Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: A Cosmere Novel

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Alien Among Us: According to Hoid, one of the first problems a world faces when they leave their world and discover life elsewhere in the Cosmere is the fact that everyone else has been likely visiting their world for quite a while. The only reason worldhoppers don't help uplift the locals on their own is because it requires a lot of paperwork. In the epilogue, as they defy fate to let Yumi return to life, and after they have already learned they actually live on the same world, this becomes: "Our world, our rules."

God Is Dead: A normalcy for a book related to the Cosmere. In this case, the reason the planet is so screwed up is because the Shard Virtuosity committed suicide. Or at least, it seems like this is the reason. Design even says you normally don't see things like this except as a direct result of a dead god. But in the end, it was something entirely different, though perhaps Virtuosity could have done something if she had still been alive. Delivery with Standard Australia Post usually happens within 2-10 business days from time of dispatch. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery and due to various reasons, the delivery may take longer than the original estimated timeframe.

You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Throughout most of the story, Yumi refers to Nikaro by his profession (though she does indirectly refer to him by his name when with Akane and the others to keep up her cover as his sister). After Painter reveals the truth of how he lied to his friends, he begins to walk away to leave her alone. It's only when Yumi directly calls out to him by his actual name that he turns to face her. From this point onwards, Yumi frequently switches between calling him "Painter" and "Nikaro." selectedStore.City }}, {{ selectedStore.State }} {{ selectedStore.Country }} {{ selectedStore.Zip }} Brilliant, but Lazy: Painter is actually one of the best artists in his city, but he's too lazy to paint anything more complicated than bamboo. His failure to be accepted into the Dreamwatch despite his talent convinced him that his art was bad and so he stopped trying. Refusal of the Call: When the spirits offer Yumi a gift, she knows it will lead to adventure; she politely declines. Hoid mentions that while in many cultures, stories with spirits offering gifts are parables about danger, in Yumi's culture a spirit's gift is always positive; she declined because she genuinely thinks she doesn't deserve it and needs to do her duty. Instead, she offers the spirit her help, and gets drawn into (presumably) a different adventure. One day, Yumi is offered a gift by a spirit—freedom, adventure. Despite her wishes, she declines, knowing her duty. Instead, the spirit begs her for help, and she finds herself in a very strange situation. She is now invisible and intangible in her own world, while Painter has seemingly taken her place. He can see her, but no one else can, and everyone else sees him as Yumi. When they go to sleep, they wake up in his world, where she appears as herself and he is a ghost.

Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once Hoid is unfrozen he wants off the planet as fast as possible. As nice as the planet is after the Shroud comes down he openly states he has no intention of ever visiting again.

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Suddenly flung together, Yumi and Painter must strive to right the wrongs in both their lives, reconciling their past and present while maintaining the precarious balance of each of their worlds. If they cannot unravel the mystery of what brought them together before it’s too late, they risk forever losing not only the bond growing between them, but the very worlds they’ve always struggled to protect. Nepotism: The Dreamwatch, allegedly the most elite nightmare painters, are actually a bunch of rich and powerful people's relatives who treat the job as a social club and steal the credit from the subordinates who do the actual work. Brandon Sanderson's reputation is finally as big as his novels' The New York Times on Words of Radiance

I Work Alone: Painter insists on working alone rather than in a pair because he thinks he's a lonely dark hero who no one appreciates. Hoid lampshades that this mostly just means he's socially awkward and won't talk to his peers. Heroic Sacrifice: Yumi's final battle against the father-machine. She knows that it is the machine's power that is sustaining the shroud and holding her soul in this world, and that if she defeats the machine she will pass on. But she goes ahead and does it anyway, to save Painter and his friends and all the innocents of Kilahito. Overall, I enjoyed Yumi. Sanderson crafts a fun and interesting story within the Cosmere. The novel doesn’t crumble beneath the burden of advancing the Cosmere into a more tech-savvy world. It ushers in a new era gently and with a whimsical story told by everyone’s favorite mysterious bard. Painter (Nikaro) is a lonely man making his living by trapping nightmares in paintings. He considers himself a lone warrior protecting the city, nevermind the fraternity of fellow painters who work with him. He is not a particularly fortunate man, but he makes his life more difficult by brooding. All he wants is to be important, not realizing that he is the biggest obstacle in his own way. Gentle Giant: Tojin. While he is very big and seems obsessed with his muscles and exercise regime, in reality he is a good person, and a little shy.No Endor Holocaust: The Shroud being dispelled exposed the living inhabitants of Komashi to the sun for the first time in centuries, and removed the hion lines they'd relied on to power their lives. While this probably should have caused a major catastrophe, Hoid's second epilogue reveals that the people were able to survive the change in conditions. They also managed to persuade some spirits to restore the hion lines, granting them enough power to keep civilization going. Ship Tease: It's implied that Akane and Tojin have a thing for each other, though it's not focused on at all. Soul Power: Technology in Torio is powered by spirits from the earth, as they'll agree to transform into the requested item for a few years. Unbeknownst to Kilahito, hion technology is powered by all the spirits and souls trapped in the Father Machine. Ghostly Death Reveal: Referenced for laughs during one of Painter's stints as an invisible spirit. As a spren, Design can see spirits, so when she notices him, she drops a bowl of noodles and starts asking him how he died. Hoid: She... did not do a good job acting human. I take no blame, as she repeatedly refused my counsel on the matter. At least her disguise was holding up.

Find this title with Libby, the award-winning and much-loved app for local libraries, by OverDrive.It's mentioned that Yumi averages twelve spirits called each session (compared to ten for most others), but she manages thirty-seven the first day we see her. Yes that was explicitly exceptional even for her, but it's still a huge jump. Because she's been living this same day over and over for almost two thousand years, her skill has grown to incalculable levels, so from her perspective her output suddenly jumped by a huge amount overnight. Yumi And The Nightmare Painter has a lot going for it. Sanderson’s flair for vibrant settings and magic is on full display. I particularly appreciated the feeling of being eased into a more advanced Cosmere, where technology becomes prevalent but the magic doesn’t fade away. Sanderson does a great job using Yumi as a sort of bridge between the medieval-ish fantasies of the other Cosmere worlds like Roshar and the futuristic ages the wider universe is creeping toward. Even worse for the victims of the Father Machine, which has trapped their souls either in a catatonic state of nothingness they are very much also aware of, or in a "Groundhog Day" Loop where the Laser-Guided Amnesia has them living the same day over and over and over. It's indicated at the end that once the Father Machine gained enough spirits to maintain itself perpetually it would never let them go. Considering those spirits are tantamount to God in this world, then suffice it to say, nobody would be coming to release them. Even for a compulsive planner like me, sometimes a story emerges like magic. Unexpected, unprompted. You build an outline in days, craft worlds during a compulsive daydream, and develop characters with a burst of imagination like the brief flash of a firework. Yumi, on the other hand, is a tragic delight. She’s kept in an emotional prison, unable to think or feel for herself. During her adventures with Painter, she discovers freedom. She makes friends. She lives for the first time. And she begins to understand all the wonderful, terrible things that living can bring.