Hello, friends!

I’m later than usual because my cousin got married today. It was really nice—the actual ceremony happened in the morning, then we all went to lunch. I spent some time with my wife’s family afterward, and in an hour or so I’ll be headed off to the dinner and reception. Busy, busy day!

Bloggyness Review: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Read this book.

I’ve been a big Sanderson fan for over a decade now. (Feels weird that I’m old enough to say things like that.) I first dove into his fantasy worlds with Elantris, then gave the first Mistborn a try, and I liked them both a lot. I hoped Sanderson kept writing and giving me more interesting fantasy to read.

But, I wasn’t really hooked until I read Warbreaker.

Nightblood stole my heart. So did Vasher. Siri and Vivenna were compelling protagonists, extremely easy to cheer for, and Susebron was adorable. And Lightsong… by the awakened gods, what a delightful, amazing character.

I’ve reread Warbreaker several times over the years, and each time reveals new and interesting things—the book never fails to entertain and inspire me. And as Sanderson released hit after hit (including Way of Kings, which moved me in a way few other books have), I comfortably held firm to loving Warbreaker most of all.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is making me rethink things. I haven’t solidly decided if it’s my new all-time Sanderson favorite—I’ll need a month or more, and maybe a reread, before decisions of such magnitude can be finalized—but hopefully that statement can put into context how much I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it absolutely catapults to the top of my recommendation list.

I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’ll keep details light, but the book follows the two characters named in its title, a girl named Yumi and a boy… well, named Nikaro, but his profession is “nightmare painter” and he refers to himself by the name Painter. This book is a fantasy romance; it has a really slow first quarter or so—but it’s worth it. The middle and end has some truly spectacular revelations that walk a very, very fine between of being completely unpredictable while at the same time entirely following the rules in a way that shouldn’t have blown my mind so well, but it absolutely did. The experience was very satisfying.

Oh, and if it matters to you, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is set in an Eastern-inspired culture and apparently has themes and story aspects that are inspired by k-dramas. Speaking as someone who doesn’t watch k-dramas, I didn’t really notice or care (or feel like I was missing anything), I just enjoyed the story for what it was.

As a final note, this book has a lot of deep cosmere references scattered throughout, but, as my wife who hasn’t read any Sanderson books other than Elantris and Tress can attest, that won’t hurt your enjoyment of the book.

Writing Updates

Trying to figure out how to improve these updates, but the answer is probably to provide more details and to do a better job sharing why things are interesting or significant. Working on that—I’ve practiced long and hard at taking what’s in my head and trying to put it to paper in story form in an interesting way, but reporting on progress is another beast entirely.

The Betrayed Technomancer is in deep mind-grinding right now. This is one of my stages of writing that I imagine is a lot like plotting for other authors, but for me it tends to stay in my head with little (if any) written outlining. Written notes may or may not come later. The grind comes from me coming back to the book, giving myself a break, coming back, taking a break, in a constant rhythm until I know I’m ready to start writing. I basically know what I want the three main pillars of the book to be, and what I want to happen in each pillar, but keeping the pillars interwoven rather than unrelated is the big thing I’m working on.

Old Lace and Hairballs is halfway through major revisions, and I think this version will be vastly improved on the first. Lenny is a little more amusingly grouchy, Britt is a little more scared of ghosts, Ms. Crowly is a little more amusing in a dead-old-lady way, and I think the story reads a little more like Indiana Jones meets “crazy cat lady’s haunted house” and a little less like… I’m not fully sure how to describe the feeling that was wrong in the first draft, maybe ghost hunters but with ghost cats. If people enjoy these stories, I’ve got a few more short stories for Britt and Lenny in mind.

Inner Demon is still waiting on response from the publisher.

Send-Off

Have you read any novels recently that absolutely captivated you? What book, who wrote it, and why were you captivated?