/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.23235734]

All right /lit/ give it to me, what am I getting into?

[Anonymous No.23235767]

fantasy fans seem to love this guy but I read one book by him (The Final Empire) and it was so pedestrian I can't bring myself to read anything more by him

[Anonymous No.23235784]

>>23235767
>>23235734

I felt the same with Final Empire didn't feel the need to continue and didn't see what was so special about it but I started reading Wheel of Time lately so I'll probably have a differrent opinion of his works when I come to the last three books and maybe re-read Mistborn. I didn't think Elantris was all that better definitely rough in some areas with being a first novel

[Anonymous No.23235804]

>>23235734
It's very readable. That's what people mean when they compare it being Marvel of fantasy literature.

[Anonymous No.23235806]

>>23235734
Very slow burn, at a snail pace, with superheroes who have PSTD or depression.

That being said, I don't mind taking it slow and getting to know an interesting world and interesting characters.

So I read them all.

[Anonymous No.23235821]

>>23235734
It's pretty alright on the whole, the worldbuilding is very detailed, and most characters are alrights. I will say the biggest flaws are as follow
>Some of the plotlines in the later book go on for so long for so little payoff
>Shallan is just a bad character, Sanderson just can't make her work. However it's mitigated by the fact her supporting cast is interesting enough
>In his recent books (and specifically in book 4 of Stormlight), Sanderson has started going into more and more details into his magic systems, which he mostly used to do in supplementary materials. So his books read more and more like a very detailed magic system description and all the plot is just an excuse to have characters study it.

Overall it's worth reading and there's very cool moments in it but I doubt I'll ever reread the books from start to finish.

[Anonymous No.23235842]

>>23235821
>Some of the plotlines in the later book go on for so long for so little payoff

Anyone who picks up a 1200 page book should recognize that this is the outcome, there is other alternatives for fast pace, action, or theory.

>Shallan is just a bad character, Sanderson just can't make her work. However it's mitigated by the fact her supporting cast is interesting enough

Jasnah <3

>In his recent books (and specifically in book 4 of Stormlight), Sanderson has started going into more and more details into his magic systems, which he mostly used to do in supplementary materials. So his books read more and more like a very detailed magic system description and all the plot is just an excuse to have characters study it.

And it becomes more connected with the rest of the comsere, but that is also one of the few issues I have with the later books, I like a self-contained store more than Marvel level of tie ins.

[Anonymous No.23235846]

>>23235734
mormon slop. marvel of books, nothing more.

[Anonymous No.23235850]

>>23235767
>>23235784
Sanderson really irks me because I can see things that are good and would honestly put him up there as a fantasy author but he can be so dull and repetitive with the structure of his stories. He doesn't really take any risks and relies on introducing something big and new in each book instead of using what he already established which is ironic considering how much he's praised for how strict his magic system is.
I read Mistborn and Stormlight a few years ago and I think Era 2 is probably his "best" series if you're judging them as a whole but even then its suffering from the same issues his writing always has. Mistborn Era 1 baffles me as to how the Lord Ruler is set up as the unbeatable big bad but takes him out in exchange for continuously less interesting threats until finally its just a destruction diety and low and behold that's the same at the end of every fucking book. He's also incapable of really committing to the darker aspects of the worlds he makes and he's allergic to sex, sometimes it feels like he's over correcting for how much GURM has affected fantasy since A Song Of Ice and Fire since there's weird bits of "political intrigue" that never amount to much in the actual plot and typically end in some sort of political disaster that's solved by the main character just using magic or the political landscape crumbling so nobody needs to worry about it anymore.
I think his best work is The Emperor's Soul and that made me realize this guy would be golden if he stuck to writing short stories with contained plots. Mistborn would be much better off if it was written like that without caring about a larger narrative that had to cram every detail of how Allomancy works into three books.
Should I try Wheel of Time? I typically have a more favorable view of stories regardless of how good or bad they are since I like good things more than I hate bad things.

[Anonymous No.23235897]

>>23235850
>he's allergic to sex
It's a symptom of Mormonism. Sex is bad unless it's with one of your 14 wives in the missionary position for the sole purpose of procreation.

[Anonymous No.23235916]

>>23235734
I like him better than the other fantasy writers from the post-ASOIAF era where they go edgy for the sake of being edgy.

But it is just fantasy. Don't go out there expecting you are reading Dostoevsky. It is just competent fantasy novels for fantasy novel fans.

[Anonymous No.23235934]

>>23235897
>there are practically no scenes that refer to sex in a positive way and fewer scenes where sex is even implied to have happened between two romantically involved characters
>plenty of scenes about rape and sexual slavery, to the point where the mc is threatened with it and a character shows up whose whole background is being a state owned sex slave used for population control.
you hit it right on the money

[Anonymous No.23235947]

>>23235897
Sex is bad in books, and most of the time it is just the author being horny.

[Anonymous No.23235981]

>>23235947
>Sex is bad in books
I'm interested in your reasoning here since sex is a natural part of romance even when its absence in it, it'd be like having a 10 chapters dedicated to a character become a cook while never describing the food he makes or what people think of it.
The only reason I see not to is that the author is afraid they'll just copy and paste "grease dribbled down his chin"

[Anonymous No.23235997]

>>23235734
The only mediocre book in a series of progressively worse stories.

[Anonymous No.23236004]

>>23235981
I have the same reasoning as why you don't read characters taking a shit in books, shit has to be relevant to the plot to be included- and sadly, most of the time it isn't relevant.

So, you're not wrong, I just sometimes think its over-done, over descriptive, or annoying? And it pulls me out of the story.

[Anonymous No.23236030]

>>23236004
>shit has to be relevant to the plot to be included- and sadly, most of the time it isn't relevant.
Most authors just can't write a sex scene because they don't know how to make it relevant to either the story or more likely the character, in fact most struggle with even fade to blacks. I think that's the reason why some stories will have an "implied" sexual subtext to them without any actual sex.
Although I really can't name notable sex scenes that really screwed themselves to the top of my head.

[Anonymous No.23236053]

>>23236030
>Although I really can't name notable sex scenes that really screwed themselves to the top of my head.

Well I can, I don't need an overly descriptive child orgy in IT, or a rape in Library Police, nor a whole page about a dwarf sucking on nipples GEORGE, nor Hwi going "yes! yes! yes!" as Duncan Idaho cuckolds Duke Leto II.

[Anonymous No.23236064]

BRAVO SANDERSON

[Anonymous No.23236105]

>>23236004
>shit has to be relevant to the plot to be included
this retarded excuse has not worked the previous 10000 times it was used and it doesn't work now. you don't lose your shit when a book mentions that someone has dark hair or wears jeans or just ate a hamburger even if those have zero plot relevance. you're just weirded out by sex specifically because you have irl hangups about sex or whatever. why not just admit it instead of saying the flimsiest fucking horseshit nobody has ever believed in?

[Anonymous No.23236138]

>>23236105
Not that anon, but sex is a far bigger deal in human relations than eating a burger.
Besides, people shouldn't be having sex outside marriage. Books should promote good morality.

[Anonymous No.23237291]

He be wearing white and shieeettt.

[Anonymous No.23237302]

I couldn’t make it more than a few pages past the prologue. The whole thing was an overload of fantasy nouns. I’ve never read such godawful prose

[Anonymous No.23237317]

>>23237302
what's a recent fantasy novel youve enjoyed?

[Anonymous No.23237342]

>>23237302
Honestly Ive really enjoyed Stormlight Archive, but I do remember not liking the prologue much for similar reasons. Starting in medias res right into an action scene using new magic powers in a constructed fantasy setting... that was a choice. Not one I'd necessarily call wrong in retrospect: Szeth's assasination of the king is such a big deal to the setting that you kinda have to start there. But yeah I rolled my eyes hard.
After that though I quickly got into it. I think intellectually you just have to accept that you're going to get new words thrown at you if you want to read a fantasy world that isn't another cookie cutter vaguely tolkien-esque thing.

[Anonymous No.23237588]

It's not "literature" but the concept of literature is honestly retarded. His books are fun and mostly easy to read.

Oh and for all the people considering reading wot in here, would highly recommend. A lot harder to read than Sanderson (infinite minor nobles and magic women with their own names and one or two details that you don't *need* to remember but wish you would) but epic plot on a grand scale and with a cool concept/world

[Anonymous No.23237621]

>>23237317
A dance with dragons

[Anonymous No.23237821]

>>23236004
Based

[Anonymous No.23237830]

>>23235734
He's the definition of 7/10 - nothing in the Cosmere books will knock your socks off, and his writing needs tweaking. It's still an enjoyable read if you want to turn your brainoff

[Anonymous No.23237938]

>>23236064
Why is this giving me Disney tween sit-com vibes?

[Anonymous No.23238300]

>>23237938
Because the writing is about that level of quality kek

[Anonymous No.23238310]

>>23235734
Okay here is how you understand Stormlight Archives. It's not a fantasy adventure book, it's not a mystery book, it's not a religion book. It's an inspirational sports movie. That is what Way of Kings actually is, it's a sports movie, the protagonist has to lead a bunch of hopeless losers on an insanely dangerous sport essentially and he has to find a way to REACH THESE KEEEEDS and that is how it presses the buttons to make its otherwise retarded story work.

If you watch closely you can see that Sanderson does this frequently, where he will simply unlimber whole genre conventions from their housings and insert them into the wrong kind of story, but because his style of writing is so flat and so homogenized it takes real attention to notice how blatantly he does it. There are also periodic continuity errors so egregious it actually made me jump in my chair once, when someone--I think it was Shallan--makes a pun. And so help me God it was like two chapters previous that they established that these people are not speaking goddamned English. They're speaking Alethi, they're speaking a tonal language that's got more in common with Swahili or Tibetan than it does with English, but the pun just works, it's so aggravating. Did nobody catch this in editing?

Anyway it has some fun parts but wew lad you're in for a slog.

[Anonymous No.23238315]

>>23235734
I dropped it about 400 pages due to boredom.
Sanderson is overrated as fuck.

[Anonymous No.23238319]

>>23237938
it's because you're not out of your Disney tween sitcom phase.

[Anonymous No.23238321]

>>23235734
I didn't care for it. If I'm going to read fantasy slop I'd rather read something enjoyable like Feist.

[Literally me No.23238325]

>>23236004
>And it pulls me out of the story.
Immersionfags are truly the most retarded readers on the planet.

[Anonymous No.23238327]

>>23235734
Shonen anime in text format
Vibe wise id say that would be close to Naruto blended with SnK

[Anonymous No.23238337]

>>23238327
I think it’s closer to Marvel movies than any anime genre. The morally pure heroes, the constant lame quips and banter, the rollercoaster pace, the multiverse, etc.

[Anonymous No.23238365]

Way of Kings > Words of Radiance > Oathbringer > Rhythm of War
Its funny how each new book is slightly worse than the previous one, and you can pin point exactly the reason why.
>The more popular Sanderson become, the less editing he did, cause each new book deserved 100-300 pages of trimming.
>Decision to heavily tie SA into cosmere harmed the story and characters. I really dislike how the story in the books like Oathbringer and RoW became riddled with nods at some other works i never cared and read about. And its not just nods - some plot bits became heavily tied to some objects and characters from other Cosmere books. Fuck that shit.
>Concept of characters having mental problems became the problem when those problems have started to prevail over characters personalities. Shallan is basically the 'mental disorder' personified instead of her own character. Kaladin being glood and doom every damn time regardless of winning, can only feel refreshing once or twice. Seeing that in the last couple is tiresome. I dont care if chronic depression realistically depicted, i dont read book for that, but for an entertaining character and story development. Seeing MC getting depressed again and again leaves bad tasted in my mouth.

So with each new book the story became less and less self contained and well condensed.

[Anonymous No.23238457]

>>23237938
You should see his YA novel then, people get called "jerkface" here x---DD

>>23238337
I like this definition, especially when you consider his self-insert Hoid.

[Anonymous No.23238474]

>>23235734
Sandersoy

[Anonymous No.23238482]

>>23238365
so many have gone off about how oathbringer was the best. oathbringer is the first one that actually had me cringing

[Anonymous No.23238687]

>>23238310
Anon, stop being an autist. Not even touching whatever your first paragraphs nonsense is about because that's gonna make anyone who reads it stupider but the pun thing marks you as a full on mongoloid who doesn't understand how fiction works.

Yes, obviously in-universe she didn't make that pun. Perhaps it just happens to translate well. Perhaps the pun she did make has been replaced by another by whoever also manages to magically note down all interactions these people are having. Maybe who fucking cares.
The story was written in english for people to read in english, and puns and wordplay are a part of communication. It would not have improved the book for us to see Sanderson's attempt at being tolkien, making up a language, then making a pun that only works in that language, then providing a translation note to explain the 'joke'. Any editor that had recommended that happen would have been fired by anyone with more brain cells than teeth.

[Anonymous No.23239031]

>>23238365
I think the tie-ins / nods / cross-overs are a bit over done, and it has taken over some of the stories.

[Anonymous No.23239037]

>>23235734
A big stinky midwit plomper, just like everything written in the last 30 years.

[Anonymous No.23239876]

Will /lit/ pretend to like it when it has a TV adaptation? (Like asoiaf)

[Anonymous No.23240044]

>>23238321
>feist
>enjoyable
Sanderson is somehow a better writer than Feist, though

[Anonymous No.23240077]

>>23239876
Most of the people on /lit/ who liked ASOIAF were, I assume, fans prior to Game of Thrones. They were also a minority, this board has always mostly made fun of GRRM for both his writing and his absurd criticisms of Tolkien.

[Anonymous No.23240161]

>Sanderson is always name dropping his neo rab editor and poc for publishing
>Read a synopsis of The Way of Kings
>It's about envy of lightened people until the character gets to become one and see it's not all it's cracked up to be and they're actually assholes

This is the very definition of racist Europhobic goyslop.

[Anonymous No.23240166]

>>23240161
>Lighteyed*

[Anonymous No.23240379]

>>23240161
That's not the plot or even adjacent to the plot so that synopsis sucked. I'd say it's more 'fuck the rich' just in this world if you want to be rich you better have the right eye colour or marry someone who does.

If you wanted to call it europhobic you could instead point to the fact it kinda doesn't really have any white characters in it at all (bar maybe the lunatic assassin).
It's a fictional setting with completely fictional races that don't really map to ours. You can only figure out by inferrence that in this world asian slanty eyes are the norm whether your skin is black, white, ginger-white or mexican.
The closest race to white people (i.e. wide eyed and pale skinned) live in the least sucky part of the world on the literal opposite side of the continent from where all of the misery and plot is happening and have their wide childlike eyes commented on. Which is a minor plot point because people keep dimension hopping to this world and absolutely can't blend in because either everyone thinks they look like members of this one obscure ethnicity, or the one black guy with round eyes looks like absolutely nobody fucking else on the planet.

[Anonymous No.23240389]

>>23235734
It's not quite onions, but it's not proper beef either. It's like the turkey burger of fantasy

[Anonymous No.23240402]

>>23238300
>>23238319
>>23238457

[Anonymous No.23240570]

>>23240044
>Sanderson is somehow a better writer than Feist, though

Maybe, but I'll take slightly lower writing quality instead of forcing myself to endure Marvel-esque dialogue.

[Anonymous No.23240573]

>>23235734
This guy pumps out like 2 books every year and it definitely shows.

[Anonymous No.23240595]

>>23235734
I found the series good, but very up and down based on the perspective being shown. I suppose that's normal though. I think overall it's overrated as more and more people have been guided to the series after experiencing GoT.

[Anonymous No.23241728]

>>23240389
What?

[Anonymous No.23242327]

>16 year old girl becomes god and saves the world

very brave

[Anonymous No.23243174]

>>23235734
His writing came off as pretty Marvel-ish when I last read it.

[Anonymous No.23243231]

>>23235734
Ayn Rand tier beating of the obvious horse for 9/10ths of the book (kaladin and shallan are sad) followed by a notably decent action climax.
All his books are like this especially this series.

[Anonymous No.23243237]

>>23236053
The entire plot of library police is that rape, without it the story doesn't exist.

[Anonymous No.23243803]

>>23237938
I am Groot.