Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

This collection is a must-read for Sanderson's Cosmere fans. It encapsulates the essence of Cosmere, bringing together stories representing each of its distinct planets with their fully realized and unique magic systems. The book includes the Hugo Award-winning novella 'The Emperor's Soul,' an excerpt from the graphic novel 'White Sand,' and the never-before-published 'Edgedancer,' a thrilling new novella of the Stormlight Archive. The book is not just a collection of stories, but a journey across the cosmos that Sanderson could only have envisioned. It explores six worlds in all, with nine astonishing works of short fiction. This includes tales from Sel ('The Hope of Elantris' and 'The Emperor's Soul'), Scadrial ('The Eleventh Metal,' 'Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes Twenty-eight Through Thirty,' and 'Mistborn: Secret History'), Taldain ('White Sand'), Threnody ('Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell'), First of the Sun ('Sixth of the Dusk'), and Roshar ('Edgedancer'). One of the standout features of this collection is how it provides answers to the mysteries of the Cosmere universe. This compilation not only tells stories but also adds depth and understanding to the interconnected universe that Sanderson has meticulously crafted over the years. Each story begins with unique star maps for each system and an illustration that depicts an event in the respective story, further enhancing the world-building and visualization of the Cosmere. As for the writing itself, it embodies what fans have come to expect from Sanderson - well-crafted, engaging, and imaginative. Whether you're new to Sanderson's work or a devoted fan, 'Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection' is an essential volume that you will not want to miss.

Good addition for any hardcore Sanderson fan. Admittedly, most of the stories had been released singly before being collected here, but I never got around to most of them when they were singles, and now I'm happy to have read all of them. Emperor's Soul - I had read this one previously, and loved it. The intro and Sanderson commentary do add something to it. Hope of Elantris - Eh. Decent. Sanderson's explanation of where it came from made it make a lot more sense, but it still feels like a fluff piece. Eleventh Metal - Enjoyable Mistborn prequel, which explains a few things about Kelsier. Allomancer Jak - Heh. These are so much fun. I really wish Sanderson would write more episodes. Picture the Lone Ranger writing his memoirs, and Tonto adding commentary (including a lot of, 'why do these things never happen when I'm around?') Mistborn: Secret History (minor spoilers; best read after Bands of Mourning) - Absolutely fascinating look at what happened to Kelsier after [spoiler] his death. One detail: his response to finding out there is a god is to punch him. White Sand - I'd already read the graphic novel version before reading this, and I think that spoiled my enjoyment of the prose version. All in all, I preferred the graphic novel. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell - Very entertaining. Sort of a zombie apocalypse take on a ghost story. Sixth of the Dusk - Possibly my favorite in the collection. I like the depiction of the world, and the, er, more realistic mentality of the aliens with their sort-of prime directive. Edgedancer - Very long Stormlight novella. Fun, but Lift is not one of my favorite characters, so I got a bit tired of her, and I would pick it up, read a bit, then put it down for a few days.

I’m a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson’s interrelated worlds – the Cosmere. Obviously, I had to read this collection of shorter Cosmere stories (short stories and novellas). While it took me a while to get to it, better late than never! This collection is probably not a great starting point to those unfamiliar with Sanderson’s Cosmere work. While some of the stories stand independently, many tie in to his novels. In particular, you really need to have read the original Mistborn trilogy before reading Mistborn: Secret History. I would instead suggest The Emperor’s Soul or Sixth of Dusk as shorter Cosmere works that can be read on their own. Or The Way of Kings, Elantris, or Mistborn: The Final Empire if you’d prefer to start with a novel. However, if you’re already a fan of Sanderson’s work, you’re bound to enjoy Arcanum Unbounded! Even though I’d already read a number of the novellas included in the collection, it’s still nice to have print copies of them for ease of potential rereading. I also loved how it included introductions to each world contained in the series, written by the character Khriss. The collection begins with the world of Sel, where the novel Elantris was set. This section contained the short story “The Hope of Elantris” and the novella The Emperor’s Soul. “The Hope of Elantris” is set within the same time span of the novel Elantris and follows a girl named Matisse as she tries to protect the children of Elantris during the invasion. It’s a sweet story (and one available for free on the author’s site), but it doesn’t pack much of a punch. I found it the weakest link in the collection. On the other hand, I love The Emperor’s Soul. It’s probably one of my favorite things Sanderson has ever written. Since I’d already reviewed it separately, I skipped rereading this time around. But I know that one day I will want to come back to it. The next world up is Scadrial, home of the Mistborn books. The story “The Eleventh Metal” gives some backstory to Kelsier, specifically his training right after he gained his Mistborn powers. It’s a fairly short story that was written for an RPG, to give unfamiliar players an introduction to the world. As such, it’s fairly simple. There’s one other story about Kelsier in this collection – the novella, Mistborn: Secret History. It’s another one that I’ve read and reviewed separately, I won’t say a whole lot here. Except, this is one that’s full of spoilers for the Mistborn original trilogy, so new readers beware. The last Scadrial story was also written for an RPG – “Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes 28 through 30.” In the Alloy of Law era books, the newspaper inserts contain fragments of a pulpy adventure serial about Allomancer Jak. This story is three of those serials, with snarky annotations from Jak’s Terrisman steward. The annotations were wonderful and probably made this the funniest story in the collection. Roshar, the home of The Way of Kings, is the only other world with a full length novel to make an appearance in Arcanum Unbounded. The novella Edgedancer is exclusive to this collection and follows one of my favorite characters from the Stormlight Archive series – Lift! I was so excited when I heard Sanderson was writing a novella for her (and apparently she’s going to take a larger role in the novels to come!). She’s wonderfully witty, vibrant and all around spunky. In this novella, she leaves Azimir for the city of Yeddaw, where the mysterious Herald she knows as “Darkness” is now working. I enjoyed this novella so much, and if you love Lift as much as I do, you need to read it! The world of Taldain is the setting of White Sand, which is currently being adapted into a graphic novel. Arcanum Unbounded contains an excerpt of the graphic novel and Sanderson’s original first few chapters, but I’ll admit that I skipped these. I don’t like excerpts. They just make me hungrier for the full story. Besides, I’d rather wait and read the full graphic novel in color instead of the grey scale excerpt in Arcanum Unbounded. I also skipped Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, the only story as of yet set on the world of Threnody. I’d already read and reviewed this one, but I liked it a lot the first time around. It was originally written for George R. Martin’s Dangerous Women anthology, and it has a great female protagonist – Silence, a middle aged mother who’s very much the independent frontier woman. Arcanum Unbounded contained one last story that was new to me. I’ve been meaning to read the novella Sixth of the Dusk forever but had somehow never gotten around to it. It’s set on the world of First of the Sun, which is being visited by spacefaring people from another world. There’s no word on who these aliens are, but I’m suspecting that it may be a future Scadrial. The story follows Sixth of the Dusk, a trapper on the dangerous island of Patji. The world is changing, and his traditional way of life is being threatened. This novella was simply lovely, and I hope Sanderson returns to this setting and characters. To make a long review short, Arcanum Unbounded is a collection I would highly recommend to any fan of Sanderson’s work.

Book is nice and was delivered perfectly without damage

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En primer lugar me gustaría hablar de la edición, esta es muy parecida a la edición del 10 aniversario de Elantris de la misma editorial. Se nota que son ediciones nuevas, más cuidadas que las primeras con más cariño. En cuanto al libro, te diría que este es el primer libro que te va abrir realmente las puertas a lo que es el Cosmere, me he leído la trilogia inicial de Mistborn y Elantris, y ambas historias me han encantado y se ven ciertos guiños a que puede ser el Cosmere. Pero aquí, en este libro, es donde realmente se ve que va a ser. El libro es una recopilación de historias, de aquí y de allá, pero lo importante es que empieza a explicarte los sistemas. Y el prólogo escrito por Sanderson que tiene cada historia... me encanta, poder saber un poquito más, en que se inspira, sus intenciones, etc. es algo que no muchas veces como lectores tenemos la oportunidad de descubrir y, al menos a mi, me parece realmente interesante. Como digo en el título no me lo he leído todo, de hecho solo me he leído como un 30%, ya que estoy intentando seguir un orden de lectura y en este libro, al ser una colección de historias, la cronología salta de un lado a otro. Pero ese 30% ha sido de lo que más me ha gustado de todo el Cosmere. Así que si estás interesad@ en saber más sobre este universo y aún no lo has leído, este es tu libro.

This novelette is a must read (or strongly recommended) before book 3 - it is Sanderson at his crispest & best - it really makes you feel good - Lift is a truly inspiring character - don’t miss her.

Kelsier is still innocent in my book.