Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is a great Cosmere story full of mystery, mundane magic and occasionally somewhat awkward teenage romance. The narrator’s philosophizing in this book is among the most quotable out of Sanderson’s works that I have read thus far, with a lot of it revolving around the nature and purpose of art, and the story grips you quickly and tightly immediately after the intro, which, however, was a little slower than usual in my opinion.

I was positively surprised and intrigued to find industrialization, alignment and particularly art in the age of artificial intelligence as major themes throughout the book with otherwise such a strong fantasy setting. Ultimately, at its core lies the concept of choice and, by extension, free will. It is thematically very timely and relevant but first and foremost still a very entertaining and immersive story about people on alien planets, who just happen to be experiencing many of our current metaphors much more concretely - which is something I really enjoy in fantasy.

My girlfriend tried reading this as her first Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson’s shared universe of books - book but put it down quite soon and it did not take me too long into my reading session to figure out why. We also gifted our softcover edition to a friend of hours after getting a hardcover instead, for which I have to apologize. Do not read it. The story is technically a standalone but so deeply embedded in the Cosmere, relying on many of its concepts and characters through various references and explanations by the very familiar narrator that someone who has not read any prior works has no chance to fully understand and appreciate the story and worldbuilding, which might seem kind of arbitrary and handwavy without the further context in which it is actually quite clever, insightful and robust.

That being said, this book is only for those who have read at least a lot of the Stormlight Archive already but that is a recommendation I keep giving over and over anyway so I am just going to skip to the point where you have done so and say read this. The style is different and much more experimental but the story is rewarding and the experience of reading it is great! Having read only the Frugal Wizard’s Guide to Medieval England I must say that this is my favorite of the secret projects thus far as well!