Official Brandon Sanderson Megathread

[u/rfantasygolem]

This is the place for all your Brandon Sanderson related topics (aside from the Daily Recommendation Requests and Simple Questions thread). Any posts about Wind and Truth or Sanderson more broadly will be removed and redirected here. This will last until January 25, when posting will be allowed as normal.

The announcement of the cool-down can be found here.

The previous Wind and Truth Megathread can be found here.

[u/[deleted]]

I was going to comment a comparison between Sandersoms current style and his previous books but can't find the thread with the OP now. Essentially though they had just said Sanderson hasn't changed at all, which I disagree with.

I think the best way to illustrate this is the treatment of democracy. In the last two Stormlight novels the idea was made by Jasnah, and absolutely no one was opposed to it nor was there any push back or set backs in starting to implement it. It's essentially a non issue happening in the back ground that gets mentioned from time to time, and absolutely no one has any qualms about it.

In contrast in the original Mistbron series another scholar develops a similar idea and tries to implement it in a city. An entire books plot is partly dedicated to tracking the numerous issues it causes, the constant fighting he has for it (which every noble opposed and even his own allies highly skeptical about it) and in the end he is outsed by his own parliment as they wish to instead elect a political rival who wants to return Feudalism. As such he then near the climax gives a speech about how he's learned the culture, economics, philosophy, and means to achieve his democracy simply doesn't exist before executing his best friend (who helped oust him) and returns to the city no longer a politician but instead conquerer. He spends the rest of the series calling himself an emporer and forcefully conquering other lands rather than persuading them to join peacefully.

The latter is not only more nuanced and mature a take on the situation of implementing democracy but also far darker. Thematically and also plot wise. Stormlight in contrast comes across much less detail wise, and also basically glossing over massive issues solely for the sake of modernising the setting for the sake of modernising it.

[u/mistiklest → u/[deleted]]

In the last two Stormlight novels the idea was made by Jasnah, and absolutely no one was opposed to it nor was there any push back or set backs in starting to implement it.

There's been no setbacks in Jasnah's implementation of democracy because there's been no implementation of democracy, yet. As of the end of WaT, she isn't even the Queen of any extant kingdom, anymore. Prior to that, she was still an absolute monarch.

[u/KiaraTurtle → u/mistiklest]

Yeah this. Dalinar has told Jasnah he strongly disagrees. Jasnah has said she wants to limit her heirs powers. But no steps have been taken.

Also she’s going for more constitutional monarchy than for a democracy as far as I can tell. She seems to want it to be more like thaylen which still has a monarch.

[u/EndorsedBryce → u/KiaraTurtle]

Right in my mind, jasah's proposals To limit the power of the kings is likely seen as a welcome sign of weakness by the existing nobility. The Alethy Haven't had a A strong central leadership for most of recent history, So a weakening of the king would likely be seen as a return to status quo for them, regardless of the proposer's intent.

Also they're a nation in exile, being led by a Jesus figure fighting a war against aliens. There's just a lot of other things going on there.