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[Fbh]

Didn't realize book 5 was already out.
I'm still invested enough in the story to pick it up at some point this year, but like others here I definitely think the first few books are stronger. I'm not particularly keen on where he has taken most of the main characters, with Dalinar being the only one I've consistently liked through all the books. The pacing is also painfully slow in all of these, you can often see where things are going but it just takes 800 pages to get there and it doesn't always feel deserved.

Also I guess it's my fault but I wish I knew about the whole "Cosmere" thing before getting into this series, because I don't really like it. Reading through the first few books I thought this idea of different worlds was really interesting, but I didn't realize it wasn't a self-contained concept of the Sormlight archive and as such it wouldn't be fully explored or explained if I don't read his other works.. I've honestly never been a fan of the whole "you need to read these other 30 books in 5 different series to really understand what's going on" approach (it's kind of why the Trails RPG series also doesn't appeal to me).

In waiting for book 5 I got into the Red Rising saga (not from Sandeson) which I ended up liking way more. It's almost the inverse of the Stormlight Archive in that IMO it starts of being just ok and then gets better and better with each book. I'm probably more excited about the final book, Red God, than about any game, movie or Tv show this year.

 

[Bert Big Balls]

Totally agree. I totally forgot about the whole spellcaster storyline that just sort of ended. The explanation was fine , I guess, but it could have been a neat path to go down. The cosmere stuff is completely unclear to me. This whole travelling to other planets (how is that happening?!) thing doesn’t make much sense to me. The management of the gods is odd too but that seems to be in the cards for later in book 5. I’m only about 15 chapters in so lots of chances to get these cleared up.

I was also expecting “more” from the heralds but that seems to have also gone down the mental issues path, but it actually makes sense for them.

Also, he better explain the honor blades the first chapter of the first book talked about them and framed them as being key to the storyline and they simply haven’t been at all.

The connection to the rest of the Cosmere just seems so messy. The guy puts out so many books and keeps adding bits here and there about those books in other books. It gets to the point where you literally need to read everything in order to understand what on earth is actually happening. I really like the guy, and I really like some of his books, just not all of them.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Didn't realize book 5 was already out.
I'm still invested enough in the story to pick it up at some point this year, but like others here I definitely think the first few books are stronger. I'm not particularly keen on where he has taken most of the main characters, with Dalinar being the only one I've consistently liked through all the books. The pacing is also painfully slow in all of these, you can often see where things are going but it just takes 800 pages to get there and it doesn't always feel deserved.

Also I guess it's my fault but I wish I knew about the whole "Cosmere" thing before getting into this series, because I don't really like it. Reading through the first few books I thought this idea of different worlds was really interesting, but I didn't realize it wasn't a self-contained concept of the Sormlight archive and as such it wouldn't be fully explored or explained if I don't read his other works.. I've honestly never been a fan of the whole "you need to read these other 30 books in 5 different series to really understand what's going on" approach (it's kind of why the Trails RPG series also doesn't appeal to me).

In waiting for book 5 I got into the Red Rising saga (not from Sandeson) which I ended up liking way more. It's almost the inverse of the Stormlight Archive in that IMO it starts of being just ok and then gets better and better with each book. I'm probably more excited about the final book, Red God, than about any game, movie

or Tv show this year.

I guess I should have known this too as I didn’t know that it was in other books.

It’s like he wants a dark tower sort of tie in, which would be great, but I can only imagine how hard that is to actually achieve.

The connection to the rest of the Cosmere just seems so messy. The guy puts out so many books and keeps adding bits here and there about those books in other books. It gets to the point where you literally need to read everything in order to understand what on earth is actually happening. I really like the guy, and I really like some of his books, just not all of them.

Agreed, I just wish his stuff was a bit more self contained or that he took time to explain stuff again. He seems to have no issue doing that with the spren.

I like his books but I don’t have enough time to read them all and this approach makes it harder for me to enjoy them to their fullest. I guess I’ll see if there is a long form YouTube video explaining it.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Found this:



It’s long form indeed. Watched the first few minutes and already got some value so I’ll see how it plays out.

 

[Bert Big Balls]

Found this:



It’s long form indeed. Watched the first few minutes and already got some value so I’ll see how it plays out.

I'll check this out too. Thanks for posting. I don't have the time to reread or relisten to books 1-4.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I'll check this out too. Thanks for posting. I don't have the time to reread or relisten to books 1-4.

It’s super long but totally adds context that I wish I had before

 

[Branded]

I really like the guy's work but it's a shame he has succumbed and become super duper woke.

 

[Party McHardy]

Well, he bored me to death with the ending of Wheel of Time, thats for sure.

 

[Queso de Grande]

I really like the guy's work but it's a shame he has succumbed and become super duper woke.

It is sad that it has affected his writing so much. Wind and Truth was unreadable in parts.

 

[Fbh]

I really like the guy's work but it's a shame he has succumbed and become super duper woke.

Aw, damn. Any concrete examples?
This shit is becoming even harder to avoid in fantasy / Sci Fi books than it is in gaming and TV.

The Hugo awards used to be my go to place to check out some new stuff to read every year, these days they are basically irrelevant. The latest winner, for example, is a self described "A thrillingly told queer space opera"

 

[Trogdor1123]

It is sad that it has affected his writing so much. Wind and Truth was unreadable in parts.

I dont recall anything to overt but it was a while ago I read it.

 

[Branded]

Aw, damn. Any concrete examples?
This shit is becoming even harder to avoid in fantasy / Sci Fi books than it is in gaming and TV.

The Hugo awards used to be my go to place to check out some new stuff to read every year, these days they are basically irrelevant. The latest winner, for example, is a self described "A thrillingly told queer space opera"

Basically surrounded himself with activists that pulled him away from his core beliefs (he's part of the Latter Day Saint movement no less lol). Thread here:

 

[Queso de Grande]

I dont recall anything to overt but it was a while ago I read it.

I was talking about it with a friend of mine and the dialogue from every young character (Shallan, Renarin, Lift, etc.) sounded like bad fanfic.

 

[Fbh]

Basically surrounded himself with activists that pulled him away from his core beliefs (he's part of the Latter Day Saint movement no less lol). Thread here:

Thx.
Yeah that sucks, definitely makes me less excited to read book 5.
I'll probably still get to it eventually though.

 

[IDKFA]

Aw, damn. Any concrete examples?
This shit is becoming even harder to avoid in fantasy / Sci Fi books than it is in gaming and TV.

The Hugo awards used to be my go to place to check out some new stuff to read every year, these days they are basically irrelevant. The latest winner, for example, is a self described "A thrillingly told queer space opera"

I'm with you on this one.

Modern fantasy and Sci-fi is very progressive.

I was recommended a sci-fi book last year called The Mountain in the Sea, which in a nutshell is a book about a marine biologist who is hired by a powerful tech company to study a unique and highly intelligent octopus species in a remote archipelago. However, I really couldn't get into it due to the author's ideology filling up the book. For example in one scene a character is having an internal crisis because she isn't sure what pronouns to use for a highly advanced AI robot. The book is also littered with hints that the world has become a communist hive of independent city states. I just couldn't get into it because it all felt forced rather than natural story telling if you get what I mean.

I'm not sure there is any sci-fi or fantasy that is more conservative and isn't full of the author's political ideology? I'm not saying these types of books shouldn't exist, but there should be some balance to appeal to everyone.

Slightly off topic, but for the past ten years I've been writing two books, one fantasy and one sci-fi/surrealism (I might have gone too crazy and dark with this one, but it's fun to write). It's not my aim to get published. I just do it because I find it therapeutic. However, I doubt they would ever get published because they're not full of modern social norms or far-left political messages.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I'm with you on this one.

Modern fantasy and Sci-fi is very progressive.

I was recommended a sci-fi book last year called The Mountain in the Sea, which in a nutshell is a book about a marine biologist who is hired by a powerful tech company to study a unique and highly intelligent octopus species in a remote archipelago. However, I really couldn't get into it due to the author's ideology filling up the book. For example in one scene a character is having an internal crisis because she isn't sure what pronouns to use for a highly advanced AI robot. The book is also littered with hints that the world has become a communist hive of independent city states. I just couldn't get into it because it all felt forced rather than natural story telling if you get what I mean.

I'm not sure there is any sci-fi or fantasy that is more conservative and isn't full of the author's political ideology? I'm not saying these types of books shouldn't exist, but there should be some balance to appeal to everyone.

Slightly off topic, but for the past ten years I've been writing two books, one fantasy and one sci-fi/surrealism (I might have gone too crazy and dark with this one, but it's fun to write). It's not my aim to get published. I just do it because I find it therapeutic. However, I doubt they would ever get published because they're not full of modern social norms or far-left political messages.

Sounds neat. I had a coworker at my last job that was doing a book that was really interesting. She didn’t share much but it was a bit more gritty too. Best of luck on getting it published! You could always self publish too if you need.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I was talking about it with a friend of mine and the dialogue from every young character (Shallan, Renarin, Lift, etc.) sounded like bad fanfic.

I’m forgot about Lift… always seemed… useless to me. Entirely unnecessary.

Disagree about Renarin though. His story has been interesting to me.

Shallan always sucked though, the first books story was neat, but not the character.

 

[GreenAlien]

It's not my aim to get published. I just do it because I find it therapeutic. However, I doubt they would ever get published

There are a lot of options nowadays, especially If you are not in it for the money.
Amazon KDP

or forums like spacebattles or sites like fictionpress or royalroad... or your own self administrated webnovel website.

 

[Ballthyrm]

Rising saga (not from Sanderson) which I ended up liking way more. It's almost the inverse of the Stormlight Archive in that IMO it starts of being just ok and then gets better and better with each book. I'm probably more excited about the final book,

Agreed, the Red rising books somehow get better with every book of the series.
It would make a killer TV series because there is a lot of great colorful characters.



One book left, can't wait !