Nardjan

This collection started great and I quite enjoyed the first few stories. Short and with a theme or thought to convey or a question to pose the reader. Some were thoughtful and profound. However, at some point I stopped caring for the stories and they became too boring or slow and I DNF'd. Glad I bought the book, glad I read it, also completely fine with not finishing it.

Small spoilers. I DNF'ed at chapter 12/30. I didnt care and it was boring. Audiobook was good quality and the book is not bad, it is actually pretty good. Still, it is basically 1 big science problem, lots of science im actually pretty familiar with. The problem to me was the lack of character development and interaction with other characters - bro is all alone until he meets Rocky and even in flashbacks he is being told what to do and then does science stuff. Nothing makes his character change and there are no other characters to make him bounce off or interact with. Idk, the stakes/story just didnt interest me. The teacher parts, PhD background and interaction with the kids and bean bags was cool though. Other than thats its just one big science problem I guess.

The concept of this books carries a lot, along with the character study that comes with it. I largely skipped chapter 11 which felt dreadfully slow and elaborate, but luckily the book picked up the story like nothing happened in chapter 12. A fine read, although nothing too special for me.

First part (1/6th?) was ‘hard' to get through. Just confusing because the whole series is. But then you understand stuff. Dead Town expedition, the rabbits, Old Jim, Lowry. I loved all 4 books for the cosmic horror and environment. Terroir. The parking lot puddles. If you've come this far and enjoyed the first 3 books, this is good stuff. If you dnf'ed book 2 or 3 then this 4th isnt gonna provide you any absolution. 4/5 for me. This whole 4-part trilogy should reward me a full re-reading. Someday :)

But actually, I dont understand jackshit at all and I'm gonna love reading reddit theories and watching theorie-videos. All the theories - that's book 5. The weirdness, what is real? Wtf is going on? The cosmic horror. I love it!

The writing style took a few pages to get into, but the vibes of this book are top-notch

Nothing too special, but pretty good for how short it is. Has a good atmosphere. I liked it, a great palette cleanser between my think fantasy tomes

I found out this reading style is not for me. I love Brandon Sanderson's books, but in this comic-form I found White Sand to be quite boring, hard to keep my attention, hard to keep track of things (unannounced time and location skips), mediocre characters and feeling a bit guitly for not appreciating the art enough.

I always wanted to try manga, and I will at some point because right now I dont know if the whole comic book story-style is not for me, or White Sand just wasn't doing it for me.

Still very excited for the White Sand official prose to release as full book at some point (I believe Brandon is working on it) as I was unable to get my hands on the fabled “newsletter White Sand prose”. Hope I will like that more. (Review written in december 2024).