Again, it maddens me how versatile and good this writer Brandon Sanderson is — this time with The Sunlit Man cosmere novel. I hope I can continue developing and learning and growing as he has.

The Sunlit Man is a potboiler. It’s the kind of novel you read in 8-12 hours straight, so I recommend starting it on like a Saturday morning and hitting it hard until you go to sleep. It’s written something like a blend of Mad Max, The Running Man, and some spy thriller. Its magic system isn’t complex, but it’s more because it borrows from others he’s written.

It talked often of bullies, of tyrants, of what it takes to defeat them, of innovation, of physics.

The world itself is pretty wild. It conceivably shouldn’t be habitable. It’s so hot that the sun literally melts the surface into a different landscape every day. That itself gives a sort of chase novel feel to it.

I don’t necessarily believe in “light” or “summer novels,” but since I read this at the end of summer, on the beach, it’s probably the closest thing to a beach read I’ll touch. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t pack a heavy punch, that it doesn’t deal with some significant subjects. And that it doesn’t touch on previously untouched parts of the cosmere.

It’s just that it moves so dang fast that it’s hard to stop and reflect on the nature of molten roses.

I’m confident most who like books that burn past like GONE GIRL, most who like MAD MAX, and most who like Sanderson’s epic fantasy will like this one.