Set in a world full of springwork trains and horses, where the North American Continent is instead a giant clustering of islands (although I’m not certain of the state of the other continents of Planet Earth), The Rithmatist is one of three attempts by Brandon Sanderson to venture into the world of Young Adult fantasy/science fiction.
While I enjoy Brandon Sanderson’s works, I don’t looove all his YA works. I really enjoyed the first two books of the Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians series (I have yet to read the rest) and thought it was a rollicking good time. The Reckoners was a fun take on the Superhero genre, though the final book was a little bit of a let-down to me. The Rithmatist sounded like a mashup of Steampunk and alchemy (thought I was wrong about the alchemy bit), and I was excited. While I really enjoyed the book, I am once again reminded of how much Brandon Sanderson loves his exposition.
It took me a lot longer to read The Rithmatist than I thought it would (certainly longer than my last reviewed book, The Nightwalker). Part of it was because Brandon Sanderson’s magic systems are always so different than what I’ve read before that he has to take time to explain them and I have to pause and wrap my head around the ideas. Part of it was because for the past eight weeks I’ve been either working eleven-plus hours a day or doing rotations for job certification, and I’m exhausted. While Brandon tries to incorporate his exposition with action–in The Rithmatist he introduces Rithmatics (creating chalk drawings that come to life and interact with the three-dimensional world) by having a duel between two teachers–there’s so much geometry, rules, and steampunk differenceness going on that I had to stop and stretch my over-tired brain to make sense of what was going on. There’s exposition and world building all the way from beginning to end, and the book ends right as the reader (or maybe just me) finally gets their feet under them and is able to get a breather to enjoy the Rithmatic duels that take place.
While so much exposition is alright in an adult sci-fi/fantasy novel, there’s not enough time to expound to the depth that Sanderson is prone to with the page/word limit of Young Adult fantasy/sci-fi. This weakens The Rithmatist, and makes for some slower reading.
I did enjoy the main characters, Joel (the chalkmaker’s son who wants to be a Rithmatist), Melody (the Rithmatist who wants to be an artist), and Professor Fitch (who is the absentminded professor who loves teaching more than anything). They snapped straight to existence off the page, filling the story with life and energy. There was also glimpses into how life is like with North America being a group of islands (The United Isles of America) instead of a continent, with a mysterious tower at the middle of Nebrask (no, I didn’t leave off any letters). Those glimpses weren’t nearly enough, and it goes to Brandon Sanderson’s credit that, even though I don’t think his book is perfect, I want more. There was also a mystery that wove itself through the book, saving it from tedium brought about by too many Rithmancy lessons. The book had a resolution, but it also has an annoying “To Be Continued” at the end, and not even the rough draft of a sequel in sight.
Will I read the next book? Yes. Heck, I even looked up “The Rithmatist Book 2” as soon as I closed the cover (that’s how I know Brandon is woefully behind in writing the sequel). I just hope that, with the mechanics of the magic/science system in place now, he spends less time explaining how things work and going on adventures with Joel, Melody, and Professor Fitch.
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