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I mostly agree with this. Nate Send a noteboard - 29/09/2012 09:36:38 PM
Bsand claimed to be a fan with extensive series knowledge, which it is clear he does not. He has done a credible job of getting the books out and as a fan I am thankful for the speed in which they have been published. That doesn't mean I don't have the right to criticize the man for the choices he made. I don't love how he split the timeline up as it is too confusing to keep track of which storyline a are where in the timeline. I don't think he paid enough attention to some key details such as various language nuances ... Aviendha using the term soldiers and other such errors are jarring. And I think he missed the spirit of certain key characters such as Mat.


He has certainly missed some of the smaller details. For me that's not such a big deal and I'm happy to be reading the stories, but it's clear that he's not replicating Jordan's style or attention to detail, and it's fair enough for fans to criticize that. Sanderson did say that he was not going to even attempt to write in Jordan's style, but what we've gotten isn't fully Sanderson's style either—his own non-WoT books are better written. So it's fair to criticize some of his choices. I've been critical of Jordan for some of his in the past too, like what you noted. No one can please everyone, and when you have a fan base as rabidly attentive to detail and theory as the WoT fan base, there's no way Sanderson could get away without criticism short of taking ten years to fully replicate Jordan's every nuance and style.

I think your take on all this is fair. Sanderson's WoT work is not his best work, but it's getting the job done and it's not so terrible as some people seem to believe. And his own work on his own books is of a much higher standard—though even there he's not a great stylistic writer. His strength is in his story arcs, his plot twists, his ideas, his worlds and magic systems, and some of his characters. He can do some incredibly cinematic action scenes, but his actual writing is more often only serviceable. In WoT, his strengths are not able to fully come out because he's working with, in, and around so much that another author did, while his weaknesses have been more pronounced for whatever reason, and more noticed by the ever-watchful, critical fan base.

But for my money, none of this is half so dire as you'd think reading the opinions of some of the fans.
Warder to starry_nite

Chapterfish — Nate's Writing Blog
http://chapterfish.wordpress.com
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If you have to call someone "my friend" three times in a couple of minutes, he isn't. - 28/09/2012 11:59:13 AM 5569 Views
John McCain has a similar proclivity. *NM* - 28/09/2012 12:26:29 PM 1065 Views
The only people I've ever heard say "my friend" are foreign street vendors - 28/09/2012 01:19:00 PM 923 Views
Potential customer = best kind of friend *NM* - 28/09/2012 02:20:29 PM 551 Views
I agree in this particular instance. - 28/09/2012 03:38:15 PM 1212 Views
Maybe they have been Quakers all along? *NM* - 28/09/2012 03:39:24 PM 688 Views
Sanderson's handling of character interractions is pathetic.... - 28/09/2012 06:43:48 PM 1066 Views
Now see, here I don't fully agree, or at least think it's a matter of taste. - 28/09/2012 07:21:09 PM 1769 Views
Sorry, that's just not true... - 28/09/2012 11:33:59 PM 940 Views
A few things. - 29/09/2012 02:40:47 AM 1164 Views
Great rebuttal! Fionwe got burned! *NM* - 29/09/2012 04:00:41 PM 755 Views
Re: A few things. - 30/09/2012 06:07:57 PM 1429 Views
I posted something very similar at DM. Reposting... - 28/09/2012 11:46:07 PM 951 Views
Re: I posted something very similar at DM. Reposting... - 29/09/2012 01:51:20 AM 1164 Views
Yes! - 29/09/2012 02:26:39 AM 1096 Views
This is one of my biggest pet peeves as well - 29/09/2012 04:56:53 AM 1079 Views
There are people who say that? - 29/09/2012 05:16:58 AM 965 Views
I complained about this regarding the Forsaken chapter - 28/09/2012 07:34:25 PM 1195 Views
I've long since accepted that Sanderson uses inaccurate terms like "powerful" - 29/09/2012 05:44:11 AM 1208 Views
To be fair, the last Moghedian PoV by RJ might have changed her a bit. - 29/09/2012 03:27:31 PM 929 Views
Which is the question I brought up in another thread - 29/09/2012 05:29:01 PM 831 Views
The burning question to me, after reading all of the comments above, is this... - 29/09/2012 08:50:50 AM 1133 Views
Piggybacking on someone else's established characters and near-climax-point plot? - 29/09/2012 03:04:03 PM 1176 Views
Both of you disgust me - 29/09/2012 04:13:16 PM 1119 Views
This is not jealousy, it's being upset - 29/09/2012 07:52:51 PM 1008 Views
They could have hired a ghost writer. They chose not to. *NM* - 29/09/2012 09:34:27 PM 9739 Views
Your crappy taste in books means nothing - 30/09/2012 09:23:51 PM 1495 Views
When did I ever say Eli Manning wasn't a good QB? - 01/10/2012 03:40:21 PM 888 Views
To be fair... - 29/09/2012 04:36:52 PM 980 Views
True ... He may not be perfect, and he certainly made some strange choices - 29/09/2012 05:37:29 PM 792 Views
B-Sand is not a ghost writer - 29/09/2012 06:35:16 PM 2270 Views
Didn't say he should. - 29/09/2012 09:07:45 PM 1555 Views
I mostly agree with this. - 29/09/2012 09:36:38 PM 1189 Views
What is it you want? - 29/09/2012 09:39:36 PM 1140 Views
We want to bitch about an inferior product. Duh. - 29/09/2012 10:00:09 PM 947 Views
Hmm that's true I guess. Sad though *NM* - 29/09/2012 10:07:25 PM 446 Views
It is what it is - 30/09/2012 12:52:20 AM 730 Views
Those are not remotely the same thing - 30/09/2012 09:14:49 PM 985 Views
But they are the same in this instance - 30/09/2012 10:01:59 PM 899 Views
It's fairly simple.... - 30/09/2012 09:55:52 PM 1147 Views
Thanks for that insightful response... - 30/09/2012 10:37:27 PM 873 Views
Forgotten Realms is big on clever spells and magic systems? - 01/10/2012 05:27:05 AM 842 Views
It's more... - 01/10/2012 01:05:18 PM 1604 Views
Did you read Way of Kings? - 03/10/2012 09:14:43 PM 1099 Views
No, nothing but the prologue - 04/10/2012 02:56:14 AM 795 Views
Re: The burning question to me, after reading all of the comments above, is this... - 11/10/2012 08:22:27 PM 729 Views

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