• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Brandon Sanderson seems like a cool dude

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
I've never read a single Brandon Sanderson book. I tried to read the Final Empire at Barnes and Noble but got kinda of bored after like 10 pages. But I stumbled upon his youtube channel on youtube due to the algorhythm.

Honestly, he seems like such a down to earth dude. Unashamedly nerdy AF, but chill. One thing that is cool is that he uploaded an entire semester worth of classes he taught on creative writing. That could have been something he uploaded to Master Class or something, and here he is offering it for free. The best stuff on his channel .



Then he does random shit, like MtG draft.



or getting wrecked in the Elden Ring DLC




Honestly, I've been thinking about giving his writing another try. I don't think Mistborn is for me though. Anything else worthwhile?
 
Last edited:

Hrk69

Member
Nice. I need some long videos while playing Football Manager

Hopefully he's cool like you said OP.
 

near

Member
I’m unfamiliar with he’s work, but I’ve had he’s Mistborn series recommended to me an awful lot, to the point I just ended up buying The Final Empire. I haven’t started reading it yet, but now I’m oddly motivated to start it.
 

JBat

Member
I'm a fan. Op stick with final empire. The series is really good. I've listen to a couple of his lectures and always come away with something worth while.
 

TwiztidElf

Gold Member
Massive respect for the guy.
I really enjoy the Stormlight Archive.
The way he completed Wheel of Time so well put him in S tier authors for me.
And the way he's conducted himself around the Wheel of Time amazon series has been excellent.
Some GREAT interviews with him out there on YouTube.
 

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
I'm a fan. Op stick with final empire. The series is really good. I've listen to a couple of his lectures and always come away with something worth while.
Yeah the lectures a solid. Im at a point where i try to tune out too much advice ajd try to just get it done on my own and npt overthink all the details.
 

BHeld

Neo Member
Brandon Sanderson is fantastic. I'm on my third read-through of The Stormlight Archive in preparation of book 5 coming out later this year. All of his Cosmere series books (Stormlight, Mistborn, etc.) are connected and there are dozens of easter eggs in each book. Definitely not the best writing in the world but it's incredibly entertaining and the universe building is top-notch. His books have a very videogame-ish feel to them, with unique magic systems to each world and a I almost get the sense of characters leveling up more than just growing. That could just be the gamer in me though. I started with Stormlight which I like better than Mistborn, but I don't think there is a wrong place to start.
 

Doomtrain

Gold Member
Is Stormlight archive better than Mistborn? Do I need to read Mistborn to understand Stormlugjt?
I prefer Stormlight, but they're both good and I'd say it's a matter of preference. Stormlight is also a lot longer and denser, and it took me longer to get invested. And no, you don't need to read Mistborn to understand Stormlight, or vice versa.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Is Stormlight archive better than Mistborn? Do I need to read Mistborn to understand Stormlugjt?
They are unrelated. Just start with “The way of kings” and you are good to go. It’s my favourite book in the series. I kind of don’t like how the managed Kaladin in the later novels.

I found the fourth book’s ending a touch confusing as well but the series it self is great
 

kikkis

Member
Strengths Sanderson are worldbuilding and structure in terms of twists etc. Sometimes worldbuilding feels bit complicated. Downsides are characters and dialog. This is based on reading the both mistborn eras.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Sanderson is very chaste, his Mormon upbringing at work. He also has a very rigid system at play in his books, which is nice that he has internal consistency, but he is TOO transparent with it, you get things like "he ingested 0.45 grams of iron so he could only burn through 4 cm of stone, but it was 5 cm thick so he failed" where I think having the mechanisms a bit more behind the curtain would have been better.

Still, he is an amazing workhorse and his worldbuilding, even when it doesn't quite work, is very impressive. Assuming you have the time to devote to his longer works and get through them in a reasonable amount of time, they are rewarding.
 

Joyful

Member
I enjoy his works for the most part. Ive read pretty much everything within his connected universe (the cosmere).
id usually recommend stormlight over mistborn etc for the most part. But I also think perhaps the original order is better because you get to see his writing improve and some early characters show up again in unexpected places.
I think Brandon enjoys fantasy and scifi equally and im guessing eventually all of the cosmere books will be technologically advanced with like spaceflight but also magic will still be around which should be interesting. (Sixth of the Dusk is the most advanced timeline wise and kinda gave me Hyperion vibes idk)

And yeah its refereshing for a writer to actually not take decades inbetween books. Bro is just a writing machine.
 
Last edited:

Wildebeest

Member
I don't like very successful authors on principle. The odds are so against them that they must be awful people who have sold their soul to some imaginable evil.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I don't like very successful authors on principle. The odds are so against them that they must be awful people who have sold their soul to some imaginable evil.
I don't think finding success warps them, its the CONTINUED and PROLONGED success that does. So many become wrapped in their own bubble, chasing trends rather than just doing their own thing. Stephen King, GRRM, they starting smelling their own farts and think their audience cares what they think beyond the next book. Rowling is kind of the antithesis of this, but then again she hasn't sold much beyond the Potter books. But kudos to her for not churning out a bazillion ghost written books.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Oh, yeah. Sanderson is a writing machine. The only reason it took so long for the first five books is because he wrote tons of books in between these massive Stormlight books.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
The last (in this series) stormlight book is coming in December. Hope it wraps it up good. I wasn’t a huge fan the end of book4 so I hope it is better.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
Maybe Sanderson can finish Game of Thrones for Fat Fuck Martin
People have asked him ever since he finished Jordans eye of the world series if he would finish got. Grrm got wind and got super emotional about sanderson finishing his books; basically got very defensive and then angry that fans would suggest winds of winter wouldn't be out soon.

Sanderson also said no.
Didn't he write like 5 books in secret during 2020?
Yeah apparently he wrote a 4 book series in secret that came out last year in his cosmere universe. He said he'd want his mistborn series to be turned into a video game series

https://en.as.com/meristation/news/...pted-into-a-video-game-similar-to-infamous-n/
 

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
People have asked him ever since he finished Jordans eye of the world series if he would finish got. Grrm got wind and got super emotional about sanderson finishing his books; basically got very defensive and then angry that fans would suggest winds of winter wouldn't be out soon.

Sanderson also said no.

Yeah apparently he wrote a 4 book series in secret that came out last year in his cosmere universe. He said he'd want his mistborn series to be turned into a video game series

https://en.as.com/meristation/news/...pted-into-a-video-game-similar-to-infamous-n/
I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been any adaptations tbh. But with the success of the Cosmere TTRPG kickstarter, I'm sure they're going to come for it.
 
I don't like very successful authors on principle. The odds are so against them that they must be awful people who have sold their soul to some imaginable evil.
in a free trade system people are successful because they provide enough value to a large group of willing buyers. A win win situation where I want a good book and he makes one better than I could ever and I give him an IOU (money) for saving me a lifetime of work learning to write a fantasy novel with a logical magic system.

Envy of success is brain rot be careful man.
 
Top Bottom