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Mel Mudkiper posted:Hi all I saw this dude has a new book out and its 1200 pages long and what the gently caress could a 1200 page book possibly be about Idk about his new book but his famously huge books The Stormlight Archives are fantasy. But if you're not a fantasy reader normally (I'm not) don't let that turn you away. It's incredibly intricate and engaging world building around amazingly rich (and flawed) characters. It's fantasy so there is magic, but the way the author treats it make the magic more like physical laws with really well-defined limits. For me personally this makes it a lot less eye rolly and more rewarding, as people aren't just casting spells or what have you, but doing things with very specific effects that the reader understands. But the best part is just the characters and the story arcs. The author does a great job doing really really long buildups with incredibly rewarding payoffs. And stories that leave you wanting more with leaving you hanging on lame cliffhangers. Anyway I'm terrible at reviewing books but these books are great and you should read them.
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Nov 6, 2018 05:41
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Hi all I saw this dude has a new book out and its 1200 pages long and what the gently caress could a 1200 page book possibly be about about 3 pounds, 5 ounces
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Nov 6, 2018 06:12
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Hi all I saw this dude has a new book out and its 1200 pages long and what the gently caress could a 1200 page book possibly be about you know those things they used to print called telephone books? its like that but the names all have apostrophes in unexpected places
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Nov 6, 2018 07:27
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Hi all I saw this dude has a new book out and its 1200 pages long and what the gently caress could a 1200 page book possibly be about Also yeah looks like Skyward is out today
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Nov 6, 2018 10:58
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I mean no poo poo its fantasy it has a lady wizard on the cover I mean more what could he possibly be producing narratively that necessitates being 1200 pages long
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Nov 6, 2018 15:35
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RAFO
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Nov 6, 2018 15:41
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Who loving cares? Some people like it, some don't and some fall in the middle. Word count is such a weird thing to fixate on. I mean, you're no BoL, but drat this is bordering on "you're enjoying it wrong"
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Nov 6, 2018 15:43
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I mean no poo poo its fantasy it has a lady wizard on the cover I mean more what could he possibly be producing narratively that necessitates being 1200 pages long how does anyone even know that many words? it's crazy dude
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Nov 6, 2018 15:50
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We’re 3,500 pages into a 15,000 page series that’s part of a larger 30,000 page connected universe. If you want a go/no-go for Sandersons writing just pick up The Emperors Soul. It’s short. Then when you enjoy that start on the big books.
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Nov 6, 2018 15:54
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I mean no poo poo its fantasy it has a lady wizard on the cover I mean more what could he possibly be producing narratively that necessitates being 1200 pages long  What necessitates Wheel of Time being 4,410,036 words long
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Nov 6, 2018 16:26
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It's a big ol' world with lots of poo poo going on. It's true that the pacing is pretty 'deliberate', though, and that's not to everyone's tastes. If you're the kind of person who likes reading random rear end articles on wikipedia you'll probably like it, if not then you probably won't.
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Nov 6, 2018 16:34
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Sab669 posted:
You can’t just slam straight into a harem ending dude! You need hundreds of pages of misunderstandings and teasing to build the tension perfectly so the only acceptable ending is one man boinking three women.
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Nov 6, 2018 16:35
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HidaO-Win posted:You can’t just slam straight into a harem ending dude! You need hundreds of pages of misunderstandings and teasing to build the tension perfectly so the only acceptable ending is one man boinking three women. I've seen lots of videos on the internet that would say otherwise 
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Nov 6, 2018 16:41
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Sab669 posted:
What books do you read? Why are they the size they are? Why isn't Game of Thrones a 2 hour movie? Here's the WoT condensed: The world doesn't end. FYI, that is spoiled in the first chapter in every book, so don't feel bad if you accidentally read it. Stormlight so far: Suck it up, hero Mistborn: Burn it all
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Nov 6, 2018 16:48
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i've been listening to the wax/wayne audiobooks at my gf's behest after taking a few years to make it through mistborn and i've read nothing else from sanderson i'm on bands of mourning now. only got one question really: does brandon sanderson want to gently caress melaan?
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Nov 6, 2018 17:16
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I just made it through book 5 of WoT, the one where Nynaeve and Elayne join the circus. These books really didn't need this many words.
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Nov 6, 2018 17:26
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hot date tonight! posted:I just made it through book 5 of WoT, the one where Nynaeve and Elayne join the circus. These books really didn't need this many words.  That was only 3 books ago for me, but I totally forgot about that.
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Nov 6, 2018 17:40
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Big Bowie Bonanza posted:i'm on bands of mourning now. only got one question really: does brandon sanderson want to gently caress melaan? is that really a question
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Nov 6, 2018 18:18
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Proteus Jones posted:Who loving cares? Some people like it, some don't and some fall in the middle. Word count is such a weird thing to fixate on. I mean, you're no BoL, but drat this is bordering on "you're enjoying it wrong" Let me clarify I am not trying to insult the book. I legitimately do not know what the book could contain that would make it that long. I mean, the book is as long as War and Peace which has something like 200+ named characters
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Nov 6, 2018 18:23
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Let me clarify think about like.. a story you have read. now put more things in it
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Nov 6, 2018 18:28
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eke out posted:is that really a question true there's no question about it
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Nov 6, 2018 18:32
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Let me clarify A lot of characters, a lot of magic, and a lot of world building. Like not even trying to be a dick I don't know how anyone is supposed to answer this.
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Nov 6, 2018 18:53
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Let me clarify The Wheel of Time has 2782 named characters, 147 have a PoV. Most names don't really matter, but quite often the people that appear early in the series come up again.
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Nov 6, 2018 19:00
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Let me clarify A lot of things happen. A lot of character growth. A lot of leaving you the reader wanting more, and wanting answers to an ever growing list of big important questions, and wanting Shallan to just get angry and rage murder some evil punks.
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Nov 6, 2018 19:03
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I'm genuinely surprised that really long books can be an alien concept to someone. Like there are TV series that have 200+ episodes, so can't books have 1500 pages or 20 books in a series?
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Nov 6, 2018 19:14
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enigma105 posted:The Wheel of Time has 2782 named characters, 147 have a PoV.  And a bunch of them have aliases they go by, which is something that confuses me all the time.
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Nov 6, 2018 19:16
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ya after reading One Piece its like, of course its long. it has to be that long or it wouldnt be perfect
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Nov 6, 2018 19:16
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Similarly: https://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/amazons-the-wheel-of-time-series-to-be-328-seasons-long/
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Nov 6, 2018 19:39
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SynthesisAlpha posted:I'm genuinely surprised that really long books can be an alien concept to someone. Like there are TV series that have 200+ episodes, so can't books have 1500 pages or 20 books in a series? Like I guess the main thing I am curious about is that do like, 300 things happen in every book or do only like five things happen very slowly
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Nov 6, 2018 19:50
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Like I guess the main thing I am curious about is that do like, 300 things happen in every book or do only like five things happen very slowly Depends how you classify a thing
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Nov 6, 2018 19:54
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Like I guess the main thing I am curious about is that do like, 300 things happen in every book or do only like five things happen very slowly Plotting/outlining is arguably Sanderson's greatest strength, today. Some of his early works suffered a bit, but Stormlight is firing on all cylinders. Stuff happens. There are at least three main plots in any Stormlight book. There's the A plot: whatever the main character of the book is up to. There's the B plot: the impending apocalypse. Usually, but not always, involves one of about five or six other very important characters, some of which may have had an A plot of their own in an earlier book, or are planned to be the A plot of a later one. There's the C plot: flashbacks of the main character's earlier life. Plot A is very tightly interwoven with B and C. Plots B and C sometimes weave together a bit, but are mostly there in relation to A rather than each other. Every plot has its own peaks and valleys. Some of them are big climaxes. All of them have a big thing in the middle and end of the story; the big moments are nicely spaced out. Plus there's a bazillion little things that happen along the way.
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Nov 6, 2018 20:03
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ConfusedUs posted:Plotting/outlining is arguably Sanderson's greatest strength, today. Some of his early works suffered a bit, but Stormlight is firing on all cylinders. Stuff happens. And also Plots D-Z, which are the interlude chapters that are generally "separate" little side-stories that mostly serve only to expand on the world at large with no, or minimal, impact on Plots A-C so far. Like there's probably what, 10-15 interludes per book?
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Nov 6, 2018 20:10
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Sab669 posted:And also Plots D-Z, which are the interlude chapters that are generally "separate" little side-stories that mostly serve only to expand on the world at large with no, or minimal, impact on Plots A-C so far. Yeah those are part of those "bazillion little things".
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Nov 6, 2018 20:23
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Like I guess the main thing I am curious about is that do like, 300 things happen in every book or do only like five things happen very slowly Do you like world building that have really nothing to do with the narrative? Because Sanderson does.
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Nov 6, 2018 20:30
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Like I guess the main thing I am curious about is that do like, 300 things happen in every book or do only like five things happen very slowly Just like any good tv show, there are chapters that move the plot forward, chapters that focus on character interactions, and chapters for foreshadowing or introduction of new elements/characters. The stormlight books also have large chunks for flashbacks for the book's main PoV character and interludes that sprinkle minor characters and miniplots that are happening around the world.
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Nov 6, 2018 20:41
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CharlestheHammer posted:Do you like world building that have really nothing to do with the narrative? Because Sanderson does. Immediately to do with the narrative, because hints of what other parts of the world are doing often become the foundation for important plots later. All sorts of details end up being important, though some are "blink and you'll miss it" references that explain things going on elsewhere in the novel
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Nov 6, 2018 22:34
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The chick cliff diving off the giant elephant is one of my favorite side moments even if it has no bearing on the plot for another book.
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Nov 6, 2018 22:37
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M_Gargantua posted:The chick cliff diving off the giant elephant is one of my favorite side moments even if it has no bearing on the plot for another book.
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Nov 7, 2018 00:04
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bitprophet posted:The what now? It was an island-sized greatshell, not an elephant. But this: http://stormlightarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Words_of_Radiance:_Interlude_3
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Nov 7, 2018 00:16
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bitprophet posted:The what now? One of the Interludes chapters has Rysn, a character apprenticing as a trader. The master merchant she's apprenticed to gets really sick and she has to cover the negotiations for a huge make or break trade for him, and his advice is to "be bold" because those traders favored boldness. She goes up the top of their living mountain (a titanic crab monster with a literal mountain in its back walking through a shallow sea), she argues with their notoriously strongest trader but fails, she boldly goes over his head to their king, those negotiations go poorly, and in a last ditch effort to "be bold" decides to jump off the side of a hundred foot cliff dangling from a rope to talk to the crab monster as an even higher authority. Which worked, except the rope snapped and her legs were broken. It was a training wheels setup by her master faking his illness, but ultimate successful in that not only did they get the incredibly rare thing he was after, the corpse of a little crab thing that eats magic, the mountain was so impressed it gave her a living one. A book later in another interlude, it's crucial in saving her life and setting events that allow the good guys to win a huge and seemingly inwinnable battle Post-Oathbringer speculation : I'm hoping she becomes a Knight Radiant at some point, and if so she's likely to heal her paralysis because her identity is still of her being able to walk, as seen by her grabbing the chair arms to meet her babsk despite being paralyzed for months. Though I think it's cool to have a disabled POV character too, one whose handicap doesn't define them or alter their mental self image
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Nov 7, 2018 00:24
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