#yondamoegi

did a fun short exercise with @yondamoegi 's little guy reese design drawing without ref to actually looking at a quick ref

Fanart of @yondamoegi 's cute lil guy, Meese!

Aaaand a version where I screwed up the proportions, and he ended up looking like demonic Mickey Mouse 😅

Omg yes! So many of my character’s relationships have this dynamic because it is A+

Of course!

For anyone who’s similarly interested, the Stormlight Archive is a series of epic fantasy novels by Brandon Sanderson. They’re known for multiple interweaving character viewpoints, interesting magic systems, and intricate worldbuilding. The third book in the series is coming out this Tuesday and I’m so excited!

(And tl;dr because this got kinda long, there’s a big shared universe that you don’t necessarily need to know about. If you’re just interested in the Stormlight Archive then the order is The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and then the upcoming Oathbringer. Warbreaker can kind of be thought of as a largely unrelated prequel).

Now, the thing about the Stormlight Archive is that it is part of a greater connected universe called the “Cosmere”. Sanderson’s written a number of books, and most of them take place in this universe. So far, there is very little intersection, because each of his series take place on different planets in the cosmere, each with its own worldbuilding, ecology, and magic. However there are easter eggs and hints hidden around for people who’ve read the other books.

This makes the recommended reading order kind of tricky, but you’re pretty safe to start wherever you want for now. So I’ll just give you an overview of your various options and the strengths/weaknesses of all of them.

Mistborn: This is the series I started with. There are currently two trilogies out right now in the setting. The latter happens after a 300 year timeskip. Fun, action-y series where people are temporarily granted special abilities by ingesting certain kinds of metal. The first book of the first series - “Mistborn: The Final Empire” is a good place to start with the Cosmere as a whole.

Elantris: A stand-alone novel. It’s Sanderson’s first published work, so it’s a bit rougher than his other stuff, but I love it a lot. Has three viewpoint characters who are some of my favourites in the Cosmere. Ultimately more about politics and mystery than action.

Warbreaker: Another stand-alone. Also very good. Sort of half-way between the politically focused Elantris and the action-packed Mistborn. Multiple viewpoint characters again. Much more about the magic system than Elantris (similarly to Mistborn). It’s also the exception to the, “no particular recommended order” thing. I’d suggest reading this one before you get to the second Stormlight Archive book. It’s not essential by any means, but there are some hidden crossover characters. It’s also 100% free on Brandon Sanderson’s website! Here’s the link.

Stormlight Archive: The big one! This is Sanderson’s flagship fantasy series, and it shows. You’ll really enjoy this series if you love worldbuilding. This setting isn’t yet another copy-pasted medieval Europe analogue. Powerful storms regularly scour the land. Plantlife resembles stuff you’d see in a coral reef on earth, and retracts during storms. People ride around on giant crabs. It’s great.

The books are also very...anti-grimdark. Characters can and do suffer horribly, but none of it feels pointless. There are terrible people doing terrible things, but everyone is ultimately the hero of their own story. It’s a great antidote for all the dark fantasy floating around. 

The first book in the series is The Way of Kings. TWoK starts pretty slow because of the sheer amount of stuff it has to establish about the world, but stick with it. It has one of the most epic climaxes I’ve ever read.

Words of Radiance is somehow even better than the first book. This is where the series hits its stride, and it’s amazing from beginning to end.