Really enjoying it so far. The worldbuilding is immaculate and the characters are incredibly engaging. I'm about to start book 3 after devouring the first two over a week (no spoil pls)
edit: turns out the author is a mormon lmao
though i really like Stormlight Archives, Sanderson cannot write anything even vaguely romantic lol
and i say this as :hexbear-aromantic:
this is true, read Warbreaker if you want an example of a mormon having to write about sex, he apparently wrote it just after or during his honeymoon
I just re-read Mistborn after having been further radicalized and for me it was a fun insight into the lib mindset.
spoiler
The people in power are endlessly agonizing about doing the things they need to do to to stop the literal god of Ruin. "Ohh no I took power without the consent of all the people" "Using my superpowerful mistborn assassin wife is cheating"
Except for Vin, she just does things, which is cool.
Even after they put a new god in power who fixes things so they get a fresh start on society they go straight back to a parliamentary republic with noble houses and sweatshops. I'm hoping for some radical elements in book number 4 but there will probably just be some cosmere stuff happening.
TSA is a bit different, to address one thing, in the later books there is some nuance of the "Asiatic horde dark-skinned orc slaughterfests" thing, we see the why and how
The Wax and Wayne Mistborn subseries is, sadly, a lot less radical than the original trilogy, from my recollection of it (I too was still a lib the last time one of them came out, which was the last time I read that series).
Pretty sure all that action was in service of maintaining the status quo, though. But my memory of it all is pretty hazy too.
there are tantalizing hints of class conflict IIRC, but that is mostly in the background of the story to spice things up, i'm doing a re-read of that as well, I might post about it.
more mistborn spoilers
Looking back at all the abuse of the skaa i would picture something like the Haitian Revolution instead of just meekly transferring power to the Only Good Noble. The only place where they actually got some justice, Urteau was subverted into a corrupted fascist regime that practiced purges based on eugenics because Ruin was manipulating the man in charge.
Sanderson even had a historical precedent in the french revolution and Robespierre.
And this is all before we get into the character stuff like you point out.
Biden Sanderson's magic systems are just too hard and rigid for me
"Biden" :michael-laugh:
he is a massive lib tbf, but he means well, if only he was a communist
I'm a total SFF nerd, so I love them. It's probably the biggest, most sweeping fantasy series that's being actively worked on today, and really the only truly major one, sadly (yes, GRRM and Rothfuss, I am throwing shade at you!)
I really like his worldbuilding, which was enough to carry me through most of his books, and I have read about 90% of the books he's written at this point (got into them in college)
HOWEVER, I kinda fell out of love with his writing over time.
He's a very rigid and formulaic writer, so while there's a lot going on, with pretty original settings and ideas, the actual plot and character feel pretty stale and tropey to me a lot of the time. Very marvel-movie-eque.
Add in the weird YA tones and Mormon themes, and in hindsight, while his books are gripping in a way, and 10/10 in a few narrow aspects, they fall flat for me on most other criteria.
Lastly, while I was already tepid on his works at this point, saw a master post about his Mormonism, and how he still defends and tithes to the church, and ehhh, I think I'm done with his works for now. See here for said masterpost, didn't realize it was this bad tbh: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/w9o5hw/as_a_gay_man_im_a_little_tired_of_people_here/
Honestly, for a similar worldbuilding-feel, but with better vibes and themes, I've really like the webserials A Practical Guide to Evil, and really just all of Wildbow's works, his most famous being the superhero story Worm, but honestly, its got rough edges as his first, and I think his current work Pale is his best, followed by Twig.
Masterpost I linked has some other good suggestions too, and while I haven't read all of them, I can second Robin Hobb's books, and The Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin is good, and also both are not by white dudes
Wildbow’s works, his most famous being the superhero story Worm, but honestly, its got rough edges as his first, and I think his current work Pale is his best, followed by Twig.
I really liked Pact, but I know it's a little to much concentrated "more bad stuff and trauma happens to the protagonist every page" than most people want.
I agree, I like pact a lot. But also, I think its a difficult piece to recommend, because it is so fraught and tense
Haven't read Stormlight but it's fascinating to me how his Mormonism shines through in Mistborn. Oh really Brandon, your trilogy
spoiler
takes place in a perfect city planned by God?
Mormonism makes for some good worldbuilding inspiration, to be fair.
Me, now thoroughly terrified of investing myself in an incomplete book series :sweat:
Series* he's got like 4 in that universe, but he's also a Mormon, so no vices, and he is an incredibly prolific writer. Managed to pump out 4 books that he didn't even have on his website tracker while keeping up pace on the already announced projects. I think he'll be like 80 or 90 if he finishes all his planned work at this pace, but he does have a few folks managing an internal continuity wiki so I imagine someone could carry his torch of the worst does happen.
I think you're confusing the Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson, with the Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss. The latter series is unfinished (2 of 3 books written) and is likely to stay that way for quite some time to come, it seems.
It turns out the secret to writing books quickly was Mormonism, who woulda guessed
you can say many things about the mormons, but they're not lazy
I love that in his world the effect magic has on the body is unfathomable. When described though, it is just what caffine sounds like it does to someone who has never had any.
He is also the least rascist liberal. Which means the honor bound easterner, the noble savage, and black people being evil is all kinda sus. However he does it less than any major hollywood film lately so it wouldn't be fair to pick on him for it.
Especially His mistbourn series has a very scriptwrining 101 feel. But we all gotta live under capitalismnso I get it though
