Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

kickstarter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 91 posts

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#41

Post by wrnr »

abakker wrote: post #7
JaakkoP wrote: post #4

The headline here spills the beans but it's definitely worth watching his announcement video "It's time to come clean" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ I was certain he is announcing he's working with a team of ghost writers given his extraordinary writing speed.

And given how bad some of the later books like Alloy of Law are compared to the original misborn? Some of the b reel books are terrible.

I'm a big fan of the Stormlight Archive where all main characters have some form of mental disorder. That said the last book was getting a bit repetitive, always waiting for the same character to snap out of his seasonal depression in order to save everyone just in time. I'm still a fan, I even watched some of his lectures on creative writing but there is definitely a formula to how he works.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#42

Post by space_fountain »

edgyquant wrote: post #36
lolinder wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tolkien-rip off fantasy You're free to dislike the books, but this is an extremely unfair characterization. Sanderson's books bear very little resemblance to Tolkien's beyond the genre and the elaborate nature of the worldbuilding.

It’s not unfair. The genre he writes is a genre of Tolkien ripoffs of which he is the most prolific.

There are Tolkien rip offs, but Tolkien didn’t invent fantasy, and unlike a lot of fantasy authors Sanderson doesn’t include elements like dwarfs, or elves or really anything that Tolkien came up with as far as I can tell. Are you maybe confusing him with someone else?

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#43

Post by jcranmer »

veganjay wrote: post #13

First time hearing about this author - what's the hacker news angle here? From what I gather it is that: 1) he's a very popular sci-fi/fantasy writer, 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign I'm genuinely interested - for someone new to his work, where is a good book to start? Edit: as mentioned in other comments: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

The best recommendation for reading order I can give is this:

* Start with the Mistborn trilogy. This series probably has the best magic system he ever designed, and they're not as long as the main opus magnum that is the Stormlight Archive series, so if you don't like them, you can discover that much more quickly. It also gives you probably the best window into the general writing style of Sanderson, I believe.

* The next book is probably Stormlight Archive book 1, The Way of Kings. If you liked the Mistborn trilogy, reading this book next is probably the right thing to do to know if you're going to be invested into the entire shared literary universe or if you just want to stick to some series.

* After this point, it's probably best to read the books closer to their original publication order. In particular, the Stormlight Archive books start drawing on the other Cosmere novels so that familiarity with them is helpful, although definitely by book 4 (Rhythm of War), it's necessary to be familiar with Mistborn's magic system for maximum enjoyment.

* The thing with starting with Elantris is that Elantris is Sanderson's first novel, and it that really comes across in the writing. For that reason, I'd move it away from a general publication order recommendation.

* Another reason to generally favor publication order is that the wiki actually lets you browse it as it was right before the major books were published (https://coppermind.net/wiki/Special:TimeMachine), which lets you use it to catch up on information in reading the newer books without spoiling them for you.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#44

Post by ryantgtg »

JaakkoP wrote: post #4

The headline here spills the beans but it's definitely worth watching his announcement video "It's time to come clean" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ I was certain he is announcing he's working with a team of ghost writers given his extraordinary writing speed.

I enjoyed this blog post where he talks about his writing process. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/my-work-life-balance-as-a-w...

He seems very disciplined.

Hate to say but I'm glad I'm not one of his kids. He wakes up around noon and then writes for five hours, and _then_ he hangs out with his family. So basically his kids don't see him all day until shortly before they go to bed.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#45

Post by bitexploder »

jimbob45 wrote: post #38
m348e912 wrote: post #2

I hadn't heard of Brandon Sanderson until I went to a book store in Provo, Utah. He is a very much a big deal there and had two complete bookshelves dedicated to his work. He went to BYU so there is a local connection, but it caught me by surprise because I wasn't aware of his popularity.

https://youtu.be/-6HOdHEeosc He teaches at BYU as well (still).

He had an open creative writing course I took once. It really helped see how he is so prolific. He has a very good creative writing system, but does not force his novel writing style in his students. The way he explained things changed how I view all fiction in a pretty profound way in terms of how stories are created.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#46

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS »

m348e912 wrote: post #2

I hadn't heard of Brandon Sanderson until I went to a book store in Provo, Utah. He is a very much a big deal there and had two complete bookshelves dedicated to his work. He went to BYU so there is a local connection, but it caught me by surprise because I wasn't aware of his popularity.

Larry Correia has a post about why there are so many Mormon sci-fi writers. Interesting read, regardless your opinion on the religion

https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/05/17/why-are-there-so-...

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#47

Post by wyager »

ryantgtg wrote: post #44
JaakkoP wrote: post #4

The headline here spills the beans but it's definitely worth watching his announcement video "It's time to come clean" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ I was certain he is announcing he's working with a team of ghost writers given his extraordinary writing speed.

I enjoyed this blog post where he talks about his writing process. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/my-work-life-balance-as-a-w... He seems very disciplined. Hate to say but I'm glad I'm not one of his kids. He wakes up around noon and then writes for five hours, and _then_ he hangs out with his family. So basically his kids don't see him all day until shortly before they go to bed.

> He wakes up around noon and then writes for five hours, and _then_ he hangs out with his family.

This sounds like an awesome schedule. Sleep in, work for a very reasonable number of hours, and then have plenty of energy left to hang out with your kids (somewhat earlier than most commuters get home).

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#48

Post by discardedrefuse »

zargon wrote: post #32
veganjay wrote: post #13

First time hearing about this author - what's the hacker news angle here? From what I gather it is that: 1) he's a very popular sci-fi/fantasy writer, 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign I'm genuinely interested - for someone new to his work, where is a good book to start? Edit: as mentioned in other comments: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

An option no one has mentioned yet is Skyward. It's a "girl and her spaceship" type of story. It's how I got started down the Sanderson rabbit hole. Some may say it's it's not representative, as his first scifi work, but I think I got a better introduction to a more experienced Sanderson by starting there. (Without embarking on the 10-book series of thousand-page books, Stormlight Archive. Though there are also stand…

Skyward was great. The 2nd book in the series, Starsight, less so. I believe those are considered YA novels though. I think Elantris would be a better recommendation. Its a standalone book and probably one of his best works.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#49

Post by buscoquadnary »

TylerE wrote: post #39
hannofcart wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He uses "storming" as a proxy. :)

Yes, and it reads like something a prudish 60 year old would write for 5 year olds.

I actually have always appreciated it because I have taken it as a level of world building beyond what is obvious.

Most all profanity in our language can in some way be traced back to a religious context. It would the make sense that on other worlds with totally different religious backgrounds they would use different cursing.

In fact his usage of this concept is so subtle that you can detect what characters are from the world and which ones aren't by whether they use damnation as a noun or an adjective.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#50

Post by mrslave »

legobmw99 wrote: post #25
knowingathing wrote: post #8

This funding amount is insane. Also, bypassing publishers (which I'm assuming what is happening) is quite clever too.

Someone asked him during his Q&A livestream how they were able to get around the right of first refusal with his main publisher (Tor), and his answer was essential a polite version of “we can sort of do what we want as long as we keep giving them the big series”

How does right of first refusal work with respect to price? Could you fulfill this obligation by offering them the option at a very high price? I'm guessing price isn't a negotiable parameter.
Post reply on HN