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Quantum Toast posted:A two-off now, but yeah. AoL isn't part of the three-Mistborn-trilogies plan. Three-off. Brandon doesn't accidentally add books to his trilogies, he accidentally adds trilogies to his series.
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Jun 3, 2014 01:15
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Speaking of The Emperor's Soul, I decided to crack it out in a couple hours before I read Warbreaker (which I'm in the middle of now). I've got to say, it was pretty dang good. The final page was one of the very few moments that Sanderson actually sort of...moved me. I can only rememeber that happening one time in Elantris Galldon reflecting on how Raoden changed him and once or twice in Mistborn, though I can't remember exactly where in those books anymore. Point is, Sanderson is a lot of fun in general, but it's nice to see he's capable of really hitting the mark emotionally sometimes. I only hope that ability continues to grow. Warbreaker so far is....well, kind of dull. I'm only about 200 pages in though. The magic system seems pretty dull, most of the characters aren't very interesting either, and the plot doesn't seem to really be going anywhere. The world feels less interesting than his other work. I'll certainley finish it, knowing how well his books can wrap up, however it's kind of a slog to get through right now, except the Lightsong parts, as well was the God-King stuff. Vasher is also somewhat interesting given that hes a total mystery of motivations at the moment, I guess. Anyway, maybe I'm just looking forward to finally finishing all his pre-stormlight works so I can finally sink my teeth into WoK so that's why I cant really get invested in Warbreaker. Who knows. Damo fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 06:15
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Damo posted:Speaking of The Emperor's Soul, I decided to crack it out in a couple hours before I read Warbreaker (which I'm in the middle of now). Emperor's Soul is probably the best thing he's ever written. It's great from the first page until the last. Not that his other stuff is bad, but his longer works tend to be back-loaded to one extent or another. The 'Sanderson Avalanche' kicks in at about the 3/4ths mark in every one of his novels. All of the pieces so painstakingly put into place topple like so many dominoes.
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Jun 3, 2014 06:19
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Quantum Toast posted:A two-off now, but yeah. AoL isn't part of the three-Mistborn-trilogies plan. Oh yeah, I forgot about the sequel. And I'd personally just read the ebook for White Sand. Can't wait a year if you have it in hand already!
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Jun 3, 2014 08:48
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I like Alloy of Law because a) there are no super-powerful mistborn b) allomancy/feruchemy combinations are pretty interesting and c) novel use of dynamite as an escape plan. That said, Wax's powers (Coinshot/storing weight) are about the closest you'll get to a mistborn, mobility wise.
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Jun 3, 2014 10:33
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ConfusedUs posted:Elantris is probably his weakest overall book. However, the Emperor's Soul is set on the same world (on another continent) and won a Hugo. It's probably his best piece to date. Well seeing as it's come so recommended I picked up Legion and The Emperor's Soul in my local bookshop today, let's see how this goes.
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Jun 3, 2014 18:50
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Tunicate posted:Three-off. Brandon doesn't accidentally add books to his trilogies, he accidentally adds trilogies to his series. See, I thought it was part f a trilogy but I didn't think it was an accidental one. That said, it's no surprise.
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Jun 4, 2014 20:39
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Finished Warbreaker. Spoilers ahead. Meh. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I liked Lightsong a lot as a character, and even found most of his "humor" tolerable. I mean, I never laughed at his jokes and puns, but neither did I really groan at them too badly, save a couple of times (the one about the privy was just stupid as hell). I felt his ultimate fate was a little bit of a let down as well. I mean, it made sense, but it also was disappointing that he basically was just around to be a heal-bot at the right moment to the right person. I really like the concept of normal people returning as gods, and wished he would have explored it a bit more through Lightsong. It seemed like all of the book was dedicated to breaking the war, which in the end felt really secondary to the conflict between Vasher/Denth, and the interesting aspects of Hallardren religion. I mean, the whole war was averted like in the last couple of pages almost as an afterthought. So the whole book was in service of a plot that in the end felt like it really fell flat. I would have much more enjoyed a story more focused on the Gods of Hallardren and the implications of worshiping people who come back to life, as opposed to some war against a northern country you meet for all of like 2 pages in the beginning. I also think that he really held way too much poo poo back and left too much poo poo unexplained for a possible 2nd novel which he might never get to. Also Awakening as a magic is easily the weakest system BS has come up with so far. I can see why the book was free. Anyway, now that I've read everything BS has wrote other than his YA stuff, I'm ready for the Stormlight books, so I'm excited for that. I might take a break for a bit before reading them though, as going through Elantris/Mistborn/Alloy/Emperor's Soul/Warbreaker makes me feel like I should take a break from Sanderson for a bit, lest I get burnt out. I'm definitely all out of patience for plucky against-the-grain princess characters. Good god man, he needs to lay off that character archetype for a bit. Also people raising their eyebrows, though thankfully he's curbed that a bit since Mistborn. Odd that my favorite book from him, a giant book writer, was Alloy of Law. I think it's mostly because the pacing wasn't so drawn out. He really likes characters sitting around doing nothing and thinking about their situation over and over. I know he says in his annotations he likes that type of stuff, but I think that it often falls into the realm of beating you over the head with poo poo out you could figure out about the character on your own, which ruins the pacing of his books. Damo fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Jun 5, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 22:40
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What exactly do you think [spoiler] is for? 
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Jun 5, 2014 23:08
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Considering the book is like, 5+ years old (and free) and this is the Brandon Sanderson thread in which it has already been argued to death that you shouldn't have to spoiler posts for books over like a year old, I thought it would be easier to just warn someone to skip my post instead of having to [spoiler] a dozen separate parts of my post. At least I warned for spoilers at the top, which apparently according to the forum rules I didn't even have to do. edit: Here's the related rule in the Book Barn's rules thread, since you obviously aren't familiar with it. quote:4) Spoiler Policy: For most threads, please use spoiler tags for any major plot events no matter how old the book is, unless it's common knowledge (Romeo and Juliet kill themselves?!?) or if you're in a discussion thread for people who have read that specific author or book. If you *are* in a discussion thread for a specific author, book, or series, use spoiler tags for anything that's been out less than about six months to a year. So if we followed what you are saying, literally every page of this thread would look like a redacted CIA document. Not exactly good for discussion. Damo fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Jun 5, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 23:19
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Damo posted:I should take a break from Sanderson for a bit, lest I get burnt out. I'm definitely all out of patience for plucky against-the-grain princess characters. Good god man, he needs to lay off that character archetype for a bit.
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Jun 6, 2014 00:29
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Damo posted:I mean, the whole war was averted like in the last couple of pages almost as an afterthought. So the whole book was in service of a plot that in the end felt like it really fell flat. This is how I feel about basically all of Sanderson's stuff. In Warbreaker. the entire big war was seemingly averted at the last minute cause the guy went "Oh, here's my ancient invincible army, you can have it". In Elantris, the big end war was basically averted because at the last minute they all went "Oh, we have our powers back now and already know how to use them". Hero of Ages had "Oh, it's actually an entire army of atium mistings!" The Way of Kings sets up the betrayal of Dalinar and then Kaladin goes full anime and saves them. And then Kaladin does it again in Words of Radiance. All of his endings seem to end up in a deus-ex-machina and so they all pretty much fall flat at the ending.
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Jun 6, 2014 01:53
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Khizan posted:This is how I feel about basically all of Sanderson's stuff. In Warbreaker. the entire big war was seemingly averted at the last minute cause the guy went "Oh, here's my ancient invincible army, you can have it". In Elantris, the big end war was basically averted because at the last minute they all went "Oh, we have our powers back now and already know how to use them". Hero of Ages had "Oh, it's actually an entire army of atium mistings!" The Way of Kings sets up the betrayal of Dalinar and then Kaladin goes full anime and saves them. And then Kaladin does it again in Words of Radiance. That's not really what happened in Words of Radiance. I mean yeah Kaladin did go full anime at the end but the only one he fought was the Assassin. The Parshendi army was fought with the human army and they only got out by the skin of their teeth from the two stormwalls colliding.
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Jun 6, 2014 02:12
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My wording was unclear. I meant that one in a more generic "Kaladin went full anime and saved the day" kind of way.
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Jun 6, 2014 02:19
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Khizan posted:My wording was unclear. I meant that one in a more generic "Kaladin went full anime and saved the day" kind of way. But he didn't really save the day, he just saved Dalinar. In Way of Kings he gets all of the bridges reassigned to Dalinar which effectively saves all of their lives. If he hadn't been there in WoR one more guy would've died (albeit with a large focus on the story but that's beside the point) and the rest of the army probably would've made it to safety.
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Jun 6, 2014 02:48
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computer parts posted:But he didn't really save the day, he just saved Dalinar. In Way of Kings he gets all of the bridges reassigned to Dalinar which effectively saves all of their lives. If he hadn't been there in WoR one more guy would've died (albeit with a large focus on the story but that's beside the point) and the rest of the army probably would've made it to safety. He saved Dalinars entire army, by turning back with his bridge when all the rest of Sadeas' army ran off. I wouldn't say he went full anime at that point, though.
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Jun 6, 2014 03:47
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After doing that he pulled an entire flight of arrows into his shield to save the bridge before exploding with light and vaulting the chasm to fight them off alone so that the bridge could be pushed across safely, and then saving Dalinar by besting an enemy Shardbearer with a crappy wooden spear That's pretty much going full anime. And saving Dalinar from the Assassin counts as saving the day, since he's the de facto leader of the Alethi.
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Jun 6, 2014 03:58
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Damo posted:I can see why the book was free. Anyway, now that I've read everything BS has wrote other than his YA stuff, I'm ready for the Stormlight books, so I'm excited for that. You'll be pretty glad you made the effort to go through Warbreaker by the time you complete Words of Radiance. Enjoy them!
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Jun 6, 2014 09:36
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So... what you want is a novel where the main characters do nothing to resolve the story, because that would be too much like japanese cartoons? The ending of Warbreaker is terrible though. That book has more holes in it than a sponge. Nor is it helped by Sanderson's lackluster descriptive prose. Colour was a huge thing in the book, and there was something about being in the tropics (it didn't seem to come up); but I have no idea what the world of Warbreaker actually looks like. The entire thing takes place in grey corridors and small lawns, with the occasional, "This room is orange!". mossyfisk fucked around with this message at 10:23 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 10:19
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Khizan posted:My wording was unclear. I meant that one in a more generic "Kaladin went full anime and saved the day" kind of way. But this is all books?! Like 90% of all literature (or at least fiction) has somebody either saving the day or doing something to avert an event or change an outcome. I am not sure what point you are trying to make by saying Sanderson does it as well? Like a staple of writing is to have a protagonist. Do you mean books shouldn't be written with any protagonists?
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Jun 6, 2014 10:28
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It's not that Sanderson always has somebody saving the day, it's that they always seem to do it by pulling a day saving rabbit out of their hat at the very end of the book. It's like somebody at the end of the book goes "Oh, that's not right" and pulls a switch to fix the problem.
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Jun 6, 2014 10:47
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Khizan posted:It's not that Sanderson always has somebody saving the day, it's that they always seem to do it by pulling a day saving rabbit out of their hat at the very end of the book. It's like somebody at the end of the book goes "Oh, that's not right" and pulls a switch to fix the problem. I don't really think this is a fair characterization, especially of what happens in the Stormlight books. First of all, you've had Szeth and other characters in the interstitial chapters doing poo poo like this during the entire series. Second, Kaladin himself already killed a Shardbearer at one point in his past with nothing but a spear. Third, Kaladin's stormlight abilities ramp up rather obviously towards some crazy poo poo happening. So it's not so much a rabbit out of the hat as it is some other metaphor that does not entail non-sequitur surprise. He may be going full anime but there's a clear precedent for people doing this in the books and a pretty obvious sequence of events leading up to Kaladin becoming Goku.
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Jun 6, 2014 15:47
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Khizan posted:It's not that Sanderson always has somebody saving the day, it's that they always seem to do it by pulling a day saving rabbit out of their hat at the very end of the book. It's like somebody at the end of the book goes "Oh, that's not right" and pulls a switch to fix the problem. I really disagree. I don't at all feel like the ending of any of his books is a "rabbit out of a hat" because the entire book has been explaining the magic system to the point where each resolution is feasible.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:54
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Gadani posted:I really disagree. I don't at all feel like the ending of any of his books is a "rabbit out of a hat" because the entire book has been explaining the magic system to the point where each resolution is feasible. I prefer my books to have no conflict in them and the resolution of the plot to be obvious from page 1. Any character growth is or expectations that haven't been set from the start is right out.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:52
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Khizan posted:It's not that Sanderson always has somebody saving the day, it's that they always seem to do it by pulling a day saving rabbit out of their hat at the very end of the book. It's like somebody at the end of the book goes "Oh, that's not right" and pulls a switch to fix the problem. I disagree there. Sanderson's Laws of Magic disagree too. He's very clearly said that he personally ranks at about 80% hard magic and talks about how he likes to build an understanding of the magic system so that he can show the main character coming up with an innovative idea utilizing their magic to save the day. I feel like he generally builds up his books in order for the character to do something one hadn't thought of before with the magic system. Vin using coins to "fly" comes to mind. Here's a small quote from Sanderson about some of this: "I consider my own magic systems to be perhaps 80% hard, maybe a bit more. My own paradigm is to develop a complicated magic system which can be explained as simply as possible, but which has a lot of background and ‘behind the scenes’ rules. Many of these workings don’t get explained in the books, particularly at the first. The characters have some good understanding of the magic, but they rarely understand its complete form. This is partially because I treat my magics like sciences, and I don’t believe that we will ever completely understand all of the laws of science. Partially, also, I do this so that I can have discoveries and revelations the novels. I like mystery more than I like mysticism." Taken from here.
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Jun 7, 2014 09:25
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Yeah, I feel like almost every ending he's had has felt earned. Warbreaker is probably the weakest of them, but even that was earned. Lightsong learned what was being hidden from everyone, realizes that his God Breath whatever is necessary to save everyone, and uses it. Susebron learns about the lifeless army from the guy who made it and uses it to stop a war. The only thing that was a little too subtle was the Pahn Kahl being pissy after 300 years. In Mistborn, Vin learns how to survive in creative ways from an early age. She's also not stupid. Slap on being an extremely strong mistborn on top of that AFTER she learned her street smarts and creativity, and you've got a recipe for someone who can pull off some poo poo. Everything Kaladin did in both Stormlight books leads to where he is now. He earns his power. It just so happens that his power is super anime. Jasnah and Shallan both have some pretty incredible power as well, it's just not quite as flashy.
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Jun 7, 2014 11:20
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Kruller posted:Everything Kaladin did in both Stormlight books leads to where he is now. He earns his power. It just so happens that his power is super anime. Jasnah and Shallan both have some pretty incredible power as well, it's just not quite as flashy. Oh, I don't know, a lightning bolt turning dudes to crystal is pretty bad-rear end, and if you can think of a way to get more flashy than lightning and crystals, I'd like to hear it. Those two are going to get up to some seriously cool stuff, and I can't wait.
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Jun 9, 2014 08:44
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wellwhoopdedooo posted:Oh, I don't know, a lightning bolt turning dudes to crystal is pretty bad-rear end, and if you can think of a way to get more flashy than lightning and crystals, I'd like to hear it. Yeah but since they wear dresses its not Anime, to the true anime-hater dresses are close enough to traditional wizard robes to fall into the not-anime side of things.
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Jun 10, 2014 11:44
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Speaking of partners, Renarin and the Stormfather should get together and just proclaim DOOOOOM all the time.
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Jun 10, 2014 13:59
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TOR has some Q&A from Sanderson on their site, with some interesting bitsBrandon Sanderson posted:Would an Awakener be able to awaken a corpse that was soulcast into stone more easily because it used to be living, thereby being able to create lifeless similar to Kalad’s Phantoms without having bones in the framework?
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Jun 10, 2014 21:03
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He also said that we've met a few worldhoppers from Roshar in his other works.
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Jun 10, 2014 21:22
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Democratic Pirate posted:He also said that we've met a few worldhoppers from Roshar in his other works. Aw great. Now I have to read EVERY LAST BOOK ALL OVER AGAIN. I mean-- Aww, great! Now I'm gonna read every last book all over again!
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Jun 11, 2014 04:47
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wellwhoopdedooo posted:Oh, I don't know, a lightning bolt turning dudes to crystal is pretty bad-rear end, and if you can think of a way to get more flashy than lightning and crystals, I'd like to hear it. Seems rather inefficient, though. Major overkill in terms of Stormlight usage. quote:Those two are going to get up to some seriously cool stuff, and I can't wait. Sure.
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Jun 11, 2014 04:58
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api call girl posted:Seems rather inefficient, though. Major overkill in terms of Stormlight usage. Stormlight scarcity is not much of a problem at the moment in Roshar, because nothing except the occasional soulcaster uses it. Of course, when all the radiants come back that will change...
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Jun 11, 2014 05:36
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Lobsterpillar posted:Stormlight scarcity is not much of a problem at the moment in Roshar, because nothing except the occasional soulcaster uses it. Of course, when all the radiants come back that will change... There was that one girl that could turn food into Stormlight. That will probably factor in to how the Radiants get all their Stormlight.
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Jun 11, 2014 15:04
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VegasShirtGuy posted:There was that one girl that could turn food into Stormlight. That will probably factor in to how the Radiants get all their Stormlight. Yeah but that was the old magic who's effects are unpredictable. With regards to the old magic a thought struck me on a read through of way of kings. We only Dalinar sought the old magic and that resulted in him losing memory of his wife, which seems obviously to be the curse, but what if he sought the old magic to ease the pain of her loss, taking all memory of her away seems like a classic dick genie move.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:20
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Rumda posted:With regards to the old magic a thought struck me on a read through of way of kings. We only Dalinar sought the old magic and that resulted in him losing memory of his wife, which seems obviously to be the curse, but what if he sought the old magic to ease the pain of her loss, taking all memory of her away seems like a classic dick genie move. Fairly certain there was a Word of Sanderson answer on that about the curse being unrelated to the benefit. e: wrt Dalinar specifically. But I could be misremembering! Clockwork Gadget fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 20:08
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Clockwork Gadget posted:Fairly certain there was a Word of Sanderson answer on that about the curse being unrelated to the benefit. My point is that the memory excision WAS the benefit.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:24
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Rumda posted:My point is that the memory excision WAS the benefit. So what's his curse? The visions?
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Jun 11, 2014 21:15
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ConfusedUs posted:So what's his curse? The visions? I don't think so Dalinar said he already knew both the curse and boon...
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Jun 11, 2014 21:17
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