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He was thrust into kingship at a young age and struggles with feelings of inadequacy and deciding whether to hate Dalinar for being a better king than him or love and respect him for it. The last thing he wants to do is talk to his mother (who has a tendency to meddle in everything) or sister (who demonstrates control and commands respect as second nature where he never can). At least that's how I'd explain it.
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Feb 14, 2018 14:49
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If I'm trying to sell someone on Sanderson I hype up all the cool magic systems. It's far more satisfying reading a character's exploits when you feel like you understand how and why their badassery is badass. I've grown to dislike stories in which an empowered character is an unknown quantity. Wheel of Time is an even split there because he does go into some details about the Power but also every book has one or two "I've suddenly discovered/remembered/invented a new thing that was lost to the ages or no one over the thousands of years of having magic powers ever could do!" As opposed to say, pushing and pulling on horseshoes as anchor points to cartwheel across the countryside, which makes complete sense when the character's powers are concrete and established at that point in the story. There are certainly plenty of "but wait, there's more!" moments but they never feel cheap or deus ex machina.
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Mar 29, 2018 23:00
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I like that it's the other way around. Cool steel pushing powers I heard you like aluminum bullets.
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May 14, 2018 00:39
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Elantris is only bad by comparison to his later books. It's still good! I think it suffers a bit by the rigid adherence to the PoV shifts, and it kinda ends right as it's getting awesome. But it's still a good read, and once you're deep into Cosmere stuff there's a lot going on under the hood that's really interesting.
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May 14, 2018 02:22
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Having read all of WoT, I can see going to it after Sanderson being very rough. It's not that Jordan is bad or the books are full of tropes (since a lot of them are tropes now because of him). The issue is Sanderson is so great that other fantasy authors seem weak. We are so spoiled by these well devised clearly explained logically consistent magic systems. Jordan does do an okay job of letting you know when someone is doing heavy lifting magic-wise, but there's way way too much gun-in-the-first-act of "here's this forgotten thing from the first age that one of the characters happens to figure out". Like if someone says it can't be done, someone will be doing it before the last book, guaranteed. I don't think he leaves anything behind in the First Age stuff. I mean look at Vin's ability to pierce copperclouds in Mistborn. Not only is it explained and expanded upon, it's also not unique to her. Makes it feel less hokey.
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May 31, 2018 19:00
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Isn't that just how fantasy prologues/preludes work? You get a scene that is cool but has no context, but later on as you learn about the world you can look back and go "ooooohhh" at how you now understand it. Chapter ones are kind enough to accept that you are new to this world. Prologues don't give a gently caress.
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Jul 16, 2018 19:16
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That is the best part about Sanderson Magic. When Gandalf pulls some wizard poo poo it's meaningless to the reader. He's a wizard, his power is undefined, magic is undefined, so he just sometimes does what he wants. With Sanderson he says "here are the ways things work and why" so where a character pulls an awesome stunt using well-understood principles, it lets you see how and why it's an awesome stunt. It's like how Jordan hand waved both his magic AND swordfighting scenes. Swordfights in WoT are just rattling off meaningless anime sword style names requiring you to fill in the blanks of what those moves actually look like. Yeah I mean he at least puts forth SOME idea of how the magic works but it doesn't really matter to me if this spell weaves Fire and Air but this other spell is Spirit and Water.
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Jul 20, 2018 19:53
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Aon-Dor is pretty much traditional D&D wizardry so that's pretty great, but you balance the limitless usage over the geographical limitations. But I mean why would I want to travel when I can be a shiny wizard at home?
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Jul 26, 2018 18:16
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RC Cola posted:Your best friend and his wife sound awesome. At least they didn't name their children Moghedien or Aviendha. Fun fact, my boss named his kids Aviendha and Madic.
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Jul 26, 2018 18:30
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In other words being a chromium compounder makes you Mat Cauthon? (No escape from Wheel of Time chat! No escape!!!)
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Jul 26, 2018 22:52
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Man, Crossroads of Twilight seems to get a lot of flak but I actually enjoyed it, certainly a lot more than Crown of Swords and Path of Daggers. Still it is really weird to like and recommend a book series but also warn people that the middle 4 books are kinda iffy.
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Aug 6, 2018 23:14
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M_Gargantua posted:Telling your spaceship that it’s falling toward your destination is a supremely powerful skill. A year of “falling” at 1g puts you at .999c. That’s merely one surge of one shard. Okay but the question is does it use the gravitational strength of your destination object factoring your distance? Does directional lashing always use your current gravitational acceleration and simply apply it to the direction of your choice? In the first case, you're always "falling" towards all other mass in the universe, but gravitational stregth is divided by the square of the distance so magnifying any source of gravity besides your current planet is worthless. In the second case once you escape your planet you're barely subject to any gravitational acceleration from anything compared to any sort of thrust generation so lashing isn't going to move you anywhere. In either case it would make the gravitation surge useless for interplanetary/interstellar travel, unless there's a way to dampen inertia and then use the lashing to magnify slingshot maneuvers without ripping your spacecraft and passengers apart.
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Aug 20, 2018 19:36
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Tunicate posted:I think it's based on your home planet - it would explain why the fused all have slower accelerations That does track with Identity and Connection being tied to Investutire. Now we just find someone from Sel (1.5 cosmere standard size planet) and use the Feruchemy trick of storing Identity/Connection/Investiture so a Surgebinder can Lash based on the higher gravity planet.
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Aug 20, 2018 20:04
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RC Cola posted:What the gently caress Brandon. Write less books that aren't storm light please. That's just how he takes a break. We got Wax and Wayne because he needed a vacation from writing.
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Oct 11, 2018 23:53
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Wheel of Time is good. But it's long, and it drags in the middle, and it's got a million tropes (because it created half of them). It is absolutely worth reading but even its biggest fans admit it has flaws. But this is the Sanderson thread and we are all spoiled by his amazing books so going from Sanderson first to Wheel of Time feels like a huge step backwards. To everyone reading WoT for the first time, carry on. There are a ton of absolutely great parts that are just as incredible as the Sanderson climax moments. Please don't give up because people are trashing it for its flaws. WoT is good poo poo. Enjoy.
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Oct 31, 2018 15:02
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I'm genuinely surprised that really long books can be an alien concept to someone. Like there are TV series that have 200+ episodes, so can't books have 1500 pages or 20 books in a series?
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Nov 6, 2018 19:14
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Like I guess the main thing I am curious about is that do like, 300 things happen in every book or do only like five things happen very slowly Just like any good tv show, there are chapters that move the plot forward, chapters that focus on character interactions, and chapters for foreshadowing or introduction of new elements/characters. The stormlight books also have large chunks for flashbacks for the book's main PoV character and interludes that sprinkle minor characters and miniplots that are happening around the world.
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Nov 6, 2018 20:41
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There's a big difference between using food as a method of bringing characters together and highlighting the impact it has on society (men and women always eating different food in highborn Vorin culture), and describing sixteen different individual foods that are at the dinner table. Shut the gently caress up about the buttered peas, GRRM.
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Nov 7, 2018 04:49
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I mean I knew about wheel of time but I thought it had, like, seven books 1996 called to let you know you are correct and they can't wait for the next book for all these plotlines to resolve!
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Nov 11, 2018 19:42
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Pro bending is probably the coolest implementation of fantasy sports using the actual elements of the setting. I can see the modern-set mistborn having cool magic sports, but iron and steel allomancy are the only cool flashy powers that would work in sports and there's only so much you can do with those two.
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Nov 20, 2018 00:05
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You know this whole discussion made me think of Blitzball from Final Fantasy X. Like the world is perpetually under threat of a deadly monster and one of the guys whose job is to protect the girl who can kill the monster also finds time to play in the tournament. It's not like baseball stopped during WW2 or anything. I can see fantasy worlds with major sports that still happen despite the crazy drama and crises that happen. Maybe it's a little skewed when the major characters focus on magic sportsball instead of a murder dragon but that's not exactly an uncommon response for someone to cling to the familiar and/or their escape mechanism during a crisis even if that person is supposed to be handling said crisis.
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Nov 20, 2018 18:06
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mewse posted:Did anyone go back and read mistborn 1/2/3 AFTER reading secret history? It seems like the scenes with the ghostly figure would make a lot more sense after knowing what was going on with Kelsier in the spiritual realm Ahem, excuse me, I believe you mean the cognitive realm? And yeah it's super cool knowing that behind the scenes stuff. Makes you wonder if that was his plan all along or if he spun it out because of what I assume is Kelsier's position as favorite character in the series.
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Dec 27, 2018 17:54
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Finished Skyward! It's good poo poo, guys. man, all the clues were there. Made for a really satisfying reveal. Hype for the next book coming out next year!
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Dec 28, 2018 20:33
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mewse posted:Yeah.. it kinda felt like deus ex machina to me murderbot decides to betray his orders and Cobb decides to fly again at the same time humanity is in mortal danger Almost as if the fate of the entire Defiant race could cause a person to overcome their shortcomings! (and an AI to find a loophole in its own code that allows it to modify its directives, which is the same thing but for robots.
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Dec 31, 2018 05:07
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I kinda think that when you're struggling with crippling mental health problems and super powers and an apocalypse you kinda put your libido on the back burner? Also from a practical standpoint, not including sexual content gives you a wider audience. My 12 year old is reading Sanderson's YA stuff and loving it, but I'm waiting a little bit to give him Mistborn because of the whole thing where nobles rape and then kill their skaa workers to prevent half blood misting babies. SynthesisAlpha fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jan 10, 2019 |
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Jan 10, 2019 19:22
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mewse posted:Or you gently caress your dead brother's wife Dalinar is like, the only character who even has time for that. Also Navani is definitely the one doing the loving. Dalinar's the fuckee.
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Jan 10, 2019 19:27
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Sab669 posted:Well said. I like that Rothfuss handled sex the way Jordan handles swordfights. Give the moves silly names and let the reader interpret it. Also guys, sex in stories like this isn't about the sex, it's about how it affects the characters and their relationships. You never need to describe the sex, and you barely even need to mention it happening. There's a whole world of romance novels for your steamy descriptions of sex scenes. For an actual fantasy book, just gloss over the act and get to the consequences.
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Jan 11, 2019 00:14
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DarkHorse posted:Yeah they're little chunks of gems in blobs of glass so they're not easily lost or broken, they're even described as not perfectly spherical(despite their name) so they don't roll away. Though 2ct is pretty huge, that's getting to like pea-sized for a diamond. That is precisely why the gems have value. Emeralds are the type that can soulcast food so they're the most valuable. Emeralds = army with no supply lines. Like it's stated a bunch of times what the spheres are and why they have value. wizzardstaff posted:It is very weird to me that they use chunks of gemstones embedded in transparent spheres as lighting/currency. Why don’t they use plain gemstones, or transparent cubes? Cubes would probably be easier to mold and cast. Dude there are like a dozen parts in the books that explain all about the spheres-as-currency and why. They hold stormlight, they're used in soulcasting, Shardplate & blades, and fabrials. I can't figure a way to say "read better" without sounding like a dick, but like... it's all there in the books. Not even the crazy wikis and interviews on the coppermind, just the books. I used to skim details super hard to get to the "action" but I had to train myself to slow down when I read Wheel of Time because it got very tangled.
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Jan 11, 2019 15:00
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Sab669 posted:I started reading Steelheart last night, only read the Prologue but it seems OK. What I want to know is why don't people's clothes change to steel when he starts making the rest of the area turn to metal They mention later that living things disrupt it, so stuff you're holding/wearing doesn't get affected. It's Sanderson so of course it gets explained!
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Jan 14, 2019 16:13
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mewse posted:Yeah Bransan should just be the ideas guy and hand off his projects to GRRM it would be amazing Sorry I think you mean the worst. I actually think GRRM has good ideas and abysmal writing. But I guess that's how opinions work right? Also why the gently caress are people calling him Bransan now? He's not a celebrity couple with himself.
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Jan 17, 2019 14:27
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This loving thread is dripping with sarcasm and it just doesn't loving translate to a goddamn internet forum. I must exist around too many people with ridiculous and awful opinions that I can't pick up when it's ironic. But you could at least throw in a  , man.
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Jan 17, 2019 16:43
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Warbreaker is solid. Elantris is okay by Sanderson standards but is still better than most crap. Skyward was a fun read and I suggest that and Reckoners + Rithmatist if you don't mind YA books. All quick fun reads that left me feeling good. First person warning if you can't deal with that. Wheel of Time, man. I can't really recommend it in 2019. Its time in the sun had passed and there's just better stuff out there. I equate it to reading Lord of the Rings. It's good to know your ancestry but you don't necessarily want to live through it.
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Jan 17, 2019 18:26
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Do you need to rember anything besides "raptors with sword arms?" Seems like once you include that in a book nothing else really matters.
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Jan 19, 2019 16:01
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Sab669 posted:
It's addressed a little bit, like he catches all the gossip and trade with other kids and so on. He also spent the entire chunk of his independent adult times in full spy mode. Maybe a little thin of an explanation but it's there.
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Jan 22, 2019 16:42
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Like hey I passed an english class in high school without reading past the first 50 pages of The Sound and the Fury because I just listened to everyone else talk about it in class. But I didn't go on an internet forum and discuss it in my free time because I didn't loving read the book Just gave my 12yr old Skyward and he's digging it so far. Does anyone have experience with his other stuff, like Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, or is that more of a kids book and not for a pre-teen who read the Reckoners and Rithmatist?
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Feb 8, 2019 20:18
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Sab669 posted:Yea, it's a pretty recent change. The thing is both Kaladin and Shallan are like not even 20. Dalinar's flashbacks start in his early adulthood and move forward to I think just after Gavilar's death (I need a reread, too!). That's like a 20 year span.
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Feb 14, 2019 17:32
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Torrannor posted:I wonder if those who don't like Lift haven't read Edgedancer? Because that book painted a picture considerably more nuanced than her just being a child jokester. This for sure. Remember that "they were all broken". She's got some serious mental baggage that is only lightly referenced a couple times, but it's pretty clear that her child-like nature is a very deliberate coping mechanism, like Shallan. I get the hate, but she's not one dimensional comic relief.
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Apr 23, 2019 13:26
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VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE posted:Yeah but According To The Worldbuilding if you've been a shardbearer for like a week you're automatically a lighteyes and in fact your eyes literally turn light, and a Knight Radiant is shardbearer squared. I figured it was the fact that there's a literal apocalypse going on so when someone shows up with magic powers to fight demons and poo poo you don't snub them because they used to be homeless. Also the entire mythology they've built up with how even the dead Soren blades will turn you lighteyes (which is true) and so they have a deeply rooted cultural belief that someone with a shardblade is an automatic highborn Noble, that has expanded to include anyone manifesting stormlight investiture.
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Apr 23, 2019 19:43
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Sab669 posted:I'd trust HBO to put Sanderson's stuff in front of a camera and no one else. I don't really wanna see Kaladin's dick.
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Apr 24, 2019 12:59
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Mat? He's a playful prankster who shirks his responsibilities! There's no possible way that travel, experience, hardship, tons of magic, nearly dying multiple times, confronting ancient evil, and unlocking multiple super powers could change him! Plus he knows how to talk to girls, I could never figure that one out. 
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Jul 7, 2019 21:25
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