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Mahlertov Cocktail posted: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. And it makes it so much more fun on your next reread to try and catch all the foreshadowing of the reveal and that character's actions.
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Nov 30, 2011 23:16
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fordan posted:And it makes it so much more fun on your next reread to try and catch all the foreshadowing of the reveal and that character's actions. My younger brother pointed out that Verin lied in the second book. He said: "She said that Moiraine told her to go with Rand and them to hunt the Horn, but Moiraine contradicted that later."
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Dec 1, 2011 02:20
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fordan posted:And it makes it so much more fun on your next reread to try and catch all the foreshadowing of the reveal and that character's actions. It really does. I'm (slowly, as I have time) doing my first re-read since that happened in preparation for A Memory of Light, and I love noticing things I missed in each new read-through.
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Dec 1, 2011 07:09
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It must be weird at first that the characters are all absolutely different. You hardly notice as the series goes on since it happens organically over the course of 13 books, but looking back, all of them have changed enormously.
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Dec 1, 2011 07:12
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In a word, yes. Seeing Mat pre-Band is just plain bizarre.
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Dec 1, 2011 08:39
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:It must be weird at first that the characters are all absolutely different. You hardly notice as the series goes on since it happens organically over the course of 13 books, but looking back, all of them have changed enormously.
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Dec 1, 2011 19:48
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Kreeblah posted:In a word, yes. Seeing Mat pre-Band is just plain bizarre. Seeing Mat pre-dagger is bizarre. He's a complete dick and not in the fun way that he is after being healed by the Aes Sedai.
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Dec 1, 2011 21:01
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So I just finished book 1 of Mistborn, and can't for the life of me push myself into book 2. Kelsier just left such a giant void in the story for me. Should I just grit my teeth and get through it? Does it pick up to the same level of awesome?
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Dec 1, 2011 22:57
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Loving Life Partner posted:Should I just grit my teeth and get through it? Does it pick up to the same level of awesome? Every book of Mistborn dials it up about 20 more notches.
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Dec 1, 2011 23:00
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Loving Life Partner posted:So I just finished book 1 of Mistborn, and can't for the life of me push myself into book 2. Kelsier just left such a giant void in the story for me. Yes.
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Dec 2, 2011 00:23
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Loving Life Partner posted:So I just finished book 1 of Mistborn, and can't for the life of me push myself into book 2. Kelsier just left such a giant void in the story for me. It's even more awesome. And Alloy of Law owns pretty hard too.
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Dec 2, 2011 01:17
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Streebs posted:Seeing Mat pre-dagger is bizarre. He's a complete dick and not in the fun way that he is after being healed by the Aes Sedai. Really? I remember him being kind of an rear end but in the lovable town prankster kind of way. Anyway, I just finished The Gathering Storm for the first time. Best book of the series so far, hands down. Unlike a lot of the other books, I never had a moment where I didn't think the scene I was reading was necessary; the writing was at least at the same level as the rest of the series, and I think Sanderson improved on Jordan's prose quite a bit; and god drat, that ending. All of the books (apart from CoT, obviously) have stellar endings, but this one takes the cake. "A Visit from Verin Sedai," the Seanchan attack on the Tower and Egwene owning face, Rand's scene on Dragonmount. Everything was perfect. Can't wait to read Towers of Midnight.
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Dec 2, 2011 01:31
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I just finished Way of Kings, in audiobook format. Holy.. poo poo. What an amazing book. Sanderson is an insanely entertaining and talented writer. Is this his best writing? Mistborn has always sounded like an amateur teenage read, totally unfounded I realise. However, I was blown away by Stormlight and now I'm curious. Of course i love his contribution to WoT, so with those two considerations, is anything else he has done been equal or above these two amazing pieces of prose?
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Dec 2, 2011 15:39
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Lascivious Sloth posted:I just finished Way of Kings, in audiobook format. Holy.. poo poo. What an amazing book. Sanderson is an insanely entertaining and talented writer. Is this his best writing? Mistborn has always sounded like an amateur teenage read, totally unfounded I realise. However, I was blown away by Stormlight and now I'm curious. Of course i love his contribution to WoT, so with those two considerations, is anything else he has done been equal or above these two amazing pieces of prose? So far I found that Sanderson gets progressively better with each book. I havent read his WoT books yet, but I was definately surprised at how much I enjoied Alloy of Law.
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Dec 2, 2011 15:57
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Lascivious Sloth posted:I just finished Way of Kings, in audiobook format. Holy.. poo poo. What an amazing book. Sanderson is an insanely entertaining and talented writer. Is this his best writing? Mistborn has always sounded like an amateur teenage read, totally unfounded I realise. However, I was blown away by Stormlight and now I'm curious. Of course i love his contribution to WoT, so with those two considerations, is anything else he has done been equal or above these two amazing pieces of prose?
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Dec 2, 2011 16:16
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Skapegoat posted:So far I found that Sanderson gets progressively better with each book. I havent read his WoT books yet, but I was definately surprised at how much I enjoied Alloy of Law. Have you read the rest of WoT? Because as I posted above, I just finished Gathering Storm and it is, in my opinion, solidly the best in the series.
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Dec 2, 2011 20:39
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How do you think it compares to The Shadow Rising?
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Dec 2, 2011 20:44
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Blind Melon posted:How do you think it compares to The Shadow Rising? God, it's been so long since I read book 4. I started the series about a year and a half ago and have been reading other books in between WoT books. I remember liking it a lot, particularly the ending in Rhuidean with Asmodean. However, there was also a lot of boring poo poo with Faile and Perrin in the Ways, despite how interesting the Ways are. (I'm not sure I needed to spoiler the second part, but did just to be safe.)
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Dec 2, 2011 20:47
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:God, it's been so long since I read book 4. I started the series about a year and a half ago and have been reading other books in between WoT books. I remember liking it a lot, particularly the ending in Rhuidean with Asmodean. However, there was also a lot of boring poo poo with Faile and Perrin in the Ways, despite how interesting the Ways are. Unless it's something pertaining to the next book you don't have to spoiler anything. Once that one comes out it will be spoiler material for a couple of months.
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Dec 2, 2011 21:21
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Have you read the rest of WoT? Because as I posted above, I just finished Gathering Storm and it is, in my opinion, solidly the best in the series. TGS is a unique case though. Parts of it were indeed written by Robert Jordan, and others outlined or partly written, aside from the world and characters being his. While WoT had a very rough patch around book 9 or 10 (I forget which ones now), the last few were improving greatly in quality before Sanderson stepped in. I also think you're exaggerating just a bit.
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Dec 2, 2011 22:20
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I admit it has been a while since I read the first few books in the series. I've read the latter half over the past year (book six almost exactly 12 months ago). Books 8-10 dragged a lot. Path of Daggers (8) wasn't too bad, but was generally slower. Winter's Heart was pretty boring except for the ending, which might be the best ending in the series (so far; haven't read 13 yet). Crossroads of Twilight (10) is unbelievably boring, except maybe some of the Mat parts. Knife of Dreams (11) is indeed tons better than any of the previous three books, and apart from the improvement is very enjoyable in its own right. Maybe it has just been too long since I read the pre-slump books, but even compared to Knife of Dreams, Gathering Storm was just incredible. I do wish I knew how much of that was Robert Jordan getting it together because he knew he didn't have long left and how much was Sanderson's work.
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Dec 2, 2011 22:31
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Sanderson is without a doubt dramatically better at writing Wheel of Time books than Jordan was. It's night and day.
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Dec 3, 2011 01:03
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Jordan needed a good editor, and Sanderson's co-authorship seems to be doing the trick. Also, Sanderson toned down Jordan's tendency to overuse character tics and turns of phrase, though I still noticed it (especially Cadsuane's incessantly saying "Phaw!").
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Dec 3, 2011 01:36
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I've run out of Sanderson to read now, and so now I'm contemplating forcing myself through the four Jordan WoT books that I haven't read to get to his. Just so I can read more. 
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Dec 3, 2011 01:37
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It's worth it. 7-9 aren't bad, they just don't have a terribly large amount of plot development for the most part. 10 is awful; if you're not a completionist like I am, I heartily recommend reading a plot summary and just going to Knife of Dreams.
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Dec 3, 2011 01:55
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Just read plot summaries of the ones you missed before Sanderson's.
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Dec 3, 2011 02:02
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knife of Dreams is worth reading, as is whatever the one is before Path of Daggers. The ones in between there... yeah you can get by with plot summaries or maybe just read the lass chapter of Winter's Heart too because it's pretty good but that's all that happens in the book.
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Dec 3, 2011 02:21
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The ending of Winter's Heart is goddamn incredible. After how plodding the book was until Far Madding, it blew me away.
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Dec 3, 2011 05:05
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Yeah, I remember when it came out I split the cost with a friend, he got to read it first, I got keep it. He basically said to just skip to the end, and he was right. God that book was like 900 pages of women antiquing then 50 pages of awesome.
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Dec 3, 2011 05:43
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I can summarise Crossroads in about three sentences: Everyone reacts to the events at the end of Winter's Heart, Mat and Tuon bond a bit, Egwene loses some neurons and gets captured. Pretty sure nothing else of note happens in the slightest.
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Dec 3, 2011 06:31
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Yeah. The most important event in the book is that Rand falls off his horse. But even that is sort of off-screen because it happens when he uses the One Power and then faints.
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Dec 3, 2011 08:06
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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. This is officially called BrandalizingTM.
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Dec 3, 2011 12:07
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I skipped straight from A Crown of Swords to Knife of Dreams (stopping along the way to read the last chapter of WH), and I didn't feel like I really missed anything or had trouble getting reconnected to the plot. You should read KoD before you start the Sanderson books, though - it's the book where Jordan officially got his poo poo together and started to move the plot again.
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Dec 3, 2011 15:32
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soru posted:Sanderson is without a doubt dramatically better at writing Wheel of Time books than Jordan was. It's night and day.
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Dec 4, 2011 16:17
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soru posted:Sanderson is without a doubt dramatically better at writing Wheel of Time books than Jordan was. It's night and day. Jordan was honestly a way better writer up to around book 6 when the story completely spiraled out of his control and turned into an absolute slog. Sanderson isn't as skilled at writing in Jordan's purposefully slightly archaic style, his battle scenes tend toward being fuckawesome (i mean that in the most derogatory sense possible) and videogamey as opposed to Jordan's more visceral style, and it just feels much flatter. I think people have an exaggerated opinion of Sanderson's writing as compared to Jordan's because he's giving us what we want more then better writing or characterization: plot progression and an ending.
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Dec 4, 2011 18:14
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SmugDogMillionaire posted:Jordan was honestly a way better writer up to around book 6 when the story completely spiraled out of his control and turned into an absolute slog. Sanderson isn't as skilled at writing in Jordan's purposefully slightly archaic style, his battle scenes tend toward being fuckawesome (i mean that in the most derogatory sense possible) and videogamey as opposed to Jordan's more visceral style, and it just feels much flatter. That's true. That's why I didn't say Sanderson is a better writer, just that he's better at writing Wheel of Time books. He produces a better result than Jordan has in 20 years, and the reason has nothing to do with being a better writer and everything to do with how he handles plot. There's an immediate feeling of movement that no WoT book since The Shadow Rising had.
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Dec 4, 2011 18:43
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I finished Alloy of Law this evening and was rudely interrupted during the Avalanche by dinner. I was interesting to see the tricks that could be done by a skilled allomancer and feruchemist with his limitations. As was laid out in the first three books the allomancers learn the subtleties of their metals while full Mistborn only seem to scratch the surface of what each metal does. I am looking forward to seeing what he does with the plot.
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Dec 5, 2011 04:35
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For some reason, the first battle in Alloy of Law really sucked me in, I thought it was fantastic. The Avalanche™ seemed pretty meh to me.
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Dec 5, 2011 05:59
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syphon posted:For some reason, the first battle in Alloy of Law really sucked me in, I thought it was fantastic. The Avalanche™ seemed pretty meh to me. Really? You didn't like the part where Wax collapsed the entire loving building?
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Dec 5, 2011 06:11
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Alloy of Law didn't really have the Avalanche. It had some good moments, but the Avalanche is generally a cycle of Revelation > HOLY CRAP I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING > Character Reactions > Revelation > etc.... It builds upon itself, and instead of being one or two game-changing revelations, it's half a dozen or more. Allow of Law was much more even-keeled than most of his other work. Still very enjoyable though.
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Dec 5, 2011 06:33
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