Thoughts on Colonialism and Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive (SPOILERS)

So, I just finished reading the first three volumes of Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive. (My annoyance. I now have book 1 in physical format and 2 and 3 in electronic, so if I want to continue, my OCD will force me to buy them physically...and shelf space, dang it, shelf space).

The story of the first three books follows a group of people who bond spren (spirit familiars) and develop powers. It has quite a bit of politics and it took me two readings of The Way of Kings to really get into it.

But the twist that is revealed (although I'd worked half of it out fifty pages into the first book) reveals something: This is a book about colonialism.

And, oddly, it's a book about colonialism that could only have been written by a white guy.

Up until that point - about three-quarters of the way through book three - we follow people's speculations about the mysterious Voidbringers, which are at first believed to be demons.

Then it seems that they may be the other sentient species on the planet, the Parshmen. The thing that makes the twist too obvious is that most of the life on Roshar seems to be based off of very different principles...in fact, the only "Earth-like" life forms we see are humans and, oddly enough, horses (which are hard to keep on Roshar and only very rich people have them).

The Parshmen are dull, docile slaves...but right before the start of the first book, their wild cousins are introduced. And end up at war with the humans.

So, what's the twist?

The first, obvious twist is: This is a lost colony novel. It is a purely fantastic lost colony novel - the humans come from somewhere else by magic, and are granted part of the world (Shinovar, where the vegetation acts like earth vegetation) to settle by the natives.

We know where this is going...because we know humans. Not content with part of the world, the humans spread out, conquer, enslave the natives (and even manage to affect their minds so they are little more than beasts) and build a civilization.

Guess who the Voidbringers actually are?

But the third book ends by asking a key question: How culpable are the descendants of colonizers for the actions of their ancestors?

It does not answer it...although the very beginnings of an answer might be seen in the actions of some characters.

It takes a lot of courage to actually ask that question, even in an allegorical form...