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A friend of mine who likes a lot of the same books just finished and said he had mixed feelings. The action and word building was good, but he said it read sort of like a humorless Malazan Book of the Fallen. I love me an epic fantasy series but is it really that devoid of light hearted scenes? One of the best things about Malazan is that while some of the humor was a little on the corny 'he talks funny' side, it was amusing and timely enough to break up otherwise heavy storylines. Is that not the case here and if so, how do you see that impacting the series? Even Joel Ambercrombies First Law series, some of the darkest fantasy I've read, had the odd humorous exchange written in. I don't think I can do 8k pages devoid of comic relief.
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Nov 16, 2010 02:47
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cheese posted:A friend of mine who likes a lot of the same books just finished and said he had mixed feelings. The action and word building was good, but he said it read sort of like a humorless Malazan Book of the Fallen. I love me an epic fantasy series but is it really that devoid of light hearted scenes? One of the best things about Malazan is that while some of the humor was a little on the corny 'he talks funny' side, it was amusing and timely enough to break up otherwise heavy storylines. Is that not the case here and if so, how do you see that impacting the series? Even Joel Ambercrombies First Law series, some of the darkest fantasy I've read, had the odd humorous exchange written in. I don't think I can do 8k pages devoid of comic relief. The main story is pretty serious, but there are interludes between each of the four main parts that contain some more light-hearted bits.
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Nov 16, 2010 02:53
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cheese posted:A friend of mine who likes a lot of the same books just finished and said he had mixed feelings. The action and word building was good, but he said it read sort of like a humorless Malazan Book of the Fallen. I love me an epic fantasy series but is it really that devoid of light hearted scenes? One of the best things about Malazan is that while some of the humor was a little on the corny 'he talks funny' side, it was amusing and timely enough to break up otherwise heavy storylines. Is that not the case here and if so, how do you see that impacting the series? Even Joel Ambercrombies First Law series, some of the darkest fantasy I've read, had the odd humorous exchange written in. I don't think I can do 8k pages devoid of comic relief. There's quite a bit of dry whit and snarky one liners. It's not a funny-ha-ha series since the setting is very bleak. It's not quite grimdark Warhamer40k, but if you sit back and look at how the world and culture are going, it's not a happy place.
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Nov 16, 2010 02:55
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cheese posted:A friend of mine who likes a lot of the same books just finished and said he had mixed feelings. The action and word building was good, but he said it read sort of like a humorless Malazan Book of the Fallen. I love me an epic fantasy series but is it really that devoid of light hearted scenes? One of the best things about Malazan is that while some of the humor was a little on the corny 'he talks funny' side, it was amusing and timely enough to break up otherwise heavy storylines. Is that not the case here and if so, how do you see that impacting the series? Even Joel Ambercrombies First Law series, some of the darkest fantasy I've read, had the odd humorous exchange written in. I don't think I can do 8k pages devoid of comic relief. I'm a little over half way and it's not that depressing. Three of the four distinct storylines have a decent bit of comic relief so far, only the Dalinar chapters usually go by without any, and that's not a rule. The "safehand" talk really isn't as bad as some people were complaining about. It's not like Robert Jordan's dress-smoothing fetish, it actually serves a purpose. It's brought up in the first part to ensure that the reader understands what the hell a safe hand, and a safe pouch, is. My suggestion: Read the mistborn trilogy, and if the third one is too bleak for you to enjoy you probably won't like The Way Of Kings.
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Nov 16, 2010 04:47
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combat_potato posted:I saw that too and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I can only hope that the tentative release date of late 2012 hasn't been pushed back further. I seriously lack patience (besides this is a 10 book series, at that pace it'd take 18 years to finish). It will be, probably. He's pushing back WoT a couple months to reread the whole series, so figure on early 2013
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Nov 16, 2010 06:23
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cheese posted:A friend of mine who likes a lot of the same books just finished and said he had mixed feelings. The action and word building was good, but he said it read sort of like a humorless Malazan Book of the Fallen. I love me an epic fantasy series but is it really that devoid of light hearted scenes? One of the best things about Malazan is that while some of the humor was a little on the corny 'he talks funny' side, it was amusing and timely enough to break up otherwise heavy storylines. Is that not the case here and if so, how do you see that impacting the series? Even Joel Ambercrombies First Law series, some of the darkest fantasy I've read, had the odd humorous exchange written in. I don't think I can do 8k pages devoid of comic relief. Well, this book actually makes sense by itself, so I dunno where he got the Malazan comparison from.  Seriously, though, I would consider the First Law to be significantly darker than this, so if you were OK with that, you'll probably be OK with this. The suggestion to read the Mistborn series first is a good one, though, if you're still on the fence. Keep in mind, though, that this book is the first in a planned 10-book series, so while it does have its own story arc and a lot of things do happen in it, it's basically a long prologue.
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Nov 16, 2010 07:28
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Kreeblah posted:Well, this book actually makes sense by itself, so I dunno where he got the Malazan comparison from. Emptyquoting this. Yeah, the world in TWoK is pretty bleak, but there's plenty of good in it. You've got some very strong characters and a lot of hope being thrown around (even if that hope is repeatedly crushed). It's about very small forces of good fighting like mad against the beginnings of what looks to be a hideously apocalyptic future, even if they don't know that's what they're doing. The lack of one-liners and silly accents doesn't mean it's all black and depressing, it just means the light-heartedness comes from other sources (the hope I mentioned earlier). That sounds a bit corny, but it's the impression I got.
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Nov 16, 2010 13:55
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So I've been burning through Mistborn the last few days and today I had the misfortune of having to move a giant loving chest freezer. I totally spent a good half hour trying to work out how I would move it with allomancy (aside from pewter obviously, mainly the push/pull stuff).  I concluded that it would not be possible. Turns out you can move anything with  and  .
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Nov 17, 2010 10:13
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senae posted:
I just finished the Way of Kings, and while I know the Brighteyes women keep their safehand covered, and touching someone with it is an intimate gesture I don't remember the book explaining anything about the meaning of the safehand. What is the purpose?
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Nov 19, 2010 02:12
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Danith posted:I just finished the Way of Kings, and while I know the Brighteyes women keep their safehand covered, and touching someone with it is an intimate gesture I don't remember the book explaining anything about the meaning of the safehand. What is the purpose? Random cultural differences, intended to reinforce that this is a world apart from our own, and that societal norms are weird when viewed from the outside? My guess is he needed an excuse for Shallan to be able to carry around the broken soulcaster all the time.
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Nov 19, 2010 03:15
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Jorenko posted:Random cultural differences, intended to reinforce that this is a world apart from our own, and that societal norms are weird when viewed from the outside? My guess is he needed an excuse for Shallan to be able to carry around the broken soulcaster all the time. I don't think that's it - she could have just carried it in a pocket or something. I think it was just a weird custom that got started long ago and is now "standard practice." There's stuff like that in every culture.
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Nov 19, 2010 03:46
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Brandon Sanderson's Twitter posted:New Mistborn novel has a title. Mistborn: The Alloy of Law. Doing a quick revision here before sending it to my agent/editor. This is gonna own.
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Nov 19, 2010 14:13
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Cartoon Man posted:This is gonna own. Is that the unnamed urban fantasy he's got 53% done on his blog? He's been working on that for like less than 2 months hasn't he? Guy's an absolute beast! Guess he needed a book to come out in 2011 since AMoL is planned for early 2012 and was like I got a few months free, here's a novel. Charlz Guybon fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Nov 19, 2010 |
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Nov 19, 2010 15:11
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Charlz Guybon posted:Is that the unnamed urban fantasy he's got 53% done on his blog? He's been working on that for like less than 2 months hasn't he? Guy's an absolute beast! I don't think they are the same book. I think (though I could be wrong) the "Urban Fantasy" book was supposed to be unconnected to any of his established series.
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Nov 19, 2010 15:26
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Charlz Guybon posted:Is that the unnamed urban fantasy he's got 53% done on his blog? He's been working on that for like less than 2 months hasn't he? Guy's an absolute beast! I wish I had his work ethic.
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Nov 19, 2010 15:34
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Eh! Frank posted:No, unless I'm mistaken, that's something completely different (a story about a pizza delivery guy with magical powers), meaning he's worked on *two* stories in his "off time". What? I've been following him since he got signed on by Jordan's widow a couple of years ago and I don't remember ever saying he was working on a Mistborn sequel. Amazing.
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Nov 19, 2010 17:38
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Charlz Guybon posted:What? I've been following him since he got signed on by Jordan's widow a couple of years ago and I don't remember ever saying he was working on a Mistborn sequel. Amazing. This the blog entry you need to read. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/925/Another-Long-and-Rambling-Post-on-Future-Books
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Nov 19, 2010 22:33
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Charlz Guybon posted:What? I've been following him since he got signed on by Jordan's widow a couple of years ago and I don't remember ever saying he was working on a Mistborn sequel. Amazing. From the above link: "Mistborn is a trilogy of trilogies, with the second trilogy in an urban (20th-century-level technology) setting." After Mistborn 3 came out, Sanderson answered some questions on his forum about Mistborn. His plan is to make the second trilogy based in a setting with present-day technology, as he confirms above. The third trilogy would then be based in a sci-fi/futuristic type setting which sounds loving amazing in my opinion. If I'm remembering correctly, he also talked about how strength in Allomancy will continue to decrease over time and mistborns will become even more rare and eventually cease to exist. He also talked about new metals being discovered and new abilities.
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Nov 19, 2010 22:59
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Jesus, the guy is a book writing machine.
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Nov 19, 2010 23:09
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Since he calls it a short novel here, this must be the Mistborn short story that he called "likely" in his big blog post on future books. In other words, this will only be a teaser for what we might see in the next Mistborn trilogy. I'm psyched to see how allomantic powers, even weakened ones, will interplay with technological advancements.
MajorBonnet fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Nov 20, 2010 |
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Nov 20, 2010 01:41
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ElMudo posted:Since he calls it a short novel here, this must be the Mistborn short story that he called "likey" in his big blog post on future books. In other words, this will only be a teaser for what we might see in the next Mistborn trilogy. I'm psyched to see how allomantic powers, even weakened ones, will interplay with technological advancements. How short is short? 200 pages?
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Nov 20, 2010 06:03
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A novella is 40,000 words, which is something like 100-150 paperback. I'm guessing its 50 to 60k, but knowing Sanderson he'll tool around with it until its basically a standard size novel.
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Nov 20, 2010 06:22
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I'd say that's a fair guess, especially since he's been churning out 800-1000 page epics. He may have lost his sense of what a short story actually is.
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Nov 20, 2010 06:50
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I think that he said it was around 80,000 words via facebook/twitter.
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Nov 20, 2010 07:46
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Yep. And anything longer than 60k is actually considered a novel, while 80-100k is a typical size for like a walmart paperback. He wrote a standard size novel in his time off 
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Nov 21, 2010 05:42
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Just finished Towers of Midnight and saw this was out, read the entire thing in a week. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although he's definitely not as good as crafting a world at Jordan. For example, I think I can only really name two areas in the book: the shattered plains, and the hilltop city with the giant library. And I have no idea where those things are in relation to one another. I'm not even really sure who or what the voidbringers are, or what happened in the past (I'm still really confused by that intro chapter). What other kind of books are like this? I've read Mistborne and enjoyed those quite a bit.
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Nov 22, 2010 08:45
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Comrade Flynn posted:Just finished Towers of Midnight and saw this was out, read the entire thing in a week. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although he's definitely not as good as crafting a world at Jordan. For example, I think I can only really name two areas in the book: the shattered plains, and the hilltop city with the giant library. And I have no idea where those things are in relation to one another. He doesn't spend as much time on traveling as Jordan did. While it doesn't give you as much idea where things are compared to one another, it helps speed the story along instead of having parts that really drag. Good and bad I guess. Also its the first book, so we will know a lot more areas in the future. Comrade Flynn posted:I'm not even really sure who or what the voidbringers are, or what happened in the past (I'm still really confused by that intro chapter). I don't think you are supposed to know everything yet. It's meant to be a little confusing. That's why its scheduled to be a huge epic. More will be revealed later for sure. Just for reference I think those guys in the first chapter were something that came before the Knights Radiant. Comrade Flynn posted:What other kind of books are like this? I've read Mistborne and enjoyed those quite a bit. Not sure exactly what you mean - other Sanderson books? Or epic fantasies? As for epics, George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, and Joe Abercrombie have large series. I'm sure there's others, but those are the popular ones.
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Nov 22, 2010 15:04
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subx posted:
My theory is that they are basically a heroic, lightside version of the Wheel of Time's Forsaken, mixed with the heroes who are bound to the Horn of Valere. There are lots of things in The Way of Kings that are very reminiscent of some WoT concepts, like the chapter in the place where grass grows and magic doesn't work. It reminded me a lot of WoT's Steddings. Also, every time someone says "The Light send it will be so" or a similar phrase it drives me crazy, because that was a really obvious WoT thing.
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Nov 23, 2010 01:42
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subx posted:Just for reference I think those guys in the first chapter were something that came before the Knights Radiant. I'm guessing they were the Heralds. Dying and being reborn each time the voidbringers threaten until they gave up. L-O-N fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Nov 23, 2010 |
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Nov 23, 2010 03:10
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L-O-N posted:I'm guessing they were the Heralds. Dying and being reborn each time the voidbringers threaten until they gave up. yeah the one guy that died and didn't 'give up' was the same character that showed up at the very end. His shardblade wasn't a shard, but rather a dawnblade. The differences haven't been described, but in the prologue it's compared that as shardblades are different than normal swords so are dawnblades greater than shards. I've really been digging the world and history that Sanderson has created, not just with all his books (and the metaverse in general) but specifically the SLA. The thing I'm really dying to know is the specifics surrounding honorspren, the abilities/enhancements they can endow upon the men/women they've attached themselves too, and why exactly Syl doesn't like shardblades since the Radiants very obviously used them (and its intimated many had honorspren bound to them, though other spren could also give abilities) and also what happened to the other Heralds. Are they immortal? did they go somewhere?
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Nov 23, 2010 06:06
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subx posted:Not sure exactly what you mean - other Sanderson books? Or epic fantasies? As for epics, George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, and Joe Abercrombie have large series. I'm sure there's others, but those are the popular ones. Sorry, I'm an idiot. Read WOT, ASOFAI, and all of Sanderson's books. Looking for others like this - I'll have to look up Erikson and Abercrombie. Any other suggestions?
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Nov 23, 2010 06:37
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Comrade Flynn posted:Sorry, I'm an idiot. Read WOT, ASOFAI, and all of Sanderson's books. Looking for others like this - I'll have to look up Erikson and Abercrombie. Any other suggestions? You'd probably like Robin Hobb's earlier stuff. Start with Assassin's Apprentice and work your way from there. The stories in that universe are a set of 3 trilogies (and apparently she has added some more recently but I can't vouch for the quality as I haven't read them) with the middle trilogy (The Liveship Traders) being somewhat unrelated wiki. I still liked it though and would recommend reading it, but it does deviate from the fantasy setting somewhat in that it's basically fantasy with pirates that does more to develop the backstory and tell a separate (but good) story. But if you like the first trilogy I think you'll be fine with the other two. It's pretty compatible with WoT and Mistborn as far as tones themes and tropes but it's not completely generic or derivative, at least as far as any fantasy isn't.
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Nov 23, 2010 07:03
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treeboy posted:and also what happened to the other Heralds. Are they immortal? did they go somewhere? I'm guessing they're alive (immortal) and perhaps some are behind the scenes, pulling strings as they might have gone off the deep end. You never know, that guy who's Szeth's master might be one of them. Regardless, it's going to be a long wait for the next one to come out.
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Nov 23, 2010 19:44
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IRQ posted:You'd probably like Robin Hobb's earlier stuff. Start with Assassin's Apprentice and work your way from there. The stories in that universe are a set of 3 trilogies (and apparently she has added some more recently but I can't vouch for the quality as I haven't read them) with the middle trilogy (The Liveship Traders) being somewhat unrelated wiki. I still liked it though and would recommend reading it, but it does deviate from the fantasy setting somewhat in that it's basically fantasy with pirates that does more to develop the backstory and tell a separate (but good) story. A warning on Assassin's Apprentice: The first 8 pages are the main character telling you why he's about to tell you a story. Its one of the worst openings for a series I've ever read, but it picks up a lot from there. I think Liveships is the much stronger trilogy of the two.
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Nov 23, 2010 21:05
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BananaNutkins posted:A warning on Assassin's Apprentice: The first 8 pages are the main character telling you why he's about to tell you a story. Its one of the worst openings for a series I've ever read, but it picks up a lot from there. I think Liveships is the much stronger trilogy of the two. Another warning: the first trilogy will depress the gently caress out of you throughout.
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Nov 24, 2010 19:37
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Che Delilas posted:Another warning: the first trilogy will depress the gently caress out of you throughout. Unless you're thoroughly amused by characters who have a bad case of Just Can't Win.
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Nov 24, 2010 19:54
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^^^^^^^^^ This is a Brandon Sanderson thread, I'd hope we all are. BananaNutkins posted:My theory is that they are basically a heroic, lightside version of the Wheel of Time's Forsaken, mixed with the heroes who are bound to the Horn of Valere. There are lots of things in The Way of Kings that are very reminiscent of some WoT concepts, like the chapter in the place where grass grows and magic doesn't work. It reminded me a lot of WoT's Steddings. Also, every time someone says "The Light send it will be so" or a similar phrase it drives me crazy, because that was a really obvious WoT thing. That was actually completely different then Steddings. In a Stedding there's magic making magic not work, whereas in Shinovar there are no highstorms, so the magic can't get there. It's not not that they can't use magic, but there aren't any spren, and you couldn't recharge gems there. Given the talk about the everstorm, I assume that that'll all change, though 
egg tats fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Nov 25, 2010 |
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Nov 25, 2010 00:38
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The Everstorm has come. And not surprisingly it has hit Australia first... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1312512/Incredible-giant-roll-cloud-looms-houses.html
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Nov 26, 2010 19:42
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senae posted:^^^^^^^^^ This is interesting to point out. In WOT the steddings have the green shoots that prevent magic just because. The reason why grass grows in Shinovar is because the highstorms don't occur there and rip the grass seed from the soil.
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Nov 27, 2010 02:08
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I don't generally read much fiction, but I loved this book and the Name of the Wind by Rothfuss. I think I like the downtrodden youth rises to greatness genre(my favorite character in this book was the spear guy). Does anybody know of any similar novels? I'd love some recommendations, thanks. Gamesguy fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Nov 28, 2010 |
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Nov 28, 2010 05:14
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