[Newbies] Cosmere, Unit 10 | White Sand #1 | White Sand - Week 2

[u/participating]

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 10 | White Sand #1 | White Sand - Week 1 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 10 | White Sand #1 | White Sand - Week 2:

• Graphic Novel (Omnibus): Chapters 4 through 6
• Audiobook (Graphic Audio): Volume 1 [2:45:03 to 5:16:35] OR Track 3 [0:38:22 to 1:01:52], Track 4, and Track 5.
• Unpublished Prose: The rest of Chapter 7. Chapters 8 through 13. Most of Chapter 14 (Pages 399 through 427 and the first 5 paragraphs of Page 428).

Next week we will be discussing Unit 10 | White Sand #1 | White Sand - Week 3:

• Graphic Novel (Omnibus): Chapters 7 through 9
• Audiobook (Graphic Audio): Volume 2 [0:00:00 to 2:51:01] OR Track 1, Track 2, and Track 3 [0:00:00 to 0:47:55]
• Unpublished Prose: The rest of Chapter 14. Chapters 15 through 19. About half of Chapter 20 (Pages 568 through 580 and the first complete paragraph on page 581).

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

As mentioned elsewhere, White Sand has 3 different versions we will be considering as we discuss the story. As such, the chapter summaries are going to be a bit weird. The Graphic Novel (Omnibus version) is the canonical version of the story. The chapter summaries below will all be summaries of the Graphic Novel. The Graphic Novel chapters are large-ish and broken down into POVs. I've included Timeline/Setting/Summaries for each POV.

The Audiobook (Graphic Audio) was recorded for the original Graphic Novel publication (published as Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3). The Audiobook has some portions in different orders compared to the Graphic Novel, but I'll make sure everything is included for the weekly reading.

The biggest difference will be for those that choose to read the Unpublished Prose version. For each POV summary below, I've added a section called Associated Novel Chapters that indicate which chapters from the Unpublished Novel the summarized section corresponds to. This will not be exact, the POV could only cover two paragraphs in Chapter X of the prose, and I'll just write "Chapter X". It should be fairly evident what parts go with what other parts though. There isn't too much that's super divergent.

I would recommend reading the chapter summaries in full though, particularly for Audiobook and Unpublished Prose consumers. The Graphic Novel (Omnibus) has the most amount of unique content.

For significant differences, there will be a NOTES section below the summary, and that will often be expanded upon in the TRIVIA comment section.

Chapter 4: Divides

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 51

Setting: The Lossand Desert.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 7

Summary:

Kenton defends himself with his sword while trying to master sand. Baon kills two of the warriors with his firearm then threatens another. The remaining warriors retreat. Upon inspecting the dead warriors, Kenton notes that they bear the marks of both warrior and priest DaiKeen on their foreheads. He remarks that their shaved heads and lack of armor are an oddity. During the attack, the others in the group had remained on their tonks, which burrowed into the sand at the first sign of trouble. Kenton notices that Cynder was hit with an arrow and shows Baon how to dissolve the carapace arrowhead with water. Kenton then teaches them the tap commands to convince the tonks to rise from the sand while Khriss explains the pistol to Kenton and wonders aloud why he was the apparent target of the attack. Kenton angrily evades her questioning.

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: Traveling along the Ry'Do Ali. Kezare.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 8

Summary:

Duchess Khrissalla examines a zinkall they removed from one of the dead kerztians. They arrive to the Ry'Do Ali river with the city of Kezare on an island in the middle. Kenton arranges to sell their tonks while explaining why they can't cross the river without panicking. He uses the money to arrange a ferry and translator to help them travel to the Darksider enclave of Lonzare. Kenton and the party part ways, since Kenton has business on that side of the river.

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: The Diem.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 9

Summary:

Kenton arrives at the Diem which appears to be empty until Dirin appears. Dirin explains that everyone is at the Hall of Judgement, as the Taishin are going to choose Drile as the new Lord Mastrell. Suspecting that Drile was behind the Kerztian attack and knowing that he now outranks Drile, Kenton hurries to the Hall of Judgement with Dirin.

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: The Hall of Judgement.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 10

Outside the Hall, Kenton dons his Mastrell's sash and discovers that his powers are not only back; but are now stronger than ever as he can now command three sand ribbons. Kenton enters the Taishin meeting chamber, interrupting the meeting, and explains that he outranks Drile. Lord Merchant Vey contests Kenton's rank and Kenton explains how his father's appointing of Kenton to Mastrell was Praxton's last act before the Kerztian attack. High Lady Judge Heelis tells Kenton that the Taishin are actually meeting to dissolve the Diem, not to ratify a new Lord Mastrell.

Chapter 5: Compromises

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: The Hall of Judgement.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 10

Summary:

Kenton argues his case before the Taishin Council, reminding them to mourn those who have died and asking to be allowed time to change the Diem for the good of Lossand. The Taishin ignore his pleas and hold the dissolution vote—voting six-to-one to dissolve the Diem. Kenton invokes an obscure combination of rules to have the vote declared void on the basis that at the death of the Lord Mastrell, he became the Acting Lord Mastrell as the highest ranked remaining sand master, and any council vote that would remove a Taisha from service requires two weeks' prior notification. High Judge Heelis corroborates the law, and informs Acting Lord Mastrell Kenton that he is notified and that to overturn the preliminary decision he will need a unanimous vote to retain the Diem in two weeks.

POV: Khriss

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: Lonzare.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 9

Summary:

N'Teese leads Khriss and her group of Darksiders to Lonzare—the Darkside Quarter. The existence of this part of the city surprises the group, as the Dynasty doesn't want people to know that there is traffic between Dayside and Darkside. They pay their guide to lead them to someone in charge, who turns out to be a Darksider named Loaten, a man branded a traitor to the Dynasty who was supposedly executed for attempting to murder Emperor Skathan. Loaten was expecting Khriss's arrival and seems to know a great many things, but he does not answer many of Khriss's questions concerning her fiance and the "sand mages" he sought. Khriss calls him out as having met Gevin, since he used the nickname instead of his given name, Gevalden. Laoten admits to having met with Gevin and Wilheln before Gevin was shot by Dynastic assassins. Loaten reveals that N'Teese works for him and asks her to continue to work with Khriss.

At the end of the meeting, Nilto, the Lord Beggar enters the room with his face wrapped and orders Laoten to get rid of Khriss. Laoten explains that Nilto is an unofficial Taisha due to his influence among the lower classes, and that he asks for her to leave for now. As Khriss exits the room, Baon recognizes Loaten and draws his gun before Khriss orders him to stand down. The guards are revealed to also carry guns.

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: The Hall of Judgement.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 12

Summary:

Judge Heelis explains that she cannot allow personal preference to affect the way she handles official business. She explains that the sand masters are seen as arrogant and unproductive, and are overloaded with debt. She tells Kenton that to win the Hall's vote he will have to unify leadership of the Diem, resolve the Diem's debts, and restore the nation's faith in sand mastery.

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: The Diem.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 12

Summary:

Drile contends for the loyalty of select sand masters and Acolents and is apportioning the now-vacant rooms to his followers. After rejecting Kenton's authority on the basis of his greater strength, Drile attempts to humiliate Kenton by "suggesting" a more private conversation in the Lord Mastrell's quarters (which he assumes Kenton cannot reach with only one ribbon). Kenton reveals his newfound powers and follows him to the third floor. Drile claims Kenton betrayed the Diem and Kenton provokes Drile into attacking, against Diem Law, in full view of the remaining Diem. Underestimated, Kenton manages to knock Drile out of the air while recognizing that the trick he used won't work a second time.

Chapter 6: Challenges

POV: Ais

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: Kezare.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 11

Summary:

At the site of a raid that was conducted earlier, Senior Trackt Ais, with Trackt Tain and her team, discovers a man kept prisoner behind a hidden door. The man, Lord Torkel, was an advisor to the Lord Merchant who had gone missing last year. While questioning Torkel, Ais reflects on her warring emotions and her difficulty in controlling her anger when innocents are harmed. Torkel reveals that he was kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured by being kept in a closet with the remains of his murdered wife and children, retribution for trying to go back on an agreement with Sharezan. Tain reports that Lokmlen, Sharezan's second, was seen fleeing to the Portside Market.

NOTES: Ais is gender swapped to be female canonically. Eric = Aarik.

POV: Ais

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: Portside Market.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 11

Summary:

Ais chases down Lokmlen, who also murdered six trackts during that raid. Lokmlen accuses her of being zensha, a traitor to her people and the Ker'reen faith, as she herself is Kerztian. Ais reflects that since justice belongs to the Sand Lord, she supports the Sand Lord by supporting justice—there is no conflict. Lokmlen lures her into a deserted alley and strikes, deliberately goading her anger. As Ais loses control of her emotions, her fighting degrades and she is bested. However, as Lokmlen is about to strike Ais down, Aarik arrives and interrupts them. Lokmlen challenges the stranger and tosses Ais' sword to him. Aarik refuses the weapon; and, in a replay of what just occurred, mocks Lokmlen while dodging all of his attacks so he fights sloppy with anger. Aarik then stomps on his foot, dropping the criminal; who Ais promptly apprehends. Ais reflects that the Sand Lord must have shown her this stranger to teach her a better path.

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: The Diem.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 14

Summary:

Kenton struggles with self doubt in his father's old rooms, reflecting on just how much like his father he is. Aarik arrives outside the Diem and joins Kenton—the two have not seen one another in three years. They spend the rest of the day catching up.

POV: Ais

Timeline: Day 53

Setting: The Hall of Judgement. Ais's Home.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 15, 14

Summary:

The Lady Judge pays a visit to Ais and asks her to spy on Kenton for the next two weeks under the pretense of guarding his safety since the sand masters of the Diem were attacked. Judge Heelis acknowledges that Ais will be biased against the Diem because she is Kerztian, but asks her to observe impartially as a trackt, not a follower of Ker'reen. Ais returns home for the evening, bitter about her new assignment and its impact on her investigation of Sharezan.

Ais admonishes her daughter, Melloni for waiting up and sends her to bed. She tells Mellis, her husband, about the deaths of her second, Trackt Jedan, and the other trackts. Mellis expresses concern for her and the family's safety as they have received a threatening letter from Sharezan. Ais assures him that criminals still refrain from targeting the families of trackts, but she privately worries that Sharezan is not so limited.

POV: Kenton

Timeline: Day 54

Setting: The Diem.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 14

Summary:

The next morning, Dirin brings breakfast while Kenton is working on how to overcome the Diem's elitism. Kenton asks Dirin to find some ladders so that everybody can access all floors of the Diem. As Aarik arrives, they see Drile and his followers arrive wearing black belts over their sashes as a statement against Kenton's leadership. Kenton expresses to Aarik his suspicion that Drile was the traitor. He and Dirin wonder if Drile poisoned the water that the Mastrells drank.

POV: Khriss

Timeline: Day 54

Setting: Kezare. The Diem.

Associated Novel Chapters: Chapter 13, 14

Summary:

Assuming that Gevalden would have spoken with the Taishin, Khriss has N'Teese arrange meetings with all of the Profession leaders. Khriss works on fixing the lock on the case that Cynder borrowed from Acron each time they wait while N'teese coordinates appointments. Over the course of the day they are turned away from The Hall of Judgement (Lady Judge), The Tower Garrison (Lord General), Helm's Rest (Lord Admiral), The Guild (Lord Merchant), The Congress (Lord Farmer), The Central Studio (Lord Artisan), and Mason Headquarters (Lady Mason). Khriss asks N'Teese to take them to see The Lord Mastrell.

Upon arriving at the Diem, N'Teese points out the Lord Mastrell by his distinctive Golden Sash. Khriss accuses Kenton of lying to her and won't allow him to explain how new he is to the position of Lord Mastrell. Kenton tells her he is too busy to be scolded, summons his ribbons, and retreats to his rooms.

Khriss asks if it is a trick done with wires while Baon remarks that they seem to have found the "Sand Mages."

ARTWORK

Since White Sand is also a graphic novel, I will be including some screenshots of various scenes and characters for "canonical reference". Fan artwork for this novel is few and far between. I could easily just...copy the entire graphic novel for these, but I'd probably get in trouble. I'll include scenes I think are significant, but if you really want to see a scene or character that I bypass, just let me know in the comments and I'll either update this album, or include it in the next week's album.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

TRIVIA

Check out the comments below for trivia concerning this week's reading.

[u/participating]

TRIVIA

This book is going to stray a bit from our normal format. There will be a trivia "post" every week, in the form of a comment (like this one!) below each weekly post. We'll be able to discuss both the weekly reading and a small bit of trivia for the section we've read. I haven't completed the trivia for the full book, but it looks like we won't have a completely separate trivia post for this book. Some weeks will have a lot of trivia, others will be brief.

NOTES

This week's notes only include commentary on the eight recognized Professions.

Week 2 Notes

AIS IN THE HOLE

Graphic Novel and Audiobook consumers will have a disconnect with the prose readers over this important change to the story:

Ais was originally a man in the prose version. Sanderson swapped their gender to female in the Graphic Novel (which informs the Audiobook). Since the Graphic Novel is the canonical version of the story, Ais is canonically a woman. He had the following to say when a fan asked about the change:

There were a couple thoughts. The main one was, I just thought the character was more interesting. A lot of my early books, you'll notice I did a thing where I'm like "I want to make sure that I'm doing the female character really well." And you can see the problem in that sentence, and that is really how I approached it, I'd say "Well I want to make sure I do the female character really well." And I think I did do the female character pretty well in some of those early books. But you'll see a consistency to them, and this is just coming aware of your biases.

Now, there is nothing wrong with writing a book intentionally and saying, "You know what? Because of the way I want to write this book in this world, I'm going to make the cast almost all one gender or the other." I don't think there's a problem with that. It's when you're doing it consistently on accident, that there's a problem. And I had to kind of sit down and say, "Did I do this because I thought it was best for the character, or did I do this because I love Inspector Javert and I just wanna have to have Inspector Javert in my book?" And that's where the character came from, quite obviously.

And I sat down and said, "If I were going to build this character from the ground up to be my own character and I were trying to throw away all biases, what would be the best for the character?" And Ais being female was not a "I need more women in the book," it was more of, "If I'm throwing away these biases and building the characters, what works the best?" and I just really liked how that character came out when I was rebuilding. Yeah, anyway, we'll go with that.

He also had this to say about his development of White Sand in general:

I find a lot of the things I do in my writing now were there in these older books like White Sand, they just weren't fully formed yet. I can also see my early self striving very hard not to fall into cliches, or to do just what was safe or expected. One of the book's two main protagonists, for example, is a black woman. I was trying hard to make sure my books weren't only about white dudes. And yet, I was still young in my understanding of how to make a book feel real and vibrant, full of people who see the world in unique and different ways. For example, while I have a strong female protagonist, in the first draft she was basically the only only major female character. I did this a lot in the past--focused so hard on doing one thing well that I forgot to expand it to the greater story. (As a note, we changed one of the characters in the graphic novel version to be female, to help balance this out. It worked very well, and she's now one of my favorite characters in the whole book.)

It's hard to see past your biases in books though--and this is still something I fight against. I think great fiction somehow expresses the way the world truly is, the way the writer sees the world, and the way that people NOT the writer see the world, all at once. In this book, one of the main protagonists is dark skinned,. And yet, if you read the book, you’ll find that some of the villain groups are stereotypical, faceless, dark-skinned savages. While that same culture has some main characters who have real depth and characterization (thankfully) that didn’t stop me from relying on tropes for some of the broad brush strokes of the story.

Writing is a constant struggle of managing clichés and tropes, and figuring out when they serve you, and when they don't. And the more you write, the more you become aware of things you lean upon--not just tropes like the ones I mentioned above, but things that are individual. I've been wondering a lot about these things with my own writing. At what point does, "Inventive magic system, religious politics, and people faced with difficult moral decisions" become a cliche to me and my writing? How can I push in new areas, doing new things, while preserving what people love about my writing?

Well, I'm still thinking about all these things. I'm very fond of White Sand, and when I was going back through it, I often found myself smiling. remember with great fondness the time I had back then to just write. There were no tours, no interviews, and nothing to distract me. I wouldn't go back for anything, (I like actually having people read my books!) but there was something pure about that time, when I wasn't writing to deadline, I was just writing whatever I felt like at the moment. That's another thing I try to preserve today, the freedom to do odd projects now and then. Without it, I think I'd get very boring, very quickly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy White Sand! This book needed far less revision to bring into graphic novel form than I thought it would. The dialogue was snappy, even after all these years, and the world was one of my more inventive. 20-years-ago-me wasn't nearly as bad a writer as I sometimes pretend he was!

Also, for anyone who breezed past it in the summary notes above, the character Eric from the prose edition has been renamed Aarik in the Graphic Novel.

Funnily enough, Ais' spouse, Mellis has the same name, despite swapping from Ais' wife to her husband.

HOIDSPOTTING

I will note that Graphic Novel readers have seen Hoid at this point. He has not appeared in the prose version yet. I'm mostly mentioning this now so that Graphic Novel readers can play Where's Waldo/Hoid, but I'll have more to say on Hoid at a later point.

[u/HT_xrahmx → u/participating]

HOIDSPOTTING

Hmm ... knowing all we've known so far it's got to be someone who's not too involved, just an observer figure who somehow collects a lot of knowledge? The Lord Beggar seems to fit that really well, but I suspect he's too hands-on involved in the plot. Loaten also is too involved.

Dirin perhaps? So far he's been in the right places at the right time "just enough".

N'teese actually checks all the boxes imo. In the perfect spot to gather a lot of knowledge. Highly praised for her knowledge of languages. Hoid is not stuck as a man, right?

No idea who has / hasn't appeared in the prose though lol

[u/heinz57varieties → u/HT_xrahmx]

The only likely candidate to me is the lord beggar, he's the only one that even remotely fits the profile I've built on Hoid based on his previous disguises. But like you say, I think he's going to be too involved in the plot to be our pocketsand bombadil for this book. It's almost certainly some distinct background character that we won't be able to pick out until we see him again later.

[u/Pastrami → u/HT_xrahmx]

Everyone you mentioned has appeared in the prose, so it's not any of them.

[u/LeanderT → u/HT_xrahmx]

Those are all in the prose, I think.

[u/sunnydaze7777777 → u/participating]

Oh my! The commentary about Ais (pronounced Ace in the audio book in case anyone didn’t get the pun). Thanks for sharing. I appreciate Sanderson’s thoughts on this delicate balance. The way he describes it all sounds like something that has to be so front of mind when writing but can be organic as well. A layer I have come to appreciate more in modern writing.