I was very interested in seeing the story of Kenton continue in the second volume. Unfortunately, this volume proved to be a tedious read. I was also disappointed in the art changes made in the final chapter. I quite liked the unpolished feel of the other chapters, the rough lines, the blurry quality of the drawings, the little imperfections. The last chapter felt too clean and it gave the story a new feel, one I wasn't familiar with and that I didn't enjoy at all. I'm sad to say that it made me DNF the book because the art was just not something I enjoyed. I am considering picking up the book it's based on, just because I'm hoping that book will be much more complete and more rich in details.

As usual the story, one that contains so many hints to the greater cosmere and is yet readable without even the knowledge of its existence, is exceptional. The second volume in the graphic novel series continues to fulfill the promise shown in the first. Brandon Sanderson always sets a good tale and it seems that this story is particularly well set for this medium. While anyone who picks up a volume 2 is likely already hooked by the first volume this story picks up quick and catches you in the opening panels. The art is stunning in itself and readers who follow andersons work will most definitely not be disappointed in seeing the images as opposed to reading the prose. Well crafted and I'm excited to get to the next volume. Hopefully we will one day see all of the cosmere in one visual medium or another, this graphic novel series shows just how well it can work.

Sanderson, I consider you my favorite author of all time. But please, never ever do this kind of graphic novel adaptation for your work again.

This shouldn't have been published in this current state. First, the dialogues are poor and I mean really poorly written and awkward. Poor characterizations, stories are boring and messy. Artworks used to be the saving grace of the first volume and yes, it's still gorgeous here ONLY during action sequences. This was a two stars book and then the final chapter happened. The cover artist changed and suffice to say I'm severely disappointed by the changes. I’ve praised Sanderson's works countless times already but this? I won't even consider this his work. Sorry, just no.

Volume 2 focuses on Kenton trying to get the necessary votes to keep the Sand Masters guild alive. There is a lot of political intrigue as he meets with each of the council to try and sway their vote. At the same time, he has to fend off multiple assassins as a religious order has named him a blasphemer. I like what's been done with the translation from prose to comic. I'll have to see if I can track down the original novel once this is finished.

With assassins chasing him, a pressing need to secure votes to preserve the Sand Mages, and darksider visitors unhappy he didn't reveal his true identity to begin with, Kenton has plenty to keep him occupied. Khrisalla, one of the Darkside envoys, decides to help Kenton secure his votes. He gains some measure of protection against the assassins in Ais, a former assassin. She doesn't necessarily like Kenton, but does justice to her job. Kenton’s job is only made more difficult when debts are brought up. More than that, though, the reluctance of the people to preserve the Sand Mages lies in the fact that the majority feel they are privileged, and above a capacity serving others. Kenton sets an example himself, going out to a collapsing building and using his magick to stabilise it enough that people can be rescued.

Ok. My bad. I jumped into this story not having read the previous book. I was a bit confused at first, but quickly got a grasp on what the situation was. The ending to this book was, of course, a cliffhanger. I'll have to wait to see what happens!

I love Brandon Sanderson's works, and White Sand was no exception. I love that his disparate stories are still set within the same universe, even moreso when they briefly touch. Sanderson has a gift for unusual magick systems. The metal magick of the Mistborn series, chalk magick with The 'Rithmatist, here with sand magick. I love seeing different magical systems, how they progress and grow. For this book, I like that Kenton is pushing them out of their haughty arrogance. Respect and trust must be earned.

While I enjoyed this book, and will check out the others, I feel that this wasn't quite up to Sanderson’s level. His books can be rich, and deep, and infinitely complex in ways hard to limit to pictures and dialogue bubbles. A picture is not always worth a thousand words, yeah? If you are new to Sanderson's works, these graphic novels are not the place to jump into the complexity of the Cosmere. I'd recommend starting with the Mistborn books.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Kenton, as Lord Mastrell, has ten days to get the votes to preserve the Sand Masters' Diem. Plus he has the Darksiders embassy to entertain and appease for not revealing who he was. And then there are the assassins that keep trying to off him. So Kenton has a lot on his plate in this volume. And the pressure will just get worse in the next volume with the cliff-hanger of an ending to this volume.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this volume.

ARC from Netgalley.
This Volume is very much a middle story. Excellent expansion of the lore and world, but merely seems to be continuing the story till Volume 3 comes out.

This Volume deals with a lot of the Taldain/Lossand politics and whether or not Kenton will present a positive enough case to keep the Diem (church-like organization of the Sand Mages that was mostly wiped out in the last Volume) in the ruling body. To keep his title as Lord Mastrell, Kenton must gain the favor of the ruling council, in majority. Being an Ambassador herself, Khrissalla decides to keep Kenton close by helping him to secure the votes.
Two major problems stand in his way. One, according to records, the Diem owes 700,000 Lak in debt. The Lord Artisan claims to be owed 200k, and payment of that will gain his favor. The other 500k debt is unknown to whom it goes to. Secondly, Kenton has been dubbed an enemy to the Kerztian people and is having assassins sent to kill him every few days. A response to that has been provided in Senior Trackt Ais, a Kerztian assassin herself, who has been assigned to protect Kenton during his time period granted before the vote. She strongly dislikes him and sand mastery in general, but does her duty faithfully.
Kenton, with the help of Khriss, begins to reach out to the various Lords on the Council, taking a very different approach then previous Lord Mastrells by offering assistance and favors from the Sand Masters themselves, rather than having the majority of the Diem keep its distance from others. This gains him some favor, but the debt, assassination attempts, and general overall stubbornness of the Lords keep him from securing enough votes.... yet. There is also a threat from the leader of the Kerztians that promises to stop trade with Lossand if the Sand Masters Diem is allowed to exist and rebuild once more.
As they continue along, Khriss and Kenton are steadily becoming friends. She wishes to learn more about Sand Mastery and is doing experiments to see if she can break down the magic scientifically, since Kenton refuses to teach her any of the secrets. After a party thrown by the Lord Admiral, where Kenton formally gains his support, there is a building that begins to collapse. As Kenton asks about it, he is told it is beneath his position. This shows him the main issue that the people have against the Sand Masters. They don't help, keeping to their religion and sand while the people of the city and the land suffer. Kenton immediately uses his Ribbons to help lift the rubble of the building so others can be saved, which becomes the talk of the city.
Kenton returns to the Diem and tells the other Sand Masters that they have a new focus and mission: to serve the people and help them. This gains him lots of favor, but when Khriss enters the room (at the very end) and proclaims she is ready to start her training as a Sand Master, the Diem goes into confusion and chaos.
What is Khriss' endgame? Did she find something in the experiments she was doing?
These and many other questions remain. I anxiously await Volume 3, where I hope we will be able to get the answers we need. Sanderson's Cosmere is ever expanding... and my knowledge of it will continue to grow.
Recommend.

I'm sorry to have to mark as did-not-finish a Sanderson book but this series just isn't working for me.
I thought my disappointment on the first volume was only because it was a set up book but here everything I wasn't a fan of in the first just keeps continuing. I don't really like the art (plus the review PDF I got from netgalley was very blurry and basically un-readable) and the dialogues feel weird. It sounds like a graphic novel I could have found in a second-hand bookshop from years ago. I just am not connecting with it. I think it could have been great, the sand magic is cool, but... nope, not for me after all.

I was extremely lucky to get a free copy via Netgalley for a true and honest opinion.

When I saw I got approved to get a copy of Brandon Sanderson, before it came out, I did a little happy dance!

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, which shows that Sanderson's talent is limitless.

Brandon Sanderson is my favorite fiction author. I love the universe he has created and his White Sand graphic novel series is a great addition to the Cosmere collection. It fits well with the visual nature of the magic system on this planet. You'll find yourself drawn in more to the politics of the planet more so in this series than in his other books which also makes it interesting. Overall a great read!

The follow up to Brandon Sanderson's White Sands graphic novel release is absolutely brilliant. The characters I so appreciated reading about are back for a new adventure and battles against monsters and men!

Kenton has stayed the hand of the Taisha ruling council for now. He has to persuade members to vote to keep the Sand Masters' Diem around, but he discovers hidden debts and the arrogance of the previous Sand Master leaders are not all he has to worry about. Assassins are coming after him left and right and his so-called protector Ais rejects the notion of sand mastery as anything other than heretical. Duchess Khriss has finally found the Diem and realizes that Kenton is the leader of the very people she's been searching for.

I know this story is just a drop in the bucket of the Cosmere universe as a whole, but as someone who hasn't read anything other than the White Sand graphic novel, I'm taken in by how much more complex the story has become. The levels of plot that emerge as the story continues gives me no doubt that this story in novel form would be just as engrossing. I have to say that it's a great introduction to the Cosmere universe especially because it's a graphic representation of the world these characters live, die, and fight in. With each chapter the state of Kenton's world becomes clearer. There's upheaval and the Sand Masters are just a little cog in a big wheel.

Change is afoot for the Sand Masters as Lord Mastrell Kenton does his best to undo the harm their legacy has caused. Duchess Khrissalla has to determine whether or not learning the secrets of sand mastery is worth the lifelong commitment to the Diem. I am more than excited for the third volume!
*ARC provided in consideration for review*

White Sand Volume 2 is, like most graphic works, a team effort: the story is by Brandon Sanderson, the script by Rik Hoskin, the art from Julius Gopez and Julius Otha, the coloring by Morgan Hickman and Salvatore Aila Studios, and the lettering by DC Hopkins. Unfortunately, in my case, quantity did not equal a quality experience.

One problem is I'm not sure Sanderson's storytelling translates well into the graphic form. Though there are certainly exceptions (The Rithmatist for one excellent example), his works tend to be sprawling, long, dense, introspective, and highly political, none of which really screams out for a graphic treatment. In this particular case, White Sand can be quite wordy, so that too much has to get crammed in to small panels, too much gets explained in somewhat flat fashion, and the self-narration during action scenes feels forced and stilted. And, as is I admit often the case for me with graphic novels, the characterization feels thin, so that I can't say I really cared much about what happened to anyone here. The structure too feels disjointed, with the main character shifting from interview to interview trying to gain support for his goal of saving the Diem, with the interviews interrupted by the occasional assassination attempt (handled too easily).

The art didn't help. To be honest, I'm not sure if the fuzzy nature of most the artwork is a relic of a bad ARC on my Kindle or purposeful, but it was often muddy and ill-defined, and especially marred the action scenes so that it was difficult to tell what was happening. And the plethora of small panels on each page contributed to the issue. The artist did change toward the end, and those panels were definitely much more defined and clearer, though I can't say I the art itself did much for me.

I'm a fan of most of Sanderson's work; he is I think an excellent storyteller if not a stylist, but here the form seems to constrain his talent, or even work against it, leading to an end result that I just can't recommend.

If you have not yet picked up a volume in this series, is about time you start! This series is absolutely gorgeous in every way. The artwork is excellent. The world's that's coming into view is amazing. The characters are really shaping into full-bodied people in my mind. Can you tell I love it? It's also fairly family-friendly as there's no cursing or sexual content (thus far) and the violence is limited, not graphic, though necessary to the story. The only complaint I could have is that you have to read this series in order or I don't think you'd be able to understand the world. Like all of Sanderson's work, the world is so richly built that it takes a while to describe it and fully flesh it out. It's completely worth it but it does take a lot longer to get the full story. Whatever you do, don't miss the series, just make sure to start at the beginning so you can understand and get the full, beautiful picture.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The world of the Cosmere expands in the latest volume of Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand graphic novel. In White Sand volume 2, we follow Kenton as he tries to save the sand masters by making political deals. Does he succeed despite the assassins that are set against him?

TL;DR: Fun adventure set in the Cosmere world of Taldain. This readable work of political deal making is recommended for Sanderson fans. For all else, start with volume 1 to join the party.

White Sand volume 2 is a straight forward story. At the beginning, Kenton wants to save the Diem, and that is what he attempts to do. But his straight-to-the-point personality he is not the best negotiator. Thankfully, the duchess Khrissalla is determined to help him in order to learn of her lost Prince Gevalden. Khriss has greater people skills than Kenton, and she will need them all to help Kenton.

Kenton is an action man. He likes to do first and think later. But this doesn’t mean he doesn’t learn. During fights, he’ll adjust his tactics in clever ways. The man has family issues that he doesn’t really deal with; they get tossed aside pretty easily.

My favorite character is Khrissalla. She feels the most developed of all the characters. This might be because I know more of her larger, overarching story. She is the real politician in this story, and she applies those skills to Kenton. For some reason, her and Kenton have an antagonistic relationship.

His journey to build alliances displays the variety that is the city of Lossand. The various factions arrayed against the Diem are interesting. They border on the cliche but each gets a slight twist that keeps them away from stock characters. The admiral who is a drunk clearly has more going on under the surface. The aristocrat on the hunt holds more of a grudge than nobility would dictate. The religious dogmatic, the assasins, the surly bodyguard, all these tropes get twists of their own to avoid cliche. Each character gets enough development in this short tale to be satisfying.

The art of White Sand volume 2 is excellent. The creatures, the sand magic, the setting all look great. It’s fun to see the fantastic elements of the story brought to life. The panels flowed well and easily. Battle scenes look dynamic and fierce. The art is pretty standard style and technique wise, which allows the story to be the focus of attention.

White Sand volume 2 is a fantastic addition to the Cosmere universe. It contains all the hallmarks of Brandon Sanderson fiction: creative magic system, political intrigue, and innovative world building. Khriss’s investigations into sand magic were fun, and I look forward to her success. That sequence made me wonder where this fits into the Cosmere timeline, which is part of the fun of reading the Cosmere itself. Dynamite Entertainment has delivered another graphic novel that deepens Brandon Sanderson’s mythology. If you’ve ever wondered about the worlds that Brandon Sanderson creates but are put off by the size of his books, the White Sand graphic novels are an excellent place to start.

7 out of 10

It was a little too political for my taste and I enjoyed the parts with sand mastery in action the most. I’m looking forward to the next volume though because of that ending!

It’s been awhile since book 1 so I had to give myself a crash course on where I left off at but felt I was able to jump back in again fairly easy.

Book 2 steps a bit away from all the world building and setting that book 1 did for us and starts focusing more on the people. Not so much action packed (although Kenton does have assassins out for his head, so there’s that) but more politically intriguing. Kenton is trying to prove the sand masters are no longer irrelevant but outside forces (and some in) conspire against him setting him up for a difficult pass. Khriss is an interesting character and the more tidbits I get of her the more I want, the way this volume ends with her pleased me, she’s not going away anytime soon.

My only complaint for this book is the complete art change for the final chapter, it was very jarring and strange. The art itself was alright, but after almost the whole book in one style and then for it to change like that? Threw me out of my reading a bit.

After the setup of the first book, we begin to see more action in this sequel. We see more of the typical Brandon Sanderson plot structure take shape, and go beyond just world-building and introducing charatcers.

The characters are starting to take shape, and I found myself liking Kenton much more than in the first book.

It looks to be gearing up for an excellent story in future issues. The downside the book is that the comic release format makes it a bit disjointed to read, since you have to pause mid-story and wait for the next issue.

It is definitely worthwhile to pick up if you read the first and are wondering if it's worth it -although it will leave you wanting to read more. I will certainly be picking up future issues when they are released

I could cut and paste my review for the first book - this looks nothing special, and is far too wordy, but does offer some kind of rich fantasy world for those on a quest for such. But don't come here if you didn't read the first book first, and recently - the publishers are doing everyone a big dis-service by putting them out almost two years apart, which itself makes the jarring change in art style at the end here even more questionable.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to read the first volume of White Sand. As mentioned in that one the world building happened to rapidly and the characters could not really capture me. But it still had a lot of potential
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This second volume was a small step up when it comes to the world. There was less world building as a lot of that had been done in the first volume. It was easier to settle into the story and the characters. However I think the shortness really works against this story. I feel like I am getting such a small fraction of the story and there is not one small story line that really gets wrapped up in this volume. Like it will just continue on from the same point. It is a shame and I think this would have possible worked better in bigger volumes or even just a different format. On the other hand there already was almost two years between these volumes which does not work in its favor either.

I do think the story where we follow Kenton trying to get into the political side is very interesting. We see more so the dislike that there seems to be for sand mages as Kenton. That their talents are seen as magic and/or blasphemy.

Character wise both Kenton and Chriss gained more of my interest as it focused a bit more on their development than the first one did. Kenton is really trying to step up his game and to become a leader to the others. Chriss shows a bit of a different side to her where she is clearly in this for her own gain. Their unlikely partnership will prove to show some interesting scenes in the future I am sure.

But when it comes to the side characters, they are almost completely forgettable. I can’t keep straight between Chriss’ party of people. I keep mixing up some of the guys.

The story is really starting to take off in this volume of White Sand. I also felt like the characters-- their personalities and their motivations-- became a lot more clear and enjoyable in this volume. I also felt like the sociopolitical situation made a lot more sense this time around.
My only problem is that the art could be a little more clear. I like the style, but I felt like (at list in the digital ARC I read) that it was a little less than clear in terms of lines and colors.
Can't wait to read volume 3!