Tor.com is pleased to reveal the trailer for Brandon Sanderson’s bestselling novel The Rithmatist, available now from Tor Teen. The trailer looks great, bringing Joel, Melody, Rithmatics and the terrifying Chalklings to life in a whole new way. Check out the video below the cut.
Excited about The Rithmatist? You can read an excerpt of the first five chapters here.
It’s cool that books now get trailers. But somehow still odd…
Heard this is a really, really, good book.
I read it the other night. It was really good and I couldn’t put it down. It’s rare I find a book that makes me do that.
This trailer is great, makes me want to see a movie made of the book :)
I think it’s the least of all of Sanderson’s work. Not bad, but it felt way more derivative than any of his other stuff.
Cool trailer! It’s an excellent book, IMO.
You have to keep in mind that this isn’t intended to be another Stormlight Archive; it’s written with younger readers in mind. That means he sticks to a single viewpoint and a minimal number of story arcs (I’d say two in this book, though some might say only one). It’s simpler to read than, say, Mistborn, but that’s part of what you do with a YA book: you make it accessible to less advanced readers.
I certainly wouldn’t call it derivative, though, unless you want to claim that anything involving a school where magic is part of the curriculum is by definition derivative of Hogwarts.
@3
Personally I want to see a game for tablets where I can have rithmatic battles drawing freehand! The rules are all laid out, would just take a lot of programming muscle.
@5
i couldnt agree more!
When you take this book for what it is. a YA book. it is a VERY good book, i love it.
When you try to compare it to Sanderson’s other epics, yes, it will come up short, but only because it is intended to be a YA book, and by that very nature there are some things he cant do with it.
When i heard Sanderson was writing a YA book (multiple even, with Steelheart) i was a little concerned not that they wouldnt be good books, but that they wouldnt be accessible to YA readers. i think he has done great, and it shows even more talent than just writing his epics. he knows what audience he wants to hit with these, and he nails it. and as a fan of his epics and other stuff, i enjoyed this greatly as well.
though the wife was throwing stuff at me at 3-4am when i was still reading…
The trailer reminds me of Full-Metal Alchemist more than anything else.
(Also, still boggling over “trailers” for books.)
@@.-@ I agree with you… It was a good book but IMHO it isnt as good as alcatraz, mistborn or his other works. I wish he had done a little more worldbuilding in this book instead of leaving it for future sequels.
The trailer was cool.. I like the look of the circle at the end.
@5 Wetlandernw, @7 DavidN
You assume that I was comparing it depth-wise to Sanderson’s other work. I was evaluating it on a YA basis, and I still think it felt derivative and a little flat (no pun intended). I liked the idea behind it all, but the overall arc and all of the characters outside of the three main ones just weren’t compelling to me. Most of all, though, the twists and the setup for the rest of the series really fell short for me. I liked the first half, but I didn’t think the last half of the book paid off. This felt like a prologue to the story that he wants to tell instead of a story in it’s own right. Anyway, all that to say, I am evaluating it as a YA book, and I still think it falls short. Worth reading, but I wouldn’t ever use it to introduce people to Sanderson.
I would absolutely use this book to introduce a young person to fantasy literature. It’s from an extremely sympathetic viewpoint, uses a gearpunk setting, has enough (but not too many) character introductions to permit a range of actions, the main focus of the story is not the magic, though the magic is a central fact of the realm. Is it somewhat of a charicature of a more formal dramatic work? Yes. The author paints with much broader strokes here than in his other works, but the story does indeed work.
Whoever created the trailer did an excellent job of capturing the flavor and tension of the book, though I would say that the Joel was a bit more self-confident appearing than in the text.
Also, you can throw the label of derivative at any story which can be construed to have borrowed a plot element from another story. This isn’t the first fantasy story with a fatherless child as the hero, or with a poverty-stricken home life, or as an outsider looking in at those with power, or set in a school, or with good guys and bad guys…
Man, Sanderson just doesn’t have an original thought, huh?
hihosilver @10 – You assume that I was directly addressing you with my comment. The last sentence, about the “derivative” comment, was for you; the rest of it was general. Given your comments, though, I have to ask: derived from what, precisely?
@Freelancer – I agree: Trailer-Joel, at the beginning, appears more confident than I picture Text-Joel. Love the scene at the end, though – there he was confident, and it showed in both text and trailer.
I also rather liked the way they did the wall-of-chalk, in spite of the fact that the text clearly states that you couldn’t see anything above the chalkline. It was very evocative. (And, apparently, I’m changing my perspective a little on the license to be given film adaptations, maybe?)
This is really cool! It would definately get me interested in the book. Having read the book, I think it does a good job of capturing the spirit of the book.
I would actually like to see more trailers for books. It’s much harder to find out about new books than new movies or tv shows. I mostly find out about books through word of mouth or by doggedly following my favorite authors (I’m sure Brandon Sanderson doesn’t know anything about that.) For whatever reason, books just don’t get a lot of advertisement. I like the radio spots the Library of Congress puts out encouraging kids to read: http://read.gov/ads/
I think something like this would be great for getting the word out about new books (especially audio books.)
Okay trailer. Believe or not, I’ve seen better.
My biggest problem with Sanderson is that he teends to put more time and effort into creating complex (to the point of needlessly intricate) magic systems than creating fully-rounded human charactors. At times it almost seems as if his charactor motivations are really nothing more than excuses for showing off how a certain element of magic works within the world.
That being said, I’m looking forward to his Steelheart series more than this, since there it looks like he’ll do more than just 5-10 whole chapters of ‘magic systems EVERYWHERE!’.
@12 Wetlandernw
Sorry about that. Assumptions and all that. :-)
It felt very first few Harry Potter to me. Especially with the Snape character. Right along with the young adult “knowing better than everyone”. I understand that it is a more general trope of YA than specific to Harry Potter, but that’s just how the book felt to me. And like I said, I didn’t think the twists, or the stakes at the end really worked based off of the information we were given. I didn’t get the feeling of stakes or peril with the finale. Anyway, the book just didn’t grab me like any of Sanderson’s other work, and I felt like I had read all of the schooling situations in other books.
I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, quick read. Keep them coming Sanderson!
This is actually one of Brandon’s earlier stories that is finally going to press. He didn’t actually write this one recently…he cleaned it up for his audience that is dying to hear more from him. It was written a while ago for young adults. I’ve been anxious for him to publish it…so glad it’s out!
I absolutely loved this book and have to say I’m quite impressed with this trailer! Could you please create and post the other 119 minutes and 30 seconds now? :)
Really, really good book.
The trailer, however, sucks. BIG TIME