Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Infinite Karma posted:

I'm a pariah in this thread for preferring the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erickson to Sanderson, but it's about as opposite as you can get regarding info dumps. It's an amazingly well written series, but is obtuse as hell because there's basically no exposition, it's all characters doing their thing and you've got to pick up the world building from context. Highly recommend it if that kind of exposition bothers you.

I immediately thought of Malazan when I read that too. I love both series in different ways!

# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 05:23

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 21:31

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Yeah I still think the books are good in spite of all that, but it's definitely not drawing me into a reread and really makes me appreciate Sanderson's fairly sexless (and certainly sexual assault-less) stories. That stuff was more commonplace with GoT at the forefront back in the 00s-10's but I'm really glad to see media moving away from it.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 18:49

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Potato Salad posted:

Spoiler but really not actually a spoiler: Kaladin is going to keep saying and you're going to get chills every time he tries.

Every time. They're pretty predictable but goddamn if they aren't some of the best moments in BS's works or even fantasy in general. I'd love to get these in animated form one day.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2021 14:50

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

The highs are just as good imo but most of the criticism seemed to be centred around (characters who are in the book) Shallan, Eshonai, and - arguably - Navani. I loved the opening and Sanderslanche though.

Edit: also everything Adolin

# ¿ May 1, 2021 01:28

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Malazan has some very high highs and conclusions comparable to Sanderslanches. But impenetrable isn't wholly inaccurate. It's dense, unforgiving, and melancholic and definitely not something that would appeal to most people.

I still loved it, and its themes of compassion and sacrifice resonated with me deeply. I'd have a hard time recommending it compared to something like Stormlight however, which is much more accessible and fun.

Midnight Tides is definitely one of the highlights, though it's not standalone in the slightest.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2021 00:24

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

We may still get more mental healthcare Kaladin in book five, especially given that (RoW) he's no longer in charge of an army, and it seems fairly likely that since we're at the end of this initial arc, he speaks the fifth ideal and becomes new Honour or some other abstract force or being. At this point he's one of the most powerful entities in the Stormlight world, and the battles he may need to fight may not be mundane enough to simply require brute force.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2021 16:25

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Invalid Validation posted:

Yea but nothing really compares to it after that. He basically becomes a mopey superhero.

He (RoW)literally gets to the same point at the climax - except he actually jumps.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2021 21:46

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Tunicate posted:

2. Basically because of the timeline, a physical resemblance, and the character not appearing elsewhere.

The first time I saw that picture of Chanarach in the RoW insert, I thought it was actually supposed to be Shallan.

I mean seriously

# ¿ Oct 29, 2022 03:26

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Mordiceius posted:

When reading a murder mystery, I would expect details to be withheld, but I wouldn't expect a bunch of information just dumped on me without context.

Meanwhile with the Way of Kings prologues, I feel like I need to keep a glossary on hand to understand all the words and names being mentioned. It does nothing to enhance the story and just makes things more confusing. It's often a problem with epic fantasy.

And again, this could just be a me problem.

When a world is significantly different from what I expect, spend some time helping me understand the world itself before immediately launching into characters and relationships.

The Final Empire, in my opinion, is the "perfect" prologue. Plantations and slavery isn't hard to understand. Oh there is black ash falling! That's cool. Oh look, one of those slaves is acting weird. In fact, he just went and killed all the slavers!

You don't need to understand the world at all to be able to follow what is going on in TFE's prologue and the stakes of it.

Meanwhile Way of Kings talks about this big battle that happened? And happens regularly? Eternal torture for this guy that died? Also a bunch of names that I don't know? It's two people just standing and talking about things I have no context for. Why should I care?

Then the prologue starts with Szeth and the first few lines are immediately describing him by describing his relationship to other people - other people that I also have no context for.

I'm going to stop my bitching rant here. I'll get past this part eventually, but I'll just say that it isn't the strongest start imo.

edit: honestly, what I should probably do is go onto coppermind and read the summary of the prologue and then listen to it.

I take it you haven't read through Malazan

# ¿ May 23, 2023 20:55

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Yeah SA seems intentionally obtuse because there's so much poo poo that feels off at first but it all gets explained somehow, and the payoffs are pretty satisfying. I remember how off it felt at the start of WoK by how alien Roshar was and how little sense it made that humans would have evolved there. Dumping all that exposition in a prologue or early on pays off for the attentive reader, I flip through the chapters pretty frequently to rediscover context for things that were hinted on earlier. That is to say, I can see how this isn't appealing to everyone especially those consuming the content via audiobook, but trickier to do that there.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2023 21:56

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Grundulum posted:

It almost doesn’t matter what the end of this question is. The answer will be “yes” either in this book, a future book, or according to book signing interviews.

I think this is what hooked me on Stormlight in the first place. All in due time, RAFO

# ¿ Aug 24, 2023 22:52

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Mordiceius posted:

My biggest frustration in all of this is just the lack of magic and cool action. We've seen from the prologue that there's cool magic poo poo that can get done. But all we've gotten so far are a couple chapters of people wearing Ironman armor. This book, so far, has been incredibly low-magic fantasy. I'm just begging for something, anything magical to happen. I want to see people flying through the air. I want to learn more about all the magical powers. I've seen talk that there's like 10 types of Radiant magical powers. I'm ready to start seeing those. Please god. Give me anything more than just people standing around talking.

You will not be disappointed. There's a reason people love SA, you're still getting the groundwork for the remaining 9 novels.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2023 00:10

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

CapnAndy posted:

And also you'll get to look back on your reactions and laugh -- because I am telling you right now, everyone in this thread who's read the series is laughing their heads off at one specific thing you said.

I'm actually kinda curious, because there's a bunch of points in there that are a little premature. I mean it's like someone's a third of the way through Fellowship of the Ring and they're wondering why a dumb hobbit gardener is a main character on an important quest or why there aren't any big battles yet

was it this stuff?

quote:

The Alethi, overall, suck poo poo. I'm with Adolin, lets start dueling and murdering high princes. gently caress those guys. Elhokar also sucks so much. He needs the poo poo smacked out of him. Just complete dumbass energy. I hope he gets assassinated or something because he's so goddamn stupid.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2023 03:47

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Mordiceius posted:

I mean it's a distinction between percentages and pages/time.

I'm 19 hours into the audiobook for Way of Kings. That may only be 40ish% through the story, but that is the length of the entire Fellowship of the Rings audiobook.

So yeah, if you go with percentages, I'm just about to hit the Council of Elrond. (But I'd argue that a helluva lot more happens in the first 40% of even Fellowship of the Ring than the first 40% of Way of Kings).

yeah I was thinking about it being a medium thing too. I'm pretty sure an average person is going to read significantly faster than an audiobook plays, so your 20hrs of WoK might already even be approaching the sanderlanche if you were reading the book version. I definitely wouldn't be listening to 800 page epic fantasy novels on audiobook.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2023 15:11

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Do people not preview their posts

# ¿ Sep 18, 2023 20:26

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

I read the series once and understood the plot just fine, but it's definitely opaque.

It was an amazing and impactful read in the 2010s but I've found the optimism of the cosmere more palatable lately.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2023 19:51

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Kaladin's actual antagonist is Kaladin

# ¿ Nov 29, 2023 20:29

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Man I remember people calling her heel turn in the book thread as far back as season one. It made sense, and it was suitably subversive, but the way it was executed in the show was rear end

Tokelau All Star posted:

What is the feeling on where Stormlight 6-10 will be going? Is the "climax" of the Cosmere going to be Stormlight 10, the end of Mistborn Era 4, or something else?

Spoilers for everything up to Sunlit Man:

We know there's some interplanetary arms race going on by the time of Sunlit Man. But from the reaction of the Scadrians to Sigzil being Rosharan, I couldn't really tell if the conflict was Roshar v. Scadrial, or more of an everybody versus everybody deal.

Are we anticipating a huge time leap between Stormlight 5 and 6? It seems like Lost Metal and Rhythm of War are happening close in time to each other, if so Roshar and everywhere else have some catching up to do if the interplanetary space conflict is going to ramp up. Even more so for Threnody, Nalthis, and the Elantris planet, which Sunlit Man and Tress tell us are all in play. Then there's Yolen still out there, which Hoid tells us in Lost Metal is at that point still ahead technologically, but Scadrial is catching up quickly.

I'm excited to see how it all comes together and where it's all gonna go. And unlike ASOIAF, I have full faith that Sanderson will pull it off.

I actually just finished the Sunlit Man and was amazed at just how much he gave away about the future of the cosmere while remaining completely spoiler free. What an incredible gift to cosmere fans, as dedicated.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2024 03:18

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

I don't actually know what the answer is but I'm 99% sure it's RAFO

# ¿ Feb 6, 2024 04:38

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Yep agreed. That one's an all-timer

# ¿ Mar 3, 2024 23:29

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 21:31

acumen: Mar 17, 2005; Fun Shoe

Don't forget the character classes that cover the MMORPG holy trinity

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 23:00

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.