[m348e912]

I hadn't heard of Brandon Sanderson until I went to a book store in Provo, Utah. He is a very much a big deal there and had two complete bookshelves dedicated to his work. He went to BYU so there is a local connection, but it caught me by surprise because I wasn't aware of his popularity.

[kQq9oHeAz6wLLS]

Larry Correia has a post about why there are so many Mormon sci-fi writers. Interesting read, regardless your opinion on the religion

https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/05/17/why-are-there-so-...

[stormcode]

You should check out the Stormlight Archive. It's really good.

[eslaught]

The magic system in Stormlight is astonishingly good. About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times.

On the other hand I've been put off by the pacing of the last three books. It feels like the basic structure is that there's a build up to a huge conflict at the end of the book, and the vast majority of the pages are spent waiting for it to arrive. In my opinion, the second book, Words of Radiance, was the best so far in terms of balancing character, plot and action.

[thaumasiotes]

> About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times.

On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances.

[spiralx]

> On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances.

I've been enjoying a story that manages to have 22 elements - including Healing, Blood, Sound, Force, Destruction, Illusion and Fae - integral to its system of magic in a way that feels consistent while being varied and interesting, despite how odd some of those seem at first. Grain does seem a pretty strange element I agree, but so did Wood when I started reading stories using the Chinese five element scheme until I became accustomed to it.

[thrower123]

It gets tiresome that every character is a quivering Freudian ball of repressed trauma and mental illness, but it is otherwise a fun world.

[FPGAhacker]

Seconded. I struggled with the way of kings having just finished a memory of light. Couldn’t get brain to accept the shift in gears.

But I came years later and found the series quite good and very enjoyable.

[jimbob45]

https://youtu.be/-6HOdHEeosc

He teaches at BYU as well (still).

[bitexploder]

He had an open creative writing course I took once. It really helped see how he is so prolific. He has a very good creative writing system, but does not force his novel writing style in his students. The way he explained things changed how I view all fiction in a pretty profound way in terms of how stories are created.

[thaumasiotes]

He's a big deal outside of Utah too.

[exhilaration]

What book should I start with if I'd like to get begin reading his stuff?

[truxten]

Either start with Mistborn #1: The Final Empire or The Stormlight Archive #1: The Way of Kings. They are his main series, and generally regarded as his best stuff. Would probably recommend Mistborn as it's been finished, and the mainline story is only 3 books.

[thaumasiotes]

> They are his main series, and generally regarded as his best stuff.

I think Elantris is his best. It's just that there's less of it (one book) than there is of the big series.

[Aeolun]

Elantris is great, but the end of the books is basically a gaping gap. Not entirely, but a bit like the story was cut off in the middle.

[eduardosalaz]

Others haven't said so but maybe you should try Warbreaker as it's the "most" standalone book of the Cosmere saga. It's the "most" in the sense that there are still subtle references to other works but they are very minor and you can totally enjoy it without reading the rest of them first. In fact, once you read Warbreaker you can see some connections with it later on the Stormlight Archive

[FPGAhacker]

He actually has a section on his website with suggestions for where to start.

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

[6gvONxR4sf7o]

The emperor’s soul is a short novella, and is excellent. The quality to time commitment ratio is fantastic.

[xedrac]

I second this choice. Legion is another short story novella that is really fun. My favorite Sanderson series so far is the Skyward series, for which I highly recommend the audio books. The narrator is amazing.

[wlesieutre]

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

[VikingCoder]

A friend suggested I buy the entire Mistborn series as one ebook. That worked for me.

[rhipitr]

Way of Kings

[edgyquant]

He’s the Stephen King of Tolkien-rip off fantasy. He churns them out, sure, but I don’t consider the quality all that high.

[lolinder]

> Tolkien-rip off fantasy

You're free to dislike the books, but this is an extremely unfair characterization. Sanderson's books bear very little resemblance to Tolkien's beyond the genre and the elaborate nature of the worldbuilding.

[edgyquant]

It’s not unfair. The genre he writes is a genre of Tolkien ripoffs of which he is the most prolific.

[space_fountain]

There are Tolkien rip offs, but Tolkien didn’t invent fantasy, and unlike a lot of fantasy authors Sanderson doesn’t include elements like dwarfs, or elves or really anything that Tolkien came up with as far as I can tell. Are you maybe confusing him with someone else?

[lolinder]

If you're including Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time, then I guess Sanderson broadly falls into that same category. I'd hardly label any of them "rip-offs", though, especially given that there are books out there blatantly ripping off Tolkien right down to elves, dwarves and halflings.

[bradly]

I’ve only read the Mistborn series, but I didn’t find it all similar to Tolkien–not in style or themes.

[justinpombrio]

By "Tolkien ripoff", do you mean anything beyond "fantasy novel"?

[TylerE]

Except King can actually write dialog that isn't 100% cringe.

Sanderson's refusal to have characters ever actually curse is just infuriating.

[vxNsr]

Your need for swearing in dialog for it to sound real says a lot more about you than it does about the author.

[hannofcart]

He uses "storming" as a proxy. :)

[TylerE]

Yes, and it reads like something a prudish 60 year old would write for 5 year olds.

[buscoquadnary]

I actually have always appreciated it because I have taken it as a level of world building beyond what is obvious.

Most all profanity in our language can in some way be traced back to a religious context. It would the make sense that on other worlds with totally different religious backgrounds they would use different cursing.

In fact his usage of this concept is so subtle that you can detect what characters are from the world and which ones aren't by whether they use damnation as a noun or an adjective.

[sjansen]

Goramit! You've reminded me Firefly was killed too ruttin quickly.

[pigscantfly]

This is exactly why Mat was so badly butchered at the end of the Wheel of Time: Sanderson doesn't have any experience of carousing to draw on, and prudish is spot on.

[citrus1330]

Swearing is cringe.

[dannyfraser]

Agreed. I read the Mistborn books a few years ago and just found them very... sanitised, especially compared to other prominent fantasy novels by the likes of Scott Lynch or the brilliantly sweary Joe Abercrombie.

[edgyquant]

I wasn’t saying King and his are the same quality, just that the speed of writing is similar. With that said King writes his fair share of cringe dialogue.

[trey-jones]

I have only ever read the Wheel of Time by Sanderson, but the dialogue was enough to convince me I never needed to bother with him again. Meanwhile, I find King to be probably the best American English writer that I've encountered. By that I'm really only talking about his use of the language, and what a pleasure it is to read. And of course, dialogue is a part of that. This is all subjective of course - that's just how I feel about it.

[lmm]

Sanderson didn't write much of the Wheel of Time, only the very end after the (main) author died.

[trey-jones]

I really hate to be a guy that's like "I know", but come on, I obviously know that. The dialogue was good from Jordan, bad from Sanderson. In my opinion. Thus my statements above.

[TylerE]

I mean, his name is only on 2,700 pages of it.