14 ms·

Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

126 points by Jarlakxen 5y ago

m348e912 5y ago
I hadn't heard of Brandon Sanderson until I went to a book store in Provo, Utah. He is a very much a big deal there and had two complete bookshelves dedicated to his work. He went to BYU so there is a local connection, but it caught me by surprise because I wasn't aware of his popularity.
- stormcode 5y ago
  You should check out the Stormlight Archive. It's really good.
  - eslaught 5y ago
    The magic system in Stormlight is astonishingly good. About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times. On the other hand I've been put off by the pacing of the last three books. It feels like the basic structure is that there's a build up to a huge conflict at the end of the book, and the vast majority of the pages are spent waiting for it to arrive. In my opinion, the second book, Words of Radiance, was the best so far in terms of balancing character, plot and action.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      > About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times. On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances.
      - spiralx 5y ago
        > On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances. I've been enjoying a story that manages to have 22 elements - including Healing, Blood, Sound, Force, Destruction, Illusion and Fae - integral to its system of magic in a way that feels consistent while being varied and interesting, despite how odd some of those seem at first. Grain does seem a pretty strange element I agree, but so did Wood when I started reading stories using the Chinese five element scheme until I became accustomed to it.
  - thrower123 5y ago
    It gets tiresome that every character is a quivering Freudian ball of repressed trauma and mental illness, but it is otherwise a fun world.
  - FPGAhacker 5y ago
    Seconded. I struggled with the way of kings having just finished a memory of light. Couldn’t get brain to accept the shift in gears. But I came years later and found the series quite good and very enjoyable.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  He's a big deal outside of Utah too.
  - exhilaration 5y ago
    What book should I start with if I'd like to get begin reading his stuff?
    - VikingCoder 5y ago
      A friend suggested I buy the entire Mistborn series as one ebook. That worked for me.
    - wlesieutre 5y ago
      https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
    - rhipitr 5y ago
      Way of Kings
    - truxten 5y ago
      Either start with Mistborn #1: The Final Empire or The Stormlight Archive #1: The Way of Kings. They are his main series, and generally regarded as his best stuff. Would probably recommend Mistborn as it's been finished, and the mainline story is only 3 books.
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        > They are his main series, and generally regarded as his best stuff. I think Elantris is his best. It's just that there's less of it (one book) than there is of the big series.
        Aeolun 5y ago
        Elantris is great, but the end of the books is basically a gaping gap. Not entirely, but a bit like the story was cut off in the middle.
- edgyquant 5y ago
  He’s the Stephen King of Tolkien-rip off fantasy. He churns them out, sure, but I don’t consider the quality all that high.
  - lolinder 5y ago
    > Tolkien-rip off fantasy You're free to dislike the books, but this is an extremely unfair characterization. Sanderson's books bear very little resemblance to Tolkien's beyond the genre and the elaborate nature of the worldbuilding.
    - edgyquant 5y ago
      It’s not unfair. The genre he writes is a genre of Tolkien ripoffs of which he is the most prolific.
      - lolinder 5y ago
        If you're including Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time, then I guess Sanderson broadly falls into that same category. I'd hardly label any of them "rip-offs", though, especially given that there are books out there blatantly ripping off Tolkien right down to elves, dwarves and halflings.
      - space_fountain 5y ago
        There are Tolkien rip offs, but Tolkien didn’t invent fantasy, and unlike a lot of fantasy authors Sanderson doesn’t include elements like dwarfs, or elves or really anything that Tolkien came up with as far as I can tell. Are you maybe confusing him with someone else?
      - bradly 5y ago
        I’ve only read the Mistborn series, but I didn’t find it all similar to Tolkien–not in style or themes.
      - justinpombrio 5y ago
        By "Tolkien ripoff", do you mean anything beyond "fantasy novel"?
- jimbob45 5y ago
  https://youtu.be/-6HOdHEeosc https://youtu.be/-6HOdHEeosc He teaches at BYU as well (still).
  - bitexploder 5y ago
    He had an open creative writing course I took once. It really helped see how he is so prolific. He has a very good creative writing system, but does not force his novel writing style in his students. The way he explained things changed how I view all fiction in a pretty profound way in terms of how stories are created.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 5y ago
  Larry Correia has a post about why there are so many Mormon sci-fi writers. Interesting read, regardless your opinion on the religion https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/05/17/why-are-there-so-many-mormon-writers/ https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/05/17/why-are-there-so-...
JaakkoP 5y ago
The headline here spills the beans but it's definitely worth watching his announcement video "It's time to come clean" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ I was certain he is announcing he's working with a team of ghost writers given his extraordinary writing speed.
- abakker 5y ago
  And given how bad some of the later books like Alloy of Law are compared to the original misborn? Some of the b reel books are terrible.
  - ameminator 5y ago
    I mean, they weren't LoTR-level, but they were still enjoyable. Wheel of Time ending and Stormlight 1/2 may still be his best works, but the Alloy of Law stuff was still solid, at least in my opinion.
  - eduardosalaz 5y ago
    What did you dislike about Alloy of Law?
    - lolinder 5y ago
      Not OP, but it felt less polished to me than his others. Part of it was also that he was intentionally tweaking his style for the series (inspired by pulp Westerns). No dramatic difference, but enough to be slightly off.
  - Fellshard 5y ago
    His B-reel books are usually decent ideas, but you can tell when it's Brandon's voice leaking through the characters instead of the characters themselves. He tends to take a bit more care of his larger, mainline books.
  - wrnr 5y ago
    I'm a big fan of the Stormlight Archive where all main characters have some form of mental disorder. That said the last book was getting a bit repetitive, always waiting for the same character to snap out of his seasonal depression in order to save everyone just in time. I'm still a fan, I even watched some of his lectures on creative writing but there is definitely a formula to how he works.
uzername 5y ago
I saw the update video yesterday and he mentioned the video scheduled for today. I hoped it wouldn't be a hiatus or a we can't finish Stormlight. It was handled well.
knowingathing 5y ago
This funding amount is insane. Also, bypassing publishers (which I'm assuming what is happening) is quite clever too.
- legobmw99 5y ago
  Someone asked him during his Q&A livestream how they were able to get around the right of first refusal with his main publisher (Tor), and his answer was essential a polite version of “we can sort of do what we want as long as we keep giving them the big series”
  - mrslave 5y ago
    How does right of first refusal work with respect to price? Could you fulfill this obligation by offering them the option at a very high price? I'm guessing price isn't a negotiable parameter.
    - legobmw99 5y ago
      I’m also curious, but I think this probably depends on the specific wording of his contract(s). There to my knowledge isn’t an exact standard of what right of first refusal means in practice
    - eslaught 5y ago
      A right of first refusal does not require you to sign a contract. (Otherwise you'd have to have negotiated all the terms in advance, which by my understanding isn't how it works.) So yes, you can negotiate in bad faith. At which point it basically becomes a forced delay before you can show it to anyone else. But if you do that you'll probably earn a bad reputation in the industry...
  - spiralx 5y ago
    It's only the fact that he's such a prolific writer makes that sort of agreement possible, it's not like George RR Martin where he keeps writing smaller side projects instead of finishing the books that actually make him and his publisher money. These four books are on top of what, two main series, a series of YA books and fairly regular standalone/minor series books as well...
veganjay 5y ago
First time hearing about this author - what's the hacker news angle here? From what I gather it is that: 1) he's a very popular sci-fi/fantasy writer, 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign I'm genuinely interested - for someone new to his work, where is a good book to start? Edit: as mentioned in other comments: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
- cturtle 5y ago
  There's other replies in this thread linking to [0]. My personal recommendation is his Mistborn trilogy. He wrote all three before publishing any, so the books feel like a cohesive whole, but he wrote it in a way that the first book ends in a manner that you could feel satisfied with a good story after only reading one book. Mistborn is my favorite trilogy ever. I've read it multiple times and I know the plot very well. The reason I love it is the characters. They feel so real, and you get genuinely invested in their growth through the books. One-line description from the website: It’s a hybrid epic fantasy heist story with a focus on political intrigue and powerful action scenes. [0]: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
- flyboi 5y ago
  I'd say the first Mistborn Trilogy is as good a place to start as any. Warbreaker is another one that is a good starting point. Or you could dive right into The Stormlight Archives like I did (unknowingly). There may be other ways to do it too.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign This isn't really a "kickstarter campaign" - it's a preorder which is for whatever reason being organized through kickstarter. Kickstarter shows a disclaimer that says "you may never receive anything", but the odds of that happening here are 0%.
- asicsp 5y ago
  Many of his books fall under a shared universe: https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmere/wiki/order https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmere/wiki/order If you prefer novellas/standalone to get a feel, I'd recommend "Emperor's Soul" and "Warbreaker". He's known for good magic system and Sanderlanche (things coming together at the end in a hurry). I went on a binge read when I started reading his work about 4-5 years back. I still enjoy his books, but I'd recommend giving gaps between books. As they say "Too much of anything is bad".
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Semaphor 5y ago
Why is this blowing up so much? It’s been on the frontpage of /r/fantasy since it happened, and now here. I mean, I like Sanderson, and I might eventually read those 4 novels, but isn’t this just an announcement of 4 unnamed novels in 2023? And nothing else? I feel like I’m missing something here, or maybe everyone else is just way more of a Sanderson fan than I am ;)
- cturtle 5y ago
  I see a couple reasons. First, Brandon planned this well. He made a video Monday heavily implying bad news. For loyal fans waiting a day to hear the news caused quite a stir I assume. Then making such a huge unexpected announcement the next day caught many people off guard. Second, announcing four new books is not common! Especially considering he wrote them while working on many other books over the last two years. I think people are just excited and happy to share something positive.
Rainymood 5y ago
Very happy that Brandon Sanderson is looking more and more healthy as time goes on :) love his writing

126 points by Jarlakxen 5y ago

I hadn't heard of Brandon Sanderson until I went to a book store in Provo, Utah. He is a very much a big deal there and had two complete bookshelves dedicated to his work. He went to BYU so there is a local connection, but it caught me by surprise because I wasn't aware of his popularity.

stormcode 5y ago
You should check out the Stormlight Archive. It's really good.
- eslaught 5y ago
  The magic system in Stormlight is astonishingly good. About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times. On the other hand I've been put off by the pacing of the last three books. It feels like the basic structure is that there's a build up to a huge conflict at the end of the book, and the vast majority of the pages are spent waiting for it to arrive. In my opinion, the second book, Words of Radiance, was the best so far in terms of balancing character, plot and action.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > About halfway through the most recent book, Rhythm of War, I said to someone: when did Stormlight turn into sci-fi? Because the magic is so logical, and so deep, and so specific, that it feels more like science than magic at times. On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances.
    - spiralx 5y ago
      > On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances. I've been enjoying a story that manages to have 22 elements - including Healing, Blood, Sound, Force, Destruction, Illusion and Fae - integral to its system of magic in a way that feels consistent while being varied and interesting, despite how odd some of those seem at first. Grain does seem a pretty strange element I agree, but so did Wood when I started reading stories using the Chinese five element scheme until I became accustomed to it.
- thrower123 5y ago
  It gets tiresome that every character is a quivering Freudian ball of repressed trauma and mental illness, but it is otherwise a fun world.
- FPGAhacker 5y ago
  Seconded. I struggled with the way of kings having just finished a memory of light. Couldn’t get brain to accept the shift in gears. But I came years later and found the series quite good and very enjoyable.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
He's a big deal outside of Utah too.
- exhilaration 5y ago
  What book should I start with if I'd like to get begin reading his stuff?
  - VikingCoder 5y ago
    A friend suggested I buy the entire Mistborn series as one ebook. That worked for me.
  - wlesieutre 5y ago
    https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
  - rhipitr 5y ago
    Way of Kings
  - truxten 5y ago
    Either start with Mistborn #1: The Final Empire or The Stormlight Archive #1: The Way of Kings. They are his main series, and generally regarded as his best stuff. Would probably recommend Mistborn as it's been finished, and the mainline story is only 3 books.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      > They are his main series, and generally regarded as his best stuff. I think Elantris is his best. It's just that there's less of it (one book) than there is of the big series.
      - Aeolun 5y ago
        Elantris is great, but the end of the books is basically a gaping gap. Not entirely, but a bit like the story was cut off in the middle.
edgyquant 5y ago
He’s the Stephen King of Tolkien-rip off fantasy. He churns them out, sure, but I don’t consider the quality all that high.
- lolinder 5y ago
  > Tolkien-rip off fantasy You're free to dislike the books, but this is an extremely unfair characterization. Sanderson's books bear very little resemblance to Tolkien's beyond the genre and the elaborate nature of the worldbuilding.
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    It’s not unfair. The genre he writes is a genre of Tolkien ripoffs of which he is the most prolific.
    - lolinder 5y ago
      If you're including Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time, then I guess Sanderson broadly falls into that same category. I'd hardly label any of them "rip-offs", though, especially given that there are books out there blatantly ripping off Tolkien right down to elves, dwarves and halflings.
    - space_fountain 5y ago
      There are Tolkien rip offs, but Tolkien didn’t invent fantasy, and unlike a lot of fantasy authors Sanderson doesn’t include elements like dwarfs, or elves or really anything that Tolkien came up with as far as I can tell. Are you maybe confusing him with someone else?
    - bradly 5y ago
      I’ve only read the Mistborn series, but I didn’t find it all similar to Tolkien–not in style or themes.
    - justinpombrio 5y ago
      By "Tolkien ripoff", do you mean anything beyond "fantasy novel"?
jimbob45 5y ago
https://youtu.be/-6HOdHEeosc https://youtu.be/-6HOdHEeosc He teaches at BYU as well (still).
- bitexploder 5y ago
  He had an open creative writing course I took once. It really helped see how he is so prolific. He has a very good creative writing system, but does not force his novel writing style in his students. The way he explained things changed how I view all fiction in a pretty profound way in terms of how stories are created.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 5y ago
Larry Correia has a post about why there are so many Mormon sci-fi writers. Interesting read, regardless your opinion on the religion https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/05/17/why-are-there-so-many-mormon-writers/ https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/05/17/why-are-there-so-...

JaakkoP 5y ago

The headline here spills the beans but it's definitely worth watching his announcement video "It's time to come clean" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ I was certain he is announcing he's working with a team of ghost writers given his extraordinary writing speed.

abakker 5y ago
And given how bad some of the later books like Alloy of Law are compared to the original misborn? Some of the b reel books are terrible.
- ameminator 5y ago
  I mean, they weren't LoTR-level, but they were still enjoyable. Wheel of Time ending and Stormlight 1/2 may still be his best works, but the Alloy of Law stuff was still solid, at least in my opinion.
- eduardosalaz 5y ago
  What did you dislike about Alloy of Law?
  - lolinder 5y ago
    Not OP, but it felt less polished to me than his others. Part of it was also that he was intentionally tweaking his style for the series (inspired by pulp Westerns). No dramatic difference, but enough to be slightly off.
- Fellshard 5y ago
  His B-reel books are usually decent ideas, but you can tell when it's Brandon's voice leaking through the characters instead of the characters themselves. He tends to take a bit more care of his larger, mainline books.
- wrnr 5y ago
  I'm a big fan of the Stormlight Archive where all main characters have some form of mental disorder. That said the last book was getting a bit repetitive, always waiting for the same character to snap out of his seasonal depression in order to save everyone just in time. I'm still a fan, I even watched some of his lectures on creative writing but there is definitely a formula to how he works.

uzername 5y ago

I saw the update video yesterday and he mentioned the video scheduled for today. I hoped it wouldn't be a hiatus or a we can't finish Stormlight. It was handled well.

knowingathing 5y ago

This funding amount is insane. Also, bypassing publishers (which I'm assuming what is happening) is quite clever too.

legobmw99 5y ago
Someone asked him during his Q&A livestream how they were able to get around the right of first refusal with his main publisher (Tor), and his answer was essential a polite version of “we can sort of do what we want as long as we keep giving them the big series”
- mrslave 5y ago
  How does right of first refusal work with respect to price? Could you fulfill this obligation by offering them the option at a very high price? I'm guessing price isn't a negotiable parameter.
  - legobmw99 5y ago
    I’m also curious, but I think this probably depends on the specific wording of his contract(s). There to my knowledge isn’t an exact standard of what right of first refusal means in practice
  - eslaught 5y ago
    A right of first refusal does not require you to sign a contract. (Otherwise you'd have to have negotiated all the terms in advance, which by my understanding isn't how it works.) So yes, you can negotiate in bad faith. At which point it basically becomes a forced delay before you can show it to anyone else. But if you do that you'll probably earn a bad reputation in the industry...
- spiralx 5y ago
  It's only the fact that he's such a prolific writer makes that sort of agreement possible, it's not like George RR Martin where he keeps writing smaller side projects instead of finishing the books that actually make him and his publisher money. These four books are on top of what, two main series, a series of YA books and fairly regular standalone/minor series books as well...

veganjay 5y ago

First time hearing about this author - what's the hacker news angle here? From what I gather it is that: 1) he's a very popular sci-fi/fantasy writer, 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign I'm genuinely interested - for someone new to his work, where is a good book to start? Edit: as mentioned in other comments: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

cturtle 5y ago
There's other replies in this thread linking to [0]. My personal recommendation is his Mistborn trilogy. He wrote all three before publishing any, so the books feel like a cohesive whole, but he wrote it in a way that the first book ends in a manner that you could feel satisfied with a good story after only reading one book. Mistborn is my favorite trilogy ever. I've read it multiple times and I know the plot very well. The reason I love it is the characters. They feel so real, and you get genuinely invested in their growth through the books. One-line description from the website: It’s a hybrid epic fantasy heist story with a focus on political intrigue and powerful action scenes. [0]: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
flyboi 5y ago
I'd say the first Mistborn Trilogy is as good a place to start as any. Warbreaker is another one that is a good starting point. Or you could dive right into The Stormlight Archives like I did (unknowingly). There may be other ways to do it too.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign This isn't really a "kickstarter campaign" - it's a preorder which is for whatever reason being organized through kickstarter. Kickstarter shows a disclaimer that says "you may never receive anything", but the odds of that happening here are 0%.
asicsp 5y ago
Many of his books fall under a shared universe: https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmere/wiki/order https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmere/wiki/order If you prefer novellas/standalone to get a feel, I'd recommend "Emperor's Soul" and "Warbreaker". He's known for good magic system and Sanderlanche (things coming together at the end in a hurry). I went on a binge read when I started reading his work about 4-5 years back. I still enjoy his books, but I'd recommend giving gaps between books. As they say "Too much of anything is bad".

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Semaphor 5y ago

Why is this blowing up so much? It’s been on the frontpage of /r/fantasy since it happened, and now here. I mean, I like Sanderson, and I might eventually read those 4 novels, but isn’t this just an announcement of 4 unnamed novels in 2023? And nothing else? I feel like I’m missing something here, or maybe everyone else is just way more of a Sanderson fan than I am ;)

cturtle 5y ago
I see a couple reasons. First, Brandon planned this well. He made a video Monday heavily implying bad news. For loyal fans waiting a day to hear the news caused quite a stir I assume. Then making such a huge unexpected announcement the next day caught many people off guard. Second, announcing four new books is not common! Especially considering he wrote them while working on many other books over the last two years. I think people are just excited and happy to share something positive.

Rainymood 5y ago

Very happy that Brandon Sanderson is looking more and more healthy as time goes on :) love his writing