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

71–80 of 91 posts

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#71

Post by lmm »

trey-jones wrote: post #63
edgyquant wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn’t saying King and his are the same quality, just that the speed of writing is similar. With that said King writes his fair share of cringe dialogue.

I have only ever read the Wheel of Time by Sanderson, but the dialogue was enough to convince me I never needed to bother with him again. Meanwhile, I find King to be probably the best American English writer that I've encountered. By that I'm really only talking about his use of the language, and what a pleasure it is to read. And of course, dialogue is a part of that. This is all subjective of course - that's just…

Sanderson didn't write much of the Wheel of Time, only the very end after the (main) author died.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#72

Post by justinpombrio »

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.

By "Tolkien ripoff", do you mean anything beyond "fantasy novel"?

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#73

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

exhilaration wrote: post #9
thaumasiotes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a big deal outside of Utah too.

What book should I start with if I'd like to get begin reading his stuff?

The emperor’s soul is a short novella, and is excellent. The quality to time commitment ratio is fantastic.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#74

Post by pigscantfly »

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.

This is exactly why Mat was so badly butchered at the end of the Wheel of Time: Sanderson doesn't have any experience of carousing to draw on, and prudish is spot on.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#75

Post by TylerE »

lmm wrote: post #71
trey-jones wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have only ever read the Wheel of Time by Sanderson, but the dialogue was enough to convince me I never needed to bother with him again. Meanwhile, I find King to be probably the best American English writer that I've encountered. By that I'm really only talking about his use of the language, and what a pleasure it is to read. And of course, dialogue is a part of that. This is all subjective of course - that's just…

Sanderson didn't write much of the Wheel of Time, only the very end after the (main) author died.

I mean, his name is only on 2,700 pages of it.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#77

Post by vxNsr »

TylerE wrote: post #31
edgyquant wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s the Stephen King of Tolkien-rip off fantasy. He churns them out, sure, but I don’t consider the quality all that high.

Except King can actually write dialog that isn't 100% cringe. Sanderson's refusal to have characters ever actually curse is just infuriating.

Your need for swearing in dialog for it to sound real says a lot more about you than it does about the author.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#78

Post by xedrac »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #73
exhilaration wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What book should I start with if I'd like to get begin reading his stuff?

The emperor’s soul is a short novella, and is excellent. The quality to time commitment ratio is fantastic.

I second this choice. Legion is another short story novella that is really fun. My favorite Sanderson series so far is the Skyward series, for which I highly recommend the audio books. The narrator is amazing.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#79

Post by thaumasiotes »

eslaught wrote: post #70
stormcode wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should check out the Stormlight Archive. It's really good.

The magic system in Stormlight is astonishingly good. About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times. On the other hand I've been put off by the pacing of the last three books. It feels like the basic structure is that there's a build u…

> About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times.

On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances.

Re: Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

#80

Post by thrower123 »

stormcode wrote: post #3
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.

You should check out the Stormlight Archive. It's really good.

It gets tiresome that every character is a quivering Freudian ball of repressed trauma and mental illness, but it is otherwise a fun world.
Post reply on HN