Brandon Sanderson is the author of more things than you can shake a stick at, and I know a thing or two about stick shaking. He's a fantastic writer with such claims to fame as the Mistborn series, co-authoring the last 3 Wheel of Time books and an endless stream of ongoing series. He's like the .
Anyway, on with the review.
The Rithmatist follows a young boy named Joel, who is (as Brandon described) 'the muggle at Hogwarts'. I first heard it mentioned on an episode of Writing Excuses (Brandon's weekly podcast) in which he described it as being about a boy learning all the tricks of the trade to become a Rithmatist (magician) who had no actual magical ability.
It was well-written. I'll say that in simple terms, because I feel it's a given that Brandon's works are well-written. The first thing I noticed about it is that, compared to his other works, it reads more like a book for younger readers. It's not a children's book by any measure, but it's definitely best suited for someone on the lower side of 15. It was enjoyable to me in spite of this, possibly because I noticed the book was for a slightly younger audience and didn't lose my suspension of disbelief at the more 'young adult' parts of the book (such as when the protagonist becomes involved in a major federal case with little hesitation about his age being an issue).
One of the book's most impressive features was it's magic system. Brandon is excellent at writing magic systems, and has explained in great detail what makes a 'good' magic system in the literary sense. The joy of the magic used in The Rithmatist came from the fact that it is set in a school of magic. The students are learning these fundamentals of the system, which means you the reader are learning it in the same depth and detail as them. It added so much to the story that I understood very intimately, due to actual diagrams explaining and demonstrating the fundamentals of the magic system, how the system worked. It also made the main character, a non-Rithmatist who knew the workings of the Rithmatic arts, much more believable because in essence I had the same level of skill and knowledge as him.
The story itself deals with Joel's involvement in an investigation into a series of disappearances. It plays out like a pretty standard 'murder mystery' with its red herrings and twist-reveals, but then I'm not asking it to be the best mystery novel I've ever read. It's a fantasy novel at its core, and I'm more interested in the character himself and the way he navigates his world without having these magical powers he so craves. The fact that he's doing that in among a crime case is what makes it interesting to follow his journey. Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed the plot of the story too, and the resolution was satisfying. It wasn't some major never-before-seen Shyamalan-esque twist but it was still good and unpredictable, and that's what matters.
I don't want to be giving the things I review a 'x/10' rating, because different books are for different people and you shouldn't have me tell you whether or not to buy a book.
If I were you, I'd buy this book.
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