Am I the only one?

[aToTeT]

I don't ignore popular series and authors conciously. It happens on its own. I usually follow this logic. I can't read Terry Pratchett in a day, meanwhile I can read trash in one day. Another thing, I don't distinguish authors from my country. I simply see the book cover, title, and I think to myself, "This is the shit I will read today."

I’ve got world war Z, the Martian, John Carter, The Art of War and The Constitution Of The United Stares of America (and other selected founder propaganda), The Name of The Wind, All of Dune, all of A Song of Ice and Fire, Maus and some of the philosophers whose work may or may not have lead to the foundational reason Maus exists (except my copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra which I think I may have leant to someone and never seen back) my Christmas gift from my married-into English family was volume 2 of Hellsing Ultimate (and it is everything I hoped it would be, that dream sequence has genius paneling) bound in red with an embossed cross… all poking out at me from my bookshelf in plain very of me.

I haven’t read any of those more than a few pages deep.

I keep reading the first few paragraphs of A Christmas Carol and getting so inspired and excited I have to write it out.

Nostalgia is dangerous. One day, I will read what’s in my bookshelf, and it won’t just be a pretentious ‘look how smart I am’ display… one day.

But I do have time for Maze the Endless Quest and Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube, apparently.

 

[Seaspecter]

That’s beautiful.

Yeah that one was fun.

But not all of them are good I stopped asking for feedback after getting this.

"Overall: your story is simply boring. The lack of description, boring writing, meh pacing, and plot are nothing that attract me. There is no clear plot, no burning questions that make me go to the next chapter, desiring more to satisfy a burning lust to know what happens next. There aren't any real pros to balance it out, either. I can't justify giving you a high score."

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Yeah that one was fun.

But not all of them are good I stopped asking for feedback after getting this.

"Overall: your story is simply boring. The lack of description, boring writing, meh pacing, and plot are nothing that attract me. There is no clear plot, no burning questions that make me go to the next chapter, desiring more to satisfy a burning lust to know what happens next. There aren't any real pros to balance it out, either. I can't justify giving you a high score."

Sounds like a feedback I would give. Is it mine?

 

[aToTeT]

Yeah that one was fun.

But not all of them are good I stopped asking for feedback after getting this.

"Overall: your story is simply boring. The lack of description, boring writing, meh pacing, and plot are nothing that attract me. There is no clear plot, no burning questions that make me go to the next chapter, desiring more to satisfy a burning lust to know what happens next. There aren't any real pros to balance it out, either. I can't justify giving you a high score."

:(

Bleh, no pros at all? Talk about a slap to self confidence.

It would seem I am fortunate so far — I’ve had pretty good feedback I could iterate upon. I am sorry you were not so lucky in the instance.

 

[Seaspecter]

Sounds like a feedback I would give. Is it mine?

No I don't think so, you haven't read my novel to the best of my knowledge.

:(

Bleh, no pros at all? Talk about a slap to self confidence.

It would seem I am fortunate so far — I’ve had pretty good feedback I could iterate upon. I am sorry you were not so lucky in the instance.

Yeah it was rough but I kept writing anyway.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

No I don't think so, you haven't read my novel to the best of my knowledge.

Is this a mandela effect? I was sure I saw you in one of my feedback threads.

 

[Seaspecter]

Is this a mandela effect? I was sure I saw you in one of my feedback threads.

I looked back at my old comments it wasn't you. I actually canceled my request in your thread after I got three bad reviews in a row.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I looked back at my old comments it wasn't you. I actually canceled my request in your thread after I got three bad reviews in a row.

Aha! So you did ask for feedback! And I am sorry to hear the part about bad feedback.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I looked back at my old comments it wasn't you. I actually canceled my request in your thread after I got three bad reviews in a row.

Ah yeah, sorry about that. It was my first feedback thread, so take whatever I said with a grain of salt.

 

[Seaspecter]

Ah yeah, sorry about that. It was my first feedback thread, so take whatever I said with a grain of salt.

It's fine, to be honest, yours was the nicest out of the three. I had one where I was told my story was like reading a child getting SA for laughs, I actually almost deleted everything and quit over that one.

 

[Clo]

It's fine, to be honest, yours was the nicest out of the three. I had one where I was told my story was like reading a child getting SA for laughs, I actually almost deleted everything and quit over that one.

I'm glad you didn't. Anna's Dream is such a whimsical story!

 

[Shiriru_B]

He's the chosen one!!!!

My guilty pleasure is the usual "Extra MC" shenanigans, 99.9% of the time it's garbage but that 0.1% man, that 0.1% makes it worth it I swear

oh you got any good novels to recommend that have what you described?

 

[lambenttyto]

You hate Sanderson because… he’s popular?

He's trash. His books read like anime, his humor is childish, he bashes the reader over the head with is modern principles of morality and his books are just too long and padded. Another thing I don't like is that he doesn't write magic, he writes pseudo science. I guess the LitRPG slop readers would love his "magic systems" with all their rules and predictability. It runs like machinery because he's science obsessed. Magic is unknowing, dangerous, mystical, a la Robert E. Howard, and that's how I always write it.

Sanderson is a hack!

 

[aToTeT]

He's trash. His books read like anime, his humor is childish, he bashes the reader over the head with is modern principles of morality and his books are just too long and padded. Another thing I don't like is that he doesn't write magic, he writes pseudo science. I guess the LitRPG slop readers would love his "magic systems" with all their rules and predictability. It runs like machinery because he's science obsessed. Magic is unknowing, dangerous, mystical, a la Robert E. Howard, and that's how I always write it.

Sanderson is a hack!

I do like my magic mysterious and: magical.

Whether magic be in silent reverence, or in the flashy and hyperrealised, or in matter itself: I like it.

Spoiler

[Josh from xbox live] has a wonderful youtube video on the subject ([Do You Believe In Magic], no, not the song, but it does have a killer rendition of the last 8 minutes of Supper’s Ready that makes me revisit it constantly because of just how inspiring I find it — his favourite rendition of magic is in Hook, and I am disinclined to disagree that Bangarang was wonderful (and it was such a good movie, about the magic of play, and in the value of fun — not beaten over your head, but masterfully demonstrated — poor Tink though))

But… I do like a good amount of anime (Kaguya Love is War was great, english dub narrator: top tier). I have read some very good works where the magic was a science system — and LitRPG definitely does like to put (level x sword skill); but I would say that’s probably two different systems really.

One is definitely based on video games, and maybe there’s some overlap there, but I don’t think anyone can say that Defiance of the Fall, with its heavenly meditations on the Dao isn’t a traditionally magical experience — I like those sections a lot, probably because they are spiritual and dare-I-say empowering to read. Very wonderful; shame most of the story is about combat — it’s fine, I just adore those meditation sections.

I think Sky Woman (Dragon Empress) series has a magical system that is extremely one-note (some x number of magical lines performed across like 5 methods, outside of which no magic is possible, and all of them only do one of those lines and one of those methods). I really liked that one; feel like I’ve read more, but they’re just not popping into my head right now — science is rarely my first choice of a read, though its nice alongside the magic in Release That Witch, The Greatest Real Estate Developer.

I dearly wish I enjoyed Dr. Stone more (some versions of pacifism just make no sense — Buddhists killed off a staggering number of religions beck in the day (Sri Lanka’s fun both in history and in CK3), but the Jains are super cool. I like them so much I’m putting them in space and I don’t care that it isn’t realistic (it is, you warmongers: Jains who control the food and are protected by a Mechanist menace are coherent? That works: just has to be handled right! As I say… I wish Dr. Stone was… better. Both sides of their positioned argument are just so… damn… weak. :( ) Big aside, mostly just putting my thoughts down as I consider something.

— Hack maybe, but he’s a nice guy though, Sanderson — from what I’ve seen of him. To some extent: it makes sense that the most popular authors tend to be the most mass-appeal authors — not gonna find pages of gold in most popular works. Though, that isn’t to say there isn’t something gleamy inside them.

But I don’t think he’s a bad person, unlike, say… Jo K Row. If his stories are worse than hers (or Maas), then I’ll know he’s *bad* bad. Surely: Incoherence < Unmagical Magic.

But I haven’t read one of his stories to determine that for myself. I may never get there: so much to read. I read webnovels and webtoons — rare is the day I read something traditionally published, and old are those stories I usually read from books.

Straight eww to dictated moralism though. Always hate not being allowed to holistically determine a moral takeaway for myself — modern or otherwise (Ignorance and Want are the worst part of A Christmas Carol; utterly unnecessary: Tiny Tim did it so much better).

Can’t speak to ‘childish’ humour, I’m not sure what counts under the umbrella. Fart jokes? Toilet humour? Is childish humour simply ‘crass’? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure he is considered a Young Adult author (for whatever that means), and if Brandon Sanderson is considered as such: I suppose it would make sense if the humour is in line with the intended audience — I think he has like, 15 beta readers, 5 for each version of revision. Rabid fanbase, his, this I do know.

Spoiler

OH MAN I JUST… remembered a LitRPG goddess reincarnation story where her main power is over Fate, and it uses Tarot in such a good way — really enjoyed that. Anyway, I’m off to write about Space Jains… or my Dungeon Story, probably should do the one people are reading, being as I’ve got the chapter near-to crystal. We’ll see where the inspiration takes me.

 

[cabbag3]

But I haven’t read one of his stories to determine that for myself. I may never get there: so much to read. I read webnovels and webtoons — rare is the day I read something traditionally published, and old are those stories I usually read from books.

Oh. I wanna share a bit!
So I've only read Mistborn and a bit of Stormlight (I won't be rereading either of those) so I can't really fully comment on him, but they say he's a pretty normal guy (almost too normal) and I've heard his fan convention last year was really cool.

He's aware that he's bad at making witty remarks so even if the readers don't find them funny he at least tries to make it in line with the character or situation (and not cringy). For me, some of it was funny, some of it isn’t, and that’s okay. It's not like I expected a comedy club while reading it.

I also agree that in Mistborn, he uses a hard magic system, but my experience reading it was the least interesting part for me. I wouldn't have finished it (even tho it was thick) if I was in it just for the magic system tbh. So I won't comment on this, it's up to you if you wanna read hard or soft magic systems.

Tho I agree that Sanderson has his biases, mostly with an overall upright and hopeful vibe to his work, he's still more on the Tolkien side (Tolkien wanted to just tell stories. Where one of the main ideas of LOTR is also good overcoming evil). But I wouldn't say he's preachy about it, that's just shallow reading tbh, it's not like he's condemning other virtues, beliefs, casual sex, etc.
He's quite open-minded and empathetic, so his rendition(?) of mental health and reformation of oppression are pretty impressive. Tho his writing lacks prose and is pretty straight forward, and at the same time works with morally gray protagonists are also becoming more popular.

I think that most people assume he's preachy when they discover he's Mormon even tho he's very liberal with his beliefs. He's serious with his religion yet respects and values diversity. He even has it in his FAQs about LGBT (since apparently he doesn't mention much of this in his works) due to how many times it's been asked. It's up to readers if they believe him, I guess. But maybe this too is just my biased opinion, you can't really connect with everyone.

Sadly, I haven't watched that much anime to understand what people mean when they say "Like Anime".