All things Brandon Sanderson

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Arative

Arative

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Aaron said:
So, I have somehow managed to go through life never having heard of this guy until today. But from what I have seen from 5 minutes of Googling he seems pretty interesting, especially his current fantasy series. So, instead of wading through 45 pages of shit, is anyone here willing to give me a very quick rundown on the pros and cons of this series? Is it worth reading or is it trash? What sort of people like it, who hates it? Just a quick hint at if this is something I should take a look at or not.
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The books in the cosmere which is his main body of work is planned to have 37 books and probably a lot of short stories and novellas. The cosmere starts with elantris, then warbreaker, then the mistborn series, then the stormlight archives, with some era 2 mistborn books. It's not really necessary to read all the cosmere books since the early books really just have easter eggs in them. Reading them order you can see his growth as an author. The cosmere is a pretty ambitious idea.

Most of his other books are more YA geared and I haven't read too many of those except for the reckoners series.
 
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V

velk

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Aaron said:
So, I have somehow managed to go through life never having heard of this guy until today. But from what I have seen from 5 minutes of Googling he seems pretty interesting, especially his current fantasy series. So, instead of wading through 45 pages of shit, is anyone here willing to give me a very quick rundown on the pros and cons of this series? Is it worth reading or is it trash? What sort of people like it, who hates it? Just a quick hint at if this is something I should take a look at or not.
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He has a few series, all of which I rate at least 'good'. The stormlight archive books are the most well known, and are high fantasy, some of his best work and a one of the greats in the field, in my opinion.

Pros include a fantastically detailed and original world, great action with interesting and diverse characters and clever plot. Cons include some characters that really need a slap on the back of the head for being a dumbass ( hello Shallan ! ;p ), and being very long. Length isn't a con for everyone, but it does mean that slow setup scenes can be longer than some normal books.

His other work is well worth checking out though - I particularly like Legion.
 
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Randin

Randin

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Each series in the Cosmere books takes place on a different world in the same universe. For the most part, this fact only shows up in some easter eggs (there's a world-hopping character who pops up in every book, and the various magic systems have a common foundation), although the Stormlight series has it show up more prominently. So if you want to go all-in on these books, it makes sense to read all the others before Stormlight, so you can spot it.

Beyond that, the big thing to mention is the magic. This fucker's an endless font of interesting magic systems, with each setting having at least one (and usually more) fleshed out and unique system of magic that plays a prominent role in the story. I'd put the magic systems at the top of the list of the selling points of Sanderson's books.

There also just generally good reads, although Sanderson is one of those authors that very clearly gets better the further he goes along. But I still find even the "weakest" books to be good.
 
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Aaron

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Thanks to those who replied to my question. I'll need to take a look at this.
 
zzeris

zzeris

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Man0warr said:
Unique magic systems are his shtick. They are pretty interesting in every series.
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This is his shtick but his biggest selling point has to be how prolific he writes. As mentioned, even his weaker books are solid reads, and he is constantly pushing out a ton of content. Unlike other prolific authors, like Jim Butcher, his stuff is always enjoyable. Butcher has two good series and Dresden is getting extremely long in the tooth. Most authors just run out of good ideas. Sanderson will probably die before he does.
 
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slippery

slippery

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I think the fact that he's willing to be like no this isn't working and not push something out is a great thing.

I feel like his smaller stuff is better quality though. I feel like he's gotten carried away with world building in Stormlight.
 
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Rod-138

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Just finished it. Liked it, but I’m annoyed at this writing style of chapter for x. Now Y. Now Z. Now some random guy gets a chapter. And another rando. Ok back to X.

I think my brain just prefers a less broken up story and instead of adding perspective with all of the characters, it kind of just creates 6-8 characters that all have this ‘my background is super fucked up and difficult’ back story. You feel for the first one or two, but after a while it just feels like the norm.

I felt similarly with Mistborn towards the middle of the series- he does a better job when the story stays smaller, then tries to launch it into epicness and starts to lose a lot of feels. Never go full Matrix!

Still cool book
 
Needless

Needless

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I shoulda have went back and read WoR again before Oathbringer, i keep picturing Moash as the fucking inquisitor pov from mistborn. Moash.. Marsh.. reeeeeeee

I completely forgot who or what this character even was
 
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Malkav

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Rod-138 said:
Just finished it. Liked it, but I’m annoyed at this writing style of chapter for x. Now Y. Now Z. Now some random guy gets a chapter. And another rando. Ok back to X.

I think my brain just prefers a less broken up story and instead of adding perspective with all of the characters, it kind of just creates 6-8 characters that all have this ‘my background is super fucked up and difficult’ back story. You feel for the first one or two, but after a while it just feels like the norm.

I felt similarly with Mistborn towards the middle of the series- he does a better job when the story stays smaller, then tries to launch it into epicness and starts to lose a lot of feels. Never go full Matrix!

Still cool book
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It's nowhere as fragmented as George RR Martin though. Couldn't stand it in GoT. Here at least you have like 2 major / 2 minor POV for each part of the book and the lesser POV in interludes between parts. It still feels very structured.

Needless said:
I shoulda have went back and read WoR again before Oathbringer, i keep picturing Moash as the fucking inquisitor pov from mistborn. Moash.. Marsh.. reeeeeeee

I completely forgot who or what this character even was
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He is a god damn asshole that's what he is.
 
Needless

Needless

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Hahah i should go back and recall the dumb shit he's done, i legit don't remember much of TWOK or WoR... those 7+ and 4 year gaps = RIP memory
 
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Needless

Needless

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Took like 3 months but i finally finished Oathbringer lol

would i be better off reading Warbreaker or starting the wax & wayne series next?
 
Szeth

Szeth

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Did you read the first set of mistborn books? I most recently did warbreaker but it was more to get backstory for the shard hoppers than anything else.
 
dyadestrant

dyadestrant

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I'm struggling to get through Oathbringer. I loved WoK and WoR, but Oathbringer has been more annoying than enjoyable.

Shallan has become irritating as fuck. I remember liking her character before, but her faux-emo persona-shifting is cringy. It's not even just her - all of the main PoV characters are grating this time around. I never thought like this during the other books and enjoyed everyone, but something changed for me because they all seem tropey and one-note. Maybe they always were and I simply didn't care enough to notice in WoK and WoR.

I'm only about 40% in and I'll finish it, but man, I'm pretty disappointed that I'm not liking it so far considering how excited I was for it.
 
Needless

Needless

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I found it picked up around 55% or so, but yeah.. around that part; the book really doesn't have much going for it heh
 
Kovaks

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Listened to the graphic audio for mistborn 5 and 6 annd really loved the format, some great voice actors too, they actually improve Sanderson's so-so dialogue. Gonna go back annd redo first 3 now, listening to them. Way better than the audio books.
 
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Zindan

Zindan

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Graphic audio books? What is that? Using a group of voice actors?
 
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