Brandon Sanderson

I just finished The Way Of Kings earlier today.

It is going to be a looooong time before we see this series end.

Uh huh. Hopefully things will go much faster once A Memory of Light comes out.

Sanderson has basically put out a book a year pretty consistently. I can deal with that.

I believe he intends to put out a new Stormlight book every year and a half or so once he really gets going (which he hasn't been able too yet, since he's been busy with finishing Wo T). Based on his rate of new books so far, that strikes me as entirely plausible.

I'm thinking that Renarin is secretly evil.

Things I correctly predicted:

• Kasbal being evil.
• Elkohar cutting the saddle strap.
• Jasnah not needing a soulcaster.

And a few other things I forget.

Finished Mistborn on Friday, now waiting for Way of Kings II. If I were to describe Sandersons work in a single sentence, I'd say where Tolkien made languages Sanderson makes magic.

And gods.

I'll still read the Warbreaker sequel, but it just won't be the same without Lightsong, and the ending felt more like And the Adventure Continues than Sequel Hook.

How does he do it? Each of his books is loaded with tons of awesome ideas, and he always has more of them!

edited 13th Jul '12 5:58:02 AM by Lightflame

Has a Warbreaker sequel been announced? Sanderson's already got a lot on his plate.

Yes, in the sense that it's on his agenda and he always envisioned it as a two-book arc, but probably not anytime soon - I believe he wants to get a couple of more Stormlight books and the Elantris sequel (to say nothing of finishing WOT) done before he gets to it.

So, reading through The Well of Ascension. Which other books by Sanderson are recommendable?

Way of Kings is excellent, though it's also the first book of a long series and as such it sets up a lot more than it resolves (book two is supposed to come out next fall). Warbreaker is also quite good, though it's not as epic as Mistborn. Elantris, Sanderson's first published novel, is rougher and probably my least favorite of his, but there are still some really cool ideas in it, as well as an awesome Magnificent Bastard.

Oh, yeah. That guy made me laugh out loud. "You magnificent bastard! I'm reading your book!"

Is it true that Mr. Sanderson sometimes preaches his own political beliefs in the books he writes?

I don't subscribe to Sanderson's Real Life beliefs, but have never felt particularly preached at in his works.

First book of his I read was Warbreaker, mostly because I'm a sucker for free stuff. After finishing that I went and read Mistborn and Way of Kings. Warbreaker was pretty good, and the others were even better, although the second Mistborn book was a bit slow.

Currently reading Elantris, which is kind of rough, which is explained by it being a first and all, I guess.

I have not found any overt sign of enforcement of Mormon belief in his books, in fact his universe is based on the idea of multiple gods, which I believe goes against the grain of his real-world beliefs.

I also haven't noted any preachiness *shrug* I guess it's possible his beliefs have influenced his works on terms of themes, but I never felt like he was shoving anything down my throat.

His stories all use Third Person Limited narration with a diverse cast of point-of-view characters (except for the Alcatraz books, which have a very unreliable First Person narrator). So while there are often political, philosophical, or theological opinions expressed, it doesn't get preachy since the point-of-view characters often don't agree with each other.

The only thing I've heard about Sanderson's work being preachy is that The Way Of Kings supposedly has pretty close parallels to Mormonism, but not being particularly familiar with Mormon beliefs, I don't really know what, specifically, that refers to. I can say that it certainly doesn't feel like being preached to, unlike any number of works by other authors that I've read.

Of course, The Way Of Kings is the same book that has an atheist make a priest look like a fool...

Really, the book does more to preach against Sanderson's RL faith than for it.

edited 14th Jul '12 3:27:57 PM by LizardBite

Just finished the second Alcatraz book. I gotta say, I laughed the hardest at the part where the author puts out a hit for Garth Nix.

I am an atheist and I have not found Sanderson's work to be "preachy". I think he has done a good job of not allowing his personal beliefs to bog down his writing. He has admitted that his religion does influence his writing, but honesty I don't think it's possible to write anything without your personal beliefs influencing it. He's also said he actively tries to avoid strawmen and let characters, even villains, argue as strongly and convincingly for their beliefs as they can, and I think he did quite a good job of that with his atheist character in The Way of Kings. I believe he actually lurked on atheist forums to get inspiration to make her convincing.

Can I have some help with the character pages? There's very little description, no quotes, and major unmarked spoilers. I did some work on Characters.Mistborn (they had the name of Ruin and some of it's tropes uncensored!), but it still needs some major help.

Just finished reading Warbreaker. Found it to be very enjoyable, especially with the addition of Sanderson's annotations afterward. I also read The Alloy Of Law pretty recently, which was ok- I might have enjoyed it more had I read Mistborn first (I know about the universe it is set in but haven't read it yet).

I find it really interesting how Sanderson talks a lot on his site about having certain political and religious views but trying to be balanced in presentation- probably particularly important in Warbreaker, as the message is sort of that everyone is the hero of their own life (with the corrolary that you should avoid being the villain of someone else's life- looking at you Vivenna).

Also, as someone who was a Sociology major, I like how Sanderson seems to write with a good understanding of it.

Another thing I like is Nightblood, who is a very unique take on the stock Evil Weapon that talks (surprised and pleased that Michael Moorcock gave his endorsement to Warbreaker).

I'd say my only complaint is that I thought both were a bit "cleaner" than they should have been- I don't think he needs to be Joe Abercrombie, but it could have probably been PG-13 in terms of sexual conduct and profanity, especially because they have fairly gruesome violence. Also, hard to explain, but while it's interesting how they reverse themselves, it's hard to shake the feeling that Siri is supposed to represent how women are "supposed to act" and Vivenna is a Deliberately Bad Example.

Edit- Can someone clear something up for me that confused me? While I know that Denth and Vasher are Returned- presumably the very first, were other members of Denth's crew? Specifically confused about the chronology of Arsteel's life.

edited 28th Aug '12 8:29:25 PM by Jordan