Yumi and the Nightmare Painter - Brandon Sanderson

⭐ 7.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

The second of Brandon's secret projects, I thought this was much better than Tress until the uncharacteristically brutal ending. I was total sucked in the first 50 pages of this book, where 2 characters live in mysteriously magic places with interesting and specific jobs. They cross paths in sort of a Freaky Friday way, where they need to learn to do they other's job. It was a fun setup, the mystery of it all was intriguing, and I thought maybe Brandon was back in form!

Unfortunately writing 4 books in a year probably isn't the best formula for a book with consistent quality. This one feels like he had several great ideas and then patched them together to make a story. He has said he wrote this one as a gift for his wife with no intention of publishing until she told him he had to, to which I say, sure. But its disappointing, he riffs on the ideas of your work and art, whether or not they can be the same thing, what it means to create something meaningful, how art if perceived and what that means for the artist, all interesting stuff I know he has passionate about. I heard him at a book signing once tell a little story around all this and how he views his creation in light of the fandom its spawned, and he had some insightful thoughts on it. So I was excited that it came up in a book, but then we get to the same complaint I have had in all his most recent books - Hoid.

Hoid is a character that shows up in every Sanderson book, what he calls a "world-hopper", who is basically Brandon's internal voice in the story. The last couple books have had Hoid as the narrator, which is so painful, because as I say about seemingling every Sanderson book, humour is probably his greatest weakness. He is clearly a dad and uses these awful unfunny puns and I have never laughed once. Hoid also constantly uses anachronisms which are supposed to make the story relatable or funny for us but take me completely out of this mega-universe Brandon is building. I don't want to imagine that one of the planets here is basically Earth, but the way Hoid talks makes me fear that is the case, and if there isn't that's even worse because then its clearly just Brandon injecting himself. This is all pretty specific and hard to explain unless you have begrudgingly read everything this guy has written like I have, I just want these to be good so badly! I think Sanderson is creative and insightful and can write really epic stuff, and its starting to feel very Marvel-y.

Anyways, the ending to this book is terrible, as Hoid basically parachutes in for an exposition dump while action is happening, and you are unclear if the characters even know what happening. Very much telling instead of showing and I thought it ruined a book that had a lot of good in it. Also pretty out of character for Brandon, who I find often has great twists that feel earned (at least he used to). Makes me wonder if that's because he is used to writing such massive tomes that when he is forced to write shorter works like this he just can't get out of his own way and all of a sudden has to wrap it up in 10 pages.

Anwyays, I have pre-ordered the next two Sanderson books (why can't I quit you), one of which was another one of these Secret Projects, so it will probably be a 7/10 and I can rewrite this review for a third time. The other is Stormlight 5, the end of the first half(!?) of this saga, which should close the page on a massive section of his work. Brandon devoted all of 2023 to working on this book and I am praying that was enough time.