this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter III "Mount Doom"
I get it.
Tolkien's prose!
And my axe!
I'm going to start saying this instead of 'God damn' or 'what the fuck'
I hear frequent bitching about Tolkein's complexity or over-attention to detail, then I revisit something like The Stormlight Archive and wonder how millions of people are actually out there drooling over Brandon Sanderson's work, which (at least in that series) feels like the creative and visual equivalent of a mostly empty dust pan lying about in a vacant dirt lot somewhere on an undeveloped piece of land in the middle of Idaho, with a single tiny glass bead illuminated inside of it. It's so fucking bland that getting through those books felt like I was waiting at the DMV with several strangers I didn't like or care about.
Edit: To be fair, Dalinar was likable.
Hey, hi, your positive opinion of something doesn't need to include shitting on things other people like. You can just like Tolkien and that can be the conversation.
I just read the first Stormlight book and thought it was a great read, definitely more of a beach read fantasy especially compared to Tolkien but a well put together story at the very least. I see where you're coming from though.
Do you have suggestions for other fantasy that you feel compares to Tolkien and doesn't remind you of a dirty rural parking lot?
I'm going through Wheel of Time now and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's not as elegant as Tolkein, but it definitely leans more towards that style than Sanderson does.
I haven’t started Wheel of Time yet but The Kingkiller Chronicles had some prose that I could just not put down.
It gets a little eye-rolly in the second book for me (IYKYK) but I think Rothfuss deserves a place in this convo for sure. My opinion.
Absolutely loved those books but can’t recommend reading them until book 3 comes out, lest others be stuck with us in this same eternal purgatory.
I... Depending on what book you are on you do realize that Brandon Sanderson wrote some of those I hope.
I love Wheel of Time. Solid fantasy. Not sure if you’re aware but the author passed away before being able to finish the series. He left notes on how to complete the series and on who he thought should be the one to write the last book. The authors publisher, also his wife, went through all those notes and ultimately picked Sanderson to complete the series. He does a fantastic job at it too and had I not known before hand I would have been hard pressed to realize the author changed.
The Wheel of Time is something that really deserves the commonly drawn comparison with the Lord of the Rings.
Is it as contrived and hackneyed as the tv show? Because that show is garbage but I never read the books.
It's much better than the show. The show was shit and they significantly changed the characters in extremely stupid and unnecessary ways.
Blandon Blanderson? Kidding.
He's a great storyteller and a good-but-not-great writer. He excels in slow-burns with big payoffs. He hasn't written any page-turners but the stories are very sturdy, well-considered, and rewarding.
His worlds are realistic in a sense because they aren't full of whimsy and they're not very inviting. But that's what makes them feel real.
The characters aren't 3 dimensional but they're not flat either. I'd call them 2-dimensional in that they have flaws and a growth arc, but not a ton of complexity beyond that.
The dialogue and his ability to describe fights/battle tactics/magic physics are a place where he shines.
Personally, I probably won't read any of his other books unless someone tells me he has written something entirely fresh and different than his other works. But I'm still very glad to have read a few of his works. They definitely set a new bar for creative magic systems. His magic systems are phenomenal.
Hmm, i’m planning on reading The Stormlight Archive soon, but I just read all of the 7 Mistborn books recently and thought they were great! Love how the “magic” system is being developed, and the ties to the overall Cosmere. Not sure if TSA is a step down from that or what, guess I’ll find out.
If you enjoy his other books, you'll likely enjoy the Stormlight Archive. Though I found the setting to be extemely dull, my criticisms of him are based largely on his prose and overall style of writing. It feels flat and mechanical, but if you didn't arrive at that opinion during Mistborn, then you should be set to enjoy these books like the vast majority of others do.
Ahh okay, well I do tend to lean more towards the mechanical systems and a generally more goofy tone, I suppose. I also appreciate that he actually explains things that other authors would be like “HMM HMM HMMMMM, I think I’ll play coy and leave it up to the reader to decide what THAT actually meant!” No, for the most part I like things put into plain English. Speculation is exhausting and unsatisfying. But I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.