'Cytonic' by Brandon Sanderson
'Cytonic' by Brandon Sanderson

The good

  • As is always the case with a Brandon Sanderson book, the writing is good, and the plot is well structured, with full of unexpected twists & turns.

  • Moves the series forward, providing a lot of answers to some of the big mysteries lurking behind the scenes.

  • Introduces some imaginative new alien races that are not humanoid. I’m a big fan of any SciFi author who puts in that kind of effort.

The not so good

  • Virtually none of the characters from books 1 and 2 make it into book 3. That’s a shame, as I liked those characters!

  • You get introduced to a few new characters, who are OK, but not as fun or deep.

  • The setting this book takes place in doesn’t makes much sense and is entirely too magical. It’s basically deus ex machina by design, allowing Sanderson to introduce whatever he needs into the plot whenever he needs it, without any need to worry about reality or logic. As a result, it feels like there’s nothing at stake, there’s no tension (as there’s always another piece of magic to come to the rescue), and you realize none of the mysteries are in any way guessable (as they aren’t tied to logic, but also just more magic). That’s a bummer, as one of my favorite things about Sanderson’s writing is that he always includes magic in his stories, but usually with a bunch of rules that give you a clear mental model of what the magic can or can’t do, and all the characters have to find creative ways to live within those rules. That doesn’t seem to be the case in this series.

  • The explanation for one of the book’s biggest mysteries is somewhat clever, and I understand what Sanderson is trying to do with it, but if you think about it for more than a few seconds, you realize it doesn’t make any sense. Or, more accurately, it relies on too much magic and deus ex machina to work, so it’s not particularly enjoyable.

  • I thought this was the finale of the series, and while we do understand a number of the big mysteries by the end of this 3rd book, it’ll take at least one more book to wrap everything up.

Rating: 3 stars