Time to Read: 4 hours 19 minutes

Rating: 4/10

I went into this story knowing the graphic novel was lowly rated and generally considered the worst cosmere entry. I probably should've read the prose version instead and might eventually decide to IDK. It'll probably be quicker to list the things I like with no caveats.

1. I like Khriss as a character.
2. I liked when wider Cosmere implications were hinted at like a guy named Trell showing up.
3. Lord Admiral's story with getting screwed over by the guild and then getting revenge on them was fun.
4. Ais' character conflict and arc if a little under baked is good.

Now stuff I like in concept but not so much in execution because I felt like it was underdeveloped.

1. Aarik's character arc.
2. Drile's character arc/conflict with Kenton. The Drile fight doesn't work as a climax because the conflict between them is barely built on and it doesn't connect with the other climax in anyway other than they are happening right after each other.
3. Kenton's character arc.

Things I don't like.

1. It's a desert story where we only spend ~1/6th of the story at best dealing with the actual desert world.
2. I dislike the stakes and setup of the plot. The entire plot is just one long political game to save the Diem and that could work I guess but the importance of the Diem is so ill defined that it becomes boring and hard to care about. The Diem is important so Sand Mastery can continue which Kenton believes can be used to protect the population (which it hasn't been doing up until this point), so this entire story is just "we need to save the Diem so the Diem can do cool stuff in the future maybe." I find this incredibly disappointing. When I heard the initial title of "white sand" combined with the cover of the first volume, it gave me a much more exciting picture in my head than what is actually in the story.
3. It sucks that we don't go to or see the darkside at all in the story. Elantris also teases a wider world that we barely see outside of, but we do see outside of it. (Also the main setting in Elantris is inherently more interesting AND Elantris is going to get a sequel while this story may or may not).
4. The magic system is much more boring than any other Cosmere magic system and it's not even close.
5. The action is mid. Besides the opening chapters, all of the action scenes are over in what feels like 4 pages of fighting, and it's will some of the most boring cosmere powers ever, and the context of the action is the most boring cosmere context ever. "So some assassin's randomly show up!" is literally every single fight scene in this entire book except for like 3.
7. The graphic novel format sucks for this story. In general, I don't think the appeal of Sanderson's magic systems lends itself to the novel format. I imagine if Kenton was thinking more about how to use his single ribbon against 20 ribbons, it would be a more entertaining fight scene. It also sucks because the story isn't that action packed to begin with. Again, it's a political story about convincing people to change their vote.
8. Visually, the graphic novel isn't that great either.

All in all, by far the weakest Cosmere entry thus far except for the hope of elantris.