -
the original trilogy (so before The Final Empire). This one shows a little bit more
about Kelsier and what prompted him to start wanting to overthrow the Empire
and overthrow the Lord Ruler.

I ended up giving that short story four stars as
well because it didn't... It wasn't very long. It didn't really add too much, but I
really did enjoy it, and I really liked seeing where Kelsier was in his mental
state just before the beginning of the first book. The next story in here is
gonna be Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, I think, and this one was my
least favorite of this bind up.

It's definitely way different in style and
tone than any of the other short stories and novellas that are in this. But I did
enjoy it, so I ended up giving it 3.75, Or 4 stars, or something like that. It
follows this very, very pompous guy (like a celebrity in that world) that
embellishes on his own stories and adventures, and half the things he says
aren't even true at all. So I really liked seeing Allomancer Jak's
perspective as well as the person who was putting together his memoir and was
making comments about things being true and things being untrue.
Allomancer Jak should actually be read after The Alloy of Law, so you want to read the
Mistborn trilogy & The Alloy of Law.

And then you can read Allomancer Jak because it
has some spoilers to do with the magic system that you don't find out until
later books. Next: The Secret History which is the big - the big story that was
included in this. This is the one that everyone was very, very excited about
last year. It has spoilers all throughout all the current Mistborn books that
have been published so far, and so you don't want to read it until you've
finished Bands of Morning which is six books.

So get on it! But it is so worth
it, and every single person I've heard talk about The Secret History is so
excited about it. They love it. What it gets started for the entire
Cosmere as a whole is so incredible and so exciting basically. Like, I am so
excited for all of the rest of the Cosmere books.

The Cosmere books, if you
don't know, have little hints and things throughout all of them that make you
realize that it's one whole universe. That these people are able to jump from
world to world. They're called world hoppers, so there are different characters that
show up in every single main book within the Cosmere. And so there's just one
universe, and The Secret History really brings those different places together,
those different solar systems all together.

It makes you realize where
the direction of the universe may possibly be headed, so I really really
really liked that one. After that we get a snippet of the Taladin system which
is where his unpublished Whitesand is located. Whitesand is a novel that he
wrote I don't even know how long ago, and it's never been published. But he decided
to take that novel and turn it into a graphic novel, and that's what's being
published now.

It's called Whitesand. It's the same title. I have not read Whitesand yet, so I really want to get my hands on it because of the snippet that
we get in this book. I really enjoyed it, and I think it has a lot of potential.

I
really like the magic system where they control sand, and it turns
different colors when its magic is used. And the magic system uses water from
people's bodies, and there's not a lot of water because they're in the desert, and
stuff like that. And different people have different magical abilities,
different strengths within using this magic system, and I think that the main
character not being super-powerful/being one of the
weakest people in this magic is very interesting. And I am really curious to
see more about that world.

After that is a story from the Threnodite system
which is Shadows for Silence in a Forest of Hell. I read that short story
already in the Dangerous Women anthology that's edited by George R.R. Martin. I
really like the characters of this one as well as the very dreary type of world
building.

There are all these rules, and there are ghosts. And if you break the
rules, then the ghosts will kill you and stuff like that. I ended up giving this
one 4.5 Stars. It's just a very solid written short story that gets its
message across exceedingly well.

After that is a story from the Drominad
system which was a very good one. I loved it. I ended up giving this one 5 stars.
It's called 6th of Dust. I've never read that one before.

I have been meaning to
read it for a while because it's been out and about and there's a bind up of
six of dust and a different short story that he wrote that I don't think is in
the Cosmere. But I never ended up getting my hands on it. I really like that
this story and this planet doesn't have any what's called shards. They're
basically the magic system of the Cosmere: the shards and investiture.

But the
planet has investiture, but it does have any shards. So it's very curious planet,
and it's also another very dark, and dreary type of story. And although I
really hate birds, this series has made me mildly... Very
small...

Like a grain of sand small want a bird that has magical powers that can
protect me and stuff like that. I really, really enjoyed it. I really hope - hope in
my heart - that we can learn a little bit more about the Drominad system and
about the characters that are happening because I really liked them and I'm
hoping possibly that they will end up in other series or in other short stories.
Even if it's not directly in the Drominad system, I think that there's a
possibility that this story is not over, and I want to know what's gonna happen
in that. And the last story that's included in this bind up is from the
Rosharan system which is the Stormlight Archive series.

Edgedancer has to be
read after Words of Radiance which is the second book in that series. And this
one follows a minor character that shows up in Words of Radiance, and I absolutely
100% loved it. I gave it 5 stars. Lift is amazing, and I
want to see more of her.

And I'm really excited that in the afterword or the
PostScript that he said that Lift is gonna become a more integral part in the
series as it goes on. So I just loved it, so yeah,
five stars for that one. Lift? I just want to be friends with her. So that's
gonna be where I review on Arcanum Unbounded - just so you know what's what
and where the different stories go within the Cosmere books overall.

I ended up giving this bind up five stars because there were so many five star
reads. I had a couple that were a little bit less, but overall five stars. I love
Brandon Sanderson. The Cosmere is my favorite, and I will read every single
book or short story that is set in that universe.

If you like this video, please
give it a big thumbs up and comment down below if you've read some of the Cosmere books. Have you read all of them? Are you ready to pick up Arcanum Unbounded?
Are you going to? Anything that has to do with Brandon Sanderson, leave it down
below, and I will talk to you guys next time. Bye! <Finger gun and tongue click>.