Brandon Sanderson

[severence25]

Having just finished WoT, Towers of Midnight all I can say is wow. This guy has totally rejuvinated The Wheel of Time.

Having spent the last 13 or so years reading WoT my feeling (like many others) was that I was now just reading the books to get to the end because I'd dedicated so long to the books, rather than for the sheer enjoyment of reading a good book.

After reading The Gathering Storm last year I wasn't totally sure about Sanderson finishing the books. I accepted that he wasn't going to be able to recreate Jordan, nor did he want to, but I just felt the style which he uses to describe some of the characters (especially Mat) had changed too much. These were people I effectively grew up with and all of a sudden they acted differently and said the wrong things.

The Towers of Midnight has totally changed my opinion and I enjoyed several marathon reading sessions and read it in a few days, including some very late ones that totally floored me at work next day.

Has anybody read his other books? Are they any good? Reading reviews of Mistborn they seem promising.

Cheers

Chris

 

[Perpetual Man]

I think you'll find a growing number of mentions for Sanderson around the Chrons, and mostly they're positive.

Like you a number of people have commented on the disparity on some of his characterizations, but as a whole it's been positive.

When I learned that he was going to be writing WoT I bought a one oh his books - Mistborn. It was superb, a great fantasy, good characterization, a unique magic system, some epic scenes and an all in all good read.

Since then I've read the second book in the series, and bought everything else he had done. (Can't say I've read them all though!!!)

I believe there are a number of other threads scattered around the Chrons...

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/530252-brandon-sanderson.html

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/528903-brandon-sanderson-impressed.html

 

[Hex]

I've read the Mistborn series and very much enjoyed them. It took me a little time to get into them, but by the time I was 1/3 of a way through the first book I was completely hooked, and by the last one I'd stopped speaking to people/ acting like a normal human.

It has been a while since I enjoyed a series of books so much.

 

[IlliferThePenniless]

Sanderson plots so tightly he was, in a lot of ways, the best possible choice to take over for Jordan. The whole WoT thing had gotten so unwieldy and bloated Sanderson's ruthlessly efficient plotting was just what the series needed.

 

[Coragem]

Sanderson plots so tightly he was, in a lot of ways, the best possible choice to take over for Jordan. The whole WoT thing had gotten so unwieldy and bloated Sanderson's ruthlessly efficient plotting was just what the series needed.

I find his writing very tight and polished as well. Technically excellent.

At only 35 Sanderson has the potential to go down as one of the greats. I guess my only worry that he might no pace himself, and lose quality if he goes into production writing. He has a lot going on, with WoT in addition to his other projects.

Coragem

 

[Caledor]

I started reading Sanderson when his first book Elantris came out. It was excellent, though I was almost thrown off by the weird fairie tale like beginning. The Mistborn series and Warbreaker are all excellent books, though his best work so far has to be his new series The Way of Kings.

He did an experiment a while back with Warbreaker when he was working on it, where he posted the book as it was being edited and revised. Eventually, it got published, but the complete book is available in several formats for free for anyone. It's not his best work, but it's a good book regardless.
(Click on "Get the current version")
Brandon Sanderson: Warbreaker Portal

I too am really happy with the choice of Sanderson as the writer to finish the WOT series. He's done a great job and I'm glad his other books have gotten more attention since he's taken over the high profile series. I hope he doesn't burn himself out too, but after following him on his blog, it's pretty obvious that the guy loves to write and is a serious workaholic.

 

[severence25]

Thanks for the replies. As most of you have said, all the things I've been reading about him are positive, both his quite frankly ridiculously hard task of finishing WoT and his other books.

When I get round to it will give I'll give his other books a serious look

Thanks

 

[Heather Myst]

I like Sanderson too. Mistborn started good but in my opinion it seemed to go downhill a little with each book. I did think the magic system was very original. I enjoyed Elantris, Warbreaker and Way of Kings more than Mistborn. My guess is that Sanderson is going to be a force for years to come.

 

[ratsy]

By far my Favorite author in a long time. I have not read the WOT books but do own them. I have only read up to book 5 in the Jordan series and intend to one day finish them, just so I can read the Sanderson ones. Way of Kings was one of the best books i have ever read

 

[Clansman]

Must chime in. I first experienced Sanderson in The Gathering Storm, and thought that he rescued WoT from the mess that it had become (to be fair, Jordan had pulled it a long ways back into shape with Knife of Dreams). Then I read Towers of Midnight. I immediately went out and bought The Way of Kings, which is a brilliant read and which had me reading to well past midnight every night. I was working on 5 hours sleep for about two weeks, but it was worth it. Great book.

Sanderson is definitely a guy to watch.

 

[IlliferThePenniless]

At only 35 Sanderson has the potential to go down as one of the greats.

I actually disagree a bit with this... All that tight plotting that WoT so desperately needed, actually becomes a bit of a problem in his own stuff I think. There's a degree of constructedness to his stuff that I think the true greats avoid. I just feel like you can see the author's hand moving things around too much.

I'll be interested to see how Way of Kings progresses. Pretty much every epic fantasy series I can think of has suffered from some amount of bloat. Authors seem to fall in love with their characters and setting and become interested in developing it at the expense of the story's momentum... I wonder if Sanderson will prove immune to this...

 

[Moggle]

I actually disagree a bit with this... All that tight plotting that WoT so desperately needed, actually becomes a bit of a problem in his own stuff I think. There's a degree of constructedness to his stuff that I think the true greats avoid. I just feel like you can see the author's hand moving things around too much.

I'll be interested to see how Way of Kings progresses. Pretty much every epic fantasy series I can think of has suffered from some amount of bloat. Authors seem to fall in love with their characters and setting and become interested in developing it at the expense of the story's momentum... I wonder if Sanderson will prove immune to this...

What "true greats" are you speaking of? From what I've noticed a majority of everyone's favorite fantasy authors only started writing books within the last 4-6 years. I can only name 3 authors from the 90s that fill out the rest of people's favorite lists. Then there's always the Tolkein fans. What's left is a mix of well known authors within the genre that have sold alot of books, but hardly what I call great.

 

[X'Nedra]

Oooh! I'm working my way through his Mistborn Trilogy at the moment, but I'm definitely going to have to move straight on to The Way of Kings by the sound of it!

I first heard of him when he took over WoT - which he did a pretty good job of considering the trillion different sub-plots going on throughout the series!

 

[Coragem]

I actually disagree a bit with this... All that tight plotting that WoT so desperately needed, actually becomes a bit of a problem in his own stuff I think. There's a degree of constructedness to his stuff that I think the true greats avoid. I just feel like you can see the author's hand moving things around too much.

I wonder whether Sanderson is re-working material he wrote before he was first published, given that he was writing for some time before he was published? Otherwise how is he pouring out all this carefully planned, top quality, and lengthy material?

I mean, I know the text is large, but The Way of Kings (just part one) is like a brick. That AND Wheel of Time AND Mistborn part IV later in the year.

Amazing.

He certainly does take a more "textbook" precision approach to some others. In contrast, for example, some David Gemmell books read like he was making them up as he went along, at least to a degree. But honestly, if the form continues Sanderson has to be an incredibly exciting prospect.

Coragem.