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Cicero posted:Very loosely inspired at most imo, and even that's a stretch. The fundamental differences are huge, the only real connection is the idea of "a person may ascend to planet-controlling godhood" which I'm guessing is far from unique to the Cosmere. “Ascending to planet controlling godhood” is the goal of like 90% of JRPG villains. Definitely not something particularly unique.
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May 26, 2022 00:40
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I got definite Mormon vibes from the safe hand thing for some reason
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May 26, 2022 03:18
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The Mormon obsession with modesty and magic underwear (which used to be a LOT more restrictive than it is now) is well known. That said, even that is like, there's tons of non-Mormon examples of modesty obsession. I don't think the safe hand thing is him projecting how things should be, just him wanting to add a quirky gendered modesty thing that will feel alien to readers, even if it's analogous to things IRL.
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May 26, 2022 03:58
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It's there to add color to Voranism a lot of religions are like this, and the cultures of Roshar are informed by real world practices
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May 26, 2022 05:22
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Cicero posted:Very loosely inspired at most imo, and even that's a stretch. The fundamental differences are huge, the only real connection is the idea of "a person may ascend to planet-controlling godhood" which I'm guessing is far from unique to the Cosmere. That's fair. I just can't kick the image of imaginary teenage Brando Sando learning about what awaits him in the afterlife if he's a good boy and avoids the evils of coffee for his whole life, and then just running with it from there. I can't help but feel an inexplicable connection between the Cosmere and Space Jesus. Torrannor posted:
This is one of my favorite things about his novels, even as a very secular person. Your average fantasy series just doesn't explore questions of belief systems with thoroughness, complexity, or interest. I really admire him for diving into the deep end on that, and actually doing a nuanced job with a lot of gray area. It is an incredibly challenging prospect to build a consistent, non-Purgelike world containing demonstrably-relativistic-morality-based powers. So many interesting questions! Plus, I can't think of a religion in the Cosmere ever being treated as absolute truth or absolute bunk, and I like that.
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May 26, 2022 06:50
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CK07 posted:That's fair. I just can't kick the image of imaginary teenage Brando Sando learning about what awaits him in the afterlife if he's a good boy and avoids the evils of coffee for his whole life, and then just running with it from there. I can't help but feel an inexplicable connection between the Cosmere and Space Jesus. I see what you mean though. And yeah, Space Jesus is rad.
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May 26, 2022 07:00
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CK07 posted:That's fair. I just can't kick the image of imaginary teenage Brando Sando learning about what awaits him in the afterlife if he's a good boy and avoids the evils of coffee for his whole life, and then just running with it from there. I can't help but feel an inexplicable connection between the Cosmere and Space Jesus. I grew up in an only slightly religious household, but my wife grew up in a very religious, southern baptist home. While neither of us are religious, my wife has especially enjoyed how Brandon explores fantasy religion from almost a very philosophical point of view. Something that, growing up for her, is usually insanely impossible since authors who usually talk about the importance of religion in their life tend to only write pro-“their religion” books that would never be critical of religion at points.
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May 26, 2022 07:10
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Cicero posted:Yeah, but you don't ascend in the Cosmere by being obedient and righteous and then waiting to die so you can be blessed with an exalted harem. You mostly seem to do it by powering up and then killing God. That's pretty different from Mormon theology! True, true - but I find it interesting that so far, those who took the power for themselves don't seem to be presented as evil for what they did. Mordiceius posted:I grew up in an only slightly religious household, but my wife grew up in a very religious, southern baptist home. While neither of us are religious, my wife has especially enjoyed how Brandon explores fantasy religion from almost a very philosophical point of view. Something that, growing up for her, is usually insanely impossible since authors who usually talk about the importance of religion in their life tend to only write pro-“their religion” books that would never be critical of religion at points. Yes, this. I like how he manages to pick apart real-world religions and recombine their various aspects in order to put certain pieces under the microscope without the baggage of the real religions - e.g. modesty, theocracy, various roles clergy can hold, caste systems, and lots more. And he does it very neatly imo, without making safehands a poorly-camouflaged analogue for the hijab or Pennsylvania Dutch or anything specific at all. In fact, I realized the other day that all of the subtext in his novels is about...his novels. Anything philosophical or abstract is usually dealt with directly in dialogue. He resists trying to communicate any kind of sly commentary about modern society, but he still manages to explore and illustrate the human condition in a compelling way. Again, I think he's gotten better over time at realizing where his biases and blind spots are when he writes about spirituality. (This is exactly the kind of thing I always try to dig into in d&d, which GMs always sidestep because people came to roll dice, not discuss the nature of free will. I bet Sanderson is a fun GM.)
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May 26, 2022 07:32
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Mordiceius posted:I grew up in an only slightly religious household, but my wife grew up in a very religious, southern baptist home. While neither of us are religious, my wife has especially enjoyed how Brandon explores fantasy religion from almost a very philosophical point of view. Something that, growing up for her, is usually insanely impossible since authors who usually talk about the importance of religion in their life tend to only write pro-“their religion” books that would never be critical of religion at points. As someone who is gay and ex-Mormon, I feel like I am hyper-aware of his Mormonism while reading. This may speak more to Mormon culture or my own immersive upbringing but I find that he does a very good job at separating his religion from his work much more than the average practicing Mormon. Do I see it influence his work? Most definitely. But as mentioned in the quote above he is a much more analytical of religion in general in a way that is very refreshing. I do like how his later work has had more inclusivity with characters. His earlier work where he avoided sex in general is cringy to me but I appreciate how he dances around to more elegantly in later work.
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May 26, 2022 14:57
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Somebody keep me honest here but the impression I got from (big Wax/Wayne/Mistborn spoilers)Wax's conversation with Harmony is that he doesn't/can't interfere personally with life stuffs as whatever he does has a "balancing" effect of sorts in that if he saves the life of somebody, somebody else dies. Or, if he does something, it inevitably has an opposite effect elsewhere. It's the same concept I think when he was crafting the new world, trying to find a goldilocks zone for Scadrial and why the tribe's land in book 6 ended up as a frozen land, because Harmony 'took' their green fields and gave it to Luthadel. It's a neat concept in the cosmere faith and Sanderson does a really interesting job of putting that transcending concept on paper. I wonder if the same idea is true of the other shards.
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May 26, 2022 15:16
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Louisgod posted:Somebody keep me honest here but the impression I got from (big Wax/Wayne/Mistborn spoilers)Wax's conversation with Harmony is that he doesn't/can't interfere personally with life stuffs as whatever he does has a "balancing" effect of sorts in that if he saves the life of somebody, somebody else dies. Or, if he does something, it inevitably has an opposite effect elsewhere. It's the same concept I think when he was crafting the new world, trying to find a goldilocks zone for Scadrial and why the tribe's land in book 6 ended up as a frozen land, because Harmony 'took' their green fields and gave it to Luthadel. Harmony (in RoW epigraphs) spends a lot of time thinking about how he seems to be uniquely bound by holding two contradictory Shards, I'm sure other limitations exist but his are very specific to his personal reconciliation of what the two powers means (which Brandon has said is unique to Sazed, and could be significantly different -- see, e.g., fan theory that Harmony could just as easily be Discord)
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May 26, 2022 15:20
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Synesthesian Fetish posted:His earlier work where he avoided sex in general is cringy to me but I appreciate how he dances around to more elegantly in later work. NO MATING
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May 26, 2022 15:33
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Deep Space 9 was a Sanderson property. https://youtu.be/RfbtboeJ3RE
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May 26, 2022 15:43
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Sab669 posted:NO MATING It's such a stupid loving joke, I think if I had first read it in my head I might even have found it painfully cringy. But the audiobook delivery of that section (see also: "I AM A STICK") puts me on the floor every time. Kate Reading deserves a Grammy, especially for the moment of catharsis when she finally pronounces "palanquin" right in RoW and hits it hard.
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May 26, 2022 19:57
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I don't think I've listened to any of the Stormlight audiobooks, but now I want to go track down that chapter. Was that Words of Radiance? I forget what book
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May 26, 2022 20:12
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eke out posted:Harmony (in RoW epigraphs) spends a lot of time thinking about how he seems to be uniquely bound by holding two contradictory Shards, I'm sure other limitations exist but his are very specific to his personal reconciliation of what the two powers means (which Brandon has said is unique to Sazed, and could be significantly different -- see, e.g., fan theory that Harmony could just as easily be Discord) Ahh that's right, I forget that he's holding two shards at once and is bound by their "balance" as opposed to two separate forces.
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May 26, 2022 20:22
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Sab669 posted:I don't think I've listened to any of the Stormlight audiobooks, but now I want to go track down that chapter. Was that Words of Radiance? I forget what book Pretty sure NO MATING was Oathbringer, and the stick section was TWoK.
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May 26, 2022 20:30
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Oh yea, must have been Oathbringer. I am a stick was definitely WOR
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May 26, 2022 20:37
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Sab669 posted:I don't think I've listened to any of the Stormlight audiobooks, but now I want to go track down that chapter. Was that Words of Radiance? I forget what book I would argue that the audiobook reading is the superior experience Sanderson knows his two readers very well by now, and there are times where I'm dead certain that characters have been influenced in the more recent books by the prior interpretations of those characters in the performances by those two readers CK07 posted:"I AM A STICK") puts me on the floor every time. The readers sold the inkspren as an otherworldly perception on human thought perfectly. Michael Kramer just is Dalinar. Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 20:42 on May 26, 2022 |
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May 26, 2022 20:39
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Everything by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading is fantastic. His other narrators are pretty bad for cosmere stuff. Doesn't help warbreaker and elantris that on top of being his earlier works the narrator's are just awful. I want to give the redone version a listen but killed my sub to audible for now. Skyward has a good narrator if you get the American version, the British one is by an old lady and it's really jarring hearing grandma tell you about her teenage adventures. Oh and the crew in mistborn is great by Kramer.
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May 26, 2022 20:47
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 Yeah apparently they're married
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May 26, 2022 20:48
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It's true, they are. I've listened to them a bunch from the Wheel of Time books. They are good at their job, but I generally just don't like the format -- at least not for things I haven't already read. Too difficult to pause & rewind while driving once I've realized I haven't paid attention for the last 2-10 minutes.
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May 26, 2022 20:56
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Brutor Fartknocker posted:Everything by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading is fantastic. His other narrators are pretty bad for cosmere stuff. Doesn't help warbreaker and elantris that on top of being his earlier works the narrator's are just awful. I want to give the redone version a listen but killed my sub to audible for now. I'm listening to Warbreaker now and really miss the silly petulance in Kramer's Nightblood voice. It was absolutely prefect in the Stormlight Archives, and you instantly knew what a little poo poo that thing is.
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May 27, 2022 00:12
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Paddyo posted:I'm listening to Warbreaker now and really miss the silly petulance in Kramer's Nightblood voice. It was absolutely prefect in the Stormlight Archives, and you instantly knew what a little poo poo that thing is. I REALLY disliked the narrator for Warbreaker because I feel like she was fairly terrible at male voices. On the other hand, the Graphic Audio adaptation was quite good.
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May 27, 2022 00:15
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I don't think she's that bad, but I've been binging a lot of Sando books lately and have definitely been spoiled by Kramer and Reading. I can't see the name "Dalinar" without hearing the "Dalinaaaaaaar" Odium-drawl in my head!
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May 27, 2022 00:31
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Incidentally, Warbreaker is so good! I've got to say, after starting with Stormlight first before moving on to Mistborn and the others, I find the Stormlight books to be the weakest by a fairly wide margin. Mistborn and now Warbreaker just seem so much tighter and better paced than Words of Radiance and especially Rhythm of War. I get that Stormlight is the prime-mover for the big picture Cosmere stuff, but those two books were just a drag at certain points...
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May 27, 2022 00:42
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CK07 posted:It's such a stupid loving joke, I think if I had first read it in my head I might even have found it painfully cringy. But the audiobook delivery of that section (see also: "I AM A STICK") puts me on the floor every time. Kate Reading deserves a Grammy, especially for the moment of catharsis when she finally pronounces "palanquin" right in RoW and hits it hard. I have mixed feelings on Kate Reading overall (I think she struggles with voices and makes characters sound pretty whiny) but her interpretation of Pattern is just perfect. The sound when he figures out a new concept is just  Kramer is just on another level, though. I have no interest in reading the books in any other format because he embodies the characters so fully I couldn't imagine them another way. Dalinar, Rock, Lopen and Sigzil especially.
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May 27, 2022 01:32
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Paddyo posted:Incidentally, Warbreaker is so good! I've got to say, after starting with Stormlight first before moving on to Mistborn and the others, I find the Stormlight books to be the weakest by a fairly wide margin. Mistborn and now Warbreaker just seem so much tighter and better paced than Words of Radiance and especially Rhythm of War. I get that Stormlight is the prime-mover for the big picture Cosmere stuff, but those two books were just a drag at certain points... Rhythm of War has pacing issues, but Well of Ascension had the very same pacing issues. I agree to a point with Words of Radiance, but to me, the non-flashback parts went by very quickly when reading. It's just that the flashbacks tended to drag on. In huge contrast to the flashbacks in Oathbringer, where I was sometimes annoyed when the next chapter was set in the "present". The Mistborn books are generally more tightly written. But to me, as a huge Wheel of Time fan, I don't mind sprawling narratives when it's done right, as it was imho in WoT and SA. And I think especially Stormlight Archive just benefits a lot from having read the other books first, because now you can go on a hunt for people who wear suspiciously many rings, use strange idioms, or possess unusual "chickens". You can geek out when fabrials made with steel repel (push) nearby objects. You can read in-universe letters to SA characters where the writer uses the phrase "I think" suspiciously often, etc. This can be distracting to many people, but I love the giant hunt for clues about how the Cosmere works or how the story will unfold that happens every time a new SA book is released. Brandon does foreshadow a lot of stuff really well. This can be contained within the books themselves, early hints for twist later in the book becoming obvious in hindsight on a reread. But there have been some surprisingly accurate predictions for later books based on stuff in the previous book/books, and it imho never felt too obvious. I love this aspect of Stormlight Archive, but it's not conductive to tight plotting. You need a certain amount of background noise to not make the foreshadowing too obvious. It's a matter of making the writing still engaging, which he somewhat struggled with in Rhythm of War. But I still really enjoyed the book, and it's better on reread. And, judging from my Wheel of Time experience, the pacing issues will be less annoying when SA5 is out.
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May 27, 2022 07:10
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Paddyo posted:I'm listening to Warbreaker now and really miss the silly petulance in Kramer's Nightblood voice. It was absolutely prefect in the Stormlight Archives, and you instantly knew what a little poo poo that thing is. I imagine Nightblood sounds like Ralph Wiggum.
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May 27, 2022 17:44
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In there Graphic Audio, Nightblood sounds like Cobra Commander having a sugar high.
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May 27, 2022 18:05
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Evil Fluffy posted:I imagine Nightblood sounds like Ralph Wiggum. I won't be able to unhear this now
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May 27, 2022 20:33
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Evil Fluffy posted:I imagine Nightblood sounds like Ralph Wiggum. I picture more like Gir from Invader Zim, but Ralph is also a strong candidate.
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May 27, 2022 22:39
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Torrannor posted:And I think especially Stormlight Archive just benefits a lot from having read the other books first, because now you can go on a hunt for people who wear suspiciously many rings, use strange idioms, or possess unusual "chickens". You can geek out when fabrials made with steel repel (push) nearby objects. You can read in-universe letters to SA characters where the writer uses the phrase "I think" suspiciously often, etc. The one of these I was always most satisfied with noticing is the interlude at the Purelake, where the worldhoppers are trying to track down someone (I don't remember who offhand), and one of them keeps ending their sentences with 'sure', much like how someone in Elantris kept ending sentences with 'Kolo'.
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May 27, 2022 22:39
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Wax & Wayne 4: The Lost Metal covers released last week. US: https://twitter.com/BrandSanderson/status/1529901381645000704 Spain: https://twitter.com/NovaCiFi/status/1530179742468648961 Edit: I'm assuming the Spain cover features Marasi I really like it over the US cover '
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May 31, 2022 17:07
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Or so you don't have to click Twitter: 
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May 31, 2022 17:18
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Go to the first page in this very thread, the US cover for The Lost Metal is basically the same cover as for Alloy of Law, just with slightly different poses. Pretty disappointing, imho.
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May 31, 2022 17:22
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Sab669 posted:Or so you don't have to click Twitter: Is this like "our youtube thumbnails must have moron face" for book publishing? It looks very bad
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May 31, 2022 17:50
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Like Torranor said it is quite similar to the Alloy one. But then Bands of Mourning & Shadows of Self were also quite similar. I had started to say I don't care for any of the Era 2 covers, but then looking back at even Era 1 and I don't particularly love them either, although I guess they are more unique than these Era 2 covers. I think it's just a fault of the wild west gentlemanly attire. And also IMO media in general -- movies, video games, books etc -- is just running out of ways to put the protagonist(s) on covers of things lol
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May 31, 2022 19:03
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The Stormlight Archive covers are quite well done imho. I also have a soft spot for the Warbreaker cover, to be honest.
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May 31, 2022 19:10
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Yea the Stormlight covers do own, I think there's a lot more going on than just "main character standing in front of something" Like WoK the character in the foreground is facing away from you, which you don't see often. WoR has a little bit of magic going on with his glowing fist. Oathbringer's is the best. RoW is probably my least favorite, but at least the background has a lot of interesting stuff going on. Warbreaker's is decent, I like the colorful breath
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May 31, 2022 19:14
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