mostly agreeing with you except i didn't read rithmatist (or mitosis)
temeraire Send a noteboard - 14/05/2014 06:30:08 AM
View original postJust finished reading The Rithmatist, The Emperor's Soul, Steelheart (and the short story Mitosis), Legion, and Words of Radiance over the last week or two.
View original postFirst off, The Rithmatist. This is the chalk-based magic one, set in an interesting alt-history of the US.
View original postI'm a little torn on this one. The magic is interesting (although maybe a little TOO straightforward for my taste, though I usually like that about Sanderson's stuff). I actually really like the hints of worldbuilding- the "Nebraska event" that basically put the US into a state of perpetual martial law, the fact that Rithmatists are basically treated as a combination of sports star and military hero, the fact that a British king in exile is apparently the savior of the human race.
View original postIt's a Young Adult book, though, and sometimes that means it's a bit more simplistic than I'd like. Still worth a look, though.
sounds not awful. i'll probably read it sometime.
View original postThe Emperor's Soul was pretty cool. The "magic stamp" idea was neat, and the main character was interesting. I probably would have missed the fact that it was set in the same world as Elantris if I hadn't been told, though.
i definitely wouldn't have known it was set in the same world as elantris, partly because i hadn't read elantris yet when i read it! haha.
View original postI really liked Steelheart, although I'm a little skeptical about the series' long term viability. That is, the first book was strange and tense and cool, but I'm afraid that sequels would either become formulaic or so different from the first that it becomes a completely different series.
View original postI could be completely wrong; it's just a feeling I have. I think the sequel comes out very soon, so we'll see.
i remember it being ok, but characters were flat
View original postLegion was really fun, and I'll be interested to see if the character can support a full novel. Sanderson could go to a lot of different places from here- noir, magical realism, hardboiled detective, maybe something closer to the Di Vinci Code...
View original postAnyway, it's a great example of the Sanderson "Hey, this is a neat idea, let's write a story around it" school of fiction.
dude! i loved this one and wished i had more of it. maybe later, eh?
View original postWords of Radiance... hm. First off, I definitely liked it. The story moved along well (compared to the first book which, while enjoyable, contained a lot of setup). However, you definitely become aware that this is Sanderson's pet project. He's been thinking about it for 20 years, everything is mapped out, and there are a ton of moving parts.
View original postAs neat as the Cosmere stuff is (for instance, I definitely saw Hoid downing some metal flakes, Mistborn-style), I'm paranoid that I'm missing out on stuff. This is mostly because there are SO many characters, all with non-standard names, that it becomes incredibly difficult to keep track of them all. I'm pretty sure a minor character in Words of Radiance is someone from Warbreaker (albeit a character I thought was dead, so I'll have to check up on that). But I know I must have missed at least a few things.
View original postI don't know exactly what I'm feeling, but when I compare the two books of Stormlight Archives to the first two Wheel of Time books, Stormlight is found wanting.
View original postBy the end of The Great Hunt, we knew what was going on, and we had a strong narrative thread. Rand was the Dragon, his buddies were walking plot devices, the women in his life alternated between being annoying and being awesome... some things were set.
View original postBy the end of Words of Radiance, more than 2,000 pages of writing, nothing has really been set, yet. We know that something bad is coming/has come. We know that some people are getting neat powers. And... well, that's about it.
View original postThat said, for all my ennui, I enjoyed it. I'll probably hit up the Coppermind (the Sanderson wiki) to find out some stuff that I missed, and then reread in the near future to see if I appreciate it more the second time around (which definitely happened with WoT).
that's all a good point - i definitely feel much less settled around stormlight archives; it's very vague about what the real danger is and what's really happening everywhere. the whole thing at the end (i'm sure you know what i mean) was a surprise, because sanderson wasn't very clear on the capabilities of powers etc. in this series. i thought that the magic system in mistborn was really well developed, straightforward and made sense. this one, well, it's not quite as sense-making. hopefully the next book will help things coalesce a bit more.
"it's like the real world, except there's dragons!"
cw, you are missed...
cw, you are missed...
Just finished a Sanderson-binge
- 13/05/2014 09:44:55 PM
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mostly agreeing with you except i didn't read rithmatist (or mitosis)
- 14/05/2014 06:30:08 AM
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I think it's like... everyone, both audience and author, is too focused on the lore/history?
- 14/05/2014 01:08:39 PM
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Wow, haven't heard of any of those books
- 17/05/2014 03:24:03 AM
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