Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Like Tress, this book contains a number of Cosmere in-references and features Hoid as the narrator. Pretty quickly you find that Hoid has found himself in yet another ridiculous situation where he's incapacitated in some way (like Tress), but he's unable to act in this one (unlike Tress). Taking Hoid's place in the role of "mentor" is Design, the cryptic that Hoid picked up in the Stormlight Archives. Now she's a buxom woman now (or rather, the illusion of a buxom woman) with "definitely very human mannerisms". I enjoyed her persona here, it provided the comic relief as a stand-in for Hoid. They really are made for each other.

The ideas behind how the Nightmares work and how the world functions really didn't make sense to me at first, but when the reveal comes at the end of the novel it all satisfyingly clicked into place. Like, in the initial chapters, I was wondering if it was tidally locked, but turns out, no.

Other thoughts:

The moral lesson / Painter's growth was good. He did that thing again where he has a character plainly lay out the backstory which is useful, but I'm not a big fan of that. The third viewpoint character (who didn't really get any viewpoint scenes) was nice, I enjoyed her. The reference to Threndony was A+.

I thought Tress of the Emerald Sea was going to be my favorite of the secret projects, and was not prepared for the ride this book took me on. I’ll be up front in saying that I don’t obsess over the Cosmere, and in fact have read things all out of order from “The Proper” reading order. This book absolutely can stand on its own, no Cosmere background necessary, but there are small details (and probably more than I noticed since I don’t retain small things book to book all that well) if you know where to look.

This book connects two people, Yumi and Painter, from two very different backgrounds. One grows up under strict guidance, her day dictated moment to moment, with no place for frivolous thoughts or actions. Her place in the world is to be the yoki-hijo, the one chosen to speak with spirits and get their cooperation in helping the people of her world. The other also dedicates himself to his people, but his service takes the form of being a Nightmare Painter—one who banishes dark spirits that materialize in his city and feed on the bad dreams of its residents. The more dreams it eats, the stronger it gets. A plea from a spirit brings Yumi and Painter together, where they each experience the other’s life in their body and have to figure out the what and the why of things before it’s too late.

In true Sanderson fashion the “what” and the “why” do a lot of the heavy lifting in this story, and things are kept appropriately mysterious until near the end. I loved the continuing discussion about the value of art, the power of friendship (in a not overbearing way), and how two opposites can come together and make something special together. There’s also quite a bit of irreverent commentary (from our narrator telling the story, someone you’ve met before if you’ve read other Sanderson books), some very touching moments, and a romance that didn’t have me rolling my eyes. That, dear reader, is kind of a rare thing for me.

It (obviously) has strong Japanese roots in the story, which is acknowledged by Sanderson in the afterward (mild influence spoilers) (both Final Fantasy 10 and Hikaru no Go are sampled from here, but twisted enough to be satisfyingly different), so if that feel of story isn’t your thing, you might be disappointed. I, on the other hand, was engaged throughout the whole book (even Tress had small sections that felt a bit drawn out to me), to the point of waking up two hours before work so I could finish it.

Highly enjoyed this one. Super, mega, totally recommend it.