What do you guys think of Sanderson?

>>9276619
I don't think 'I have to finish every manuscript I start' is a good ethos. It's not work ethic, it's lack of discernment.

>>9276634
What do you mean, exactly? Anything in particular you're thinking of?

Shit at writing characters, the best he does in that regard is Stormlight.
I like his books because I like to autistically trace the connections between series and map out the greater metanarrative, but if you're not into heavy worldbuilding and assembling tiny details into a complete picture you probably won't get much out of him.

>>9276640
I read somewhere Sanderson has finished every manuscript he ever began except for one. Now that whatever he writes gets published, that lack of filter looks like productivity or a strong work ethic. But he strikes me as an author in need of quality control. Bearing in mind that I've only read a little of his stuff.

>>9276648
What HAVE you read? Because I can't think of anything in particular that screams poor writing.

>>9276654
Just Way of Kings and Warbreaker. I thought the former could have been about half its length, and I saw no reason for the latter to exist.

>>9276656
Hm. I could understand Warbreaker and poor quality, maaaybe. It's definitely on the lower rung of my favorites from him.

But WoK? What scenes or characters in particular do you not find decent quality? What would you say needs filtered out?

>>9276664
Just to give an example, I thought the concept of a bridge-runner was great, and it gives a kind of visceral horror when you realize what's going on, and the absurd logic of the war on the Shattered Plains is unsettling. But there are so many Kaladin chapters, and nothing happens in any of them, that these ideas more or less go to waste. The writing is so voluminous, yet so vague (and then they all felt better because they all ate soup, etc.) - you don't really get any insight into any of the bridgemen despite spending so much time with them, and Kaladin is so static that despite being inside his head you ironically don't really get any insight into him either. Dalinar was the best part, I probably would have enjoyed it more if the whole thing had been about him.

>>9276676
Hmm. I can see what you mean. He spent a lot of time worldbuilding in Stormlight. The unique environments and culture take a lot of page space and chapters.

You'd probably enjoy book 2 more. Do you plan on reading Words of Radiance?

>>9276683
> He spent a lot of time worldbuilding in Stormlight. The unique environments and culture take a lot of page space and chapters.
I have no problem with going slow, or with heavy worldbuilding. I really felt like I learned nothing from a lot of those chapters, either about the world or the plot or the 'characters' (in fact Kaladin is the only proper character in that viewpoint). Many of them blurred together – an editor should have checked him.

>Do you plan on reading Words of Radiance?
I probably won't. I'm probably off modern fantasy for a while.

>>9276691
That's a shame. Book 2 is all about Dalinar.

>>9276698
Dalinar's cool. The scene where he digs a latrine using his warhammer is what really sold me on him.

But I dunno, I want to read Dunsany or something instead.

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>>9276619

>>9276619
sanderson is a really good writer in the same way john green or stephenie meyers are really good writers where they understand exactly what they want and give it to them. in sanderson's case it's wish fulfillment usually revolving around male weakness. like i'm not even criticizing him he does a great job

>>9276640
Sanderson is famous for never scrapping any project he starts. Once he gets an idea and makes the first pen strike, it has to be finished. That's a bad work ethic as not all ideas are meant to be made into fantasy books.

>>9260860

back to your containment thread cretinous swine!

>>9276634

It makes more sense in the context of his process. Sanderson is an outliner in the extreme, which means that when he starts writing a manuscript he typically has the entire story planned out in detail. Undoubtedly he's shelved things that just weren't working out at the outline stage.

Great world builder who writes anime archetype characters, even though I doubt he's ever seen an anime. Good writer as well, but his religion means that everything he writes is utterly sexless, which is just surreal. I don't even mean sex scenes, there's quite literally no lust or romance or chemistry.

I've read WoK, WoR, and Warbreaker. He knows how to give his audience what they want and his story planning is immaculate.

>people think stormlight has "good worldbuilding"

im glad everyone's standards are so low for when mine hits the shelves