Your thoughts on Brandon Sanderson?

[Deleted member 168599]

Precisely, your thoughts on his books, not the author himself.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Never read him

 

[RedMuffin]

Who's that?

 

[greyblob]

again?

 

[Puji-Maki]

I've search the name, apparently he has Wikipedia page. Sad to say, I haven't read any of his novels, sorry.

 

[LilRora]

I haven't read much, but personally, I think his style is too systematic and depersonalized. The quality is of course great, but I never really enjoyed his stories, and I often felt like the focus of the story was the plot rather than the characters, which would be fine in some cases with much wider scope, but did not fit those I read.

 

[owotrucked]

I only read a few first from Stormlight Archive

In terms of entertainment, it's really good, but I have some serious issues with the content of the theme.

Concerning bridge 4 Kaladin's arc, I found his message of indomitable human willpower overcoming all adversity with sigma grindset inspiring when I was younger, but he goes so far into that fantasy that it breaks immersion a bit. It mainly concerns the athletic side of the story: The crewmen are not fed properly and never rest, and yet they get ripped and strong. While Kaladin is excused because magic, his team is supposed to be random average humans.

It's almost like author has no idea how to be physically healthy and fit. If he just thinks that willpower and physical activity are enough, then it explains why he's so fat. So my personal opinion is that Kaladin represents delusional beliefs that are so far detached from reality that it would actually hurt you if you believe in it.

It's like, we all navigate reality and our map is a simplified model of causal relationships made of beliefs. If this map is so distorted, where the fuck is it going to take you? Not at your destination at the very least. So the oath "journey over destination" takes a grim turn.

However, this hardworking sigma grindset did work for author in the non physical side of his life since he's a OP printing machine. But it's not like writing is a freaking hell torture that you force yourself to endure and need to repeat to yourself "journey over destination" while rocking yourself in a corner of your room.

I read his podcast for his writing advice and at some point, they talked about how writing about a field the author is unfamiliar is a minefield, like how writing about a surgery will break the immersion for surgeons who knows it's bullshit, and it's better for the author to handwave it and avoid details that would betray their ignorance.

So, it's not like he's completely unaware of those pitfalls. And I believe that at some point, the author has to make artistic decisions to say 'fuck reality, I want to write an inspiring wish fulfillment'. And overall, I think that all the unrealistic parts of the story did serve to make the story more enjoyable.

It's like writing about the power of love or friendship wins over everything, or writing about a smut where all characters are unrealistically hot. His boook about sigma grindset overcoming everything was refreshing to me (compared to other usual stories). It's so controversial yet so brave

In conclusion, his books are peak entertainment that takes bold strides away from usual stories, which won't bore anyone

 

[Empress_Omnii]

He has some amazing magic systems and great world building. I've read most of his books (not in the last couple years due to being busy). But my favorite, maybe due to nostalgia is Rithmatist... which released around 2012 or something, ended on a cliffhanger, and isn't going to worked on for a couple years minimum still. (This is painful)

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Worst thing that happened to writing.

 

[Piisfun]

So... In general, I have enjoyed most of his books, until the 3rd book of Stormlight Archive, where things just kind of... fell apart.
I haven't cared much for his newer series, either.

One thing to note: he sucks at writing endings to series.

 

[DeepWater]

 

[Representing_Tromba]

He writes very fast and I need to read some of his stuff. He has a lot of high fantasy fan boys but outside of that, I know nothing.

 

[beast_regards]

Worldbuilding wise, I have no problem. He writers what he wants to write. I couldn't fault him at that. All Americans are neck deep in religion.

Style wise, I have no problem. English is not my first language. I couldn't fault him for using the simple words when I personally can't do better.

But magic system? I feel that's hypocrisy. He speaks how "author's ability to solve a conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic" yet as the time goes on he introduced the new things which break the established rules, or change them, and it turned into whatever goes, anyway, almost as there was no system. He broke his own rules. Or rule lawyer around them so he don't have to obey them.

 

[Gryphon]

I've only read Stormlight Archive and they're really damn good. Can't wait for the fifth book this december.

I only read a few first from Stormlight Archive

In terms of entertainment, it's really good, but I have some serious issues with the content of the theme.

Concerning bridge 4 Kaladin's arc, I found his message of indomitable human willpower overcoming all adversity with sigma grindset inspiring when I was younger, but he goes so far into that fantasy that it breaks immersion a bit. It mainly concerns the athletic side of the story: The crewmen are not fed properly and never rest, and yet they get ripped and strong. While Kaladin is excused because magic, his team is supposed to be random average humans.

It's almost like author has no idea how to be physically healthy and fit. If he just thinks that willpower and physical activity are enough, then it explains why he's so fat. So my personal opinion is that Kaladin represents delusional beliefs that are so far detached from reality that it would actually hurt you if you believe in it.

How can you read the book and diminish what Kaladin did as a "Sigma Grindset." That's not at all what happened. When Kaladin joined bridge 4, they were weak, scrawny, and sickly for being mistreated as slaves. It wasn't until Kaladin started giving them proper meals, medicine, and actual exercise that wasn't grueling bridge runs that their bodies actually started developing.

The crewmen are not fed properly and never rest, and yet they get ripped and strong.

The issue is here. They weren't ripped and strong until they got fed and some proper rest thanks to Kaladin. You completely skipped a whole section of the story.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

The issue is here. They weren't ripped and strong until they got fed and some proper rest thanks to Kaladin.

I didn't read the book but I know that eating and sleeping doesn't make you strong or they were strong the entire time because they indirectly trained through work with strong muscle necessity like dragging heavy things, they won't get ripped (from my understanding of the word as extreme muscle figure) without muscle enhancing things.

 

[gaylolis]

i read his laws about magic that the magic shit is more about what you can't do with it, instead of what you can. not that i agree or disagree with it since i rarely dabbled in magic stuff and if i did, it's not that deep.

other than that i wasn't familiar with him and his works. i do feel they're not going to be my cup of tea nonetheless.

tho i remember he's a redditor so he might need some therapy.

 

[Keene]

I read his podcast for his writing advice and at some point, they talked about how writing about a field the author is unfamiliar is a minefield, like how writing about a surgery will break the immersion for surgeons who knows it's bullshit, and it's better for the author to handwave it and avoid details that would betray their ignorance.

This reminded me of Scott Lynch's great Red Seas Under Red Skies. He did an enormous amount of research to try and make the sailing in the novel accurate and authentic and it was still somewhat ripped apart by actual sailors.

This is why I've settled on the "make it sound authentic to the laymen" approach. The hours you spend, maybe even a few days, researching metallurgy or whatever else will never stand up to that guy who's been a blacksmith for thirty years. Rather than fall into a never-ending research trap, better to just do "enough" and then put all that time and effort into writing more content.

----

As for Sanderson, I'm a pretty big fan, although I admit I haven't read much of his work recently. His Mistborn series pushed a new surge of love for innovative rule-based magic systems and set the dream of being a fantasy author amongst many teenagers and young men, myself included.

It's also interesting that his entire Cosmere (the universe he created most of his books are in) is essentially a reflection of his Mormonism beliefs; Mormans believe a set number of faithful will become literal gods in the afterlife and get to own their own planet, which is essentially what happens in his works with powerful items called shards giving individual people great power over planets.

 

[Dieter]

Unrivalled without an equal. No author has ever made me put down a book as fast as trying to read Mistborn.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

He's my favorite author, and imo he's the modern day Tolkien. He does deep worldbuilding without slowing the story down, his action and fight scenes are fast paced and written very visually, and he writes with a very straightforward style that isn't overloaded with flowery, poetic purple prose. He also got me into hard magic, which I think is much more narratively satisfying than soft magic.

 

[owotrucked]

I've only read Stormlight Archive and they're really damn good. Can't wait for the fifth book this december.

How can you read the book and diminish what Kaladin did as a "Sigma Grindset." That's not at all what happened. When Kaladin joined bridge 4, they were weak, scrawny, and sickly for being mistreated as slaves. It wasn't until Kaladin started giving them proper meals, medicine, and actual exercise that wasn't grueling bridge runs that their bodies actually started developing.

The issue is here. They weren't ripped and strong until they got fed and some proper rest thanks to Kaladin. You completely skipped a whole section of the story.

Ah my bad then, it's been a long time since I read it. Seems like my memory is failing me.

I only remember that they were overworked and without resources during long parts of start and somehow managed to flip it around with nothing but willpower.

In my memory, Kaladin started to train his crew before knowing about his power and had no resources to make them healthy (I think they also complained about the shitty gruel). And if I remember well, having even one guy wounded or someone rest a day was a huge deal for the whole brigade lol. It's like these guys weren't freaking humans

I remember that Kaladin even stood during rest time instead of sprawling like others and he pushed his teammates to get disciplined and force themselves physically even though they had nothing to support their body needs. I felt like these guys should have died of exhaustion instead of feeling better and getting results.

If your crew is already physically stimulated by carrying huge heavy bridges on their shoulder, clearly a normal person wouldn't think 'yeah the problem is that you're not putting enough heart in it'. It'd work in the context of a proper team sport, but not in a straight physical fitness check like carrying a bridge.

Author clearly stated himself that Kaladin's arc was based on a sport plot. And you can see that there are few issues when applied on slaves instead of proper athletes. In that context, you can see that determination as starting point is the key for usual sport plots, but it fits a lot less in slave setting imo.

Getting the situation better and earning resources as a reward for efforts and determination makes sense as a story, but in reality you wouldn't push underfed people.

Now, I might be remembering wrongly, and his team wasn't getting any better because of his starting trainings. But I remember them participating, getting inspired, and actually improving, and I think that shouldn't worked at these early stages.