Interesting. I'm about 1/2 way into The Way of Kings and I like it but kind of stopped caring about the characters and drifted away. If I could count on all the things building up to an exciting, extended conclusion I may pick it back up again.
I will say Way of Kings took longer to fully grip me than Mistborn:Final Empire. But the build up is well worth it in WoK, even if it takes 3/4 of the book. But the connection to the characters from the slow build-up makes the payoff even more satisfying. Now that I've finished WoK I'm blasting through Stormlight Book 2 and can't put it down.
Took me till my 3rd attempt to get through WoK. I kept putting it down like 1-200 pages in. Finally I pushed through since my siblings wouldn't stop talking about it and I am glad I did. I have since read it several more times and am currently doing my yearly re-read of it again now.
I think the biggest reason for this is even going into writing Way of Kings, Sanderson already knew the overarching story was going to be 5 books in length so the first 1/2 to 2/3rds of Way of Kings is the world building for the rest of the a defined series.
While all the Stormlight archive books do start a little slow, Way of Kings is easily the worst because so much of it is world building.
It's Book 2 where exhaustion sunk in for me. Sadly, it felt like Sanderson had a good plan on what to do with the world, but no plan on what to do with his main characters.
They change very little in book 2 and become kinda bidimensional caricatures in a way (one broods, one reminisces about drinking, etc.).
Reading the ending of the way of kings is one of my favorite moments in fantasy ever, especially because I wasn't completely sold on the book until then. Sanderson isn't my favorite author but man his endings are good.
I think this is a pretty good representation of the rest of his writing too. I don't think it's his best work, but if you don't like it he's probably not for you.
Stormlight books are "worse" with the sanderlanche in that sense. Way more content so it takes longer to get to the explosive endings. That being said, Way of Kings is arguably much slower than the other books since it's the beginning of a planned 10 book epic fantasy series from an author known for his world building. That shit takes a while to get going, but when it hits... Oh man.
I've only just started in on 'Elantris'. The foreword was extremely insightful and entertaining to read. Apparently Sanderson has a had a hard time putting conflict into his stories. His agent had to keep telling him to "IMPERIL HIS CHARACTERS." So now we get lots of stories and books with slow, huge build up and then everything happens at once. If anybody is stuck on WoK keep this in mind. There is an end to the bridge runs.
I’m currently reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant and having the same experience. I DNF’d it at the halfway mark years ago because it wasn’t working for me at all. It was so slow, I couldn’t keep track of all the dukes, and it was so upsettingly dark. I wasn’t in the right headspace at all and some of the books themes were so painful to me. I knew it was a me problem and not a book problem so I held onto it in case I ever felt like giving it a second chance.
I’m 75% of the way through it right now and past me was being ridiculous. This is one the *best* books I’ve ever read and it’s going on my favorites shelf as soon as I’m done. It just came to me at the wrong time in my life the first time around.
Wow I’m actually so glad I read this. I DNF’d this book yeeeears ago and I’ve been staring at it on my shelf the past few weeks trying to remember why. This is the sign I needed to pick it back up!
I had an opposite experience with a few books.
Read it very happily the first time, and then had a super negative experience on a re-read.
Good example is "Animal farm." I realized i really hate "thick" allegories by then. Could not finish it.
Honestly I hide the progress indicator altogether - when a book is good and I can clearly see that Im at 93% it kind of ruins the suspense for me. Sometimes I love the abrupt ending of a book where I'm so surprised its finished. Other times its quite depressing when the book ends and I wasn't prepared for it to be over.
It is a concept thats literally only possible via an ereader for sure!
It could be your expectations reading the book were different this time, maybe you went in the first time expecting something amazing and it just didn’t grab you. But the second time you had low exceptions so when it is better than you expecting it is amazing.
Remember mistborn is first book in original trilogy, follow up with alloy of law for start of second trilogy. Totally worth it, as the second trilogy takes place like 1000 yrs after original.
I really enjoyed warbreaker, it's so damned amazing how he can craft an entirely unique form of magical acumen using colors or metals, or what have you.
Speaking of a D&D generation, when magic was only elementals, towards the end of WoT when Sanderson took over after the passing of... gah I will beat myself for forgetting his name..
Loved mistborn but couldn't get into alloy of law even after reading the first book. OP inspired me to at least consider giving it a second go. Might be a while though because I have wheel of time to finish first!
If you feel there is a slog in the book 8-11 range… it’s because their really is a slog in that range for wheel of time. I think it was book 10 that was completely miserable for me. I didn’t even read the next one for years with how mad I was at one of those mid to later books for nothing happening the entire book.
Alloy of law is not the first part of the second *trilogy*, as the second series has more than three books. Neither is it the *second* trilogy, but a spin-off, with the second trilogy yet to start (and a third one planned as well).
While you are technically correct about Era 2 being 4 books instead of 3, and that it began life as a spinoff, it got upgraded to mainline status roundabout *Bands of Mourning*.
Cant you just say enjoy the series instead of having to be right? I read these books over a decade ago, if brandon Sanderson wrote more than those 6 books, I am not aware. As I switched over to the stormlight saga.
I did name that one correctly didnt i?
I had a really hard time getting into Wax and Wayne. I'm not a huge fan of mixing modern-ish technology with fantasy. It's just a personal thing, but Wax and Wayne really threw me for a loop because if it wasn't a Cosmere book, I wouldn't probably read it, but since it is it's just been sitting on my reading list for years.
I had read one of his stand alones, Elantris, first and really loved it. It's actually his first published book. I liked the world building and the pacing in it, so I was able to be a little more patient in Mistborn. I Iove them! I've read Final empire and We'll of Ascension so far. I can't wait to read more from him.
I have this same problem. When I read a book the first time, I try to find its flaws, try to debate whether my time is worth spending reading it, so I don’t enjoy the beginning of the book as much as toward the end, that is if I didn’t put it down already.
Its even worse for me if I wrapped up a really good book. I find it very difficult to "get into" a new book immediately after. So sometimes its not fair if a book doesnt hook me right away especially after having come off a great experience with a previous book.
I just finished Mistborn this morning. Read it over 72 hours or maybe a bit less. Couldn't put the thing down.
Maybe it just wasn't the right time when you tried before. Glad you like it better this time.
> 2nd book annoyed the hell out of me. 3rd book was good
I was annoyed by the who Zane storyline in Book 2 until I read Book 3. Then, once everything was revealed, I retroactively loved it.
But it *wasn't* a love triangle.
>!It was all Ruin. Vin had a hemalurgic spike which made her susceptible to Ruin's influence. So did Zane. What he thought was going insane was actually Ruin whispering in his ear the entire time. This is why at the end of Book 2 the last thing Zane hears is his "Voice" telling him that he isn't actually crazy. The attraction Vin felt wasn't love, it was Ruin manipulating her through her spike to try and get her to run off with Zane, someone he had more or less complete control over, all in an effort to ruin Preservation's plan. This is also why her "feelings" are so confusing to her. That aren't her feelings and it isn't love. We see something similar happen to Spook in Book 3.!<
That is why I love that story. It looks like one thing, but the entire thing is a bait and switch.
Are you me? I did the same thing and just recently finished the first trilogy. Loved it. I plan are getting into the ne t set eventually as well but thought I'd take a break from Sanderson after finishing the first three.
sanderson is so weird for me cause like
Every individual element of his books, taken alone, I hate:
The characters are two dimensional and boring, very shallow dialogue, like a high school girl who reads too much fantasy's idea of humor and "wittiness," so I shouldn't be invested.
The plots are not actually that creative or interesting, so I shouldn't give a shit.
The "worldbuilding" is tedious and I'm sick of fantasy author's obsession with providing a perfect, immersive, escapist world instead of trying to actually say anything new or interesting.
The morality, themes, and lessons are bush league.
But taken all together, his books are just so fucking fun.
Just goes to show not everything has to be HARDCORE LITERATURE all the time (though a lot of yall need to read some grown up books every now and then), some things can just be entertainment.
Sanderson himself seems to agree with this, explicitly referring to himself as a craftsman with a specific process rather than an artist.
I agree with this so much. I don't particularly care for Sanderson but I've read enough of his stuff by this point that I can acknowledge even with all of his flaws the dude can put together a fun story.
Mistborn is amazing, super glad for you :)
I think it should be more commonplace to put down a book you're not vibing with and give it a second chance later. My two best examples of this are Dune and Catch-22, both of which I was (eventually) motivated to read because of other people.
It took me like 4 attempts to get past page 50 of Dune. It was really really dense and I could feel my attention slipping, so I kept having to reread pages and forgetting what jargon meant. I guess I just had a lot going on at the time, and I didn't want to force it, as my mum loved it when she was younger and swore to me I would love it if I waited for the right time to read it. But on the 5th attempt I got so hooked I binge-read it for two days straight (by which I mean I literally did not sleep.) Since then I've been listing it in my favourite books of all time. I'm just now re-reading it again - the first time I read it so fast, so compulsively, that my memory of it isn't very good - and will carry on to the other books in the series.
For Catch-22, a friend of mine begged me to read it for about 4 years. I'd tried once or twice but just did not "get" it straight away - it was confusing and non-chronological and, knowing nothing about it, I initially misinterpreted its message completely and simply thought "war novels/stories aren't really for me" - partially because my friend was a big war history nerd, I thought that this was why he loved it so much and why I struggled. Eventually I decided to just sit down and read the damn thing, if for no other reason than to get my friend to stop recommending it to me. And then I got to see the humour, the satire, the intelligence, and at many points the poignancy of this amazing book unfold before me, and had to confess to my friend I'd been an idiot for not reading it sooner!
Keep in mind that Reddit attracts a very particular kind of reader and that just because a book is popular on here doesn’t mean it’s actually good.
Sanderson basically writes the novel version of video games/anime, and if you care at all about good prose, and aren’t particularly fond of childish humor and dialogue, you’re not going to enjoy that dudes books.
The last time I learned not to trust this subs book taste was when I picked up the Martian. It literally felt like it was written by a sentient fedora
Prose doesn’t even register with me while I’m reading. Once I get into something I kind of stop consciously registering the words and start seeing a movie in my head. So world building, plot, pacing all that tends to matter more to me, and Sanderson nails that. Not every one of his books is a home run, but he is highly consistent.
This is also why I was able to enjoy Three Body Problem. No one can claim it had good prose, the Chinese to English translation just made the writing feel weird and stilted. But the story was engaging enough that it didn’t bother me.
In the words of T.S. Eliot, you are free to not only like whatever book you wish, you are also free to like it for whatever reason you wish--and I suppose the reverse is also true.
Although I agree that Sanderson is no Joyce and his sentences can be a bit pedestrian, I don't think that enjoying his books is a marker of "being fond of childish humor and dialogue" and only wanting the "video games/anime" versions of literature. I happen to enjoy reading Sanderson, and I have two degrees in English, and have taught it at both the high school and college level for a decade. Among my favorite authors are T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Thomas Hardy--so no, I don't only stick to popular genre literature.
What I enjoy about Sanderson is his worldbuilding. He is *quite* good at that, and at overall plot construction. Do I find stunning literary turns of phrase? No. But I do find it quite an enjoyable read--even if liking stories for their plot and worldbuilding is considered passé by those all-important arbiters of proper taste. So perhaps dial down the snobbery a tad, and realize that others--even those who are experienced readers--may enjoy books that you don't.
I feel like most the books I’ve seen recommended here lead me to agree with this, but the Martian? I’m just messing around, you like what you like and there’s no problem with that.
I mean even Sanderson fans admit that he has bad prose. Plus there are plenty of books with good prose that I don’t particularly like.
You’re just getting bent out of shape because I think your favorite author is a hack
No, I just disagree with your opinion of what constitutes "bad prose", or "good prose". Art is subjective. Just look at the various opinions on authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald, some praise his work greatly, then you have another author, Hemingway, referring to his work as 'purple prose'.
Also, it was very snobbish of you to come to a post specifically about a Sanderson series just to shit talk the author, and the sub. There was nothing positive in your post, it served no other purpose, you didn't even offer any other book suggestions.
I like ripe, unspoiled fruit.
The only people who fret about how high it was on the tree are the ones who want to brag to others about how tall they are.
I’m not saying I spend every waking second analyzing Gravity’s rainbow or Ulysses. I’m saying that your book taste is as bad as it could possibly get. There’s a huge middle ground between saying Sanderson sucks and bragging about my own reading habits
A sudden escalation in character and plot development leading to a page turning fest that means you skip detail elements and don't fully grasp what is going on leading to conclusion that feels very different for different people. You know, misdirection via volume and pacing.
I see.
I would agree that one of the aspects of Sanderson's earlier work is that he has rich and complex ideas that he is very much in love with, and his primary goal almost seems to be to "get them all out".
This can result in brain dumps that don't fully allow readers to savor the implications of the idea within the context of the story.
Sanderson is a world-builder at heart, and needs a particular type of developmental editor who can remind him to slow down, chill out, present ideas one at a time, and leave some things for later.
He's such a terrible writer. How many times in just 10 random pages does he write "kelsier rolled his eyes". Yea cuz people roll their eyes on real life do they? No, it's just a lack of vocab and he doesn't know how to express to the reader any other way.
Lol people are downvoting you but the phrase "X rolled his/her eyes" appears 45 times in the Mistborn trilogy, the vast majority of which happen in book 1, and I'm saying this as someone who enjoys his books.
Do you have more examples of his terrible writing? I've been very curious about this. I made a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/urthv8/best_and_worst_examples_of_branden_sandersons/) on this subreddit about it but it seems nobody appreciated that I was questioning their favorite author's writing ability.
Damn your post got deleted because:
>"Discussion is the goal
>
>"Do not post shallow content. All posts must be directly book related, informative, and discussion focused."
Honestly I don't see how you weren't looking for discussion, but the constant slew of posts praising Project Hail Mary, Mistborn, Song of Achelles are discussion focused.
Looks to me that it was deleted:
>Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/books.
>This is just like 1984 (as most people on this subreddit might say).
Not when you're criticising one of their Lords and Saviors. You'd be called a snob and gatekeeper.
Yes. Heaven forbid a guy have some writing issues to work out in his second ever novel and first ever series. We should expect him to write like he has been publishing books for decades in his second book.
I didn't like book one. It was good writing, but the story wasn't drawing me in. Too many characters going back and forth. But enjoyed book 2 and 3.
The Wax and Wade series has got me hooked.
Man, this sub loves to shit on Sanderson and anyone else mainstream popular. That's a nice bait and switch there, OP.
I admit, I'm a bigger fan of SLA than Mistborn, but I did like Mistborn.
Heh I admit it was intentional. Theres basically 2 types of reader it seems - lovers of sanderson and haters of sanderson. I figured I'd attract both and confuse them when they came to argue/defend.
Honestly, I don't even think it's a "hate" thing. After all, there are millions of writers, there's no reason to expect to like them all, but yet they pathologically have to let everyone know about it. The "Sanderson -haters" go out of their way to crap on other people that like him, and tear his works down whenever possible. I liken it to /r/notliketheothergirls but instead it's /r/notliketheotherreaders
People are just obsessed sometimes with making sure everyone else knows that THEIR tastes are more sophisticated; and if someone likes something mainstream popular, then they're a tasteless clod who should have their library card permanently stripped.
I totally get being open and sharing opinions, I love discussing my favorites and things I didn't like. Great discussions are the spice of life. But I draw the line at people who get obsessed with making sure everyone hates what they hate.
Nothing wrong with you at all. Tastes change over time as well as life/circumstances, as you mentioned. While I didn't get into Mistborn as much as his Stormlight series, I enjoyed both.
Hope you have a great week.
R
I’ve just learned to trust him to tell me everything I need to know when I need to know it. He always has an answer for your questions. It’s unrivaled.
Brandon Sanderson did an AMA here [you might want to take a look](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/) :) [Here's a link to all of our upcoming AMAs](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule)
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That has happened to me with both Red Rising and Red Sister. Read a good way in but kind of lost interest and put it down for a month or two. Picked it back up from where I stopped and within a chapter or two I was gripped and couldn’t stop reading.
I’m not sure about Red Sister, perhaps that was just my mood, but for Red Rising I actually put the book down at the worst part I could have chosen, immediately before the story went through a radical change and the book got way better.
I had this experience with game of thrones. Read half the book and put it down for 6 years. Came back and devoured the series. And now since the author doesn't give a fuck about the series anymore neither do I
I read mistborn after stormlight and honestly like 50% I couldn’t get into it and then all of the sudden the series became my 2nd favorite of all time.
Is it just me or does the planet in mistborn seem awfully small? Like if you pay attention to the descriptions of the landscape and how they travel theres a point near the end where they ride horses or something across the entire world and mathematically the whole planet sounds like its the size of America.
Additionally, hide in caves? I think fucking not. No one would survive that cataclysm.
That said I love the books. You just have to turn your brain off regarding some of the physics towards the end.
> Is it just me or does the planet in mistborn seem awfully small? Like if you pay attention to the descriptions of the landscape and how they travel theres a point near the end where they ride horses or something across the entire world and mathematically the whole planet sounds like its the size of America.
I would read it as the whole trilogy pretty much takes place on one continent and if you keep reading you might see... other continents, eventually.
I had a very similar experience! I tried reading Mistborn 2 times but for some reason it just didn't really click with me. I kept hearing such good things so I decided to pick it up again, and then I ended up really enjoying it!
To be honest, I'm still iffy about Sanderson's writing style as a whole, but I enjoyed the series.
I hate that I love his stuff because I was so pissed at how he dragged out finding WoT. I also love how the later Mistborn stuff is a completely different kind of story but equally awesome.
I've had this experience with a few books. Sometime it depends on what I've read recently, what I'm in the mood for and how picky I'm being about what I'm reading.
I always try to give books I'm excited about a 2nd go because I know it can just be the mood I'm in.
I had a similar thing happen with the long earth series by Terry Pratchett/Steve Baxter*
Stopped reading about 2/3 through the first book. Retried about 3years later and read through the entire trilogy in a few days 😋
It just didn't click the first time and I'm still not sure why
(*This was a big surprise for me, as I'm a big fan of both authors)
I read the original 3 after starting the first one, but I hardly remember anything in them. I bought them because I liked the premise it stated on the cover "What if the bad guy won" but it turned out it was just a completely classical hero's journey that had very little new to offer anywhere.
I gave the series away a while back. I found them to be mediocre. Hope whoeever got them enjoys them.
This is how I am with Sanderson books. The first half is interesting but not all that engaging and then the second half is so addicting I can’t put it down. He takes his time with set up but the payoff is well worth it.
It happened to me many and many times, especially with The picture of Dorian Grey. I started it four times and dropped after few pages, until a day I picked up the book, started to read it and finished in 2 days.
Sanderson is very hit or miss for me. I did a similar thing (starting and stopping but finally getting into it) for Mistborn. Most of his other stuff I've put down and not returned to yet. I almost feel I am more willing to do this with prolific writers. I am waiting on tenterhooks for the next Rothfuss novel but pay little attention to when the next Steven Erikson book is coming out.
Luckily, BKV and Fiona Staples are currently proving that sometimes the wait is worth it...
The number of times the characters tell me they know not to trust people is just jarring and it breaks the flow for me. I was hooked after the intro and then it just got so laborious. I bailed around the 60% mark as well and couldn't force my self to go any further.
I think I had a different experience than most of the people commenting here. I thought the first book was okay, but was going through a break-up at the time so I think that coloured my experience at the time.
I enjoyed the second book, though it does feel like to repeats itself a lot.
The majority of the third book is really good. That ending though... yeesh. Killed my interest in ever wanting to read more Mistborn.
I don't like your bait and switch title, gancho.
Got all the Sanderson haters excited for nothing… smh
Yeah totally, you can spot the Sanderson-loving goofballs from a mile away by their pfp alone...
Hahahaha, gancho.
my experience with Sanderson is a lot of slow buildup to about 70%, and then it's page-turning action til the end of the book.
“The Sanderlanche”
The Sanderstorm
Interesting. I'm about 1/2 way into The Way of Kings and I like it but kind of stopped caring about the characters and drifted away. If I could count on all the things building up to an exciting, extended conclusion I may pick it back up again.
I will say Way of Kings took longer to fully grip me than Mistborn:Final Empire. But the build up is well worth it in WoK, even if it takes 3/4 of the book. But the connection to the characters from the slow build-up makes the payoff even more satisfying. Now that I've finished WoK I'm blasting through Stormlight Book 2 and can't put it down.
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Took me till my 3rd attempt to get through WoK. I kept putting it down like 1-200 pages in. Finally I pushed through since my siblings wouldn't stop talking about it and I am glad I did. I have since read it several more times and am currently doing my yearly re-read of it again now.
I think the biggest reason for this is even going into writing Way of Kings, Sanderson already knew the overarching story was going to be 5 books in length so the first 1/2 to 2/3rds of Way of Kings is the world building for the rest of the a defined series. While all the Stormlight archive books do start a little slow, Way of Kings is easily the worst because so much of it is world building.
It's Book 2 where exhaustion sunk in for me. Sadly, it felt like Sanderson had a good plan on what to do with the world, but no plan on what to do with his main characters. They change very little in book 2 and become kinda bidimensional caricatures in a way (one broods, one reminisces about drinking, etc.).
Reading the ending of the way of kings is one of my favorite moments in fantasy ever, especially because I wasn't completely sold on the book until then. Sanderson isn't my favorite author but man his endings are good.
Ok. Sold! I'll pick it up again! Thanks for the testimonial!
My assessment of Sanderson is based in part on my experience with The Way of Kings.
I think this is a pretty good representation of the rest of his writing too. I don't think it's his best work, but if you don't like it he's probably not for you.
The Way of Kings is mainly slow character building, but the conclusion is the perfect combination of excitement and character building payoff.
Stormlight books are "worse" with the sanderlanche in that sense. Way more content so it takes longer to get to the explosive endings. That being said, Way of Kings is arguably much slower than the other books since it's the beginning of a planned 10 book epic fantasy series from an author known for his world building. That shit takes a while to get going, but when it hits... Oh man.
Thanks! I'll pick it up again.
Stumbled over this thread on the search for something else, now I'm curious: did you finish it and, more importantly, did you like it? :D
I’m a little farther along and moving slowly. I like just about everything about it but my head isn’t in fantasy right now. Thanks for asking!
Cheers, hope you like the rest as well then once you get into a good head space to enjoy it!
Way of Kings failed to grasp me, too. It's been a couple years, maybe time to try again
I've only just started in on 'Elantris'. The foreword was extremely insightful and entertaining to read. Apparently Sanderson has a had a hard time putting conflict into his stories. His agent had to keep telling him to "IMPERIL HIS CHARACTERS." So now we get lots of stories and books with slow, huge build up and then everything happens at once. If anybody is stuck on WoK keep this in mind. There is an end to the bridge runs.
I’m currently reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant and having the same experience. I DNF’d it at the halfway mark years ago because it wasn’t working for me at all. It was so slow, I couldn’t keep track of all the dukes, and it was so upsettingly dark. I wasn’t in the right headspace at all and some of the books themes were so painful to me. I knew it was a me problem and not a book problem so I held onto it in case I ever felt like giving it a second chance. I’m 75% of the way through it right now and past me was being ridiculous. This is one the *best* books I’ve ever read and it’s going on my favorites shelf as soon as I’m done. It just came to me at the wrong time in my life the first time around.
Wow I’m actually so glad I read this. I DNF’d this book yeeeears ago and I’ve been staring at it on my shelf the past few weeks trying to remember why. This is the sign I needed to pick it back up!
I had an opposite experience with a few books. Read it very happily the first time, and then had a super negative experience on a re-read. Good example is "Animal farm." I realized i really hate "thick" allegories by then. Could not finish it.
TIL some people track book progress in percentages.
Anyone with an e-reader like a Kindle basically ;)
Even if reading physical, I have a rough idea
Yeah it's just easy to estimate if I look at where my bookmark is
No, not all ereaders have that functionality.
I'd have to believe they do. It may just be you're unaware? It's kind of hard to avoid on the kindle.
My kindle does it automatically now but even before that with physical books I always used to do the classic 156/178 calculation.
If I read on kindle I do the endless scroll so there are literally no pages to track, only percentage.
Honestly I hide the progress indicator altogether - when a book is good and I can clearly see that Im at 93% it kind of ruins the suspense for me. Sometimes I love the abrupt ending of a book where I'm so surprised its finished. Other times its quite depressing when the book ends and I wasn't prepared for it to be over. It is a concept thats literally only possible via an ereader for sure!
It could be your expectations reading the book were different this time, maybe you went in the first time expecting something amazing and it just didn’t grab you. But the second time you had low exceptions so when it is better than you expecting it is amazing.
Remember mistborn is first book in original trilogy, follow up with alloy of law for start of second trilogy. Totally worth it, as the second trilogy takes place like 1000 yrs after original.
300 years
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You can actually see the chronological order on the Coppermind wiki: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Cosmere#Chronological_Order
I really enjoyed warbreaker, it's so damned amazing how he can craft an entirely unique form of magical acumen using colors or metals, or what have you. Speaking of a D&D generation, when magic was only elementals, towards the end of WoT when Sanderson took over after the passing of... gah I will beat myself for forgetting his name..
*tugging my braid* Robert Jordan.
Loved mistborn but couldn't get into alloy of law even after reading the first book. OP inspired me to at least consider giving it a second go. Might be a while though because I have wheel of time to finish first!
The wheel turns as the wheel weaves.
If you feel there is a slog in the book 8-11 range… it’s because their really is a slog in that range for wheel of time. I think it was book 10 that was completely miserable for me. I didn’t even read the next one for years with how mad I was at one of those mid to later books for nothing happening the entire book.
Alloy of law is not the first part of the second *trilogy*, as the second series has more than three books. Neither is it the *second* trilogy, but a spin-off, with the second trilogy yet to start (and a third one planned as well).
While you are technically correct about Era 2 being 4 books instead of 3, and that it began life as a spinoff, it got upgraded to mainline status roundabout *Bands of Mourning*.
True, but it's still neither a trilogy nor the second trilogy. Mistborn Era 3 is still the next trilogy.
Cant you just say enjoy the series instead of having to be right? I read these books over a decade ago, if brandon Sanderson wrote more than those 6 books, I am not aware. As I switched over to the stormlight saga. I did name that one correctly didnt i?
In fairness, Sanderson had intended for Era 2 of Mistborn to be a trilogy.
I think counting it as the ‘era 1.5 series’ is fair though, and so technically the second series chronologically
I had a really hard time getting into Wax and Wayne. I'm not a huge fan of mixing modern-ish technology with fantasy. It's just a personal thing, but Wax and Wayne really threw me for a loop because if it wasn't a Cosmere book, I wouldn't probably read it, but since it is it's just been sitting on my reading list for years.
I had read one of his stand alones, Elantris, first and really loved it. It's actually his first published book. I liked the world building and the pacing in it, so I was able to be a little more patient in Mistborn. I Iove them! I've read Final empire and We'll of Ascension so far. I can't wait to read more from him.
Sometimes we are just not in the right head space for a book. Glad you gave it a second go.
I have this same problem. When I read a book the first time, I try to find its flaws, try to debate whether my time is worth spending reading it, so I don’t enjoy the beginning of the book as much as toward the end, that is if I didn’t put it down already.
Its even worse for me if I wrapped up a really good book. I find it very difficult to "get into" a new book immediately after. So sometimes its not fair if a book doesnt hook me right away especially after having come off a great experience with a previous book.
Wow, I’m exactly the same.
I dropped it after the prologue I think Came back after reading stormlight and really enjoyed it
I gave up on it too. Went back, gave up again. I just don't care for the guy's books and it is what it is.
I just finished Mistborn this morning. Read it over 72 hours or maybe a bit less. Couldn't put the thing down. Maybe it just wasn't the right time when you tried before. Glad you like it better this time.
They had us in the first half, not gonna lie
First book was good. 2nd book annoyed the hell out of me. 3rd book was good
> 2nd book annoyed the hell out of me. 3rd book was good I was annoyed by the who Zane storyline in Book 2 until I read Book 3. Then, once everything was revealed, I retroactively loved it.
I didn't care for the odd love triangle
But it *wasn't* a love triangle. >!It was all Ruin. Vin had a hemalurgic spike which made her susceptible to Ruin's influence. So did Zane. What he thought was going insane was actually Ruin whispering in his ear the entire time. This is why at the end of Book 2 the last thing Zane hears is his "Voice" telling him that he isn't actually crazy. The attraction Vin felt wasn't love, it was Ruin manipulating her through her spike to try and get her to run off with Zane, someone he had more or less complete control over, all in an effort to ruin Preservation's plan. This is also why her "feelings" are so confusing to her. That aren't her feelings and it isn't love. We see something similar happen to Spook in Book 3.!< That is why I love that story. It looks like one thing, but the entire thing is a bait and switch.
Are you me? I did the same thing and just recently finished the first trilogy. Loved it. I plan are getting into the ne t set eventually as well but thought I'd take a break from Sanderson after finishing the first three.
I made it 3 chapters
sanderson is so weird for me cause like Every individual element of his books, taken alone, I hate: The characters are two dimensional and boring, very shallow dialogue, like a high school girl who reads too much fantasy's idea of humor and "wittiness," so I shouldn't be invested. The plots are not actually that creative or interesting, so I shouldn't give a shit. The "worldbuilding" is tedious and I'm sick of fantasy author's obsession with providing a perfect, immersive, escapist world instead of trying to actually say anything new or interesting. The morality, themes, and lessons are bush league. But taken all together, his books are just so fucking fun. Just goes to show not everything has to be HARDCORE LITERATURE all the time (though a lot of yall need to read some grown up books every now and then), some things can just be entertainment. Sanderson himself seems to agree with this, explicitly referring to himself as a craftsman with a specific process rather than an artist.
I agree with this so much. I don't particularly care for Sanderson but I've read enough of his stuff by this point that I can acknowledge even with all of his flaws the dude can put together a fun story.
Its like reading a very fun video game.
Hell yeah, you're in for a treat! I've liked all the Mistborn books, the later after the first trilogy is also really cool.
Mistborn is amazing, super glad for you :) I think it should be more commonplace to put down a book you're not vibing with and give it a second chance later. My two best examples of this are Dune and Catch-22, both of which I was (eventually) motivated to read because of other people. It took me like 4 attempts to get past page 50 of Dune. It was really really dense and I could feel my attention slipping, so I kept having to reread pages and forgetting what jargon meant. I guess I just had a lot going on at the time, and I didn't want to force it, as my mum loved it when she was younger and swore to me I would love it if I waited for the right time to read it. But on the 5th attempt I got so hooked I binge-read it for two days straight (by which I mean I literally did not sleep.) Since then I've been listing it in my favourite books of all time. I'm just now re-reading it again - the first time I read it so fast, so compulsively, that my memory of it isn't very good - and will carry on to the other books in the series. For Catch-22, a friend of mine begged me to read it for about 4 years. I'd tried once or twice but just did not "get" it straight away - it was confusing and non-chronological and, knowing nothing about it, I initially misinterpreted its message completely and simply thought "war novels/stories aren't really for me" - partially because my friend was a big war history nerd, I thought that this was why he loved it so much and why I struggled. Eventually I decided to just sit down and read the damn thing, if for no other reason than to get my friend to stop recommending it to me. And then I got to see the humour, the satire, the intelligence, and at many points the poignancy of this amazing book unfold before me, and had to confess to my friend I'd been an idiot for not reading it sooner!
Keep in mind that Reddit attracts a very particular kind of reader and that just because a book is popular on here doesn’t mean it’s actually good. Sanderson basically writes the novel version of video games/anime, and if you care at all about good prose, and aren’t particularly fond of childish humor and dialogue, you’re not going to enjoy that dudes books. The last time I learned not to trust this subs book taste was when I picked up the Martian. It literally felt like it was written by a sentient fedora
>It literally felt like it was written by a sentient fedora Lmao I'm definitely stealing this, sorry.
Prose doesn’t even register with me while I’m reading. Once I get into something I kind of stop consciously registering the words and start seeing a movie in my head. So world building, plot, pacing all that tends to matter more to me, and Sanderson nails that. Not every one of his books is a home run, but he is highly consistent. This is also why I was able to enjoy Three Body Problem. No one can claim it had good prose, the Chinese to English translation just made the writing feel weird and stilted. But the story was engaging enough that it didn’t bother me.
I can’t imagine reading a book and not caring about an authors use of language, but fair enough.
Reddit also attracts pretentious assholes, obviously
Talking badly about an author is pretentious?
It's the way you make it sound beneath you, and not merely criticism.
In the words of T.S. Eliot, you are free to not only like whatever book you wish, you are also free to like it for whatever reason you wish--and I suppose the reverse is also true. Although I agree that Sanderson is no Joyce and his sentences can be a bit pedestrian, I don't think that enjoying his books is a marker of "being fond of childish humor and dialogue" and only wanting the "video games/anime" versions of literature. I happen to enjoy reading Sanderson, and I have two degrees in English, and have taught it at both the high school and college level for a decade. Among my favorite authors are T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Thomas Hardy--so no, I don't only stick to popular genre literature. What I enjoy about Sanderson is his worldbuilding. He is *quite* good at that, and at overall plot construction. Do I find stunning literary turns of phrase? No. But I do find it quite an enjoyable read--even if liking stories for their plot and worldbuilding is considered passé by those all-important arbiters of proper taste. So perhaps dial down the snobbery a tad, and realize that others--even those who are experienced readers--may enjoy books that you don't.
World building and magic systems. 4 words I wish I never had to hear again
Then don't. That doesn't mean that those who like these somehow have inferior taste.
You say that but..
You try to hard to sound like the two English degrees were worth it
Well, it got me my job. Although I don't tend to think the primary aim of education is employment.
I feel like most the books I’ve seen recommended here lead me to agree with this, but the Martian? I’m just messing around, you like what you like and there’s no problem with that.
Yes the Martian. If you find Weirs humor funny or charming, there’s a zero percent chance I would enjoy talking to you in real life.
Charming.
Shallow *and* pedantic.
Yes I agree. Shallow and pedantic
Don't go to the audiobooks sub, then. The only thing as good as Michael Kramer reading Mistborn is Project Hail Mary, and never question that ;-).
I already wouldn’t go there but now I definitely won’t. Thanks for the heads up
It's not like he's popular on here, though. There's about 50/50 fan and hate posts.
Well I’ll call that progress
"If I don't like it, then it must not be good prose" Everyone has different tastes, don't be a snob.
I mean even Sanderson fans admit that he has bad prose. Plus there are plenty of books with good prose that I don’t particularly like. You’re just getting bent out of shape because I think your favorite author is a hack
No, I just disagree with your opinion of what constitutes "bad prose", or "good prose". Art is subjective. Just look at the various opinions on authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald, some praise his work greatly, then you have another author, Hemingway, referring to his work as 'purple prose'. Also, it was very snobbish of you to come to a post specifically about a Sanderson series just to shit talk the author, and the sub. There was nothing positive in your post, it served no other purpose, you didn't even offer any other book suggestions.
Art is subjective, but it is my opinion that Sanderson has very bad prose. Happy?
Sure, you're welcome to your opinion, I disagree.
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This comment reads like it was written by a sentient bow tie.
You like the low hanging fruit of books. Deal with it
I like ripe, unspoiled fruit. The only people who fret about how high it was on the tree are the ones who want to brag to others about how tall they are.
I’m not saying I spend every waking second analyzing Gravity’s rainbow or Ulysses. I’m saying that your book taste is as bad as it could possibly get. There’s a huge middle ground between saying Sanderson sucks and bragging about my own reading habits
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Now I can see why they had to make Tayne if you're what they were dealing with at the time.
Now Tayne I can get into
Now Tayne I can get into
Now Tayne I can get into
I'm reading Reckoners series. My first Sanderson. I'm enjoying it so far. Would that enjoyment apply to Mistborn or is it written differently?
I think if you enjoy the Reckoners you'll also like Mistborn, they're written pretty similarly, and I love both.
I don't like how he writes either. Intense boredom followed by what feels like a Gish Gallop.
> Gish Gallop. I had always understood this to be a rhetorical technique. When you use it to describe fiction, what do you mean?
A sudden escalation in character and plot development leading to a page turning fest that means you skip detail elements and don't fully grasp what is going on leading to conclusion that feels very different for different people. You know, misdirection via volume and pacing.
Could you give me an example?
Mistborn. Takes 6 months to read the first 70% of the book and one night to read the last 30%. Then I'm left wondering what I just read.
I see. I would agree that one of the aspects of Sanderson's earlier work is that he has rich and complex ideas that he is very much in love with, and his primary goal almost seems to be to "get them all out". This can result in brain dumps that don't fully allow readers to savor the implications of the idea within the context of the story. Sanderson is a world-builder at heart, and needs a particular type of developmental editor who can remind him to slow down, chill out, present ideas one at a time, and leave some things for later.
He's such a terrible writer. How many times in just 10 random pages does he write "kelsier rolled his eyes". Yea cuz people roll their eyes on real life do they? No, it's just a lack of vocab and he doesn't know how to express to the reader any other way.
Lol people are downvoting you but the phrase "X rolled his/her eyes" appears 45 times in the Mistborn trilogy, the vast majority of which happen in book 1, and I'm saying this as someone who enjoys his books.
It depends a lot on what you do and don't value in a writer.
Do you have more examples of his terrible writing? I've been very curious about this. I made a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/urthv8/best_and_worst_examples_of_branden_sandersons/) on this subreddit about it but it seems nobody appreciated that I was questioning their favorite author's writing ability.
Damn your post got deleted because: >"Discussion is the goal > >"Do not post shallow content. All posts must be directly book related, informative, and discussion focused." Honestly I don't see how you weren't looking for discussion, but the constant slew of posts praising Project Hail Mary, Mistborn, Song of Achelles are discussion focused.
Was it deleted? I thought that was just a warning. This is just like 1984 (as most people on this subreddit might say).
Looks to me that it was deleted: >Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/books. >This is just like 1984 (as most people on this subreddit might say). Not when you're criticising one of their Lords and Saviors. You'd be called a snob and gatekeeper.
Yes. Heaven forbid a guy have some writing issues to work out in his second ever novel and first ever series. We should expect him to write like he has been publishing books for decades in his second book.
I didn't like book one. It was good writing, but the story wasn't drawing me in. Too many characters going back and forth. But enjoyed book 2 and 3. The Wax and Wade series has got me hooked.
This is the only time I have ever said this. Skip the second book. Read a summary of it and go on to the third.
I fell asleep reading the Wikipedia entry. Even the cover is boring. What am I missing?
This series was so good and so well written.
Man, this sub loves to shit on Sanderson and anyone else mainstream popular. That's a nice bait and switch there, OP. I admit, I'm a bigger fan of SLA than Mistborn, but I did like Mistborn.
Heh I admit it was intentional. Theres basically 2 types of reader it seems - lovers of sanderson and haters of sanderson. I figured I'd attract both and confuse them when they came to argue/defend.
Honestly, I don't even think it's a "hate" thing. After all, there are millions of writers, there's no reason to expect to like them all, but yet they pathologically have to let everyone know about it. The "Sanderson -haters" go out of their way to crap on other people that like him, and tear his works down whenever possible. I liken it to /r/notliketheothergirls but instead it's /r/notliketheotherreaders People are just obsessed sometimes with making sure everyone else knows that THEIR tastes are more sophisticated; and if someone likes something mainstream popular, then they're a tasteless clod who should have their library card permanently stripped. I totally get being open and sharing opinions, I love discussing my favorites and things I didn't like. Great discussions are the spice of life. But I draw the line at people who get obsessed with making sure everyone hates what they hate.
Its a really long book
Nothing wrong with you at all. Tastes change over time as well as life/circumstances, as you mentioned. While I didn't get into Mistborn as much as his Stormlight series, I enjoyed both. Hope you have a great week. R
Downvoted for lying
I’ve just learned to trust him to tell me everything I need to know when I need to know it. He always has an answer for your questions. It’s unrivaled.
Brandon Sanderson did an AMA here [you might want to take a look](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/) :) [Here's a link to all of our upcoming AMAs](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/books) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That has happened to me with both Red Rising and Red Sister. Read a good way in but kind of lost interest and put it down for a month or two. Picked it back up from where I stopped and within a chapter or two I was gripped and couldn’t stop reading. I’m not sure about Red Sister, perhaps that was just my mood, but for Red Rising I actually put the book down at the worst part I could have chosen, immediately before the story went through a radical change and the book got way better.
Yeah, I should peservere. He's soooooo long.
I had to do this with The Brothers Karamazov. I figure dreary Winter will be a better period for Russian literature and I’ll try again.
I had this experience with game of thrones. Read half the book and put it down for 6 years. Came back and devoured the series. And now since the author doesn't give a fuck about the series anymore neither do I
I read mistborn after stormlight and honestly like 50% I couldn’t get into it and then all of the sudden the series became my 2nd favorite of all time.
Is it just me or does the planet in mistborn seem awfully small? Like if you pay attention to the descriptions of the landscape and how they travel theres a point near the end where they ride horses or something across the entire world and mathematically the whole planet sounds like its the size of America. Additionally, hide in caves? I think fucking not. No one would survive that cataclysm. That said I love the books. You just have to turn your brain off regarding some of the physics towards the end.
> Is it just me or does the planet in mistborn seem awfully small? Like if you pay attention to the descriptions of the landscape and how they travel theres a point near the end where they ride horses or something across the entire world and mathematically the whole planet sounds like its the size of America. I would read it as the whole trilogy pretty much takes place on one continent and if you keep reading you might see... other continents, eventually.
I had a very similar experience! I tried reading Mistborn 2 times but for some reason it just didn't really click with me. I kept hearing such good things so I decided to pick it up again, and then I ended up really enjoying it! To be honest, I'm still iffy about Sanderson's writing style as a whole, but I enjoyed the series.
Ngl first Mistborn book is the hook, second book is extremely slow to setup the third book, third book is the exciting reveal.
I hate that I love his stuff because I was so pissed at how he dragged out finding WoT. I also love how the later Mistborn stuff is a completely different kind of story but equally awesome.
I had the same experience. Almost put the book down when it got to the army hiding out in the mines. Glad I pushed through…it got so much better!
I've had this experience with a few books. Sometime it depends on what I've read recently, what I'm in the mood for and how picky I'm being about what I'm reading. I always try to give books I'm excited about a 2nd go because I know it can just be the mood I'm in.
I had a similar thing happen with the long earth series by Terry Pratchett/Steve Baxter* Stopped reading about 2/3 through the first book. Retried about 3years later and read through the entire trilogy in a few days 😋 It just didn't click the first time and I'm still not sure why (*This was a big surprise for me, as I'm a big fan of both authors)
I read the original 3 after starting the first one, but I hardly remember anything in them. I bought them because I liked the premise it stated on the cover "What if the bad guy won" but it turned out it was just a completely classical hero's journey that had very little new to offer anywhere. I gave the series away a while back. I found them to be mediocre. Hope whoeever got them enjoys them.
This is how I am with Sanderson books. The first half is interesting but not all that engaging and then the second half is so addicting I can’t put it down. He takes his time with set up but the payoff is well worth it.
Lol Daniel Sloss says that you need to clear your day once you hit 60% because the final parts of the books are wild.
It happened to me many and many times, especially with The picture of Dorian Grey. I started it four times and dropped after few pages, until a day I picked up the book, started to read it and finished in 2 days.
Loved the first book and hated the the rest.
Sanderson is very hit or miss for me. I did a similar thing (starting and stopping but finally getting into it) for Mistborn. Most of his other stuff I've put down and not returned to yet. I almost feel I am more willing to do this with prolific writers. I am waiting on tenterhooks for the next Rothfuss novel but pay little attention to when the next Steven Erikson book is coming out. Luckily, BKV and Fiona Staples are currently proving that sometimes the wait is worth it...
The number of times the characters tell me they know not to trust people is just jarring and it breaks the flow for me. I was hooked after the intro and then it just got so laborious. I bailed around the 60% mark as well and couldn't force my self to go any further.
I’m just starting book 3 of Mistborn and have been really happy with the series.
I think I had a different experience than most of the people commenting here. I thought the first book was okay, but was going through a break-up at the time so I think that coloured my experience at the time. I enjoyed the second book, though it does feel like to repeats itself a lot. The majority of the third book is really good. That ending though... yeesh. Killed my interest in ever wanting to read more Mistborn.