Arcanum Unbounded

 Arcanum Unbounded is a compilation of short stories and novellas written by Brandon Sanderson about his Cosmere Universe.

Compiled by Khriss, a worldhopper from the Taldain System (White Sand graphic novel series), Arcanum Unbounded are some of the documents from the many Cosmere planets that give background, world building, character development. While they aren't dire, at this point in time to read them all alongside the major series, they are enlightening and a joy to read. 

Through reading these, I've discovered that my favorite story that Brandon has produced so far is Misborn: Secret History which has major spoilers for the Mistborn series (for both Era 1 and 2, read them first before you read Secret History otherwise you'll be vastly disappointed). But it is my favorite because Kelsier is amazing, Fuzz makes me cry, and Ruin is a major nasty piece of work but such an interesting character. 

As I said before, it is a compilation of stories of : 

The Selish System

• The Emperor's Soul, 
• The Hope of Elantris, 

The Scadrian System 

• The Eleventh Metal, 
• Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Elantia: Episodes  28-30, 
• Mistborn Secret History,

The Taldain System

• White Sand (an excerpt of the graphic novel and an excerpt from the written, rough draft version, which I like better than the graphic novel version)

The Threnodite System

• Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

The Dominad System 

• Sixth of the Dusk

and The Rosharan System

• Edgedancer

These are very good books that I highly recommend reading. If you haven't read any of the Cosmere series (which I suggest you rectify quickly) many of these stores are good to read as a standalone, except Misborn Secret History and Hope of Elantris. The rest could be enjoyed on their own without any hiccups or misunderstandings. My only other suggestion would be to read White Sand completely with the other volumes in the series to help things make sense, though for the excepts you'd be fine as a jumping off point for further reading. (For the rest of the written story of White Sand you can go onto BrandonSanderson.org and become a part of their newsletter and be able to ask for the link for the whole story. I've yet to be able to do it myself as my life isn't always free of craziness, but it's something I plan to indeed do in the future.)  

Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Elantia

Allomancer Jak is another short story in the Arcanum Unbounded book by Brandon Sanderson.

When I first looked at it on Goodreads I thought it was going to be a graphic novel, but it's not. It is a obnoxious, humorous snippet that would have been found in a newspaper with lots of little episodes about adventures off in the Roughs of Mistborn Era 2.

Jak is the obnoxious one. The adventurer who can get himself out if any entrapment or snare by doing the most outlandish things. Whether his tales are "true" or not is for the "dear reader" to read and decide. Jak's story isn't the most thrilling or possibly or "well written" because that's not who Jak is. Brandon wrote it from Jak's point of view and in Jak's words, so they are off kilter--almost so much that I didn't want to read it.

The part that kept me going were the footnotes throughout the piece which were written by a Terris Steward who accompanies Jak on his adventures and transcribes Jak's letters for the public. They are very funny. The commentary is hilarious.

It's a very short story, but one that give a bit more insight to the world of Mistborn era 2. It can be read pretty much whenever after the original series, and doesn't give really anything away.

A short, interesting read if you can get past Jak's obnoxious ways.

The Eleventh Metal

The Eleventh Metal is another short story from Brandon Sanderson, though this one is centered around the Mistborn series. This is a prequel story about how and why Kelsier started to become the way that he did throughout Mistborn.

We follow Kelsier as he is new to his mistborn powers and still trying to learn how to think like a mistborn. He has a teacher named Gemmel, who is referenced in Mistborn: The Final Empire. Gemmel is a mistborn himself and very quirky. He talks to himself (though it's possibly Ruin with whom he's conversing) and acts rather crazy. Kelsier can't get much of a handle on the man, though he sticks around the loon to gain as much knowledge as he can from the miser. They invade a Keep, much like it often happens in the rest of the series, and try to find something--though what Gemmel is looking for isn't completely clear. Inside Kelsier finds a new drive after his again which then starts out the beginning of the rest of the series.

I love reading about Kelsier. He is one of my favorite characters and I will read anything that Brandon Sanderson produces of Kelsier or of the Mistborn world. I love it all.

Hope of Elantris

This is a short story based off of the happenings in Brandon Sanderson's book called Elantris. The copy I found was in the Archanum Unbound book which has many of the short stories and novellas that are associated with the Cosmere.

The reasoning behind this short story was really cute. A young Brandon Sanderson was dating a teacher (his now wife) who had a student do a book report on Elantris and it impressed the new author greatly. He, knowing that the kids in would need to be taken care of in Elantris when the climax of the story begins but not being able to put it into the story because of pacing issues, placed a young girl (with the name of the fan) in the story to help the kids get to safety.

It is a very short story, but it was cute and I think the background of it made it just that much better.

On to more Cosmere books!

The Watson's

I have learned now that it is important to read through all the introductions first in a book. They can be very helpful.

When I came across The Watsons at the end of my Northanger Abbey book, I started reading it just as I did Lady Susan not realizing that The Watsons was an unfinished work, almost along the lines of a blip from one of her other stories.

Our main character is Emma Watson who is invited to go to a Ball by a neighbor. She is set apart by her family as she looks over her invalid Uncle and doesn't get out much. She is given a diagnosis of the people going to the Ball and told whom to look out for. She is given offers to dance, seen by many, and gets the basic notions of those around her. There are visits after the Ball along with her family coming into town and trying to get her to come back home instead of enjoying the solitude and pleasant companionship of her Uncle.

It is only about forty pages and doesn't have much in the way of extended plot, but, as I said earlier, it's not finished. I think someone described it as a scribble. There is definite possibility for this story, and it resembles a bit of Pride and Prejudice in some aspects, but it is it's own story.

I found it very funny that the main character's name is Emma Watson, though I'm sure the actresses parents didn't know about this story. It made me happy. As for the other characters, there were so many in such a short period of time that it was hard to keep some of them straight. Few had solid characteristics in my mind that it was hard to keep many of them separated. I would have liked to read more about this particular story, but, alas, no such luck.

I did really enjoy one part of the story where the gentleman who would, if the story went on long enough, and Emma sat somewhat awkwardly in silence and talked some. It seems to be that that particular part might have been the founding part of this short story. It fit well and made me smile. Jane Austen has it well written, all of the story, but this part had that extra bit of "umph" to it that made me rather like the story and want more.

One other thing that I did struggle with, and it might just be that I have an "older" copy of the text is that there are sometimes four to five pages of text without a paragraph break. Pages full of conversation that has no breaks for the mind. This, I believe is only on my Oxford World Classics edition (that had awesome footnotes and explanations about the times) that had it that way. If I were to read it again, I'd go for a different edition, one that made it easier to read.

Miss. Jane, you need to "have an affair with the tab key." ~Mr. Bradley