Graphic Novel Brandon Sanderson White Sand

Tweet

2016 – Dynamite Entertainment Press – spoiler alerts A rather disappointing and clichéd graphic novel. It involves a community of desert dwellers with the magical power to manipulate sand as an elemental force. This immediately reminded me of The Last Airbender, regarded rightly as on of the most laughably inept of all fantasy movies. A group of children are tested to see how well they can control sand, with various levels of skill displayed. The best students ae immediately offered a place in a special academy to perfect their arts. One boy, Kenton, barely gets his sand to sparkle, much to his father’s disgust, but the boy argues that as he did show some skill, he should be allowed into the academy. His wish is granted despite strong conviction that he will fail there and bring his family great shame. Of course, being such a story as is often told, he is going to become one of the greatest sand-magicians ever. The story moves to his adulthood when he takes on a test-quest to recover five magic spheres rom a particularly dangerous stretch of desert. This test is only supposed to be for master-students but he takes it despite being still regarded as very weak as a student. He performs his magic as if already a major league magician and even kills a sand monster (shades of Frank Herbert’s Dune and amazes his observing tutors by not only finding the five hidden spheres needed for the test but also a sixth one that no one ever knew of existing. We are told how bad Kenton is at sand-magic only to see him perform stunts worthy of Hogwarts or Middle Earth grand wizards, and we see little of the activity of other magicians studying alongside him. Nicely drawn, but very much a by the numbers formulaic fantasy writing. Arthur Chappell