“He towered like a wedge rising from the sea, and all of the waves here bent around him. A place of inhospitable peaks, sharp cliffs, and deep jungle.

Patji. King of the Pantheon. God of the Eelakin.

Hello, old destroyer, Dusk thought. Hello, Father.”

Patji, the largest of the Pantheon Islands, holds a unique ecosystem and an array of deadly creatures. Yet Dusk, an experienced trapper and breeder of Aviar—magical birds who can bond and share their talents—like his ancestors has found a way to survive there. The world is changing, in becoming more industrialised and racing to gain more technological advancement, the secrets of Patji are becoming known throughout the Cosmere. The Above Ones want to covet and exploit the Aviar, they are on the brink of conquering, and time is running out for Dusk to stop them and preserve the heritage of his people, the Eelakin. His only hope may lay in traveling through the Emberdark. Starling, a dragon trapped in her human form, is onboard the Starship Dynamic, roaming the Emberdark in search of a fabled portal. When she and her crew of misfits become imprisoned an unlikely alliance between Dusk and Starling forms. Can they both find freedom?

The Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson is a phenomenal journey of industrial and technological transformation yet still holds an abundance of myth and magic. 

Going into this novel I had not previously read the published short story, Sixth of the Dusk, and honestly I’m glad I didn’t because it’s all included in the first part in a series of flashbacks which I felt worked seemingly to give the story context. Though this book is a standalone I would warn you that it is extremely Cosmere connected. There were, among many others, references to, Shadesmar, Investiture, Shards and Aethers which were all concepts I had encountered in The Mistborn saga, and The Stormlight Archives. Whilst I absolutely loved spotting these connections and having my understanding of them deepened, if you’re new to the Cosmere, I wouldn’t recommend starting here. 

Sanderson has never disappointed me with his exceptional worldbuilding and this book focused on an incredibly detailed ecosystem. Patji Island to most people was uninhabitable, except to Eelakin trappers like Dusk, who have spent their entire life learning the ways of the Island. Many of the creatures we encountered there were strange and so seeing the illustrations by Esther Hillani Candari was great because you could exactly picture how monstrous they would be to stumble upon! From the meekest, a mouselike creature with deadly fangs, to deathants that kill with one bite, to the Tokka, a carnivorous plant, and the highly feared nightmaws, they were all fascinating. My favourite wildlife on Patji however, was the Aviars, and discovering their various talents that they would share with their bonded humans, delighted me. Sak and Korkerlii were Dusk’s Aviars and their talents saved his life many times over. There was so much poignancy reflected through Dusk as the modernisation, something he inadvertently had a hand in, all but destroyed Patji’s natural state. Several species of the animals and insects were extinguished, buildings had been built on once rocky beaches and the Aviars no longer had free access to the island to be caught by trappers, they were now mass bred. I felt for this loss as keenly as Dusk did.

“Progress was a wave. It first caught you in it and carried you, but the moment you slipped off the crest, you went crashing into the surf and maybe never came back up. Progress had no use for men who didn’t ask questions.”

Then there was the threat of the Above Ones and here is where Sanderson shows us what it would be like to have your home invaded, your heritage stolen and foreigners who think they are better than you ruling over your people. As Dusk became older, with his quiet intelligence, could see that the Eelakins needed to grow and adapt and therefore the sacred islands also needed to change, but that did not mean that he was not sad and regretful. Beliefs of the God Patji and the mythology of Cakoban, the first of their race to discover the islands, were being lost, and worse, their way of life was seen as primitive or even savage, so modernisation was being welcomed by many of his own people. In short, the world was becoming a place he no longer fit in. Honestly, Dusk broke my heart. What I loved within the novel is the discourse on whether a more technologically advanced race means a more enlightened race, a more superior one as the Ones Above believed. When in fact it made them a prejudiced race that couldn’t navigate the natural world in the clever and adaptable ways the Eelakin’s could. 

Lately I haven’t been the biggest reader of sci-fi, it’s just not a genre I’m quickly drawn to, but having said that I became so engrossed and excited by the way this novel merged fantasy and sci-fi together to develop into a galactic quest of discovery, that I felt absolutely engrossed. As soon as we met Starling on the Dynamic, I instantly became attached to her and her eclectic crew. I don’t know how Sanderson does it, but he never fails to establish a solid found family that all care for each other and in turn make me adore each one of them. There was Leonore and ZeetZi with their witty wordy banter, Ed with his eagerness for deadly escapades, Aditil with her insecurities but heartfelt loyalty, Nazh, who was a character I recognised and who never failed to make me laugh, and Chrysalis who, well… let’s just say was very intriguing. Then of course we have Starling, my beloved dragon/human who was kind, caring and ever so optimistic. Even when Starling met Dusk, she didn’t misjudge him in the way others did, she worked to understand him. No matter their ethnicity, their species or their past, Sanderson gave a solid team that faced every danger together and that made me one happy reader. 

The Isles of the Emberdark had the perfect blend of fantasy and sci-fi, with a found family I adored, magic and myth that captivated me and some incredible quests. This is definitely my new favourite Sanderson standalone. 

“Was there a word for a person without a home, because his home had evolved into something new? A person without a future, because the future had no use for him?”

 ARC provided by Tom at Gollancz in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the copy!

The Isles of the Emberdark is available now – you can order your copy on Bookshop.org