I hate it when I envy current writers’ ability to spin a tale. Yes, I admire and even envy writers of past ages, too, but they are dead. The become not so much rivals as masters, aspirations. However, with a current writer, or one just recently passed on, their presence is still too much felt, a rival against whom you continue to confront. And yet, I still love their books, for I love good stories too much to discard such great material out of envy. Brandon Sanderson’s novel, The Rithmatist, is one such story that produces such amazement, envy, and affection.
The Rithmatist occurs in an alternate 20th century America where certain people, called “rithmatists”, who, by making the right lines, can bring chalk drawings to life and even battle with them. Within this world is a young man, Joel, a genius at math and a natural at rithmatic lines; but he is not a rithmatist. No matter how near-perfect his circles, he cannot make them come to life. He is just a boy with a dream that can never be fulfilled. Then, one day, rithmatist students begin mysteriously disappearing, and Joel, along with a demoted professor and a remedial rithmatist student, joins the efforts to find the perpetrator and hopefully recover the students before it is too late.
So right off the bat I want to say that I love the main trio of this story. I love nerd heroes. I hate math, but I love when the hero loves math, and Joel loves math. He’s a genius and prone to pride due to his intelligence, but not so much pride that he becomes irritating. Also, he usually recognizes when he’s crossed the line, and when he doesn’t, he’s told by others. Furthermore, his enthusiasm towards rithmatism is so endearing, and yet almost heartbreaking because he cannot use it. As a foil, you have Melody, a girl who can use rithmastism but is a flunky. She’s creative and artistic but cannot do the most basic lines, and she’s frustrated that no matter how hard she works she cannot seem to keep up. Watching to two of them interact, the places where they are opposites and the places where their personalities meet, how they contrast and compliment each other, and how their friendship grows throughout the story, is enjoyable. The third member is Professor Fitch, a kind-heart but nervous man, highly intelligent and cares about the students, but not very strong in personality and atmosphere. His investment in his two teen charges is tangible, as is his desire to help the good headmaster and police locate the missing students. Again, I loved reading his interactions with Joel and Melody. The threesome are so enjoyable and lovable, even with their respective faults.
Of course these great characters wouldn’t go anywhere without a plot, and boy was I engaged. Even with certain predictable points, especially concerning character development, the plot kept me hooked the entire way through. I didn’t even stop long enough to figure out the mystery so that when mysteries where solved, I had only reached the vague guess stage rather than the “let’s see if I’m right” one. I just wanted to know what happened next.
Part of this was due to the amazing world-building. I wish I could live in this place. A steam/spring-punk world where chalk drawings come to life? I would retake geometry for that! And I hated geometry. I can’t draw a circle with a compass, but I want to be able to do rithmatism. Rithmatism itself is fascinating. Circles. Lines of forbiddance. Chalklings. Just the fact that the pictures remain 2-dimensional makes me love the idea more even if I don’t know why. Why do the best concepts and arts have to be fake? I do wish, though, that more of the world could have been experienced. In particular, I wish we could have seen some of Nebrask, where rithmatists battle wild chalklings, and that we could know more about the origin of rithmatism and how rithmatists are made. Of course when part of the plot to concealing rithmatism’s origins, not many questions are going to be answered. I do have some suspicions, though, which I hope will be answered in the next book.
Yes, there’s another book, or at least this volume ended with the setup for a potential sequel. Actually, usually this kind of ending annoys me (I can think of one example right now), but not this time. In part, this is due to how, even with the sequel baiting, most of the ending surrounds a very satisfying and invigorating series of events (which I won’t reveal because spoilers!) that just carried me along and brought my love and investment in the characters to an even higher place, even if I had predicted the ending. And yet, at the same time, the sequel baiting is one of the most irritating parts of the book because the sequel isn’t written yet! ARGH!!!!! I want more! I want to read more!
I guess I’ll just have to sample of some Sanderson’s other works in the meantime. Well. Time to feed my envy.
Wow. This is my most "bloggy" post yet! I'll have to change that later when I'm not rushing to post on time because I took too long to decide on my post and so ended up just putting up my rough draft... I hate procrastination.
Sanderson, Brandon. The Rithmatist. New York: Tom Doherty Associates. 2013. Print.
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