Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive – Book 2.5)
Written by Brandon Sanderson, published 2016. Summary, review, and spoilers ahead.
Edgedancer is considered a novella and is book 2.5 in The Stormlight Archive, which takes place between the events of Words of Radiance and Oathbringer. It is significantly shorter than our previous reads at 272 pages (vs. 1,001 and 1,080 for The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance). Edgedancer is a companion story to the main novels and focuses exclusively on one character’s point of view – Lift.
Essentially Edgedancer retells and expands on Interlude 9 from Words of Radiance. Brandon Sanderson felt as though he needed the opportunity to properly setup Lift, the Reshi Radiant girl, her spren, Wendyl, and speak in more detail of the lands she encounters – Azir, Yeddaw, and Tashikk.
Lift is a really fun character. She is very different from everyone else in Roshar, a refreshing protagonist with a snarky wit and irreverent attitude. She explores her abilities, and we learn a lot more about how she thinks and what she cares about.
It was very interesting to gain more insight into the relationship between Lift and her spren, Wyndle. She half-jokingly calls him a voidbringer the entire book, though it’s fairly clear that they have a fairly good relationship, albeit one that grows as Lift trusts him more and more. We learn that Wyndle was “assigned” to Lift by the Ring, the ruling body of the Cultivationspren. Unfortunately, not much more detail is given on that… but I believe this will have further implications as our main story evolves.
We also learn that before, in Shadesmar, Wyndle was a gardener… of chairs. An odd note, but one I think may be important. He alludes to being used to hit someone (more on this later). Also, early on in the story Wyndle mentions how he could’ve been bound to a cobbler who helped urchins – a reference to Interlude 2 from Words of Radiance – the story of Ym.
Side note – seriously, everything in this story (and by story I mean all of The Stormlight Archive) manages to tie into each other. The ability BS has to weave everything together is uncanny.
Lift, if we recall, has some pretty “awesome” powers. She can use Wyndle as a growing vine to climb pretty much anything, and she can “slick” herself allowing her to skate smoothly across any surface, or in many cases “slick” herself to avoid being grabbed or caught by the bad guys. She also has the ability to revive someone from death, as she demonstrated in Interlude 9 with Gawx. We do learn, later on, this has limitations – namely how they were killed (shardblade vs. regular blade) and how much time has passed between death and her attempting to revive (basically there is body dead vs. brain dead).
Much different from our Stormlight friends, nearly everyone else with any powers (Kaladin, Dalinar, Shallan, etc.) Lift gets her powers from food. So, part of her motivation is to find food, and often new/delicious food – which in the case of Edgedancer revolves primarily around 10 different styles of pancakes. I’ll admit I thought this was a joke when it was first mentioned… please note, it is not.
Primarily throughout Edgedancer, Lift follows Darkness – who hunts those looking to bond with spren (basically other Radiants, including Lift) – and develops an unusual relationship with an old lady who runs the orphanage in town, known as the Stump, where Lift often stays and gets free meals.
Darkness, (aka Nale, aka Nin, aka Nalan, aka Nakku, aka the Judge) is the Szeth-like being who is part of an order of the Knights Radiant known as the Skybreakers. He is one of the ten Heralds of the Almighty. And while we don’t much know about Heralds (still) clearly they are important figures in the story. Szeth appears to be part of the same Skybreaker Order, though seems to have a lesser standing or role than Darkness/Nale. Very interesting considering what we’ve seen of Szeth thus far in the previous books.
Before the climax, Lift encounters Arclo, a crazy-cool character. He’s an old man, only he’s not. He’s made up of thousands of little cremling creatures, which he calls hordelings, which form together in a swarm to create the appearance of an old man. If he’s hurt, the hordelings can shuffle around and “fix” whatever appears damaged. Hard to explain, but super cool. Again, there is a Matrix parallel here…
I’m not sure, but believe he too may be a Herald. They say he is siblings of Darkness and refers to himself as the Sleepless… I need more.
Ultimately, Lift and Darkness have a pretty epic battle. Wyndle becomes a shardblade, only it’s not a blade but a rod – a shardrod. Neither end up 6 feet under (partially thanks to the Stump, who also turns out to be a Radiant, saving the day), and Lift finally convinces Darkness that the voidbringers are back (the Everstorm is proof), and thus he has failed in his mission.
We end with Lift healing the Stump, hugging Darkness, eating pancakes using Wyndle as a shardfork, helping the children of the orphanage and refugees from the Everstorm, and planning to head off to Azir. I assume her story will continue in later books. At least I hope so!
TLDR: Edgedancer is a short, fun read that augments the overall depth and breadth of The Stormlight Archive (though it is not required reading for the overall series plot of the main novels). However, it does provide great insights into the world and its characters (mainly Lift) making it a worthwhile read. Would recommend. 4/5 Stars.
