In order to get ready for the 3rd book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives series, I was going to pick up the Edgedancer novella, but I noticed it was $12 on kindle, while the Arcanum Unbound book (which includes that novella, as well as others complementing the Mistborn and Elantris books, and some short stories in the Cosmere universe) was only $14, I figured I’d go large and just finished it. There are some good stories in there, and the Mistborn and Stormlight novellas add a lot to those series.
Enough that it seemed like a good idea to start a thread. As most may not have read all of the books in the universe, but may down the road, I think spoiler-izing discussions here would be a good idea.
Anyone else reading these series by one of the 21st Century masters of high fantasy with very innovative magic systems?
One very cool, and interesting item from the Mistborn novella:
I loved bringing Kelsier back, and interweaving his tale with the rest of the 1st trilogy. I’m not so sure how he’ll meld into the rest of the books, and kind of wish Sanderson had ended it there, without him becoming a character who may influence/already be influencing the later books. FWIW, he was one of my favorite characters from the original trilogy, and the ongoing story is definitely interesting.
Elantris
Mistborn trilogy
Stormlight 1 + 2
Steelheart
The Rithmatist
Wax and Wayne 1, working on #2.
Sanderson’s output is somewhat freakish. I have never disliked a book of his I have read, and it seems like he has 5 books coming out every year. I enjoy the cosmology he is building. The Stormlight books are a little long but I still enjoy them and the variant on his magic system they present. I’m starting to think of it as one system that manifests in different ways for different reasons that are tied to the individual settings.
I have heard good things about his Alcatraz series (which are more youth oriented I believe, like Rithmatist).
Sanderson is fantastic, love him. I haven’t read all the novellas – as noted, the prices are, um, aggressive – but I’ll happily pay retail for his novels.
To my mind, Mistborn 2+3 are his least-great works - they feel like a DM trying to jam everything through to satisfy the meta-plot he’s written out without actually crafting a story and characters around it. Very event-driven. Not awful, by any means, but nowhere near as well-executed as his other stuff.
Stormlight is, like, the perfect epic fantasy for me. Neither rainbows & unicorns nor grimdark misery porn, but a story that feels human despite all its fantastical elements. And man, the world is just cool as fuck. Wheel of Time if Jordan had been a little (well, a lot) more disciplined.
I’d recommend getting the Arcanum book since you’ve read all of the books it has novellas for, and there aren’t any spoilers for the Wax & Wayne Mistborn books. The elantris story is mostly a cut out from a later section of the book, which just adds a bit to the story, but the Mistborn and Stormlight ones are somewhat world/character/game-changing.
I enjoyed The Reckoners (steelheart) books, and didn’t feel them to be too YA at all. To a degree, all of his stuff is pretty family-friendly fantasy, so it wasn’t much of a change (if any) from his usual style. Haven’t tried Alcatraz books yet.
The Emperor’s Soul is a really good Cosmere novella I picked up on an Amazon sale for $3 or something.
Reckoners are barely YA IMO. Pretty fun adventure novels. I guess they’re YA in the sense that they’re not terribly complex and follow a single plotline straight through and are nominally a coming-of-age story, but fun stuff and moves at Sanderson’s typical breakneck pace.
Just checked, and I was apparently mistaken about Oathbringer. In my mind I was thinking it was due out this Summer, but I guess it won’t be out until November. Nuts. Might have been getting it and The Delirium Brief (Stross’ Laundry files) mixed up. That one’s out 7/11/17 (a palindrome? Hmmm…, but not in british date nomenclature, I guess).
More seriously,what makes you think there’s a bunch of retconning? I started with no expectations reading Warbreaker from the library some many years ago and have never felt disrespected as a reader.
He stated that his stories were in a connected universe and started dropping hints in his books back in the mistborn days. He made it explicit to casual readers and put it front and center in the Stormlight series.
I’m pretty sure they are the only books where it’s an explicit plot point… and that he’s been using shared terminology (shards, etc) from the beginning.
