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I actually really like Dalinar. I think overall he's been more of a driving force in the books than the other two protagonists (Kaladin and Shallan). And becoming a bondsmith, of which there were apparently at most three at a time, also seems to make him more special than the other surgebinders. Though when Honor advises Dalinar in his visions to "vex Odium. Appoint a champion", this probably means Kaladin. Still, at least for now, Dalinar seems to be the most important protagonist. I appreciate the middle-aged (is 50 middle-aged for Roshans?) man who's an experienced leader and politician to be the bigger protagonist than the 20 something hotshot fighter. Kaladin could probably beat Dalinar in any fight, but strength in single-combat should not outweigh actual leadership in the middle of the apocalypse.
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Aug 9, 2016 19:47
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One of the most heartening things about Brandon Sanderson is while he has weaknesses as a writer, he is markedly improving. He has taken the craftsman approach to being a writer, he writes constantly and critically evaluates himself continuously. He is just going to improve consistently with an attitude like that, in ten years if the current trend continues he is going to be a scary dude.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:16
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Naerasa, did you like the Wax and Wayne follow ups to Mistborn? You get a few standard characters here and there, but you also get Wayne, MeLaan and Steris who, in combination, are just hilarious. Bands of Mourning spoilers: When Wayne and MeLaan were discovered in the aftermath of the train attack, I snickered. When I got to the part where the entire party arrives at the hotel in New Seran, I burst out laughing. A couple of chapters later, when they make a hurried escape, I completely lost it.
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Aug 11, 2016 12:38
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Leng posted:Naerasa, did you like the Wax and Wayne follow ups to Mistborn? You get a few standard characters here and there, but you also get Wayne, MeLaan and Steris who, in combination, are just hilarious. I liked Alloy of Law well enough but Sanderson's sense of humor has never really clicked with me. Some of the jokes are good groaners/dad jokes, but I think I'm looking for different stuff in humor in books overall. Didn't read Bands of Mourning though, maybe it's funnier? I read a shitload of Sanderson 3-4 years ago so I'm trying to diversify my SFF reading and not stick to all the same author anymore. I'll probably pick up one or two of his one-offs next time I'm finished my backlog, but at this point I know what to expect from him and I'd rather read something new. He's still good though, I'm just not crazy about him.
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Aug 11, 2016 16:06
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Imo Brandon's comedy is kinda bad. Wayne is just the generic hammy character. 'cept bri'ish. Wit in stormlight is almost good. But falls to ham and snarky too. Brandon will always have my heart for his magic systems and waterfalls though.
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Aug 11, 2016 16:32
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Just finished Words of Radiance on audiobook last month. I don't know if I've got the stomach to read/listen to another one. Too much bad wittiness, and too much build up in relationships for what is essentially "DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS!?" Step Brothers-style. Also, apparently all these books exist in the same universe and reference each other? That sounds exhausting. Granted, King does the same thing, but I never felt like I needed to go read Salem's Lot to understand a character from that book that ends up in the Dark Tower series.
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Aug 11, 2016 22:16
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ElGroucho posted:
Hoid appears in all books. The other planeswalkers are just fan service. Just remember the name hoid. The rest is only for uber fans. Like the girl that writes all ars arcanums and appears around. The strangest thing is Brandon does not focus on character appearence descriptions enough for it to be clear. Mostly, people recognise hoppers through names or the way they talk or just WOB.
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Aug 11, 2016 22:54
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HidaO-Win posted:One of the most heartening things about Brandon Sanderson is while he has weaknesses as a writer, he is markedly improving. He has taken the craftsman approach to being a writer, he writes constantly and critically evaluates himself continuously. He is just going to improve consistently with an attitude like that, in ten years if the current trend continues he is going to be a scary dude. The dude's work ethic is amazing. He's out to entertain readers and improve himself, and you can see the effort he puts in. He's in my "buy everything he puts out" category for that alone. I never feel like he takes anything (his books, his success, his readers, any of it) for granted.
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Aug 12, 2016 03:54
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StonecutterJoe posted:The dude's work ethic is amazing. He's out to entertain readers and improve himself, and you can see the effort he puts in. He's in my "buy everything he puts out" category for that alone. I never feel like he takes anything (his books, his success, his readers, any of it) for granted. If you ever get to see him in person (a signing or at a con), it really reinforces that. You can tell he is genuinely excited to share his stories and meet his fans. Especially when he does a reading (often times from unreleased books/stories), his eyes light up and he gets into it.
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Aug 12, 2016 13:23
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ElGroucho posted:Also, apparently all these books exist in the same universe and reference each other? That sounds exhausting. Granted, King does the same thing, but I never felt like I needed to go read Salem's Lot to understand a character from that book that ends up in the Dark Tower series. I have only a dim understanding of cosmere stuff from reading this thread and haven't really had any issues understanding what's going on in the books. It seems like the connections are more like Easter Eggs for fans, than an important plot point. The exception to this is the horrible Mistborn Secret History ebook that I honestly wouldn't recommend anyone read ever.
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Aug 12, 2016 15:31
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These two books mostly remind me how much more I like Robin Hobb, I hope the next one has less sitcom style misunderstandings.
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Aug 12, 2016 15:33
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ElGroucho posted:These two books mostly remind me how much more I like Robin Hobb, I hope the next one has less sitcom style misunderstandings. I read the Fitz trilogy recently after avoiding it for a long time. I'm glad I read it, but jesus christ does she ever repeat herself. You could cut 200 pages out of each book of almost word for word repeated paragraphs.
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Aug 12, 2016 16:02
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teddust posted:I have only a dim understanding of cosmere stuff from reading this thread and haven't really had any issues understanding what's going on in the books. It seems like the connections are more like Easter Eggs for fans, than an important plot point. The exception to this is the horrible Mistborn Secret History ebook that I honestly wouldn't recommend anyone read ever. The Cosmere points right now are mostly Easter Eggs, but as he writes more books, it will become more important to the plot, especially with the back half of Stormlight Archives and the future Mistborn trilogy. If you didn't like Secret History, then you're probably not going to like a good chunk of his work going forward.
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Aug 12, 2016 16:37
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To be fair, Secret History was really the Easter Egg of all Easter Eggs for hardcore Mistborn Era 1 fans who've been pestering him for more behind the scenes information. One thing Sanderson has said is top of his mind for the future books (especially when Cosmere threads start converging) is that he wants to make sure that you don't have to have read books other than that series (e.g. Stormlight books will stand on their own as a series) to still enjoy the story. I have absolutely no idea how he's going to pull it off because I think it's gonna be an immense challenge, but seeing as how that's like 30 years in the future, I'm sure he'll have plenty of time (and practice) to get there.
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Aug 12, 2016 16:54
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Leng posted:To be fair, Secret History was really the Easter Egg of all Easter Eggs for hardcore Mistborn Era 1 fans who've been pestering him for more behind the scenes information. One thing Sanderson has said is top of his mind for the future books (especially when Cosmere threads start converging) is that he wants to make sure that you don't have to have read books other than that series (e.g. Stormlight books will stand on their own as a series) to still enjoy the story. I assume most of the cosmere stuff will continue to be "background noise" until the major cosmere series. In that series he can recap past happenings pretty easily which would fix the issue of needing to read all previous books.
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Aug 12, 2016 18:27
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subx posted:I assume most of the cosmere stuff will continue to be "background noise" until the major cosmere series. In that series he can recap past happenings pretty easily which would fix the issue of needing to read all previous books. Yeah until either the mistborn science fiction space opera with spaceships physically flying to other worlds, or the hoid series dealing with WTF he's been up to.
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Aug 12, 2016 20:04
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Benson Cunningham posted:I read the Fitz trilogy recently after avoiding it for a long time. I'm glad I read it, but jesus christ does she ever repeat herself. You could cut 200 pages out of each book of almost word for word repeated paragraphs. I'm just starting the second book in the trilogy after that (liveship traders) and it really feels like Hobb has something against characters having nice things.
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Aug 12, 2016 20:17
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I checked out when the trained assassin regularly holds secret conspiracy meetings right next to a guy not involved in the conspiracy, who looks like he's sleeping, but, surprise, was not
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Aug 12, 2016 20:19
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Luminaflare posted:I'm just starting the second book in the trilogy after that (liveship traders) and it really feels like Hobb has something against characters having nice things. This is one of my problems with Hobb. People complain about people like Abercrombie being grimdark, but holy poo poo, Hobb knocks her characters down and kicks them all book every book.
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Aug 13, 2016 05:15
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ElGroucho posted:These two books mostly remind me how much more I like Robin Hobb, I hope the next one has less sitcom style misunderstandings. Nothing written by Sanderson can compare to the trainwreck that is the first hundred or so pages of the Liveship trilogy, even though it does get better I'm iffy on whether it makes up for just how loving awful that trilogy's startup is. It's basically "here's a new area and new people. They are all trying* to see who can be the biggest idiot and/or rear end in a top hat." Kyle takes the lead early on in that race and never looks back.
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Aug 13, 2016 06:48
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Mistborn book report: Book 2 was pretty good, but a bit too long. You could probably cut ~20% of it and not even notice. There was also a much wider gulf between stuff I care about (Vin, Sazed, The Plot) and stuff I don't (first half-Elend, Straff, Politics). I've barely started Book 3, but it's already hit the ground running in that regard. Unless the rest of this book really shits the bed in unforeseen ways, I'll probably pick up the 2nd trilogy soon. Wikipedia says Secret History is a companion to the first trilogy, so I should read that before Alloy of Law, right?
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Aug 13, 2016 08:14
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No. You should read it after Bands of Mourning as it elaborates on information from that book.
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Aug 13, 2016 08:16
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I particularly hate secret history. It feels like a huge retcon. And the whole thing is a huge fan service for cosmere stuff. Hell, it is basically hardcore porn for cosmere stuff.... It get's me scared about if Brandon is losing control of his will to amaze us. What if he starts putting Steven Universe characters in the Stormlight Archive? Or maybe Ponys!! 
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Aug 13, 2016 13:30
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NeruVolpi posted:I particularly hate secret history. While I can understand this feeling, I am not sure it is entirely warranted. Prior to BoM coming out, I reread the first Mistborn trilogy and noticed several things that stuck out like sore thumbs that were not explainable. Specifically, it was very out of character for Preservation to attack Elend, for Ruin-as-Kelsier's-ghost to say some of the things he did to Spook, and it was almost inconceivable that Ruin would allow Marsh to rip out Vin's earring while he was focused on watching the two of them fight unless something incredibly important was distracting him. In addition, Sanderson has said in the past that Vin, Sazed and Kelsier all held the power of preservation. In the first trilogy, we never see anything confirming Kelsier held Preservation. The only thing that maybe hinted at it was Preservation dying and his body slumping into the ash, but the world not immediately ending and Sazed talking about "Of all of us who touched [Preservation's power], I feel [Vin] was the most worthy." Sanderson is very careful with his words, even 10 years ago (see the Mistborn epigraphs). I suspect if he had only meant Sazed and Vin, he would have written that differently. I suspect the main culprit to feeling this way is Sanderson's writing habits and style at the time he wrong the first trilogy and that the hints would have been stronger had he written Mistborn today. There are also some out-of-cosmere things that compare Kelsier to another dead-but-not-dead character in Wheel of Time that I suppose sort of telegraphed it (though perhaps not in the best way, link if you're interested: http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-4-moiraine-damodred-versus-kelsier.html). Edit: While I can see the argument that if it's not in the text, it shouldn't matter, Sanderson has made a habit of dropping hints and answering questions during signings and conventions. I think at this point you can't ignore what he says outside the text even if you disagree with how he goes about dropping additional hints. Xenix fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Aug 13, 2016 |
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Aug 13, 2016 16:18
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Naturally I read that cage match when it came out, but yeah... Sanderson has all his poo poo PLANNED. "I’ve heard that some very remarkable things can happen with spikes"
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Aug 13, 2016 16:37
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Stormlight Spoilers (the whole post basically) if you haven't finished Words of Radiance. So some choice words from Sanderson on the next Stormlight book: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/4y9bdf/no_spoilers_weekly_update_oathbringer_now_at_71/ quote:This will go in my next update, but the big thing this week is me thinking I'm going to need to write out the Szeth flashbacks (which now exist only in outline) before I finish this book. That might slow me down, for while they don't go in this novel (at least in the current plan) I'm increasingly certain I need them in hand for certain scenes I'll be doing. So the percentage bar might stop inching up for a few weeks sometime next month, as I turn attention to those. Don't panic if you see that happen. quote:q: Have you done this before? For example, did you have the Shallan flashbacks written out while you were writing WOK? quote:q: Thanks for keeping us updated. If I may ask, which Part is there you are working on which requires deeper fleshing out of Szeth's backstory? Is this Part 3 or Part 4? So it looks like the next book may actually turn out to be Szeth's instead of Dalinar's? Also it looks like if this does happen, then Dalinar's flashbacks will be in book four or five. I'd really like to know what happens with Darlinar's "wish" to forget his wife. What was the downside of that, or was that the downside?
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Aug 19, 2016 19:47
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Knyteguy posted:
In typical Sanderson fashion, someone asked him that and he said "No". Which rather spoils the fun in my view.
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Aug 19, 2016 20:18
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We're not sure if forgetting his wife was his wish or his curse. It could go either way. I seem to recall some discussion that heavily hinted it was his wish, but I don't recall the details.
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Aug 19, 2016 20:19
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Yeah, I always got the strong impression that it was a wish, and it just left a kind of nebulous feeling of loss and confusion
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Aug 20, 2016 04:12
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So what's the consensus on the White Sand graphic novel? I'm currently about halfway through reading it, and the pacing is kinda horrible. For example, at one point the main character loses his powers for some reason, but 20 pages later, he randomly gets them back and he's more powerful than before. I'm sure, since it's Sanderson, that there's some explanation for that whole bit, but the returning powers happens in the middle of some conversation. It came out of nowhere and seemed like they were going for a "gently caress yeah!" moment but I ended up just thinking "Wait, what?" That whole bit felt like it was just added in to create some tension. But, again, this is Sanderson, so there's probably some explanation for it at the end. I'm also not a fan of the artwork at all. It's too sketchy and muddled, some panels I can't even tell what's going on or what I'm looking at. And many of the characters look too much alike. Doesn't help that they're not given much room to be given fleshed-out personalities either, and they all have standard-fantasy-type fake names, so they all end up just blending together in my head and I end up not really caring. Right now it is by far the weakest thing Sanderson has written that's been published. I wish he had just edited it up a bunch and published it as a novel, either that or get another artist and editor.
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Aug 20, 2016 21:48
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The comic isn't very well done, no. It doesn't even get speechbubbles and names consistent.
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Aug 20, 2016 22:03
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ConfusedUs posted:We're not sure if forgetting his wife was his wish or his curse. I could've sworn that in WoR or WoK it's made kinda clear that he wanted to not feel the pain of loss re:his wife? A total loss of memory about her and the shshshsh in place of her name seems like part of the side-effect.
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Aug 20, 2016 22:28
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I finished the White Sand graphic novel, and, yeah, it sucks. Sad to say that about a Sanderson story, but it's not really his fault. The artist and the writer who adapted the story just aren't very good at all. I just hate the art. There's one scene where a side-character is messing with a locked chest in the background. The conversation is cut off as the chest bursts open, letting out black smoky tendrils, and the side-character shouts and curses. Just as I'm wondering what the gently caress is going on, the next panel has the guy sitting on the ground surrounded by dark lumps, saying "The lock must have broken!" and the lady noble saying "Why do you need such a lock for your ratty clothes anyways?" Turns out those sinister tendrils are supposed to be clothing. Wish I had a picture of the panels, it's ridiculous, part of me still wonders if I misunderstood what's going on. Then the next couple of pages features a series of brief scenes that seems like it could be amusing in better hands: the lady I previously mentioned with two of her underlings, trying to meet with various leaders and getting turned down. Each panel has the three in the same poses, while the backgrounds change. The problem is, all three look exactly the same in each panel (I'll give them credit, at least it wasn't an actual copy & paste, each panel was drawn), same stiff postures and positions, same expressions. A better artist would have shown increasing disappointment, anger, ANYTHING as the characters are repeatedly turned down. The art on the noble is especially bad, she has a blank, bored expression in each panel (even when the dialogue has her exclaiming things like "Twelve... days?!" and "Two thou--?!"), with her arms sticking stiffly out in front of her as she fiddles with some object (it's later explained she's fixing the lock from earlier, not that you can tell that at all from the artwork). It's just... bad. I don't know much about illustrations, so maybe somebody with knowledge can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm almost certain the artist only used one line thickness (or width or weight or whatever the term is) throughout the whole book, so the drawings have no depth, no emphasis, nothing to help the eye distinguish between all that's going on in the panels. The only thing keeping the art from being complete junk is the coloring (when it's not just a bunch of white guys in white robes surrounded by white sand and white buildings, that is), And the pacing continues to be horrible, quickly switching between different subplots and introducing more characters that are not fleshed out, up until the book just... ends. There's no climax, no resolutions or surprises, it just stops. I get that this is supposed to be the first in a series, but they made absolutely no effort to make sure the book holds up on its own. White Sand is a huge disappointment, this is the first time I'd recommend people to just skip a Sanderson story.
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Aug 21, 2016 21:52
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Also the sand is supposed to change colors and the art doesn't do that, and like, it's supposed to be a visual medium.
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Aug 22, 2016 01:08
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Tunicate posted:Also the sand is supposed to change colors and the art doesn't do that, and like, it's supposed to be a visual medium. Warbreaker would of made a better graphic novel, its whole thing about colors and them standing out more etc would work well.
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Aug 22, 2016 05:36
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I struggled with it too - I'm not sure how much of it is because I'm not used to reading graphic novels as opposed to prose, the fact I read it on Kindle (iPad/PC for the most part) instead of hard copy or whether it's because it's not well executed.socialsecurity posted:Warbreaker would of made a better graphic novel, its whole thing about colors and them standing out more etc would work well. Wouldn't Warbreaker be a bit too long? Granted, I didn't read the unpublished White Sands, so it could be of comparable length. Though I guess it doesn't matter since the graphic novel version's been split up into three instalments anyway... Edit: Except for the fact that Nightblood is a planned sequel (however tentative), and I would rather get that in prose than graphic novel.
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Aug 22, 2016 08:25
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Warbreaker is around 4k words longer than White Sand.
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Aug 22, 2016 09:00
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Just finished a Mistborn read through (all 7), last time I read them was before Shadows of Self. Personally, I enjoyed Secret History. It wasn't phenomenal or anything, but I'll never not love more Kelsier.
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Aug 25, 2016 07:28
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Lprsti99 posted:Just finished a Mistborn read through (all 7), last time I read them was before Shadows of Self. Personally, I enjoyed Secret History. It wasn't phenomenal or anything, but I'll never not love more Kelsier. I find Secret History much better when you reread it right after rereading Final Empire. Like, obviously on a first run put it after BoM where it deserves but if you're rereading the lot drop it in as the second work It's much easier to get into Kelsier's character when it hasn't been thousands of pages since we last saw the guy.
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Aug 25, 2016 21:12
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I finished Bands of Mourning a few days ago and really enjoyed the whole series. It's amazing to binge all these books and watch Sanderson improve as a writer in real time; aside from Mistborn 2, each successive book was better than the last. I'm not looking forward to waiting for the next book, but at least it will actually come out within the decade. I haven't read Secret History, and I don't think you can even buy it until September, so I'm gonna start on Stormlight 1 and 2 to hold me over until Arcanum Unbounded comes out. Semi-spoilery questions: - The "meat" of the cosmere story is currently in the Stormlight books, right? - Am I supposed to know who Nazh is? - Someone (VenDell, I think) in BoM mentions that four people have held the power at the Well of Ascension: Rashek, Vin, Sazed and Kelsier. But I don't remember Kelsier doing that. Am I dumb, or is that a Secret History thing?
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Aug 25, 2016 22:50
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