Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

by Brandon Sanderson

Published June 30, 2023 by Dragonsteel.

(5 reviews)

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?

6 editions

Cthos reviewed Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Solid Sanderson Novel, some Weird Quirks

4 stars

Content warning Lots of Cosmere Spoilers

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+.

Will reviewed Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Interesting Worldbuilding

5 stars

This is the third of Sanderson's "Secret Novels" and the strongest so far. It starts off slower than the previous two, but ultimately builds more emotional attachment between the reader and the characters than its predecessors. I do like that Sanderson is wringing some things that aren't of epic scope (and length), but still tell an good story with impressive worldbuilding.

Courts reviewed Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Beautiful Story And Artwork

5 stars

Another fairy-tale like story set in the Cosmere, told by Hoid. A light read with beautiful artwork by Aliyah Chen. Some of the more obvious questions about how the world works are explained away tongue in cheek by Hoid, so the world building holds up even with some of the more unbelievable parts, if such things exist in a fantasy novel.

Strakul reviewed Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

A clever body-swap story set in the Cosmere

5 stars

This was probably one of the more engaging Cosmere novels that Sanderson has written thus far. It features a pair of very different artists from very different worlds. The story involves a bit of a body-swap with a twist, so each gets to see how their other world looks like and learns from it. Combined with an intriguing setting and a plot focused on the mystery of what is going on, you get a formula for a book that is hard to put down. It also features plenty of illustrations by Aliya Chen which further add to the story.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2023/07/book-review-yumi-and-nightmare-painter.html

Jenny Jaybles

rated it

Nov. 7, 2023