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Just finished my first reading of WoK and I'm pretty sure that is just foreshadowing something that will be revealed in a later book. I like Sanderson, I really do, but he isn't much of a writer. His dialog is so stiff, especially for the characters who are supposed to be witty. Whenever Shallan made a joke I wanted to throttle her. Being intentionally obtuse isn't comedy, it's the worst part of dealing with 8 year olds. That said I honestly can't think of a writer in any genre or medium who is better at plotting than Sanderson. The way he combines the disparate elements of a work into a climax is truly impressive. This is true for the conclusion to the Mistborn series too, I loved that conclusion. The Apex of Way of Kings may have been even better I was waiting for Kaladin and Dalinar to meet for the latter half of the book and felt so stupid for wanting him to jump the gun once I saw the Tower scene on the horizon. Overall I guess the worst thing about this book was that it hooked at the very beginning of a long series. Book ten is going to be a while...
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May 10, 2013 12:44
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Cicero posted:It's a part of the shardverse (and on the same planet as the excellent The Emperor's Soul) so just slog through. DO IT.
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May 11, 2013 01:57
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^^^^Sorry, that has to be pretty disapointing. I just read up on the Shardverse and it seems neat as a kind of wink/nod to his longtime fans but if interaction between the world's of his different series ever became a significant plot that could be real bad.
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May 12, 2013 08:28
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Is Rithmatist supposed to exist on an alternate earth or is that island chain just based off of US geography?
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Jun 6, 2013 02:28
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I "read" WoK as an audiobook; what was the final page count?
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Jun 15, 2013 19:21
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Fine, Fine! With your pages of redacted text. I'll buy Steelheart already.
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Sep 30, 2013 07:40
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So I... just finished reading the destruction of the power plant and here are my thoughts. -Ton of parallels between this crew and Kelsier's in the first Mistborn novel. Kelsier similar to Prof, Hammond similar to Abraham, Breeze similar to Cody but they all have enough unique elements to not feel like retreading old ground. - Super secret room charged with explosives is filled with negative propoganda? The only reason I can see for this is a reveal that Steelheart is actually attempting to be the lesser of two evils and while taking the wrong approach has the people's best interests at heart. The fact that Steelheart has still killed thousands of innocents makes this seem unlikely so I hope its just a piece of the puzzle that has yet to be revealed. -The frentic pace is great. Even the little breaks between action all have a propulsion to them giving the story this incredible momentum that is kind of a pain as I should be writing a paper right now instead of binging on this book. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time Brandon Sanderson contributed to a sleepless night. So yeah its pretty good. Despite having been writing for so long Sanderson's talent as an author really does seem to grow with each book. Stormlight is going to destroy WoT from a qualitative perspective.
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Sep 30, 2013 18:34
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Xachariah posted:Uh, not to be pedantic or anything but have you finished the book? Mouse over the following only if you have: Steelhearts weakness is being attacked by a person who does not fear him. The anti-propaganda was to make people fear him. Yeah I haven't finished yet but I am nearing the end. Just starting Chapter 36, Steelheart has arrived at Soldier Field. So, Megan died. How in the hell is this more Young Adult than anything else he has written? With all the perfectly perserved baby bones and everything it seems just as mature as anything else he has written. I'm really excited to find out that Steelheart's weakness and my theory of a believer being the one to pull the trigger seems doubtful since Sanderson explicitly stated it via the Professor. What was the deal with that motorcycle David sees which vanishes during the chase and now there is someone in the stands that only he notices? I'll have finished the book the next time I stop by to post any final thoughts and actually read all this redacted text.
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Sep 30, 2013 21:42
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Steelheart was a nice little action book. I should have figured with Sanderson's talent for plotting that all of the questions I came up with would be answered by books end. Not a ton of substance but really active with enough character development to make you care what happens. All in all pretty good. Still, very similar to Mistborn: The Final Empire in its construction. The only thing that really bugs me is the idea that using an epic's powers makes you become a bad guy. I use the expression bad guy here because that seems to be how the mentality is explained. You just become evil by the most conventional definition. Defining evil in and of itself is a bit wonky but to then transpose those attributed into fully formed characters requires a degree of subtly that I did not see demonstrated in this book. Hopefully this concept is expanded upon in future novels to somehow explain this blunt hammer view of human psychology. Definitely worth the retail price and the fact that the next one is only a year away is pretty neat.
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Sep 30, 2013 23:18
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Agree with you on the swearing. Made up curse words will only ever serve to pull a reader out of the reading. It's dumb and sci-fi writers need to stop using this played out tactic. Brandon, stop trying to make Slontze happen.
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Sep 30, 2013 23:24
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Yeah but the lose of empathy doesn't inhibit the logical mind that would state this is a temporary sense of disregard that will pass and I will once again be returned to a calm state. They aren't just completely stripped of inhibitions either because then all epics would behave more base and idiotic. Steelheart was smug, arrogant, and cruel in his final scenes but never unrestrained or raving mad. It just seemed more to me like they were taken over by different people then had personality traits removed or amplified
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Sep 30, 2013 23:52
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My argument against that is a person's moral compass isn't an emotional reaction that can be removed from the equation. It's integral to the framework of a human beings psyche. I can't see how it can be influenced without being force-ably changed permanently like some form of mind control, which this obviously isn't.
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Oct 1, 2013 04:16
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That was a well thought out, extremely well worded argument that has convinced me and I believe elucidated me as to the author's intent behind this idea. I think I'm on the wrong internet.
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Oct 1, 2013 09:41
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Democratic Pirate posted:His main cosmere. His Earth books will all come together as part of another cosmere. Stephen Leeds from Legion is the main character while this is just fleshing out backstories to characters his mental condition pulls out. Dammit man you know Sanderson is always on the internet! Do not contribute to his madness.
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Oct 2, 2013 06:59
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You guys are probably right that it couldn't work on TV but I would still love to see that avalanche from Hero of Ages done in animation or something. The way all those pieces fell into place made me literally giddy. It's easily my favorite Sanderson writing.
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Oct 9, 2013 12:29
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His sense of humor really can only be described as horribly lame. Still, the man has a talent for plotting that I haven't seen matched by any other writer.
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Oct 12, 2013 19:00
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I love dad jokes and bad puns but Sanderson's humor is easily the worst part of his writing. I think it has to do with the nature of a bad joke. A certain internal back and forth is required to fully expose the inadequacy of obviously bad humor and it is in the failure of a joke that the actual humor lies. When that interaction occurs on the page, worst when it is the mind of a single character, the subtle layer of acknowledgment of poor quality is stripped away. Almost like his characters genuinely believe the humor to be witty which just makes them insufferable. Maybe Sanderson is just bad at bad jokes.
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Oct 27, 2013 06:23
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As nice as it is to get access to these early chapters I've never really paced myself with Sanderson books so the wait is getting to be a little maddening. The man is an expert at plotting and drawing the readers attention. Admittedly this is a very effective sales tactic.
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Jan 26, 2014 21:54
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The UK cover looks like David Lynch's Dune mixed with medieval armor but still somehow bad.
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Jan 27, 2014 00:47
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Nope, Renarin has Knight Radiant printed on his format
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Jan 27, 2014 23:23
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These sample chapters have certainly been an improvement but Shallan's POV is still the least interesting. This rings especially true with all of the action taking place with Dalinar, Kaladin, and Adolin, who is actively becoming my favorite character. Thankfully this isn't GRRM so he may yet live.
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Jan 30, 2014 03:00
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Certain moments can feel like reading a D&D rule book and all of his characters suffered stilted speech at one time or another. Sanderson isn't perfect but I've never read anyone, in any genre, that can compare to him in terms of plotting. Its an astounding talent.
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Jan 31, 2014 03:41
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Thank you, I will definetly check that out.
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Jan 31, 2014 10:56
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Emphatically disagree. The climax of book three is the standard for the Sanderson avalanche.
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Feb 27, 2014 04:11
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I unapologetically love the avalanche. The way he fluidly ties together seemingly disparate elements is masterful.
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Feb 27, 2014 06:54
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Wow, you can certainly tell why they skipped chapter 7 for the excerpts.
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Mar 4, 2014 08:38
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Finished part two and frankly I'm astonished how much has already happened. Shallan isn't my favorite character yet but at the rate she's climbing the charts she will be in 20 more chapters
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Mar 4, 2014 22:11
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Ahhhhh, you guys read too fast.
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Mar 5, 2014 14:01
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I still haven't finished so I really shouldn't be here in the land of redacted but having just read chapter 51 I can't shake this Empire Strikes Back feeling. Tragedy feels just over the Horizon and I fear it's coming for Adolin. Also, that's totally Wit at the fair years ago with Shallan, right?
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Mar 6, 2014 11:32
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Pretty neat book. The whole series is going to be so drastically different from here on out. I'll miss the shattered plains. Reviving Jasnah was pretty lame and If Kaladin/Shallan becomes the series main romance I'll throw up. I'm thrilled about Sadeas' end, that character had no where left to go.
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Mar 8, 2014 11:54
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So obviously I now have to read the full cosmere. Warbreakers, Elantris, and Emperor's Soul are those I have yet to consume. Reading order?
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Mar 9, 2014 06:41
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Seems we have a consensus. I'll definitely be caught up by SA3.
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Mar 9, 2014 07:48
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Stormlight is supposed to be 8 more books, Mistborn 5 more, Whitesand 3, Steelheart 2, Elantris 1, Dragonsteel 7(?), and 10 other miscellaneous projects. That's around 36 books Sanderson already has a concept for. If you gave him 100 years G.R.R.M. couldn't write that. If you gave me 10 I couldn't read that. I fully expect Sanderson to have all this done in 17 years. The man doesn't even vaguely qualify as human.
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Mar 12, 2014 06:53
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7 mistb...
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Mar 12, 2014 07:44
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I'm also a little ticked with character plot protection in WoR. Szeth's death wouldn't have been shocking. His arch would have been of a principled man whose ideals had failed him driving him mad. Combine that with a final clash with Kaladin finally taking up the mantle of Radiant and you could call it a pretty satisfying death. That said I understand the need to continue Szeth as a character so why not just not kill him. Have Kaladin soul sever his hand, grab the blade, and lose Szeth in the storm where Kaladin is somewhat forced to assume he perished. Then all you have to do is have Nalan stumble across a mortally wounded Szeth instead of a dead one. No good reason to kill him and then resurrect him 3 chapters later. Jaznah's salvation was just cheap. She got stabbed in the heart essentially screaming at the reader "I know what you're thinking but she is really, totally, super dead. Honest." It's incredibly lame to bring her back after something like that and if book three doesn't provide an incredibly good reasoning of how that went down other than *handwave* "MAGIC!" I'm going to be pissed.
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Mar 12, 2014 23:43
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Agreed but then why not just not kill Szeth! It was a such dumb thing that he had to pull off a deus ex machina magic you've never heard of that only works in this extremely specific criteria that this situation just happens to fall under. If you want to use a character later don't decapitate his soul.
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Mar 13, 2014 07:38
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I'm fine with him not killing people, it's the ridiculous fake outs that are irritating. It would have been easy to make those characters' dire straits less permanent then decapitated and stabbed in the heart but instead he decided to magic away those very permanent acts. I just don't see the point.
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Mar 13, 2014 10:29
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api call girl posted:
I just assumed this was a reference to Wit
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Mar 20, 2014 06:49
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Who was Wit in Mistborn again? I feel like I blinked and I missed him.
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Mar 20, 2014 14:49
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Just finished Elantris and it was certainly his first book. A lot of things just sort of happened and I don't know that Raoden's solving the puzzle of the shoad was ever really earned so much as it had to happen for plot progression. Overall I enjoyed, as I do all of Sanderson's work, but it definitely left something to be desired. Not to mention it was a difficult to get through the early parts of the book just based on all the nothing that was happening. I'm a little agitated that didn't have a slightly more important role. Seriously, what was he even doing there? Unrelated but also curious, why did Vin blow off meeting Hoid in Hero of Ages? Sanderson says it was something Hoid did but he was only whistling.
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Mar 23, 2014 13:58
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