White Sand, Vol. 1

This was good but not Stormlight level of good. I listened to this as an audiobook (don't have the physical copy of graphic novel), which was still amazing though because of Graphic Audio which adds background noises and that was completely awesome.

Just the sound of characters walking on sand was a little grating on the nerves

It might be because this is a graphic novel, or because its one of the first books Sanderson ever wrote but I didn't enjoy it as much as his other works. It all went a little fast and confusing. I miss the long inner thoughts of the characters to really make sense of their motives. I think reading this in long form would make me enjoy it better because right now I didn't really care for the characters much. 

I am a big fan of Sanderson, and the key concepts within White Sand are interesting and clever in the usual Sanderson way. I am, however, unsure if a graphic novel is the best medium for them. There are several very confusing frames where the story jumps all over the place. This feels like it really need to be read as a novel, to allow the characters to develop in a more natural way.

The key concept here is a magic system where people can manipulate sands, at the cost of using up water. Definitely an intriguing tradeoff in a magic system. A classic sandersonian system.

The artwork is fine and the story does flow, but this is one of the weaker Sanderson books so far. I have books 2 and 3 to read, so will have to see if this is suffering from just being the first 1/3rd of a book. It is still Sanderson and a lot better than many more generic fantasy books out there though

Story
The story was pretty good, but I find myself missing the sort of detailed world building you get from a Sanderson novel. You can feel his influence on the work, but it's also obvious that someone else was involved in the story.

There is enough here that I'm interested in continuing the series, but I think I'd prefer it if Mr. Sanderson released the full novel instead.

Artwork
The artwork is alright. Some panels and colors are better than others. It could just be the desert setting with many characters dressed in white that made the artwork slightly less appealing. I do however think this story is one that works well as a graphic novel, but then that could be said for many of Mr. Sanderson's stories if not for the vast amount of detail.

I've read both adaptations of White Sand. Once again, Sanderson proves himself a master of magic systems and introduce another unique magic system to the Cosmere.
Although the visuals of the White Sand Graphic Novel are beautiful, what is missing here in the graphic novel is Sanderson's masterful prose as a storyteller. Now don't get me wrong, I have always been a fan of graphic novels. But I truly missed Sanderson's unique ability to paint the beauty of a story by allowing us to get into the characters minds and tell us a little more about the world we are reading. The subtle ways he describes characters and setting is missing in the graphic novel.
The excerpt of the unfinished novel, found in Arcanum Unbound is really good, and I do wish he'd finish it.

It was fun to see a part of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere come to life in a different format. I've always thought his writing was very visual and was excited to see him working on a graphic novel. The only downside was that it was too short. Usually this isn't a problem with Sanderson's work - I loved his novella's - but this one isn't a full fledged story like those and so feels a bit incomplete. The world is interesting, the magic as always is interesting, although again, not fully realized. I feel like once more volumes are completed, it will feel much better overall. I still enjoyed it and it kept me interested from start to finish, so I look forward to seeing more of this story and world in future volumes.