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Yeah Kaladin's plotline slowly picks up a bit of momentum, so by about halfway through the book I was actively skipping ahead chapters so I could follow Kaladin's story through to completion.
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Nov 23, 2011 22:44
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:So I'm 100 pages into The Way of Kings and it's...ok. It starts off with a lot of world building. But it gets so drat good.
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Nov 24, 2011 06:21
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omnibobb posted:It starts off with a lot of world building. But it gets so drat good. Yeah, it's more expository, but the Kalidan and Dalinar chapters rock, as do the random one-off worldbuilding characters.
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Nov 24, 2011 06:27
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subx posted:but Mistborne is definitely "flashier" with a bigger stage/world and better action/fights) I don't really care about exciting fights for the sake of there being fights, but as I said, in IB:A he builds up this big sort of challenge by way of an enemy palace full of tough as heck monsters and then skips even the barest description of the fights, and it's kind of a let down. It kind of cheats the reader out of the pay off, I feel. Does he do that sort of stuff often?
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Nov 24, 2011 06:28
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Capntastic posted:I don't really care about exciting fights for the sake of there being fights, but as I said, in IB:A he builds up this big sort of challenge by way of an enemy palace full of tough as heck monsters and then skips even the barest description of the fights, and it's kind of a let down. It kind of cheats the reader out of the pay off, I feel. Does he do that sort of stuff often? Pretty much never, actually. Whenever you'd think "Awww yeah, it's on!", it really is on. Mistborn books especially.
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Nov 24, 2011 06:31
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Just started reading Warbreaker and it's pretty good. About 80% of the way through.
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Nov 24, 2011 06:34
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404GoonNotFound posted:Kaladin gets over the Probably one of the harder parts for me to get through personally. It paid off though, boy did it pay off.
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Nov 24, 2011 11:04
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eventually, just stick with it, and keep in mind it's meant to be like 12 600-800 page books by the time it's over.
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Yeah, the Kaladin chapters are a great journey from a hopeless scenario to heroic redemption. Sanderson kind of did the same thing in Elantris, but the payoff is so much better in this one.
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Nov 24, 2011 17:57
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:So I'm 100 pages into The Way of Kings and it's...ok. It's a very, very slow starter. It picks up like halfway through, but Way of Kings is best viewed, I think, as a prologue to a huge series. I finished Alloy of Law last night, and I loved it. Sanderson is definitely getting much better at dialogue too, I only cringed at characters trying to be clever a couple times. I was also surprised that he chose not to go with Wax and Mwhatever getting together in the end.
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Nov 24, 2011 19:28
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IRQ posted:It's a very, very slow starter. It picks up like halfway through, but Way of Kings is best viewed, I think, as a prologue to a huge series. Alloy of Law's dialogue is really a step up from before. He's keeping it simple and the jokes are decent. He needs to keep practicing dialogue and characters though, once he nails that he'll be so loving good.
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Nov 24, 2011 21:34
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Been listening to Alloy of Law on audiobook. Branderson owns and is getting even better.
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Nov 26, 2011 06:17
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Capntastic posted:I don't really care about exciting fights for the sake of there being fights, but as I said, in IB:A he builds up this big sort of challenge by way of an enemy palace full of tough as heck monsters and then skips even the barest description of the fights, and it's kind of a let down. It kind of cheats the reader out of the pay off, I feel. Does he do that sort of stuff often? I've only read the first three Mistborn books from him, but when he gets to a big build-up fight, I had zero trouble picturing every detail of it, and I don't usually get that out of books. Hell, the last fight out of the first Mistborn book played out like a drat movie scene in my head.
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Nov 26, 2011 10:09
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That makes me feel cheated because if that's true (and I don't doubt you guys), he really must've jammed IB:A out in like two weeks for a quick paycheck. I mean, that's the situation I imagined when I wrote the review, but from what I've read here he really does sound like a capable guy. It's perplexing to me.
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Nov 26, 2011 10:59
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Capntastic posted:That makes me feel cheated because if that's true (and I don't doubt you guys), he really must've jammed IB:A out in like two weeks for a quick paycheck. I mean, that's the situation I imagined when I wrote the review, but from what I've read here he really does sound like a capable guy. It's perplexing to me. Well IIRC it's also the first licensed project he's ever done, so maybe he wasn't used to working within the marketing department's guidelines.
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Nov 26, 2011 11:01
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Yeah, the fact that it bridges the first game and the not-yet-released second game, and tries to smooth over the lack of plot, is an amazing hurdle to leap. I just feel that in doing so he left some stuff out that could've been polished if given more time. One thing I'll note is that on the Amazon page for it, there's like three editors listed. Design by committee seems to been a very real thing there.
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Nov 26, 2011 11:14
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Capntastic posted:Yeah, the fact that it bridges the first game and the not-yet-released second game, and tries to smooth over the lack of plot, is an amazing hurdle to leap. I just feel that in doing so he left some stuff out that could've been polished if given more time. One thing I'll note is that on the Amazon page for it, there's like three editors listed. Design by committee seems to been a very real thing there. I'd try out Mistborn, then. It's a quick, easy read, is still pretty early in his work, and the trilogy is "complete" in a way. Way of Kings is supposed to be Wheel of Time long, and it just started, so you'd get a better idea of how he's able to construct a mythos better with Mistborn. Plus they're pretty cool.
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Nov 26, 2011 12:03
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Kruller posted:I'd try out Mistborn, then. It's a quick, easy read, is still pretty early in his work, and the trilogy is "complete" in a way. Way of Kings is supposed to be Wheel of Time long, and it just started, so you'd get a better idea of how he's able to construct a mythos better with Mistborn. Plus they're pretty cool. Hell, the first book is "complete". If he hadn't written another word of Mistborn, I wouldn't have felt cheated by the ending. No need to slog through the whole trilogy if you don't like the first book. The big battle toward the end of Mistborn really gives you a good idea of what he can do as far as a fight scene. You'll know which one I'm talking about when you read it. I'm biased, but if you like fantasy novels I feel like you owe it to yourself to read that. If you can't picture it in your head down to the last coin, his writing style just ain't working for you. One caveat is that although he says he's very proud of the IB:A stuff he wrote and is extremely happy with how it came out, he's not always the best judge of when he's doing a good job. He also thinks that Warbreaker was one of his funniest books ever, and Lightsong is one of his funniest characters, when in reality the humor consistently cringe-inducing. I honestly don't understand how he just keeps on improving when being able to realistically self-assess is pretty vital to getting better, but it's a fact that he's consistently improved in every book he puts out (except for the "humor" in Warbreaker. Jesus God in heaven.)
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Nov 27, 2011 11:14
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wellwhoopdedooo posted:Hell, the first book is "complete". If he hadn't written another word of Mistborn, I wouldn't have felt cheated by the ending. No need to slog through the whole trilogy if you don't like the first book. I didn't even think lightsong was supposed to be funny until I read this post. I just assumed that the reason his high priest never admitted it because Sanderson knew that he was writing someone who thought they were funny, but they weren't at all. It turns out Sanderson is Lightsong 
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Nov 27, 2011 15:45
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Just finished Alloy of Law. It was an awesome little bite-sized Mistborn novel, left me wanting a new trilogy in this setting. Did anybody else get the impression that the crazy guy in the prologue was burning atium?
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Nov 27, 2011 22:33
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Popular Human posted:Just finished Alloy of Law. It was an awesome little bite-sized Mistborn novel, left me wanting a new trilogy in this setting. Did anybody else get the impression that the crazy guy in the prologue was burning atium? Yes, I did.
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Nov 27, 2011 23:59
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wellwhoopdedooo posted:I honestly don't understand how he just keeps on improving when being able to realistically self-assess is pretty vital to getting better, but it's a fact that he's consistently improved in every book he puts out (except for the "humor" in Warbreaker. Jesus God in heaven.) I like the humor in Warbreaker That aside, I think to some extent he gets better simply by writing more, and by listening to his editors - he's just one of those writers who thinks his first drafts are pretty good, rather than one who thinks they're terrible until someone else likes them.
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Nov 28, 2011 00:43
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No I don't think that's true at all, have you really dug around his website? He's actually pretty critical of a lot of his work and at the very least is pretty well aware of (some of) his shortcomings. I'm not sure if he knows his witty/funny stuff is very much neither of the two, but it was a lot better in Alloy of Law so maybe he is.
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Nov 28, 2011 01:11
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Popular Human posted:Just finished Alloy of Law. It was an awesome little bite-sized Mistborn novel, left me wanting a new trilogy in this setting. Did anybody else get the impression that the crazy guy in the prologue was burning atium? I did too. I just finished the book and really can't wait for the next one. His books just keep getting better and better, and even the 'witty banter' didn't get to me as much as it usually does. Listening to it on audiobook is usually even worse than reading it, but I was into the story pretty much 100% I also didn't realize that the next Mistborn trilogy is going to be set in a contemporary period and kind of wish it wasn't. But then, I usually don't like Steampunk/Victorian fantasy settings and loved this book. I guess I'll just trust that Sanderon knows what he's doing and will put out something good. I'll probably even read the necromancer/pizza book if/when it comes out and the descriptions I've heard of it so far made me physically cringe.
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Nov 28, 2011 01:31
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IRQ posted:No I don't think that's true at all, have you really dug around his website? He's actually pretty critical of a lot of his work and at the very least is pretty well aware of (some of) his shortcomings. I'm not sure if he knows his witty/funny stuff is very much neither of the two, but it was a lot better in Alloy of Law so maybe he is. Read the annotations for Warbreaker. Chapter 5 part 2 is the first example I saw that mentions the "humor", but it's a number of times throughout the whole thing. It's pretty clear he thinks it's actually funny, at least when he wrote the annotations he did. I don't want to rag on the guy (again) though, because I really, really like his books, but I wasn't talking out of my rear end there. There's no doubt he's improved, so I don't know if it's true anymore, nor do I care, I just want him to write more books.
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Nov 28, 2011 04:37
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Popular Human posted:Just finished Alloy of Law. It was an awesome little bite-sized Mistborn novel, left me wanting a new trilogy in this setting. Did anybody else get the impression that the crazy guy in the prologue was burning atium?  And here I thought I caught everything in the book, teaches me not to pay attention for even the prologue in a book. Makes perfect sense now that I think about it.
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Nov 28, 2011 15:48
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Apparently I somehow missed this. Here, have a broadsheet.
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Nov 29, 2011 10:10
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I finished the first book of mistborn and I'm pretty hooked! The Allomancy is a pretty cool concept and the story is pretty good. Thanks goons for the recomendation! Im just starting book 2, so far so good, and it looks like Sazed's getting a little more protagonism which is pretty cool. My only issue is Vin, she's nowhere near as cool as Kel =(
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Nov 29, 2011 11:03
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Hugoon Chavez posted:My only issue is Vin, she's nowhere near as cool as Kel =( She gets way better, don't worry. 
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Nov 29, 2011 12:10
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Not sure if anyone is following Sanderson on Facebook, but I'm getting a kick out of the fact that, when he's traveling, he signs the copies of his books in airport terminal bookstores. I'd totally do that if I was an author.
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Nov 29, 2011 13:06
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gninjagnome posted:Not sure if anyone is following Sanderson on Facebook, but I'm getting a kick out of the fact that, when he's traveling, he signs the copies of his books in airport terminal bookstores. I'd totally do that if I was an author. Oh, as in he signs the copies on the shelf? I initially read it as him signing copies people have picked up. Either way, it has to lead to some rather awkward conversations. "So, you like The Way of Kings, huh? I actually wrote it, no big deal. Would you like me to sign it?" Or weird conversations with the people working the counter.
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Nov 29, 2011 23:15
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Velius posted:Oh, as in he signs the copies on the shelf? I initially read it as him signing copies people have picked up. Either way, it has to lead to some rather awkward conversations. "So, you like The Way of Kings, huh? I actually wrote it, no big deal. Would you like me to sign it?" Or weird conversations with the people working the counter. Ha, guess it wasn't clear - he signs the copies on the shelf. There were 3 signed copies of "Alloy of Law" in terminal C at JFK. I wonder if he puts any messages in them.
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Nov 29, 2011 23:44
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That's really awesome, but I see what Valius is saying. Does he just rock up to the bookstore and awkwardly prove to the counter staff that he wrote the books they sell and ask them if he can sign books, or does he not give a gently caress and just walks in and starts signing books on the shelf.
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Nov 29, 2011 23:58
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He's been doing it for a while, and I've gotten the impression that he usually just does his ninja impersonation, and signs the books on the shelf without telling anyone.
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Nov 30, 2011 01:00
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Lascivious Sloth posted:That's really awesome, but I see what Valius is saying. Does he just rock up to the bookstore and awkwardly prove to the counter staff that he wrote the books they sell and ask them if he can sign books, or does he not give a gently caress and just walks in and starts signing books on the shelf. Yeah, his FB updates are like "Stealth signed 3 copies of Alloy of Law in (store) in Terminal 3"
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Nov 30, 2011 01:14
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omnibobb posted:Yeah, his FB updates are like "Stealth signed 3 copies of Alloy of Law in (store) in Terminal 3" Man, if he gets caught I wonder what the reaction would be.
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Nov 30, 2011 19:25
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veekie posted:Man, if he gets caught I wonder what the reaction would be. I imagine he'd just say "Oh, I wrote it, and I kind of like signing things when I'm traveling. Here's my ID."
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Nov 30, 2011 20:05
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:I imagine he'd just say "Oh, I wrote it, and I kind of like signing things when I'm traveling. Here's my ID." If it's an American airport, the airport security will just taze him on sight. Just kidding! ... I hope that really doesn't happen. I would think that after an explanation, he would be okay ... but a few employees wouldn't believe him.
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Nov 30, 2011 22:42
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Odette posted:but a few employees wouldn't believe him. Hey see that picture on the dust jacket? I'm him. That's me. Now please stop pepper spraying me.
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Nov 30, 2011 22:45
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soru posted:Hey see that picture on the dust jacket? I'm him. That's me. Now please stop pepper spraying me. I dunno, I've met some really dumb people at post offices (And other places) "Yes, I am x person. Look, here's my driver's licence! ... do I really have to go home and get my passport? Okay, you know what, I want to see your manager. You're the manager? Oh man. Fine!"
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Nov 30, 2011 22:49
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I just got to the chapter A Visit From Verin Sedai in The Gathering Storm. I don't know if Jordan or Sanderson wrote it, but oh my god. Easily one of my favorite scenes in the entire series, and Verin's death and Egwene's last words to her was one of the few moments in this series that really had an emotional effect on me.
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Nov 30, 2011 23:00
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