The Rithmatist

[althea]

Has anyone read this yet? I am tempted to get it, because BS has the most amazing imagination, but it says it's for young adults as well as adults.
That puts me off.

 

[The Judge]

I read it last autumn -- I found it easy to read and engrossing, with well-drawn characters. My note in the October reading thread:

Another fantasy followed, but this time a steampunk set in kind of USA which is an archipelago, The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson. I picked it up with a load of other books from a charity stall without realising it was for older children/YAs, but despite being well outside its target readership I found it an engaging read. Terrible creatures called wild chalklings -- imagine figures chalked on cave walls but mobile and murderous -- are kept at bay by rithmatists, who are chosen at the age of 8 when they demonstrate abilities to create chalk lines which have power. Joel, 16, isn't one of the chosen, though his natural ability in mathematics, and his father's preoccupation with the chalk lines, means he's well able to help when some rithmatist children at the academy he attends are kidnapped, believed killed.​

It definitely had a young YA feel to it, and it's not one I've kept to re-read, but I only paid £1 for it, so at that price it was definitely worth it.

 

[althea]

Thank you for that revue, The Judge. I don't think I will bother.

 

[Glaysher]

I find that with Sanderson that there isn't really a distinction between his work that is marketed to adults and that which is marketed to young adults.