Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Just finished The Way of Kings, definitely loved it. I haven't read Sanderson's earlier work other than the latest Wheel of Time, but I can definitely understand the Rothfuss comparison in this. The structure where each chapter was (mostly) one person's point of view reminded me of GRRM, but where his plot thread unraveled and expanded in scope, these gradually came together. I like that.

Even the flashback chapters were well done, and I don't usually enjoy those. The strong parallels to the "present day" plot were good for developing the main character even if it was drilled in harder than necessary.

The only time I got annoyed with one was when it was inserted into the climactic battle scene as an intermission. About that scene: by the time we actually see Tien's death happen, it's been telegraphed so many times that it didn't feel very dramatic. I'm guessing it was intended to be the climax of the flashbacks corresponding to the climax of the present day battle on the Tower, but it had no tension for me.

Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good fantasy books are rare and I'll look forward to the next one.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2010 05:29

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 10:48

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

He certainly gets fleshed out a little more as it goes on. I'd say his character is about as deep or maybe slightly deeper than most in the fantasy genre.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2010 03:10

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

mcable posted:

The world is more complex than "darkeyes good, lighteyes bad".

This is exactly what he learns at the end of the book.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2010 01:56

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Streebs posted:

edit: Oh I forgot another question, what did Dalinar ask the Old Magic to give him and why did it delete his wife from his memory?

I think that's what he asked for. The question is: what was the price?

# ¿ Oct 18, 2010 15:52

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Che Delilas posted:

The price was apparently permanent and persistent memory loss about his wife. I thought the question was: for what did he need the old magic (was this one answered in the book?).

I understand that and my point was that it could be backwards from what you've assumed.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2010 22:36

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

I finished Elantris today, apparently I'm going in reverse order. Started with Way of Kings, then Mistborn, now Elantris.

Has anyone noticed there's a "Hoid" in all Sanderson's books?

# ¿ Oct 28, 2010 19:21

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

I just finished Warbreaker too. It's totally awesome. My only complaint is really a product of reading too many Sanderson novels -- the structure is getting repetitive.

Step 1 - A new magic system and the strict rules of its use are presented.
Step 2 - A well functioning society is on the verge of social change!
Step 3 - A character mentally grapples with whether she should enjoy wearing pretty dresses.
Step 4 - A character struggles with what it means to be a good person.
Step 5 - A character tries to cope with the fact that what the world expects from him isn't what he wants!
Step 6 - While all the elements simmer, a good character comes up with a naive plan to change everything.
Step 7 - Just as this plan is about to be executed, a crazy twist happens!
Step 8 - Hey, remember that character from before? He's not who you thought he is!
Step 9 - Hey, remember that nubile young man? He's a thousand years old!
Step 10 - Hey, remember that evil bad guy? He's a good guy!
Step 11 - Hey, remember the weird quirks about that magic system? They all have clear explanations!
Step 12 - Everything is going badly, and evil is about to triumph!
Step 13 - Goku goes goes super-saiyan, radiates powerful light, Breathes, inscribes hidden Aeons, weaves Balefire, explodes with Stormlight, and absorbs the powers of falling Gods.
Step 14 - The day is saved! All elements of society now realize their proper place.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2011 07:20

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

I may not be able to read the new Mistborn book. I just can't take the way he writes "clever" people talking to each other. I just can't. Ugh.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 22:54

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

BananaNutkins posted:

I cannot grok how anyone would anyone put that...thing on a list

Because Heinlein is one of the scifi authors that old NPR people have actually read.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2011 23:23

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Odette posted:

but a few employees wouldn't believe him.

Hey see that picture on the dust jacket? I'm him. That's me. Now please stop pepper spraying me.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2011 22:45

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Loving Life Partner posted:

Should I just grit my teeth and get through it? Does it pick up to the same level of awesome?

Every book of Mistborn dials it up about 20 more notches.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2011 23:00

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Sanderson is without a doubt dramatically better at writing Wheel of Time books than Jordan was. It's night and day.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2011 01:03

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Just read plot summaries of the ones you missed before Sanderson's.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2011 02:02

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

SmugDogMillionaire posted:

Jordan was honestly a way better writer up to around book 6 when the story completely spiraled out of his control and turned into an absolute slog. Sanderson isn't as skilled at writing in Jordan's purposefully slightly archaic style, his battle scenes tend toward being fuckawesome (i mean that in the most derogatory sense possible) and videogamey as opposed to Jordan's more visceral style, and it just feels much flatter.

I think people have an exaggerated opinion of Sanderson's writing as compared to Jordan's because he's giving us what we want more then better writing or characterization: plot progression and an ending.

That's true. That's why I didn't say Sanderson is a better writer, just that he's better at writing Wheel of Time books. He produces a better result than Jordan has in 20 years, and the reason has nothing to do with being a better writer and everything to do with how he handles plot. There's an immediate feeling of movement that no WoT book since The Shadow Rising had.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2011 18:43

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

You understand that the only character you're sympathetic to was a sociopath, right?

# ¿ Dec 16, 2011 14:50

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

The General posted:

My biggest problem with the Mistborn Trilogy was that I knew how book 3 ended by the middle of book 2 (I expected book 2 to end that way for some reason).

I don't think that's a very common problem.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2012 18:19

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

While I really liked the First Law trilogy, when I read one of the followup standalone books (Best Served Cold), it made me want to kill myself. So dark and depressing. It turned me off on Abercrombie.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2012 18:23

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

The Name of the Wind should definitely be read by anyone who's into modern fantasy. For whatever reason, goons are currently obsessed with talking about "self insertion" in all books but ignore them and form your own opinion.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2012 21:59

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Cartoon Man posted:

He's never let his mormom beliefs show up in any of writings.

It's actually pretty easy to tell from his writing that he is if you've been around mormons.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2012 23:07

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Clockwork Gadget posted:

but yes, if Brandon wrote a Star Wars novel we might actually have Star Wars novels worth reading again.

What do you mean, "again?"

# ¿ Mar 31, 2012 04:33

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

I hate everything about this author and his writing but I'll never stop reading!

# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 21:21

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Clinton1011 posted:

The witty comebacks and sayings were really bad in Alloy of Law. A lot worst then they were in his earlier books like Elantris and Warbreaker.

I thought just the opposite. That stuff drove me crazy in his earlier works (and even in Way of Kings), but I remember actually laughing a few times during Alloy of Law.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2012 17:01

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Monolith. posted:

There's always someone who hasn't finished the trilogy. I'm on the last book for instance.

Come back to the thread when you're done!

# ¿ Apr 18, 2012 23:14

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Above Our Own posted:

This is a dumb thing that people sometimes say when you compare something they like to something widely believed to be high quality. In your mind, you have these categories of "good" things and "just for fun" things and for some odd reason you invent a separate scale for each.

Really they're both just books and it's meaningful to weigh them on their own merits without mindlessly confining them to categories that are largely based on the opinions of others. It's like a defense mechanism to keep what you like from being critiqued. No, not every book is Shakespeare. Thank you for pointing that out.

It's sort of like the way I put all your posts in this thread into the category of pointlessly condescending douchebag.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2012 19:38

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Eagerly awaiting his next book which has a magic system based on optimizing the order of how passengers board planes.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2012 15:50

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

I've tried to start reading Malazan at least 3 times in my life and I just can't do it. The first book is just too bad. Too cliche. Too generic fantasy. I keep hearing it gets better, but I can't push through.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2012 16:41

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Yeah, Legion is really good. I wish it was a lot longer.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2012 23:45

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Affi posted:

Legion is great, I can really see this working as a television series. I just want to see JC walking around with weapons drawn everywhere.

It's impossible to not read JC as Adam Baldwin from Firefly.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2012 18:47

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

I went to a Sanderson book signing today and whether spren existed before (Way of Kings ending spoiler) Odium killed the Almighty and shattered the Honor shard. His answer was that some of the spren existed, but some were different, and new ones existed after it.

I honestly have no idea if this is already well known or not as far as Cosmere-ology goes but it was fun, and he was basically the nicest guy ever.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2013 05:30

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

The Gunslinger posted:

I noticed in the third mistborn book and Alloy of Law that he's picked up a habit of establishing a magic system then throwing it out when convenient.

What are you talking about?

# ¿ Feb 11, 2013 17:23

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Tunicate posted:

My brother refused to read past the Szeth scenes because he hated them so much.

I also thought they were weirdly mechanical at first, but on re-reading it I realize that it's actually a deep insight into Szeth's character that he knows the names and mechanics of the Lashings. All that knowledge should be completely lost, and he's one of the few in the world who knows it and maybe the only person in the world who can do it at that point. It's just that all that information isn't clear in Szeth's chapter, so it reads like a boring tutorial of a magic system that's completely pointless because no one else does it.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2013 08:14

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Pimpmust posted:

Just finished Mistborn on my second/third try (got bogged down in the first chapters previously) and I liked it well enough, up until part 4.

That ending wasn't really good, was it?

Or well, "too good" might describe it. Other words that come to mind: Rushed, Cringeworthy and "way to toss out all that interesting world/character building with the bath-water" (Lord Ruler, I'm looking at you).

If it's any consolation, Lord Ruler becomes a way more interesting character in the later books (even though he's dead).

# ¿ Feb 24, 2013 02:56

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Piell posted:

Honestly I'd say Sanderson suffers by having all the longass series - his best stuff is the short stories/single books IMO.

I think in general the short stories are better because they're newer and he's improving as a writer. The newest Wheel of Time is fantastic.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2013 18:15

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Furious Lobster posted:

Are you talking about A Memory of Light? I thought that this is the weakest of Sanderson's works with the WoT series.

Okay. Well, I disagree. Anyway, the point was that in general when you compare new things to older things, the new things are much better. Short stories are new things.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2013 19:10

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Clockwork Gadget posted:

Man, I'm definitely going back to reread all of Sanderson's cosmere stuff before Stormlight 2 releases. Every time I go back and reread anything he writes I appreciate more and more the fact that I got in essentially on the ground floor of one of the best fantasy authors we've ever seen.

I recently re-read Way of Kings and it was really worth it. All the Cosmere-related stuff that I missed the first time really stood out, and a lot of the twists that caught me off guard the first time are telegraphed way way ahead of time. Even simple things like Shallan's shardblade are really obvious.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2013 06:36

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

uh zip zoom posted:

Isn't BYU traditionally a Mormon school?

Yes, Sanderson is a mormon.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2013 18:45

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:

I think I spotted a bit of a plot hole: It's shown that UV light dissipates Nightwielder's darkness as well as making him tangible. So how does he block out the sun in the first place? It's not exactly important since the rules aren't very strict compared to Sanderson's other series but maybe it'll come up at some point and be explained.

I assumed it was related to when they talked about different complimentary powers that add up to something greater than the parts. So the sunlight only stops the first half of his power, and the second half creates the right conditions for the first half.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2013 20:27

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

syphon posted:

In retrospect, the Szeth prologue might seem skippable. However, you have to remember that this is a brand new series and the very first thing you read about it is a somewhat boring conversation between two Heralds. The action and mystery of Szeth's prologue really helped to hook me on the series.

Also, from the broader view, since it looks like each prologue will revisit that scene from a different POV, it makes sense for the first one to be Szeth.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2014 20:29

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

Tea Bone posted:

I've just finished the Mistborn trilogy and really enjoyed it, but I'm not quite sure where to go from here. From what I can gather, The Stormlight Archives is about the universe that all of Sanderson's books take place in. Should I read anything else of Sanderson's before starting on Way of Kings?

You don't need to read anything, but the most relevant is probably Warbreaker. And even that is barely relevant at all and only to book 2 of Stormlight. Personally I'd just go straight to Way of Kings.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 23:13

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 10:48

soru: Apr 27, 2003; The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.

SerSpook posted:

I've not really bothered to read any reviews of the book, but most of the people I've spoken with or just reading posts about it on the internet about it, found Shallan to be really good in this book and liked her, so I don't know. I know I did.

Agreed. This book made her way more interesting. She also made a LOT few jokes in book 2, so I don't know why Shakugan is saying her dialogue is half that.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2014 00:22

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