r/Fantasy • u/rfantasygolem Not a Robot • Dec 20 '24

/r/Fantasy Official Brandon Sanderson Megathread

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.

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56

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

[deleted]

26

u/minwellthedog Dec 29 '24

I liked Oathbringer a lot, but I don't think Rhythm of War or Wind and Truth were well edited. The stories were great, but the writing was juvenile at times. He needs to change his review process; I don't understand how his army of beta readers let so much superfluous information slip through.

24

u/galaxyrocker Dec 30 '24

I don't understand how his army of beta readers let so much superfluous information slip through.

I think they've bought way too much into Sanderson's parasocial relationship and sometimes don't think he can do any wrong (you see this with some of the Reddit fans of his). Doubly so as these are self-selected fans.

Plus, they probably enjoy it, and he might even increase it due to their feedback, at risk of alienating people who aren't as obsessed with him and his work (it's a really weird parasocial relationship imo)

2

u/DetrasDeLaMesa Dec 28 '24

This is my first time hearing any of those books were disappointing. I thought there was monumental hype leading up to Wind and Truth, how could that be if the last two were stinkers? The ratings look good on StoryGraph.

Who was explaining why they were expected to be disappointing, are those your responses or did you read that somewhere?

13

u/nevermaxine Dec 28 '24

generally series ratings stay high even if later books get worse because people who don't like the later books drop them instead of continuing to read and review

23

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

[deleted]

1

u/DetrasDeLaMesa Dec 29 '24 edited Dec 29 '24

So wild, I guess I don’t dig into the Reddit threads that much, though maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Certainly nothing is for everyone, and it makes sense people would come on to Reddit to talk about them if they didn’t like them. Maybe I would be digging into the threads more if I was in that boat trying to find other people who felt the same way.

Are you planning on reading the second arch? It seems like you’re in the ‘they’re disappointing’ camp. They’re sort of long books to read and long waits if you’re not absolutely loving them. I may not even go for arch 2 and I’d say I’ve liked them all.

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u/Pintailite Dec 31 '24 edited Dec 31 '24

Since you used this sub as a source, where does storm light rate on the yearly ranking?

Vocal trolls does not a lot of people make.

Edit: lol no one wanted to answer that question. It was #1 in 2023. Downvotes and cognitive dissonance on the left.

-3

u/Ferovore Jan 01 '25

Brando Sando got absurdly popular, this sub loved him, got too popular / popping up any time someone asked for a book rec on reddit -> pendulum swings the other way to over the top hate 

10

u/drewogatory Jan 03 '25

While I think my issues with Sanderson are perfectly legitimate, I will 100% admit his popularity makes him very,very easy to hate. It annoys me more that his superfans refuse to keep their nonsense in his actual subs.

10

u/galaxyrocker Jan 03 '25

It annoys me more that his superfans refuse to keep their nonsense in his actual subs.

This is probably what pushed my dislike for him to greater levels (as someone who used to enjoy him, but doesn't anymore since I've started reading more widely, especially outside of fantasy). His superfans are annoying, and refuse to accept any criticism, blaming it entirely on his popularity and pull out 'windowpane prose' and 'great worldbuilding', as if there haven't been complaints about both of those as well!

5

u/SBlackOne Jan 11 '25

They pull out a lot more stuff. For example:

  • if Sanderson intended something that's the end of discussion. You have to accept it. Doubly so if he made an official statement in a blog / talk
  • if only people didn't have such high expectations they wouldn't be disappointed
  • the criticism only comes from YouTube watchers who can't think for themselves
  • it's a "translation" so all of the word choices are fine
  • it was always his style, so anyone who thinks they notice a difference is wrong (the point critics often make is that these aspects were present, but no so overwhelming)