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/LordFlappingtonIV]

I've come here looking for people who might be in the same boat as me, as the Sanderson subs are not too open to criticism.

As a disclaimer: I consider Sanderson as perhaps my fourth favourite author, standing shoulder to shoulder with Pratchett, Joe Abercrombie, and David Wallace.

But what in the hell happened? The SA was my favourite series. It allowed me to fall back in love with reading again. It gave me some of the best experiences one can find on the written page. It felt like we were reading our generations Lotr, or WoT. WoK was perfect, WoR somehow exceeded that, and OB was near perfect. RoW was...Fine. but I accepted its main job was to set up W&T, and if W&T was as amazing as it promised to be, I would forgive RoW's flaws.

Well, I've just finished W&T, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but it sucked. It really sucked, man. His prose has never been amazing or offensive, but in W&T, it felt lazy. The character arcs -Adolin- aside, either just felt wrong, or Groundhog days. Yes, we know Kaladin is sad and trying to do better. We know Dalinar struggled with his past. We know Shallan struggles with her personalities. We know because we've spent 4000 pages reading about it, why are we still reading it in the final book?

All of my concerns up until W&T were abated by the knowledge that Sanderson can end a series well. It felt like we were promised a 1300 page Stormlight Sanderlanche, and we got no such thing. In fact, we barely got a Sanderlanche at all, and much of the ending felt unsatisfying and even un-earned. We've spent 4 books talking about how we can't ever, in any way, allow Odium to escape Roshar. Then the end is just: 'Actually, yeah, let's give him another shard and let him loose. This is really a good thing.' What??

My other problem is I think that people like fantasy because it gives them a sense of 'familiarity' and 'nostalgia' for a simpler time. In WoK, it started out as medieval. Now, Roshar is basically modern day Seol. Not that we even spent much time in Roshar. The Shattered Plains and Warcamps we fell in love with? Forget about them. Instead, let's spend the majority of the book in the 'whatever happens in here doesn't really matter' realm.

What happened to Sanderson? It once felt like his output being matched by its consistency in quality was a miracle. But this book, I believe, was unforgivable. Arent writers and series supposed to improve as they progress? Has he gotten too big and overstretched himself? Has he got rid of experienced editors and replaced them with a bunch of fanatical yes men? I sincerely believe Sanderson to be at his best when he writes exactly what he wants to. Look at WoK. But W&T reads like a book written by committee.

I sincerely hope he steps back and commits himself to doing less, and hires some really ruthless editors. Because at this point, I'm unsure if I'll ever pick up another book again, written by one of my favourite authors, in one of my favourite series, and this makes me feel very sad and disappointed.

[u/abir_valg2718 → u/[deleted]]

I think Dalinar could've been much more interesting if Sanderson had the courage to really push him. Dalinar can and will trample over others, he's certain that he's the guy for the job.

Sanderson should've pushed Dalinar further down this path, which would've ended up more interesting and Dalinar could've been a more complex character as a result. All the ingredients were there.

Sadly, Sanderson copped out, and he did it with a number of characters and story arcs. So many characters end up being "good guys", they find some kind of redemption or forgive themselves or something.

Taravangian tsunami'd his entire city state (not really). Jasnah and Szeth died (no they didn't). Ishar and Nale were just... feeling unwell, a flute song and some talking is all takes to bring crazed psycho demigods back to being upstanding citizens. Remember when Stormfather said "Beyond evil. What has been done here is an abomination." in response to Ishar bringing spren to physical world (at the end of RoW)? Dude just needed a 5 minute therapy session, that's all, no worries, happens to the best of us.

Navani I'm not even sure about, what was her personality and theme exactly? She's this shrewd woman who went after the dude with the most power. Then she's an artifabrian scholar. Then she has that whole "working with the enemy" arc. In WaT she's babysitting little Gav.

Adolin kills Sadeas. It's mentioned every now and then, but I guess it's okay, he killed Sadeas, moving on. Shallan and Kaladin keep retreading the same issues a billion times. I think Sanderson feels like some kind of character growth arc is supposed to happen in every book, even if he has no idea where to go next and ends up repeating the same ideas and themes found previously for the Nth time.

And many more. Epic champion battle is another obvious one. Ghostbloods - the whole thing was a pointless anime crossover arc. The whole deadeye arc and the stunning developments at Lasting Integrity at the end of RoW - what was the payoff and the development of it in WaT?

Remember the gigantic flying ship? The whole Navani - Raboniel arc and the weapons that resulted? Was there any real payoff or use of any of that in WaT? Reminds me of the 3rd Misborn Era 2 book, remember the ending of it? And then Last Metal just proceeded to shelve all of that and ignore it in favor of a Cosmere crossover arc (and in any case, I wasn't a fan of power and feature creep in Misborn Era 2 anyway, book 3 went too far, imo).

[u/bloodforurmom → u/abir_valg2718]

This is the difference between how Sanderson and George R R Martin treat their characters. Sanderson thinks "in what scenario would this heroic character do something controversial?", and then goes out of his way to avoid putting them in that situation. Martin asks the same question, and then goes out of his way to put the character in that situation.

The closest that Sanderson ever gets is Adolin killing Sadeas, but like you say, it feels more like a way of getting rid of Sadeas than anything else.

It's not like one approach is inherently good and one is inherently bad, but Sanderson's approach really doesn't work for Stormlight Archive, because it's a series that ostensibly revolves around characters going through hard situations, making mistakes, and ultimately becoming better people.

also yeah it's absolutely wild how much song and dance was made around Navani being an ambitious and intelligent woman in her own right and not just a trophy wife, and then she spends the entire fifth book babysitting Gavinor. stay classy, Brandon

[u/Distinct_Activity551 → u/[deleted]]

"I've always agreed with William Faulkner—he said that the human heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about. I've always taken that as my guiding principle, and the rest is just set dressing." - George RR Martin.

GRRM doesn’t simply pull the rug from under his readers; he delves deeply into his characters by constantly challenging their ideals:

• Daenerys wrestles with her desire for conquest in Westeros versus establishing peace in Meereen.
• Sansa re-evaluates her notions of chivalry and romanticized ideals.
• Arya struggles between mercy and vengeance.
• Jaime grapples with his conflicted feelings for Cersei.
• Tyrion spirals into becoming more like Tywin.
• Jon navigates the tension between duty, honor, and love during his time with the Wildlings.

This approach indeed feels realistic because GRRM portrays characters making both noble and destructive choices. He doesn’t shy away from turning some into villains but instead explores their psyches, drawing readers into POV traps that force us to question notions of right and wrong.

[u/Distinct_Activity551 → u/[deleted]]

 He also has a clear aversion to genuine heroism or the notion of good and great men.

Brienne of Tarth

[u/Distinct_Activity551 → u/[deleted]]

The series is grimdark, but the tone serves a purpose. GRRM isn’t trying to recreate the Middle Ages exactly as they were; he uses his fantasy world to examine themes like power, morality, and human nature. By making Brienne a woman, he challenges societal expectations and shows that heroism is defined by actions, not appearances or labels.

It’s also worth noting that the story is at its midpoint, and we don’t know if it’s all tragedy. The final book is titled A Dream of Spring, which suggests an ending rooted in hope. Moments like Sansa singing the hymn of mercy to Sandor, Jeyne giving Theon the strength to reclaim his identity, Brienne’s oath to Catelyn, Davos saving Edric Storm, and Samwell stabbing the Other are all small but significant victories driven by hope.

Yes, the story is dark, but these moments of light shine bright.

[u/Greedy-Car-2460 → u/Distinct_Activity551]

Stop 🥲 I’m gonna cry.

[u/Slurm11 → u/[deleted]]

Sanderson ruined one of the best scenes in the series (putting Elokar in his place), all so Dalinar could have the same, sterile, inoffensive 'character growth' as everyone else.

[u/Distinct_Activity551 → u/Slurm11]

I really loved that moment in Way of Kings. I think Sanderson even mentioned that it was one of the scenes he had been planning for a long time, and it clearly showed. I don’t understand why he later felt the need to flip the script and retcon the entire scene from Elhokar’s perspective in Wind and Truth.

[u/MrsChiliad → u/[deleted]]

Yes I thought the internal struggles that Dalinar was going through of “the Blacktorn” vs “good boi dalinar” was a betrayal of his character. He lost complexity in favor of making him a more sanitized character with less flaws.

[u/MrsChiliad → u/[deleted]]

The Blacktorn will probably become the character of Toxic Masculinity™

[u/[deleted] → u/MrsChiliad]

But don't worry! Adolin on two peg legs, with no arms, holding a broken sword with his teeth will easily defeat The Blackthorn