The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

Blurb:

The Rithmatist, Brandon Sanderson's New York Times bestselling epic teen adventure is now available in paperback.

More than anything, Joel wants to be a Rithmatist. Rithmatists have the power to infuse life into two-dimensional figures known as Chalklings. Rithmatists are humanity's only defense against the Wild Chalklings. Having nearly overrun the territory of Nebrask, the Wild Chalklings now threaten all of the American Isles.

As the son of a lowly chalkmaker at Armedius Academy, Joel can only watch as Rithmatist students learn the magical art that he would do anything to practice. Then students start disappearing―kidnapped from their rooms at night, leaving trails of blood. Assigned to help the professor who is investigating the crimes, Joel and his friend Melody find themselves on the trail of an unexpected discovery―one that will change Rithmatics―and their world―forever.

A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2013

Review:

This book… was different from some of the other novels I’ve read of Sandersons. And that’s saying something, because I’ve read nearly all of them. “The Rithmatist” follows a kid who so badly wants to be a rithmatist but can’t because he missed the crucial induction ceremony when it was held. Interesting premise, and then it goes off the rails rather quickly when possible murder is involved at the academy. And even that fails to capture the absolute indepth magic system that is just all over the place in the pages themselves. 

If I had to sell this book to a chalk enthusiast, a chalkusiast, I’d give them this:

“Joel is living life as a regular student at a Rithmatist academy. Yet, he cannot be one due to family tragedy. Despite that, he finds a way.”,

however that is not all that plays out within the story. Altogether, the way that all the parts of the novel play out in harmony, as well as having drawings of various elements of Rithmatic magic, it works. And I want the sequel at some point. At some point. 

To start off, we have the characters, Joel, Melody and the Professor, Fitch. Joel is an enthusiastic student who is only able to partake in his studies due to his mother being on the cleaning staff for the facility. Which means he more or less is stuck at the academy 24/7/365. Even with people disappearing from the place. But, he doesn’t care about that in the beginning of the book; he just wants to be a Rithmatist, but can’t, because he didn’t go to the same ceremony as the rest of his peers. Throughout this book, he slowly learns more about his fathers work, inasmuch also due to the fact that he is also learning the various ins and outs of Rithmatic theory. Meanwhile, there’s Melody. She doesn’t enjoy and is subpar on the mathematical side of Rithmatism, yet because she is a Rithmatist, has to suffer through it anyway. However, her drawings of chalklings more than make up for it with immense detail. Her story progresses parallel to Joel's, and she learns more about the proper bindings, with Joel serving as her antagonistic learning pal under the tutelage of the third character I’ll be talking about, Professor Finch. Finch is a brilliant defense Rithmatist, however dueling others makes him extremely nervous, with his offence lacking somewhat. Despite all that, he is very protective of both Joel and Melody, with him being the exposition story teller every once in a while.

After that, we have the story, the weaving thread that ties both the disappearances, Joel's dead father, and the wild chalklings of Nebrask. Basically, we have Joel trying to learn Rithmatism despite not being a Rithmatist, and while doing so, watches a duel between Fitch and another Rithmatist, whereupon the professor loses his class. Afterwards, Melody and Joel meet for the first time, and a short while later, both are studying under Fitch. Some shenanigans occur, Joel and Melody learn about the disappearances, help investigate, and through some more wild twists and turns, think they have the source of them, and the story ends on a cliffhanger, with the real culprit lurking in the shadows, always plotting.

Lastly, the worldbuilding Sanderson provides, alongside his, as always, detailed, magic system. This time, the whole world is as we would know it today, albeit in an 18th century setting and the US being 60 islands instead of one giant landmass. Which puts the whole place in a different light, especially with Nebraska, now Nebrask in this book having a tower that produces wild chalklings that eat people, leading to eviscerated attempts to settle the uninhabited islands until the cause was discovered. What followed was a quarantine effort to keep all the wild chalklings up in Nebrask, with the Rithmatists being the soldiers. Buckets of water and acid were kept on hand for all those who couldn’t make the chalk come to life. As for the magic system, the chalklings and chalk defenses are drawn on the page itself. Making the whole story feel more alive. Defenses and their need for protecting are brought up over and over again. It adds overall quality to the story.

Lastly, “The Rithmatist” gets a favorable rating not just from me, but from another member in my family as well. They read through it in about an afternoon, and said they enjoyed the story, wanting to know if there was a follow up novel. 

That gives me a good segway to this part: The one annoying thing about “The Rithmatist”.

The only irksome thing of this novel was the fact that there is just so much left to be uncovered, insofar as setting everything up for a sequel, and yet, there is no sequel anywhere to be found. 

All in all, if you are fond of magic ridden systems and the absolute chaos of chalk wielding magicians doodling it out, the Rithmatist is for you.

If you are still reading this rather lengthy review, thank you for reading, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read, if not that then another title to the evergrowing “TBR”. An abbreviation which here means a list of a few novels or many hundreds of novels that might or might not be read because another one just got added ten minutes ago. If “The Rithmatist” is a bit off track to what you are looking for, don’t fret, we here at SFF Insiders have a plethora of reviews for other novels that might be closer to what you are looking for.

Here is a random link to a random review on the site that might be in line to what you are looking for, or it might be something else in a whole other section of the fantasy aisle.

As always, wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!