Meh. A basically competent but forgettable take on the YA magical-school genre. The world-building was pretty solid (I can tell a lot of time was spent on working out the details of the alternate history and exactly how the magic works), but the clichéd thinness of the actual plot and characters, not to mention the mediocrity of the actual writing, made the whole thing deeply dissatisfying.
Here are some much better books I recommend instead: His Dark Materials, The Name of the Wind, Earthsea, Every Heart A Doorway.
A fantastic start to what I am sure will be another masterwork series by Mr. Sanderson. This series is aimed at a YA audience, but as is Sanderson's gift, he does not talk down to his audience. A truly enjoyable read.
What started as a 3-star "eh, not too bad" experienced morphed into 4 stars when I learned that there would be a follow up to this book. That's a good thing; there are so many neat ideas to explore in this pseudo-Earth that I would have been supremely disappointed had there not been any follow up. As it stands now, I eagerly anticipate #2.
There are two things [a:Brandon Sanderson|38550|Brandon Sanderson|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1201547425p2/38550.jpg] does exceedingly well: 1) create unique, interesting systems of magic and 2) write deep, engaging, full-faceted, realistic female characters. [b:The Rithmatist|10137823|The Rithmatist (Rithmatist #1)|Brandon Sanderson|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348506712s/10137823.jpg|15035866] does not disappoint on either of these counts.
In addition to standard Sanderson fare, this book introduces us to an alternate America with various spring-loaded, steampunk-esque modes of transportation, lights, mowers, etc.
The story is solid and while technically a Young Adult novel, it didn't feel like standard YA fare. About half-way through I actually had to look it up to find out it was classified under YA. As is typical of Sanderson, the relationships and interactions between characters feel very realistic and natural. There are no cookie-cutter tropes here.
If you like Brandon Sanderson's other series, I'm confident you'll enjoy this book.
I don't think you can go wrong with any book by Brandon Sanderson. Well, any of his books angled to slightly adult persons. I am still trying his Alcatraz books, but they are just a bit too young for me (middle grade, I believe, 10 y/o). The Rithmatist is geared towards young-adults and that's very clear in the writing. But it doesn't matter, because, well, this is Brandon Sanderson writing. He can teach a corkscrew to do some twists.
The premise is simple and reminds me of a book I once read when I was a little child, "De Schrijvenaar van Thyll", I believe it was titled, by Peter Schaap I think. Performing magic through writing. Only, in the Rithmatist this isn't through writing but through drawing. As always Brandon creates a magic system that is well thought out, gives the impression of having a lot of science behind it …
I don't think you can go wrong with any book by Brandon Sanderson. Well, any of his books angled to slightly adult persons. I am still trying his Alcatraz books, but they are just a bit too young for me (middle grade, I believe, 10 y/o). The Rithmatist is geared towards young-adults and that's very clear in the writing. But it doesn't matter, because, well, this is Brandon Sanderson writing. He can teach a corkscrew to do some twists.
The premise is simple and reminds me of a book I once read when I was a little child, "De Schrijvenaar van Thyll", I believe it was titled, by Peter Schaap I think. Performing magic through writing. Only, in the Rithmatist this isn't through writing but through drawing. As always Brandon creates a magic system that is well thought out, gives the impression of having a lot of science behind it without dumping too much info on you. Creating depth without actually showing you the details of that depth. So, a simple premise. Drawing geometry and scribbled creatures is magic. From that he creates a mystery. Again he takes a concept we all know well. The odd kid in a school becomes involved and well, wins the day. I mean, that isn't even a spoiler, it's what we expect from YA. If the kid was supposed to fail and be horribly tortured and devoured by the monsters, it would be another genre entirely.
I really enjoyed this book. It's light, it's original and it even has a tiny bit of suspense. Why then the three stars? It's YA. I'm not really a big fan of YA, I like more grit in my book. And by grit I mean real grit, and not the adolescent 'angst' that most YA books seem to have. Not this one though, I have to admit this one is a breath of fresh air in that area. I think it is on par with Elantris. Original, fresh, engaging. Still, it is not enough to gain it four stars, because it is very light and lacks a bit of gravitas (five stars I only give to very special very very very good books).
I really liked the twists and turns of this novel. I also really liked that the POV character was a non-magic user in a magic world. That's an outlook you don't get very often. I mean, even Mat and Perrin of the Wheel of Time have their own things that fit the world. I love how the characters grow closer in a realistic way, and I really hope that Sanderson does follow up, though "To Be Continued" does give that promise.
