Dawnshard (novella)

Dawnshard The Stormlight Archive
Cover art by Ben McSweeney
Publication information
Genre(s)	Epic fantasy
Publisher	Tor Books
Publication date	November 5, 2020
Media type	E-book
Pages	262
ISBN	978-1-938570-26-1
Preceded By	The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer, Oathbringer
Followed By	Rhythm of War

Dawnshard is a novella that follows the story of Rysn, the Thaylen merchant, whom readers have seen before in interludes of The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer of The Stormlight Archive series. The novella also follows the story of Lopen, the once one-armed Herdazian and a member of Bridge Four.

Readers should know that it involves the mysterious island of Aimia.

The novella was previously titled Wandersail. The name was changed as Brandon felt that the title would be misleading as to what the novella is about. In Brandon's latest Rhythm of War update, he confirmed that the ebook for Dawnshard was planned for a mid-October 2020 release. The ebook novella was indeed released before Rhythm of War, and physical copies came later. An audiobook comes out August 16th, 2022.

Synopsis

“

FROM BRANDON SANDERSON - AUTHOR OF THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE AND ITS FOURTH MASSIVE INSTALLMENT, RHYTHM OF WAR - COMES A NEW HEFTY NOVELLA, DAWNSHARD. TAKING PLACE BETWEEN OATHBRINGER AND RHYTHM OF WAR, THIS TALE (LIKE EDGEDANCER BEFORE IT) GIVES OFTEN-OVERSHADOWED CHARACTERS THEIR OWN CHANCE TO SHINE. WHEN A GHOST SHIP IS DISCOVERED, ITS CREW PRESUMED DEAD AFTER TRYING TO REACH THE STORM-SHROUDED ISLAND AKINAH, NAVANI KHOLIN MUST SEND AN EXPEDITION TO MAKE SURE THE ISLAND HASN'T FALLEN INTO ENEMY HANDS. KNIGHTS RADIANT WHO FLY TOO NEAR FIND THEIR STORMLIGHT SUDDENLY DRAINED, SO THE VOYAGE MUST BE BY SEA. SHIPOWNER RYSN FTORI LOST THE USE OF HER LEGS BUT GAINED THE COMPANIONSHIP OF CHIRI-CHIRI, A STORMLIGHT-INGESTING WINGED LARKIN, A SPECIES ONCE THOUGHT EXTINCT. NOW RYSN'S PET IS ILL, AND ANY HOPE FOR CHIRI-CHIRI'S RECOVERY CAN BE FOUND ONLY AT THE ANCESTRAL HOME OF THE LARKIN: AKINAH. WITH THE HELP OF LOPEN, THE FORMERLY ONE-ARMED WINDRUNNER, RYSN MUST ACCEPT NAVANI'S QUEST AND SAIL INTO THE PERILOUS STORM FROM WHICH NO ONE HAS RETURNED ALIVE. IF THE CREW CANNOT UNCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE HIDDEN ISLAND CITY BEFORE THE WRATH OF ITS ANCIENT GUARDIANS FALLS UPON THEM, THE FATE OF ROSHAR AND THE ENTIRE COSMERE HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

”

Notes

Though it's super relevant to the cosmere, Dawnshard is less so in relation to Stormlight. Unlike Lift, Rysn's story isn't directly intertwined with that of the main Stormlight characters.

There is an article about Dawnshard on tor.com here.

“	"The emotion I was looking for in the book was not mystery, but instead suspense. These are two kinds of complementary emotions, and suspense is - at least as how I'm defining it right now - "Oh no! This terrible thing is going to happen. How are they going to deal with it?" And mystery is "What terrible thing is going to happen? And who is going to cause it?" These are two different emotions. "If you go into Dawnshard with mystery being your primary expected experience, then what happened to beta readers is, they're like, "Well, Brandon's always tricky about these things. So the fact that he has a person with tattoos on this says that's not the person. That is not the Aimian; that's too obvious. So let's watch and see how he tricks us about who the Aimian is." When my intent was "Here's the Aimian. Be scared because he has a good relationship with Rysn, and terrible things are probably going to happen." That's sad and scary and tense. I realized after reading the beta read, "Oh this is not landing. I need to add a viewpoint as early as I can realistically get it in the story that says 'No, no no no. This is the Aimian. This is the horde. You're right, you're suppose to be worried about that. Not questioning about that.'" So I added that scene. I'm really glad that I did, because I enjoyed writing it. I think it adds a lot to the lore, and it is a fun scene to read, I think. "I'm very happy for the beta readers being confused on that point, because I think the story landed way better for a lot of the readers, because they could let go of wondering who the Aimian is and focus on the emotion the story is actually stoking in them (or it's trying to), which is the suspense of watching what's going to happen when it happens.	”
–Brandon Sanderson

Gallery

Q&A with Brandon

Q. I was wondering if we'd see assistive devices using fabrials in future Stormlight books? I think there might be a lot of in-world potential with fabrials in wheelchairs, prosthetics and other assistive devices as that technology progresses.

A. Dawnshard actually has Rysn looking at fabrials and wondering if those could be of use in the way you're indicating here. I think you'll be pleased with the result.

Q. How much should we be thinking about possible logical groupings of Shards? For instance, as pairs or groups of four.

A. Go ahead, knock yourselves out. This is relevant, but only in a sort of Cosmerenaut sort of way, people who like theorizing on these things and what not. It's not going to be hugely relevant to the narrative, but Dawnshard does indicate that these groupings are a place you can go.