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I like how Sanderson gets cut off by someone while driving and in his road rage writes a superhero novel.
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Jul 17, 2012 20:53
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The author was telegraphed but the circumstances weren't. For a large part of the book, a lot of what he was writing seemed depressed and resigned, as if he had become the Hero of Ages too late to save the world.
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Jul 24, 2012 16:51
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Elantris and Warbreaker are both pretty bad yet I absolutely love Mistborn despite its faults and Way of Kings was awesome and Stormlight Archive seems like it will be a tremendous series. Definitely start with Mistborn, though. I didn't even know about this 'cosmere' thing until I read about it on the 17th shard wiki after I finished Way of Kings; just figured Hoid was some sort of recurring character but not connected in an overarching manner. I think that's just a great way to build anticipation for other books, to make loosely connected works like that.
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Jul 25, 2012 19:30
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Xachariah posted:You never really understand the first book of Malazan until you finish Book 10 then re-read Book 1. You never really understand the first book regardless because it was written 10 years before any of the others and is vastly inferior to the books that follow in pretty much every way, and a lot of stuff from it was simply retconned later on.
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Jul 26, 2012 16:36
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Sanderson tells a significantly better and more satisfying story than Erikson for certain. Erikson's a master of world-building in an exotic but fully realized universe, but Sanderson is a far better storyteller. His characters make more sense and are more relatable, as well, even if neither can really count characterization as a strength like Abercrombie or Martin can. Sanderson benefits from editing because it tightens up what is already a tightly woven story, while Erikson's works are really hurt by their general lack of any editing whatsoever. As authors I'd rate both on par with each other, though Sanderson seems to improve with each book while Erikson's second and third novels are probably his best; after that he seems to have fallen in love with his own storytelling and never improved. Gardens of the Moon is just in general pretty cliche and boring, though, even if the Malazan series taken as a whole is far from cliche or boring and should keep you occupied for the better part of a year. HeroOfTheRevolution fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 15:20
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Oh Snapple! posted:Erikson, to me, has the strongest plot and character arcs in the genre, particularly because he doesn't go into his work treating his cast like poo poo out of spite like Abercrombie and Martin do while also having a very clear picture of what he wants to do with them (though this is a jab more directed at Martin) Erikson has seven trillion characters in his books and only a few of them receive anything more than a cursory amount of depth, while the rest speak with the same voice. He's a good writer and manages to trick the reader into thinking his characters have more depth than he's actually written into the story (often by having his other paper-thin characters react thusly), but upon re-reading the books their actions very often make little to no sense. Even major characters are very rarely differentiated. I liked Stormy and Gesler's arc a lot, for example, (and the one scene in the last book where one mentions the mouse dying tugged real hard on my emotions, which is something I gave Erikson a lot of credit for since it's rare fantasy novels manage that) but I couldn't tell you much about both and certainly nothing unique about either immediately after finishing the series. Sanderson's characters in Mistborn are similarly poor, but the cast at least has the advantage of being much smaller. Way of Kings was an improvement in every way, though, and I think it's only going to get better from here. Like I said, Sanderson's improved with every book and Erikson seems to get worse (largely because he needs a strict editor to keep his ambitious plots in check).
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Jul 27, 2012 19:43
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I downloaded it for reading after Forge of Darkness, but hopefully he'll get picked up by Tor or someone and won't have to self-publish if it's as good as everyone says.
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Aug 10, 2012 16:14
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Alloy of Law was a book he wrote to wind down from writing a serious book and then he finished and was like hey this is pretty good and published it. I feel like there's a ton of in-jokes with himself that only he would find funny (more so than other books) but the story is really good considering it was never intended to be a published work.
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Aug 28, 2012 15:47
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The Gunslinger posted:I wasn't very impressed with the Sanderson "avalanche" though but maybe that's because I'm used to Erikson. Not a real fair comparison. The entire Mistborn trilogy is like the size of one of the later Book of the Fallen installments, and there's 10 books in that, plus 5 full-length side stories and a full-length prequel. It's hard to match Erikson in scope, only Wheel of Time really compares and, frankly, it really doesn't. Sanderson does tell a much tighter story, though. Erikson tends to start and abandon plot threads pretty routinely.
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Feb 12, 2013 03:53
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Drunk Tomato posted:That is the best thing I'eve ever seen. I'm just going through WOT right now for the first time (only on book 3), solely because I want to read the Brandon Sanderson Avalanche. Can't wait to get to his books! I'm in the same boat, though finishing up book 2 right now. Boy are these early 90s fantasy characters stupid Sure we'll go through the Waygate with you Liandrin, I'm sure you're not Black Ajah or anything  Speaking of the Black Ajah, if Aes Sedai can't tell a lie why the gently caress don't they just ask every single one 'Are you a Black Ajah?' and warn them if they answer with anything other than a simple 'no' that they'll kill them.
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Feb 17, 2013 03:12
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Haerc posted:Black Ajah can lie. Oh how convenient (I'm going to be saying that a lot over the course of this series, aren't I?)
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Feb 17, 2013 04:10
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Iron Tusk posted:So from reading this thread and having my mind blown, I can't help but wonder not if Kaladin's path is going to be that of recombining/reforming Honor's shard and taking it up. And that in the other splintered worlds the same will happen, and someday when I'm 70 there's going to be a shardholder throwdown 70? Sanderson will probably be long done with the Cosmere by the time Martin finishes... well, probably his next book.
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Apr 19, 2013 04:26
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Aside from the recurring character, there's an entire sub-chapter of Way of Kings involving a group of travelers from other Cosmere settings.
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May 12, 2013 14:21
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Ethiser posted:Didn't in the latter Szeth sections he start having less reservations about committing acts that were against his people's way of life. I seem to remember him having some inner monologue about not being bothered by walking on stone anymore. He never had reservations about walking on stone. His reservations were about the fact that he didn't have reservations about walking on stone, but that if he rejected that then it meant he rejected the teachings of his entire race and thus his nature as Truthless. We don't know anything about what makes a Shin Truthless though, so it's all speculation. Could be that Shin Shardbearers are Truthless, as was mentioned. Could be a number of things. Szeth's intimate knowledge of what's essentially magic that's been otherwise lost for millennia (versus Kaladin who stumbled into it) is the most interesting mystery.
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Jul 31, 2013 05:05
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MildShow posted:You're in luck. The second novel, Tower Lord, is up for preorder on Amazon already. Oh thank god... Lynch had the title of fantasy novel wunderkind and then squandered it (though to be fair because of personal mental health and relationship issues). Patrick Rothfuss also squandered that title by being a genuine weirdo who writes hundreds of pages of weird fairy porn into his books. Anthony Ryan is the new fantasy wunderkind and from reading his blog I feel like he's on the right road to avoid the pitfalls. Blood Song was amazing so I really hope book two lives up to it. Sanderson was never a wunderkind because Sanderson displays the more common progression - crap, ok, better, awesome. And then the less common occurrence of continuing to write really good poo poo at an incredible clip. Sanderson and Erikson are your representatives of that crew.
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Dec 21, 2013 07:47
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