That Branderson Sanderson

petuh112

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I was shopping around for suggestions for books to read, and I was a little surprised to find a ton of people all highly recommended Brandon Sanderson's books to me. What are your guys thoughts on him? I'd already read Elantris and the first two books of the mistborn trilogy, and while I thought they were solid, I wasn't really blown away. Now I'm thinking maybe I should go back and give them a second look, maybe I missed something the first time around. I've also heard the Stormlight archives are good, should I read those instead?
 

Woollybear

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I like Mistborn best because it's a new magic system (several) done well. Some of the devices felt trope-y but that's OK with me.

I like Elantris for similar reasons and wish he had built that world up more.

Not a huge fan of Stormlight. Very complex. If you like complex, try it. I suspect I'd need to really knuckle down to get into it.

Sanderson is a huge advocate for new writers, and I love him for that. He;s made his BYU classes available on youtube. He has some great classes in that set of 12 videos.
 

Brightdreamer

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It could be that Sanderson's just not your thing... but what is your thing? It'd be easier to recommend if I had an idea of what you like.

Stormlight Archive is Epic fantasy with a capital E (and a capital P, I, and C); if you like complex worlds with myriad cultures and many characters whose lives intersect in unexpected ways, give it a try. (Note: Sanderson was the one tapped to finish off Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series; if you liked WoT, you'll probably be interested in what he does with his own universe.)

Warbreaker is a standalone with a color-based magic system.

For young adult offerings, he has Rithmatist (chalk drawings as power), the Alcatraz series (hilarious takes on fantasy and literature in general), Steelheart (YA dystopia in a world where the rise of superheroes has meant the subjugation of everyone else), Skyward (a girl's people, once spacefarers, have been stranded on a single planet for generations, fighting invaders determined to wipe them out for good - unless she and an old, forgotten AI ship can rediscover the truth behind why they came to this war-blasted world to begin with)...

There's even a graphic novel series, White Sands, that seems fairly popular.

And more. There's always more...
 

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I picked up one of his after I tuned in to his online writing course. Liked his course, the novel didn't do it for me. I can't even remember the title.

I guess he's just not my cup of tea.
 

Enlightened

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I saw a talk he did at a convention (on YouTube). He announced he planned a 16-world, 36 book saga. I suspect he will work these for a good while still.
 

jjdebenedictis

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Sanderson doesn't wow me either, but neither does Neil Gaiman, so clearly it's just my tastes. Even great writers can't appeal to everyone.
 

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I'm really enjoying Skyward, and it makes me more likely to try future Sandersons, but just because I'm liking it, doesn't mean you would.
 

petuh112

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Not a huge fan of Stormlight. Very complex. If you like complex, try it. I suspect I'd need to really knuckle down to get into it.
I've heard something similar from a friend. I think I'll wait till schools calmed down a bit before I take a crack at that one. :p

Sanderson is a huge advocate for new writers, and I love him for that. He;s made his BYU classes available on youtube. He has some great classes in that set of 12 videos.

I remember seeing those online at some point! Thank you for reminding me of them.

It could be that Sanderson's just not your thing... but what is your thing? It'd be easier to recommend if I had an idea of what you like.

I'm not really sure anymore, I used to be a huge science-fi fantasy nerd but recently I've been having a hard time getting invested in any books in that genre. I thought maybe I had grew out of them, but then I reread American Gods and found that definitely was not the case. So I guess I'm back at square one for now.

For young adult offerings, he has Rithmatist (chalk drawings as power)

That sounds super interesting, I think I'll pick that up. Thanks.
 

Brightdreamer

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I'm not really sure anymore, I used to be a huge science-fi fantasy nerd but recently I've been having a hard time getting invested in any books in that genre. I thought maybe I had grew out of them, but then I reread American Gods and found that definitely was not the case. So I guess I'm back at square one for now.

Okay, let's take genre (and even Sanderson titles) out of the equation.

Do you like books with quirky characters and large casts, or the fewer the better? Modern riffs on old myths or classic stories? Are you more a gritty urban type, a seafarer, a wilderness buff? When you pick up a book, are you looking for a Great Idea, a sense-of-wonder immersion in another time or place, or just a subtle tweak on our world that puts a new perspective on things? Do you like tried-and-true tropes, or stuff you're not likely to have seen before?

What are some of your favorites, classic or modern? Can you identify why, or what hooked you?

(It could also be that you just need a break from SFF for a while...)
 

petuh112

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Do you like books with quirky characters and large casts, or the fewer the better? Modern riffs on old myths or classic stories? Are you more a gritty urban type, a seafarer, a wilderness buff? When you pick up a book, are you looking for a Great Idea, a sense-of-wonder immersion in another time or place, or just a subtle tweak on our world that puts a new perspective on things? Do you like tried-and-true tropes, or stuff you're not likely to have seen before?

What are some of your favorites, classic or modern? Can you identify why, or what hooked you?


Quirky, believable characters are what really make excited to keep reading, so those are always great. I'm not a huge fan of huge casts, I tend to like tight knit groups of 3-7 people that play off each other. I don't have any preferences for setting, with the sole exception of 1920's New Orleans, for reasons I don't fully understand. Great Ideas and immersion are some of the most important things I look for. Reading something new and strange I never would have thought of and having it brought to life is something magical. This also means that I tend to look for things that have unique premises I've never seen before.

Neil Gaiman books are always a favorite, just because of the way his writing sucks me in and the feeling of magic I get. Saga is a comic series that I love, its just filled with bizarre concepts and characters that I utterly unique and likable. Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler books are great fun, the way they use character to twist your expectations and mislead you is great.

Now that I'm writing this all down, this reminds me a lot of the Miyazaki movies I love. Quirky, relatable characters in fantastical places, where the focus is more on character and the mood the world creates, rather than the fine rules and details.

- - - Updated - - -

Do you like books with quirky characters and large casts, or the fewer the better? Modern riffs on old myths or classic stories? Are you more a gritty urban type, a seafarer, a wilderness buff? When you pick up a book, are you looking for a Great Idea, a sense-of-wonder immersion in another time or place, or just a subtle tweak on our world that puts a new perspective on things? Do you like tried-and-true tropes, or stuff you're not likely to have seen before?

What are some of your favorites, classic or modern? Can you identify why, or what hooked you?


Quirky, believable characters are what really make excited to keep reading, so those are always great. I'm not a huge fan of huge casts, I tend to like tight knit groups of 3-7 people that play off each other. I don't have any preferences for setting, with the sole exception of 1920's New Orleans, for reasons I don't fully understand. Great Ideas and immersion are some of the most important things I look for. Reading something new and strange I never would have thought of and having it brought to life is something magical. This also means that I tend to look for things that have unique premises I've never seen before.

Neil Gaiman books are always a favorite, just because of the way his writing sucks me in and the feeling of magic I get. Saga is a comic series that I love, its just filled with bizarre concepts and characters that I utterly unique and likable. Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler books are great fun, the way they use character to twist your expectations and mislead you is great.

Now that I'm writing this all down, this reminds me a lot of the Miyazaki movies I love. Quirky, relatable characters in fantastical places, where the focus is more on character and the mood the world creates, rather than the fine rules and details.
 

WriteMinded

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No, Petuh112, you didn't miss anything. I know he's a great writer, but Sanderson's works never quite draw me in. Can't tell you why. I read the same books you read, and now I'm through. I did like the bad guy in Elantris quite a lot, but I can find no enthusiasm for the rest of his characters.
 
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JeanGenie

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I feel the same. Love Neil Gaiman, couldn't quite get into Sanderson, though he seems like a great advocate (and teacher) for new writers! I read perhaps one and part of the second book in the series, but it becomes too conceptual for me. Meaning I see there's a lot of work behind the magic system and world building and wanting (and succeeding) to come up with new concepts, but I'm not really drawn in, probably mostly because of the many characters and the slow pace of the plot.

I'm getting "many MC-fatigue" with a lot of new fantasy, especially series. There are so many books with so many characters. If you like great fantasy with few characters you should try the Earthsea-books by Ursula Le Guin and the novels about Howl/Sophie (the first one named Howls Moving Castle) by Diana Wynne Jones. I find I really like books where the concept doesn't shine through as much, and they're just preoccupied with telling great stories where the magic and world building is something in the background.
 

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I love Sanderson's efforts in The Wheel Of Time (like Jordan's work, but with all the nonessential interpersonal BS and elaborate descriptions of clothing and tugging of braids removed, the action tightened up, and a better sense of "this is a real world where real people are in real danger". He took the rat's nest of tangled and often pointless plotlines Jordan left behind and tied them all up in a nice bow in the space of what, three books? And did it with style. Excellent work.

Elantris? Interesting, but really kind of pretentious in that "Hey look, I'm a fantasy book, but I'm different than all those other fantasy books!" sort of way. Warbreaker was better, but still more of the same.

Mistborn? I liked it, but the magic system seemed too gimmicky, almost like the sort of thing you'd see in an action anime. I did enjoy the books in that same world that came after more than the Mistborn books though.

Stormlight? Intensely complex and the best of his work by far outside of the last three books of The Wheel Of Time, imo. These books, once I got past the initial confusion of understanding the world, were fascinating and I read each one in a few days. I don't know how they'd fair on a re-read, but I certainly have enjoyed them so far.


---

Overall I like his work, but he does have a tendency to use over-developed, rigid, gimmicky magic systems in some of his books that just sort of suck the sense of reality out of the story. Mistborn, for example, feels like people living in a video game.
 

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I want to not like him because his approach seems overly structured and I don't like working that way myself. Then again he is a wildly successful author and I work in a grocery store.

I should probably read his stuff.
 

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I want to not like him because his approach seems overly structured and I don't like working that way myself. Then again he is a wildly successful author and I work in a grocery store.

I should probably read his stuff.

May just not be for you, but I'd say his stuff is worth at least trying out. Especially Mistborn. While perhaps overly structured, he does a good job within those confines.
 

Kjbartolotta

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I'm not a fan of this author. To each their own. But I'm a bigger not-fan of his 'Hard vs Soft Fantasy' sorting mechanism, which it's totally fine if you like it but just makes no sense to me.
 

kranix1

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May just not be for you, but I'd say his stuff is worth at least trying out. Especially Mistborn. While perhaps overly structured, he does a good job within those confines.

You WOULD say that.
 

Taylor Harbin

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I enjoy his work immensely, and think he’s a cool guy in general. However, I don’t think magic always has to be boiled down to a hard science. Most times I prefer mystery and intrigue over alchemical puzzles with rigid answers. However, since somebody mentioned Gaiman, I did not enjoy The Ocean at the End of the Lane on that point alone: too much not explained.
 

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Skyward was good

I'm really enjoying Skyward, and it makes me more likely to try future Sandersons, but just because I'm liking it, doesn't mean you would.

I liked Skyward too. Mostly, I don't read a lot of Sanderson, not because I don't like his writing, but because he doesn't write a lot of books I want to read. I don't do fantasy. I generally don't do YA either, but I decided to give Skyward a shot and it was a decent read, although clearly aimed at an audience I'm not part of. I'd probably read more if he wrote in genres I had an interest in.
 

JeanGenie

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I enjoy his work immensely, and think he’s a cool guy in general. However, I don’t think magic always has to be boiled down to a hard science. Most times I prefer mystery and intrigue over alchemical puzzles with rigid answers. However, since somebody mentioned Gaiman, I did not enjoy The Ocean at the End of the Lane on that point alone: too much not explained.

I didn't like The Ocean at the End of the Lane either, and I've wondered why. I think it was because I felt it was kind of forced-poetic? If that makes sense. Like, "I've written all this fantasy for so long, now I'm finally going to write a real, literary book." Perhaps it just wasn't what I expected from him, but it fell a little flat.