Listen up, folks! I'm standin' right here in the heart of what used to be a damn majestic city, Elariel they called it. Look at this mess! Crumblin' spires, ashen flakes fallin' like confetti from a busted parade float. And you know what? It's a travesty, a dadgum travesty!
I gotta tell ya, this Kael fella, he's walkin' around like he's some kind of fancy Aethermancer, commandin' elements and whatnot. Well, let me tell you, I've seen more impressive things at a county fair. He's all wrapped up in these glowin' sigils etched into the stone like they mean somethin'. Sigils? What happened to good ol' fashioned hard work and elbow grease?
So, he waltzes his way into this palace, doors creakin' like my old porch swing after a decade of neglect. Shadows dancin' on the walls? Gimme a break! I've seen better shadow puppets at a grade-school talent show. And this staff he's carryin', some kind of hand-me-down from his grandpappy or somethin'? Well, let me tell ya, it ain't gonna fix these crumblin' columns and faded memories.
He's on some kinda mission to "restore the Aether," whatever the heck that means. News flash, buddy, you can't restore somethin' by wavin' a stick around and hopin' for the best. This ain't no fairy tale, this is the real world, and in the real world, you gotta roll up your sleeves and put in the sweat to make things right.
Look, I ain't got time for all this magical mumbo jumbo. I've seen enough razzle-dazzle in the wrestling ring to know when someone's blowin' smoke. Elariel might be in ruins, but it ain't gonna be fixed by some fella with a fancy title and a staff that looks like it belongs in a museum. So, Kael, you can take your Aether and your sigils and your shadows and shove 'em where the sun don't shine, 'cause the world needs more than just fancy words to get back on its feet!
I haven't read him. With the quantity of his output I don't think that each work can have much in terms of original thinking. I do intend to read some because he is so popular and I think it's worth understanding why.
Robert Jordan was never a brilliant writer, but the last few Wheel of Time books by Sanderson have this subtle fast-food quality to them, they're just reddit in a way that's hard to describe. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with them at the time, but I remember flipping to the guy's author bio at the back of the book and comparing it to Jordan's. Sanderson's bio was like "he writes, and teaches writing. He likes to play Magic: the Gathering" while Jordan's described a pretty interesting person who had worked in different jobs, and had various real-world hobbies and intellectual interests. It sort of made sense to me after that, Sanderson can keep track of a plot and handle psychological character writing to a decent level, but his characters are fundamentally modern people with modern psychology playing a videogame together. Deeply-ingrained cultural beliefs become "prejudices" to be overcome by the 21st century liberal within, battles are won by clever gamer tactics and never by morale. It's just gay.
buzzword meme word used by leftists that seethe about superhero movies being 99% white
9 months ago
Anonymous
no, "capeshit" means basically what I tried to describe here:
He fricking sucks
Robert Jordan was never a brilliant writer, but the last few Wheel of Time books by Sanderson have this subtle fast-food quality to them, they're just reddit in a way that's hard to describe. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with them at the time, but I remember flipping to the guy's author bio at the back of the book and comparing it to Jordan's. Sanderson's bio was like "he writes, and teaches writing. He likes to play Magic: the Gathering" while Jordan's described a pretty interesting person who had worked in different jobs, and had various real-world hobbies and intellectual interests. It sort of made sense to me after that, Sanderson can keep track of a plot and handle psychological character writing to a decent level, but his characters are fundamentally modern people with modern psychology playing a videogame together. Deeply-ingrained cultural beliefs become "prejudices" to be overcome by the 21st century liberal within, battles are won by clever gamer tactics and never by morale. It's just gay.
It's like a type of end-of-history anti-art undergirded by the assumption that all serious questions have been resolved and there's nothing left for an artist to say, so the purpose of art is just truly empty escapism, not Tolkien's escapism but like a videogame, or else endlessly repeating the same universalist platitudes that it's assumed everyone in the audience already believed when they walked into the theater. Capeshit is totalitarian, it forecloses possibilities and limits imagination.
9 months ago
Anonymous
This is dumb. There's nothing wrong with videogames or Sanderson. It's cheap entertainment. It's not art and doesn't aspire to be art. Cheap entertainment has always existed, it has nothing to do with end of history or with capitalism or with totalitarianism. Journey to the West is capeshit.
9 months ago
Anonymous
The fact that you casually insist that all times and places are the same when even in the contemporary US attitudes towards these things change from year to year should really give you pause. Capeshit at least at its height wasn't treated as disposable entertainment, there was no top echelon of highbrow critics with the guts to say Black Panther was a worthless movie. It was like Martin Scorsese alone, one old boomer auteur, who had to speak up about it. And now it feels like we might be in a period of backlash, but the younger generation doesn't necessarily know how to make serious movies even if they want to. It has to be conceded that Robert Eggers movies (and I like Robert Eggers) are just a tiny bit capeshit, too. There are both long-term trends and short-term fluctuations in art and art criticism. And it's easy to imagine that all of this has happened before, that other decadent cultures felt the same way at some point in their finite histories, but if you think that should be reassuring you are truly moronic.
This is all absolutely true but he's still entertaining as frick.
It's more fun to read about gamer tactics than some autist's invented medieval world.
I agree with you, but please learn to communicate without using the word "reddit". >hard to describe >couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong
you probably could if you stopped thinking about reddit
You cannot say that when rhythm of war exists lmao. Half that fricking book is a character that’s randomly capable of advancing technology ahead by decades in the world despite not being nearly that intelligent before now playing with a fricking harmonica to make magic juice
>What does /lit think of him?
Man i tried reading his books after ASOIAF.
I heard several things about him >he is hated by many >he has a high output >his magic systems are good
so i was unsure what i was getting into, but i have heard that the Stormlight Archive is him at his best.
I dont know how to tell you this. Reading it was like eating something which is barely above being empty calories. Some say his style is like YA, but this isnt really the case. I dont like HP but Rowling is leagues above him. His writing is mechanical and video-gamey. >Character A has great moment
and gets an upgrade to their personality which means it does a 180, and is nothing like it was before. >Hard magic systems
When you red some fantasy literature, you usually come to the conclusion that a well thought of magic system would be amazing since it is an aspect which other authors usually ignore.But i was wrong. His systems are well thought out indeed, but they are sterile and dont fit in the greater narrative. >writing
people here shit on his prose, but that´s the wrong point to focus on. The worst thing is the horrendous zip-lock writing. Interconnecting story threads which culminate in a climax mind sound great. But here´s the reality. There are two options. >the story thread has potential
but Sanderson cant close it, since it would impede the zip-lock writing style. So he just writes cliffhanger after cliffhanger and blueballs you. After reading a good chapter spliced into 5 character chapters over 1000 pages this sours the taste and in the end you´re just tired of it. >the story thread is a miss
The other option is that Sanderson uses mystery box writing. If you´re over 20 you already know how the storythread will culminate by the second or third character specific chapter. This wouldnt be THAT much of a problem. He could just solve the mystery and the reader would feel smart. PROBLEM SOLVED. But the zip lock writing lengthens even the smallest story thread over several hundreds of pages. In the end you will dread character-specific chapters where nothing will happen besides the reader getting another million clever HINTS on where the story might go.
In retrospect it really was cruel reading Stormlight Archive directly after ASOIAF. There´s leagues in between their quality. I know IQfy hates on GRRM since he dared to point out that Tolkien doesnt really focus on politics. But he can write actual PEOPLE, not just characters. I feel like GRRM has ruined any enjoyment i could have with writers like Sanderson. It´s like in hentai, where the ugly bastard had their way with the reader, so in the end Sandersons shallow writing cant reach deep enough to penetrate your mind and give you any real satisfaction. It even feels wrong comparing them as writers since this would acknowledge the possibility that Sanderson could only to step up his game, improve his flaws in writing, to eventually reach Martin. The very thought of that is an impossibility.
disclaimer that I'm a big sanderson fan and have read almost all of cosmere, I'm trying to understand your criticism and I just cannot make sense of it
>and gets an upgrade to their personality which means it does a 180, and is nothing like it was before.
who are you talking about? the appeal of SA is that the characters have very gradual realistic changes... I can't think of any character that does a "180" >but Sanderson cant close it
?? one of sanderson's biggest positives is that he ties up basically all loose ends because of his very extensive plotting and outlining. what loose ends? >you already know how the storythread will culminate by the second or third character specific chapter
again, like what? I mean I guess yeah you can guess a couple overarching plots but this is like saying "oh I know that Shrek will win at the end and get the girl" like no duh but how does he get there and why?
I read GRRM after Sanderson and I honestly thought it was ass because it just kept expanding and going onto random bs plots I don't care about rather than continuing the true plot and resolving the original characters
>?? one of sanderson's biggest positives is that he ties up basically all loose ends because of his very extensive plotting and outlining. what loose ends?
well yeah, what i meant is that there are 3 chapters of content for a character but Sanderson has to write 10, so he can have his big climax. >who are you talking about? the appeal of SA is that the characters have very gradual realistic changes... I can't think of any character that does a "180"
Shallan becomes become a lightweaver who plays with expectations to fool her enemies, nah just kidding, she becomes hyper assertive has to one-up everyone in each conversation. It´s Marvel witty quips, instead of growing emotional or social intelligence. i liked khaladin and dalinars chapters. They were probably not a good measure of Sandersons writing since hyper stoic characters are easier to write. But with Shallan, Sanderson kind showed his hand to us. i had the highest expectations for her arc, but Sandersons idea of character progress was, le edgy repressed dark secret, and being witty instead, of you know, anything else... >again, like what? I mean I guess yeah you can guess a couple overarching plots but this is like saying "oh I know that Shrek will win at the end and get the girl" like no duh but how does he get there and why?
like i said, it´s not the problem that he writes low brow mysteries. He writes them, doesnt deliver until page 1000, and gives seemingly clever hints. would be no problem if it was the B-plot in the background which becomes meaningful at the end. It´s that he´s putting a mystery on hold while not progressing the plot otherwise.
>It´s like in hentai, where the ugly bastard had their way with the reader, so in the end Sandersons shallow writing cant reach deep enough to penetrate your mind and give you any real satisfaction
Yeah, have a nice day.
i was joking, cause the situation is so bizarre.
If you´re into fantasy it´s usually the following >author has great idea or concept >author tries to make a book out of it >author fails partly cause his writing has weaknesses
the reader is mesmerized by the the authors idea, his view of the world, his very humanity but sees his weaknesses in his writing. you can make a thread on IQfy and say how much or not you enjoyed the book, and where it could be improved.
Sanderson is the complete opposite. He´s highly competent, but there´s no spark. He has no interest in the humanity of his characters. He wants to write a successful fantasy series. That´s his starting point, but also all there is to it.
>It´s like in hentai, where the ugly bastard had their way with the reader, so in the end Sandersons shallow writing cant reach deep enough to penetrate your mind and give you any real satisfaction
Yeah, have a nice day.
>“Let me be salty,” Sanderson said. “FromSoftware decides to make a fantasy game and partner with a fantasy novelist, and they choose someone who spends his days blogging about the NFL rather than the person who has played their games since King’s Field and has listed their games as among his top 10 consistently over time. What are you thinking people?”
He’s capable of writing ok stories but he has very little of anything interesting to write about so his stories are incredibly sterile in a way that I’ve only seen with shitty wuxia/ isekai novels. His worldbuilding is best described as interesting ideas that are written as blandly and shallowly as humanly possible and all character arcs can be boiled down to either the character doubling down on a single trait over and over again or x happens so character now randomly gains y trait. Character act completely out of character extremely often. People that praise his magic systems need to be taken out back and shot since they’re hard to the point of being boring. A person eats tin so they hear good. You’re in x group at y stage so you get a fancy sword and can fly. All his powers are that simple and he doesn’t have the skill to make them interesting
He's pretty good for the most part. His books are basically shounen anime, if you can handle the occasionally cringe inducing moment they are dumb fun with rare moments of surprising complexity. Just don't expect anything mind-blowing
Sando's writing is passable. Not good. By passable I mean if you like the story he's telling and the characters in it, it reads fine. I'll keep reading his Stormlight series because I do enjoy the world and enough of the characters.
But, anons who haven't read him also need to keep in mind he is milquetoast, as mentioned already. He's such a mormon nice guy where the world feels sexless. He mentioned in his podcast that a scene where a character notices his romantic interest's curvy figure in a tight dress (just notices, there is no embellishment in the decription) and mormon feedback came like "what is this smut?"
Buuuut he IS as surely a nice person as anyone, and very clever, so it's easy to like him and excuse a lot.
After Sanderson, I started Steven Erikson. Read Erikson. Shit happens, good shit, so far I like it better than grrm. Although I haven't read his fatness in a while. I wonder why
I mean, the point was that no person can be someone who does ONLY good (see Amaram, Dalinar, Sadeas).
The story makes a pretty strong argument as to why Kaladin should protect those he hates as well, because no human is perfect and revenge doesn't result in anything more than maybe a momentary satisfaction.
His books are basically teen cartoons/shonen anime. Think ATLA or anything else that puts basic effort into making their magic systems have certain rules that have to be followed in combat.
Because western fantasy writers never ever bother to do that, he stands out.
He writes like he's a D&D DM. I can almost see the stat sheets behind the characters, the mana cost of skills, the damage numbers, the saving throws, it's really obnoxious.
Also, he's clearly a virgin, celibate, asexual, or an extreme prude. His characters lose every ounce of realism when it comes to romanctic/sexual interactions. His characters are always blushing and going "t-tbat's so scandalous" like it's something out of an anime.
He comes from a fringe schizo cult in the US ruled and defined by their prudeness and puritanistim. I don't mind a bit of prudeness in fiction, but his stories very often feel juvenile due to those underlying morals, in a way I can't really describe, and one that doesn't come from other works where sex is absent (LotR)
Because while LotR just skips sex and romance altogether, this guy has his characters have crushes, go on dates, have love triangles, etc. except it's all weird and devoid of chemistry. It also doesn't help that many of his fictional races have more ridiculous views on sex than fricking Muslims.
Too many wienered heads, raised eyebrows and zipping motions. Oathbringer was tough to get through and it really feels like all the characters have no where to go after Rhythm of War. Shallan is a spoiled brat btw and her "trauma" over killing her first spren should have been cut.
He's extremely one dimensional. Most of Sanderson's characters have one "trait" to them, whether it's depression or addiction or a personality quirk or a weird gimmick. Almost every character moment revolves around building up that singular trait
NPCcore
jim cornette! i love the midnight express
Listen up, folks! I'm standin' right here in the heart of what used to be a damn majestic city, Elariel they called it. Look at this mess! Crumblin' spires, ashen flakes fallin' like confetti from a busted parade float. And you know what? It's a travesty, a dadgum travesty!
I gotta tell ya, this Kael fella, he's walkin' around like he's some kind of fancy Aethermancer, commandin' elements and whatnot. Well, let me tell you, I've seen more impressive things at a county fair. He's all wrapped up in these glowin' sigils etched into the stone like they mean somethin'. Sigils? What happened to good ol' fashioned hard work and elbow grease?
So, he waltzes his way into this palace, doors creakin' like my old porch swing after a decade of neglect. Shadows dancin' on the walls? Gimme a break! I've seen better shadow puppets at a grade-school talent show. And this staff he's carryin', some kind of hand-me-down from his grandpappy or somethin'? Well, let me tell ya, it ain't gonna fix these crumblin' columns and faded memories.
He's on some kinda mission to "restore the Aether," whatever the heck that means. News flash, buddy, you can't restore somethin' by wavin' a stick around and hopin' for the best. This ain't no fairy tale, this is the real world, and in the real world, you gotta roll up your sleeves and put in the sweat to make things right.
Look, I ain't got time for all this magical mumbo jumbo. I've seen enough razzle-dazzle in the wrestling ring to know when someone's blowin' smoke. Elariel might be in ruins, but it ain't gonna be fixed by some fella with a fancy title and a staff that looks like it belongs in a museum. So, Kael, you can take your Aether and your sigils and your shadows and shove 'em where the sun don't shine, 'cause the world needs more than just fancy words to get back on its feet!
He's decent, but his writing is very simple, I don't mind him. I'm indifferent to him
He is my god
I liked how he wrapped up WoT, though I still need to get around to reading one of his own books.
He ought to grow a beard, even with the stubble he looks like he's 15.
I haven't read him. With the quantity of his output I don't think that each work can have much in terms of original thinking. I do intend to read some because he is so popular and I think it's worth understanding why.
He fricking sucks
Robert Jordan was never a brilliant writer, but the last few Wheel of Time books by Sanderson have this subtle fast-food quality to them, they're just reddit in a way that's hard to describe. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with them at the time, but I remember flipping to the guy's author bio at the back of the book and comparing it to Jordan's. Sanderson's bio was like "he writes, and teaches writing. He likes to play Magic: the Gathering" while Jordan's described a pretty interesting person who had worked in different jobs, and had various real-world hobbies and intellectual interests. It sort of made sense to me after that, Sanderson can keep track of a plot and handle psychological character writing to a decent level, but his characters are fundamentally modern people with modern psychology playing a videogame together. Deeply-ingrained cultural beliefs become "prejudices" to be overcome by the 21st century liberal within, battles are won by clever gamer tactics and never by morale. It's just gay.
This. One of the most obvious differences are battle scenes with Mat, because Sanderson can't write either convincingly.
>battle scenes
jordan was a combat vet. sandersoy writes capeshit.
What is capeshit?
buzzword meme word used by leftists that seethe about superhero movies being 99% white
no, "capeshit" means basically what I tried to describe here:
It's like a type of end-of-history anti-art undergirded by the assumption that all serious questions have been resolved and there's nothing left for an artist to say, so the purpose of art is just truly empty escapism, not Tolkien's escapism but like a videogame, or else endlessly repeating the same universalist platitudes that it's assumed everyone in the audience already believed when they walked into the theater. Capeshit is totalitarian, it forecloses possibilities and limits imagination.
This is dumb. There's nothing wrong with videogames or Sanderson. It's cheap entertainment. It's not art and doesn't aspire to be art. Cheap entertainment has always existed, it has nothing to do with end of history or with capitalism or with totalitarianism. Journey to the West is capeshit.
The fact that you casually insist that all times and places are the same when even in the contemporary US attitudes towards these things change from year to year should really give you pause. Capeshit at least at its height wasn't treated as disposable entertainment, there was no top echelon of highbrow critics with the guts to say Black Panther was a worthless movie. It was like Martin Scorsese alone, one old boomer auteur, who had to speak up about it. And now it feels like we might be in a period of backlash, but the younger generation doesn't necessarily know how to make serious movies even if they want to. It has to be conceded that Robert Eggers movies (and I like Robert Eggers) are just a tiny bit capeshit, too. There are both long-term trends and short-term fluctuations in art and art criticism. And it's easy to imagine that all of this has happened before, that other decadent cultures felt the same way at some point in their finite histories, but if you think that should be reassuring you are truly moronic.
Why is it called "capeshit?"
This is all absolutely true but he's still entertaining as frick.
It's more fun to read about gamer tactics than some autist's invented medieval world.
Very easy to describe actually, his prose is garbage. That’s why he decks and comes across as ‘Reddit’, because his prose is amateur.
Well Jordan has killed multiple people so thatd probably the key difference
I agree with you, but please learn to communicate without using the word "reddit".
>hard to describe
>couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong
you probably could if you stopped thinking about reddit
Definition of mediocrity
>b-but simple writing doesn't mean bad writing
>"She felt a feeling of dread" - actual quote from mistborn
Sanderson haters, I kneel.
mistborn is his worst novel, nice cherrypicking you butthole
give me his best then.
Still waiting, moron (
)
What's his best? I don't have plans on reading his fantasy universe but can you tell me his best?
You cannot say that when rhythm of war exists lmao. Half that fricking book is a character that’s randomly capable of advancing technology ahead by decades in the world despite not being nearly that intelligent before now playing with a fricking harmonica to make magic juice
The first one? That and way of kings are the only 2 I like from him...
>What does /lit think of him?
Man i tried reading his books after ASOIAF.
I heard several things about him
>he is hated by many
>he has a high output
>his magic systems are good
so i was unsure what i was getting into, but i have heard that the Stormlight Archive is him at his best.
I dont know how to tell you this. Reading it was like eating something which is barely above being empty calories. Some say his style is like YA, but this isnt really the case. I dont like HP but Rowling is leagues above him. His writing is mechanical and video-gamey.
>Character A has great moment
and gets an upgrade to their personality which means it does a 180, and is nothing like it was before.
>Hard magic systems
When you red some fantasy literature, you usually come to the conclusion that a well thought of magic system would be amazing since it is an aspect which other authors usually ignore.But i was wrong. His systems are well thought out indeed, but they are sterile and dont fit in the greater narrative.
>writing
people here shit on his prose, but that´s the wrong point to focus on. The worst thing is the horrendous zip-lock writing. Interconnecting story threads which culminate in a climax mind sound great. But here´s the reality. There are two options.
>the story thread has potential
but Sanderson cant close it, since it would impede the zip-lock writing style. So he just writes cliffhanger after cliffhanger and blueballs you. After reading a good chapter spliced into 5 character chapters over 1000 pages this sours the taste and in the end you´re just tired of it.
>the story thread is a miss
The other option is that Sanderson uses mystery box writing. If you´re over 20 you already know how the storythread will culminate by the second or third character specific chapter. This wouldnt be THAT much of a problem. He could just solve the mystery and the reader would feel smart. PROBLEM SOLVED. But the zip lock writing lengthens even the smallest story thread over several hundreds of pages. In the end you will dread character-specific chapters where nothing will happen besides the reader getting another million clever HINTS on where the story might go.
In retrospect it really was cruel reading Stormlight Archive directly after ASOIAF. There´s leagues in between their quality. I know IQfy hates on GRRM since he dared to point out that Tolkien doesnt really focus on politics. But he can write actual PEOPLE, not just characters. I feel like GRRM has ruined any enjoyment i could have with writers like Sanderson. It´s like in hentai, where the ugly bastard had their way with the reader, so in the end Sandersons shallow writing cant reach deep enough to penetrate your mind and give you any real satisfaction. It even feels wrong comparing them as writers since this would acknowledge the possibility that Sanderson could only to step up his game, improve his flaws in writing, to eventually reach Martin. The very thought of that is an impossibility.
If he's so bad why is he so popular then?
Is McDonald's the height of cuisine? Do you consider McDonald's to be a good meal?
disclaimer that I'm a big sanderson fan and have read almost all of cosmere, I'm trying to understand your criticism and I just cannot make sense of it
>and gets an upgrade to their personality which means it does a 180, and is nothing like it was before.
who are you talking about? the appeal of SA is that the characters have very gradual realistic changes... I can't think of any character that does a "180"
>but Sanderson cant close it
?? one of sanderson's biggest positives is that he ties up basically all loose ends because of his very extensive plotting and outlining. what loose ends?
>you already know how the storythread will culminate by the second or third character specific chapter
again, like what? I mean I guess yeah you can guess a couple overarching plots but this is like saying "oh I know that Shrek will win at the end and get the girl" like no duh but how does he get there and why?
I read GRRM after Sanderson and I honestly thought it was ass because it just kept expanding and going onto random bs plots I don't care about rather than continuing the true plot and resolving the original characters
You should consider the possibility that you simply have dirt genes and were never meant to know how to read
>?? one of sanderson's biggest positives is that he ties up basically all loose ends because of his very extensive plotting and outlining. what loose ends?
well yeah, what i meant is that there are 3 chapters of content for a character but Sanderson has to write 10, so he can have his big climax.
>who are you talking about? the appeal of SA is that the characters have very gradual realistic changes... I can't think of any character that does a "180"
Shallan becomes become a lightweaver who plays with expectations to fool her enemies, nah just kidding, she becomes hyper assertive has to one-up everyone in each conversation. It´s Marvel witty quips, instead of growing emotional or social intelligence. i liked khaladin and dalinars chapters. They were probably not a good measure of Sandersons writing since hyper stoic characters are easier to write. But with Shallan, Sanderson kind showed his hand to us. i had the highest expectations for her arc, but Sandersons idea of character progress was, le edgy repressed dark secret, and being witty instead, of you know, anything else...
>again, like what? I mean I guess yeah you can guess a couple overarching plots but this is like saying "oh I know that Shrek will win at the end and get the girl" like no duh but how does he get there and why?
like i said, it´s not the problem that he writes low brow mysteries. He writes them, doesnt deliver until page 1000, and gives seemingly clever hints. would be no problem if it was the B-plot in the background which becomes meaningful at the end. It´s that he´s putting a mystery on hold while not progressing the plot otherwise.
i was joking, cause the situation is so bizarre.
If you´re into fantasy it´s usually the following
>author has great idea or concept
>author tries to make a book out of it
>author fails partly cause his writing has weaknesses
the reader is mesmerized by the the authors idea, his view of the world, his very humanity but sees his weaknesses in his writing. you can make a thread on IQfy and say how much or not you enjoyed the book, and where it could be improved.
Sanderson is the complete opposite. He´s highly competent, but there´s no spark. He has no interest in the humanity of his characters. He wants to write a successful fantasy series. That´s his starting point, but also all there is to it.
>It´s like in hentai, where the ugly bastard had their way with the reader, so in the end Sandersons shallow writing cant reach deep enough to penetrate your mind and give you any real satisfaction
Yeah, have a nice day.
frick off poojeet
I tend to agree Sanderson is meh, but frick me the Sanderson haters are some of the most pretentious fricks.
>“Let me be salty,” Sanderson said. “FromSoftware decides to make a fantasy game and partner with a fantasy novelist, and they choose someone who spends his days blogging about the NFL rather than the person who has played their games since King’s Field and has listed their games as among his top 10 consistently over time. What are you thinking people?”
Looks like he has down syndrome
Why is there a thread about Sanderson here? Take this schlock off my board
He has the pudgy facial composition of a man destined to be a downie but without the syndrome to cap it off. Strange.
He’s capable of writing ok stories but he has very little of anything interesting to write about so his stories are incredibly sterile in a way that I’ve only seen with shitty wuxia/ isekai novels. His worldbuilding is best described as interesting ideas that are written as blandly and shallowly as humanly possible and all character arcs can be boiled down to either the character doubling down on a single trait over and over again or x happens so character now randomly gains y trait. Character act completely out of character extremely often. People that praise his magic systems need to be taken out back and shot since they’re hard to the point of being boring. A person eats tin so they hear good. You’re in x group at y stage so you get a fancy sword and can fly. All his powers are that simple and he doesn’t have the skill to make them interesting
He's pretty good for the most part. His books are basically shounen anime, if you can handle the occasionally cringe inducing moment they are dumb fun with rare moments of surprising complexity. Just don't expect anything mind-blowing
Sando's writing is passable. Not good. By passable I mean if you like the story he's telling and the characters in it, it reads fine. I'll keep reading his Stormlight series because I do enjoy the world and enough of the characters.
But, anons who haven't read him also need to keep in mind he is milquetoast, as mentioned already. He's such a mormon nice guy where the world feels sexless. He mentioned in his podcast that a scene where a character notices his romantic interest's curvy figure in a tight dress (just notices, there is no embellishment in the decription) and mormon feedback came like "what is this smut?"
Buuuut he IS as surely a nice person as anyone, and very clever, so it's easy to like him and excuse a lot.
After Sanderson, I started Steven Erikson. Read Erikson. Shit happens, good shit, so far I like it better than grrm. Although I haven't read his fatness in a while. I wonder why
His books are a fun read but they're ruined by his mormonism moralhomosexualry.
I just dropped his stormlight archive series after a character unironically went
>NOOO YOU CANT JUST TAKE REVENGE ON A PERSON WHO RUINED YOUR FAMILYS LIFE. YOU HAVE TO BE HONORABLE
absolutely cucked
I mean, the point was that no person can be someone who does ONLY good (see Amaram, Dalinar, Sadeas).
The story makes a pretty strong argument as to why Kaladin should protect those he hates as well, because no human is perfect and revenge doesn't result in anything more than maybe a momentary satisfaction.
His books are basically teen cartoons/shonen anime. Think ATLA or anything else that puts basic effort into making their magic systems have certain rules that have to be followed in combat.
Because western fantasy writers never ever bother to do that, he stands out.
He writes like he's a D&D DM. I can almost see the stat sheets behind the characters, the mana cost of skills, the damage numbers, the saving throws, it's really obnoxious.
Also, he's clearly a virgin, celibate, asexual, or an extreme prude. His characters lose every ounce of realism when it comes to romanctic/sexual interactions. His characters are always blushing and going "t-tbat's so scandalous" like it's something out of an anime.
>he's clearly a virgin, celibate, asexual, or an extreme prude
He's married and has children, anon.
That would only rule out virgin, assuming the kids are even his.
He comes from a fringe schizo cult in the US ruled and defined by their prudeness and puritanistim. I don't mind a bit of prudeness in fiction, but his stories very often feel juvenile due to those underlying morals, in a way I can't really describe, and one that doesn't come from other works where sex is absent (LotR)
Because while LotR just skips sex and romance altogether, this guy has his characters have crushes, go on dates, have love triangles, etc. except it's all weird and devoid of chemistry. It also doesn't help that many of his fictional races have more ridiculous views on sex than fricking Muslims.
Too many wienered heads, raised eyebrows and zipping motions. Oathbringer was tough to get through and it really feels like all the characters have no where to go after Rhythm of War. Shallan is a spoiled brat btw and her "trauma" over killing her first spren should have been cut.
>Oathbringer was tough to get through
Literally how? It's the best paced out of the 4 IMO. Way of Kings is the slowest by far.
He's extremely one dimensional. Most of Sanderson's characters have one "trait" to them, whether it's depression or addiction or a personality quirk or a weird gimmick. Almost every character moment revolves around building up that singular trait