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This post is full of spoilers. Don\u2019t read it until you\u2019ve read the book, which is very much worth reading and has become one of my favorites by Sanderson.<\/p>\nThis post is full of spoilers. Don\u2019t read it until you\u2019ve read the book, which is very much worth reading and has become one of my favorites by Sanderson.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brandon Sanderson\u2019s Sunlit Man<\/em> is the story of Nomad, who has just landed on a hellish planet (again) in his unending attempt to outrun a shadowy enemy chasing him across the Cosmere, the complex and interconnected mythological cosmos of Sanderson\u2019s fiction.<\/p>\n Nomad is also in the grips of a faith crisis, and given the complexity of Sanderson\u2019s mythology, that means Nomad\u2019s got a lot going on.<\/p>\n In his youth, Nomad had been a devotee of an all-creating god and the god of his home country on his home planet. Now he looks back on that time, sometimes with longing to believe again, sometimes wondering what he missed out on: after being offered a drink, Nomad \u201chad a smile about the codes he used to follow, then downed it in a single shot.\u201d He pities the people around him who don\u2019t seem to realize that God is dead (but are actually a couple steps ahead of him in that regard).<\/p>\n But Nomad doesn\u2019t just have issues with dead gods. For years, Nomad had been the companion and apprentice of Hoid, a trickster demigod who has come to acquire a conscience (think of the character arc from season two of Loki<\/em>), but now Nomad knows only anger for a being who once abandoned him to his suffering. Nomad had once sought answers to the mysteries of the universe, but in their one encounter in Sunlit Man<\/em>, Nomad tells Hoid what he has come to recognize: \u201cThere are too many questions. Seeking any kind of explanation is madness.\u201d<\/p>\n Nomad does have a personal bond with Auxiliary, a spark of divine investiture and a being of the parallel Cognitive Realm who can form into weapons or tools for Nomad as needed and who maintains a constant dialog with him throughout the book. The powers provided by Auxiliary enable much of the action in Sunlit Man<\/em>, while the dialog between Nomad and Auxiliary provides much of the commentary. But at some point in the past, Nomad\u2019s clumsy misuse of a god-killing weapon of enormous power had destroyed all but a trace of Auxiliary.<\/p>\n The most significant part of Nomad\u2019s faith crisis, however, concerns his former career as a Knight Radiant, one of the elite warriors whose powers to fly and fight and form armor around themselves are based on a series of oaths. At some point before Sunlit Man<\/em> begins, Nomad had renounced his oaths and walked away from his order. Much of the moral debate in the book concerns Nomad\u2019s longing for the lost sense of purpose his oaths had once given him, his doubt that the sense of purpose was authentic, occasional glimpses of his old powers as his actions align with his former oaths, and his refusal to be the man he once was.<\/p>\n Sanderson doesn\u2019t justify or condemn Nomad\u2019s decision. Nomad didn\u2019t forsake his oaths so he could go sin, nor did he lose faith after discovering payroll irregularities among the Knights Radiant.<\/p>\n I just\u2026did it. I can\u2019t explain my mindset. I can\u2019t justify it. I disavowed my oaths. It\u2019s the choice I made. But I didn\u2019t have a reason\u2026. I look back on the choice I made, and it feels entirely unlike me. But I did it; I <\/em>made the choice. In the heat of the moment. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s what I wanted to do or what \u2013 logically \u2013 I should have done. The consequences stand. This\u2026this is who I am.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Auxiliary hopes that Nomad will return to his oaths, but merely repeating the words isn\u2019t enough; making an oath has consequences, and so does renouncing it.<\/p>\n Sanderson has long been recognized as unusual among fantasy writers for his intricate magic systems, interconnected world building, and for taking religion seriously as a factor of human existence. I would add one more unusual and possibly unique feature: he sticks his landings. Instead of kicking the can down the road, Sanderson resolves the plot arcs in his stories by the time the reader hits the last page. While still setting up the next book in a series or alluding to things to come, Sanderson shows real skill at bringing the various threads of his stories to a satisfying resolution.<\/p>\n And so it is with Nomad\u2019s faith crises. By the end of the book, he tells another character that fighting alongside her has \u201chelped me remember which path I<\/em> need to be on,\u201d even if that doesn\u2019t mean regaining his faith or re-embracing his former oaths.<\/p>\n But covenants have two parties, and Auxiliary too can make choices, including the choice to sacrifice his remaining life to save Nomad.<\/p>\n I will make you what you were. For a short time. I am the leftover strength of oaths sworn. I am the truth you once knew\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t do this, Aux. Please.\u201d<\/p>\n You don\u2019t get to decide. I know about consequences. I understand that you betrayed your oaths.<\/em><\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing\u2026 Here\u2019s what you never have understood. I also swore to be better than I was. I became a Knight Radiant. I spoke the words.<\/em><\/p>\n And whatever you did, I never betrayed my oaths.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And so even though Nomad\u2019s own mistakes had deeply wounded Auxiliary, even though Nomad doesn\u2019t think he deserves it, a spark of divinity willingly dies to save him. I think Brandon Sanderson has a message there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This post is full of spoilers. Don\u2019t read it until you\u2019ve read the book, which is very much worth reading and has become one of my favorites by Sanderson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":47415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/sunman.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47414"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47419,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47414\/revisions\/47419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}