|
Man up and finish reading Mistborn!  Though book 2 drags until about the 2/3 mark.
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2012 22:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 17:48 |
|
|
OneTwentySix posted:Maybe he'll manage them better now that he's a decent author, or the kids are older? Sanderson has a good track record there. He knows his flaws with humor and characters, so he does try to work on the problem. Doesn't seem to be doing much for the humor though. I guess you either have it or you don't.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 03:12
|
|
|
The jokes are so bad I actually find them kind of endearing. Or as they said at the start of The Alloy of Law: "Cover me!" "With what?" 1800s humour right there.  Yeah he's made no progress whatsoever on the humour front. But someday..!
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 11:30
|
|
|
I dunno, Alloy had its moments. Like Marasi realizing that sometimes people just really want to blow up Wayne. Or Miles continuously getting his hand blown off, and when he finally starts complaining about it someone blows off his face. And my personal favorite, everything involving High Imperial. I'd almost say he's finally starting to realize that not everyone loves puns as much as him, but then you realize that the main characters are named Wax and Wayne 
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 12:17
|
|
|
404GoonNotFound posted:I dunno, Alloy had its moments. Like Marasi realizing that sometimes people just really want to blow up Wayne. Or Miles continuously getting his hand blown off, and when he finally starts complaining about it someone blows off his face. And my personal favorite, everything involving High Imperial. I dunno, explosions make everything awesome. He knows that.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 12:20
|
|
|
I loving love terrible puns so maybe that's why Sanderson's awful humor works for me.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 13:12
|
|
|
IRQ posted:I loving love terrible puns so maybe that's why Sanderson's awful humor works for me. Completely agree. People here need to go buy a sense of humor.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 13:20
|
|
|
404GoonNotFound posted:I'd almost say he's finally starting to realize that not everyone loves puns as much as him, but then you realize that the main characters are named Wax and Wayne Oh jesus how did I not notice that. I like to believe that it's so bad my brain blocked it out. The rest of his humour is like action movie humour, which works given the books basically are action movies.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 14:05
|
|
|
Yeah. Sanderson's strength is writing an absurdly tight narrative, with iron-clad logic, few to no plot holes, good pacing and EPIC reveals. His characters range from blah to average, with usually one or two pretty good characters per book - and those aren't guaranteed to be the protagonists, either. I don't mind the puns. Wit was about the only time that it got to me, and that was pretty deliberate. Lightsong really didn't bother me as much as it seems he did some. But I can't get enough of the way that his stories knit together so perfectly.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 15:57
|
|
|
Sanderson is imaginative but kind of stupid. He's like a dumb Jack Vance.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 17:02
|
|
|
Am i on my own in thinking the mistborn trilogy were bad, bad books?
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 17:34
|
|
|
This is the Brandon Sanderson megathread, the majority of us like his books or we wouldn't be posting here. That said, please tell us what you don't like about them so we can discuss it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 17:37
|
|
|
Cthulwho posted:Am i on my own in thinking the mistborn trilogy were bad, bad books? No! Not at all! I mean, I disagree with you, and a lot of other people in here do too. It's the Brandon Sanderson thread, we all like his books! But we're also able to tell that the prose is less then stellar! That tends to be the sticking point for most people.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 17:38
|
|
|
senae posted:No! Not at all! His prose isn't exceptional, but it's consistently tolerable.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 20:54
|
|
|
Mortanis posted:Yeah. Sanderson's strength is writing an absurdly tight narrative, with iron-clad logic, few to no plot holes, good pacing and EPIC reveals. His characters range from blah to average, with usually one or two pretty good characters per book - and those aren't guaranteed to be the protagonists, either. Hrathen is one of my favorite Sanderson characters partially because even he's not sure whether or not he's a protagonist most of the time.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 21:16
|
|
|
Silver2195 posted:His prose isn't exceptional, but it's consistently tolerable.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 21:18
|
|
|
Cthulwho posted:Am i on my own in thinking the mistborn trilogy were bad, bad books? They aren't exactly high literature, but I find them (the first one especially) to be very fun books.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2012 22:40
|
|
|
I think Sanderson is too much of a nice guy to do humor well. I think to do humor for adults you have to be at least a bit of a dick, or at least able to assume a dickish mindset.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2012 01:13
|
|
|
Cicero posted:I think Sanderson is too much of a nice guy to do humor well. I think to do humor for adults you have to be at least a bit of a dick, or at least able to assume a dickish mindset. I have to agree. The Lies of Locke Lamora comes to mind. But like I said, Sanderson's puns are kind of endearing. And often so ridiculous they make you laugh anyway. I don't think any of the "witty" characters really got on my nerves, apart from Shallan at times.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2012 01:19
|
|
|
Also it helped in Warbreaker that nobody in-book thought Lightsong was funny.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2012 23:49
|
|
|
Even Lightsong knew we was lame.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 04:34
|
|
|
I liked Lightsong; he was so lame he was funny again.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 04:37
|
|
|
The audiobook version was so awful, he sounded like he was a stoner the entire time.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 07:40
|
|
|
I do the same kind of thing sometimes where I make an incredibly dumb joke and deliver it with a poo poo-eating grin and my friend usually punches me, so Lightsong was really funny to me because he basically did that constantly.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 18:15
|
|
|
Mahlertov Cocktail posted:I do the same kind of thing sometimes where I make an incredibly dumb joke and deliver it with a poo poo-eating grin and my friend usually punches me, so Lightsong was really funny to me because he basically did that constantly. This is my humor too. It's the silly, 'not actually funny but the delivery is what makes it comedic in its own ridiculousness' kind of thing. I like Sanderson because his humor is cheesy and safe. There were a few times where I actually laughed in Alloy of Law.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 18:40
|
|
|
Mahlertov Cocktail posted:I do the same kind of thing sometimes where I make an incredibly dumb joke and deliver it with a poo poo-eating grin and my friend usually punches me, so Lightsong was really funny to me because he basically did that constantly. That and Lightsong knew that nobody would ever punch him. The ultimate license to be cheesy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 23:29
|
|
|
So you're saying Lightsong was a master of Dad Humor? I can buy into that.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 23:55
|
|
|
keiran_helcyan posted:So you're saying Lightsong was a master of Dad Humor? I can buy into that.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 01:56
|
|
|
bowmore posted:I think that is exactly what he was going for.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 04:17
|
|
|
You guys are making Brandon's novels sound better and better to me. At first his novels daunt me because of its size, but knowing they have a punslinger inside them makes me want to read it even more. So which one's more dense with those kind of jokes?
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 08:27
|
|
|
Warbreaker probably has the most dad jokes. Don't be afraid of the size of the novels, they are incredibly easy to read. (Except I think Elantris is a slogfest, getting better in the last 200 pages though.) I think it took me a week to read the Mistborn series, when it usually takes me two, three weeks to finish any other book. They were just that good.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 08:36
|
|
|
I blew through Elantris because Hrathen is a loving great character and it's a pretty good book besides.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 17:35
|
|
|
Mahlertov Cocktail posted:I blew through Elantris because Hrathen is a loving great character and it's a pretty good book besides. Hrathen is amazing. Raoden is pretty cool. Everyone else is fairly bland. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 20:46
|
|
|
Mahlertov Cocktail posted:I blew through Elantris because Hrathen is a loving great character and it's a pretty good book besides. I agree. I know a lot of people seem to spew some hate on various parts of the book, but the only part that made it difficult was the pacing. The absolutely mechanical rotation between the main characters really slowed it down and was really the only big issue for me with the entire book.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 23:07
|
|
|
shymog posted:I agree. I know a lot of people seem to spew some hate on various parts of the book, but the only part that made it difficult was the pacing. The absolutely mechanical rotation between the main characters really slowed it down and was really the only big issue for me with the entire book. I think Brandon said in his commentary notes, that a lot of his readers have said the same thing. He might not stick with this in the sequel.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 23:14
|
|
|
shymog posted:I agree. I know a lot of people seem to spew some hate on various parts of the book, but the only part that made it difficult was the pacing. The absolutely mechanical rotation between the main characters really slowed it down and was really the only big issue for me with the entire book. He did that in Hero of Ages too, bouncing from viewpoint to viewpoint, but it worked a lot better in that book because the tension was high and the chronology was clear and followable. Elantris felt like I was reading very long introductions to three different books, alternating one chapter at a time. It was annoying and felt disjointed. I know he did that on purpose, but I didn't care for it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2012 19:16
|
|
|
Eric the Mauve posted:He did that in Hero of Ages too, bouncing from viewpoint to viewpoint, but it worked a lot better in that book because the tension was high and the chronology was clear and followable. Elantris felt like I was reading very long introductions to three different books, alternating one chapter at a time. It was annoying and felt disjointed. I know he did that on purpose, but I didn't care for it. Right. I think I actually yelled at the book a few times while reading it when I turned the page and it was another Sarene chapter. Honestly, Raoden and Hrathen's chapters were, on the whole, quite interesting, and Sarene's chapters moved like molasses until the end of the book. Then again, the Sanderson Steamroll/Avalanche is something that he's getting better at, but Elantris could almost use a tighter edit, even now. The story's good, but it's too painfully obvious that it's a first book. I'm glad that he at least learns, improves, and takes some of what his readers say to heart.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2012 19:41
|
|
|
I think you could easily get Elantris down to 400 to 450 pages from the 615 it currently is.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2012 22:17
|
|
|
Here's a great interview with Brandon, mostly about The Alloy of Law. http://afeastoffantasy.tumblr.com/post/26493023226/brandonsandersoninterview quote:What inspired you to take your Mistborn world into the realm of steampunk fantasy?
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 00:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 17:48 |
|
|
Saw the "Spotlight on Brandon Sanderson" panel at SDCC and it was pretty good, and pretty close to filled as well. - Read some of the prologue to AMoL - Gave some insight on his next books...2nd and 3rd Stormlight books right after AMoL, then some stuff he's been working on, then an Elantris sequel, then a Alloy of Law sequel(well same characters maybe not sequel). - Probably old news to this thread, but he wrote like 12 books prior to getting published, and the first 5 books were just practice books, the sixth being Elantris - He apparently writes novellas on vacations and flights for shits and giggles.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 10:28
|
|