It started out pretty strong but lost my interest around the halfway mark and never really got it back.

I know this book began on kickstarter and is full of Easter eggs from other Sanderson books, but if it’s marketed as a standalone, those crossover characters and concepts should at least be explained. Instead we get MAIN characters whose motivations and context are only briefly mentioned—like a side wink to the seasoned Sanderson readers—leaving the newbies completely lost. To that end, I’d say this book is tough to enjoy fully if you haven’t read his other stuff.

I also felt a little icky about this story’s treatment of Hoid, who ends up being the comedic relief for most of it, simply because of his “village idiot” status. Something about that didn’t sit right with me. I get that he’s meant to be under a curse, but it struck me as an insensitive type of humor. 

All that, plus the casually fatphobic comments that get thrown around a lot in this book, make it one I’m not likely to recommend honestly. It certainly has interesting world building. No one has ever said Brandon Sanderson can’t build a world or devise a unique magic system, that’s for sure. But it isn’t enough to save this one in my opinion.