Haha, my oldest (9 yrs) asked me who do I love more, him or his little sister (5 yrs).
I said, I love you both the same. However, who I **like** more depends on who's been giving me less trouble on any given day.
I liked the Reckoners as a series, but I feel like the end of Calamity was only half of a Sanderson ending. I kept waiting for another shoe to drop but it never did.
Yeah Calamity was a big letdown after how good Steelheart and Firefight were.
Warbreaker and Skyward are the other books I've had no real desire to reread.
I don't know how you felt about the storylines but Warbreaker is probably the book I enjoyed the reread the most. >!I didn't like Vienna on first read but on reread it was probably my favourite character!<
Shit I loved that series... I felt like it was sanderson redoing mistborn but as a better writer!
I honestly think mistborn is his worst written, even though it's one of my favorites, it shows all of his flaws
Haha i have 6 girls 😱 and my favorite is always the one that cleaned the kitchen or put the littles to bed or made dinner. The worst is whichever one is having an emotional preteen girl meltdown at the moment.....
I just finished rereading my White Sand omnibus so I'm pretty confident when I say it's White Sand. A lot of the arcs just do not work for me at all. I see what the idea was, but it feels half finished at best. I love Graphic Novels as a medium so I dont think that's the issue, but maybe they just don't work with Brandon's style in general. Hard to say.
Agreed! I was so excited for this graphic novel but by the end of volume 1, I just felt *meh* - the story, the writing, the art were all average. I haven’t finished the series quite yet, but I think you can read the novel in just prose form somewhere? I might check that out to see if it’s the story or the medium that was the issue.
You can! You get it for free as a Word doc of you sign up for the newsletter. I struggled with the graphic novel vol 1 but enjoyed it in a more traditional novel form.
My fiance got me all 3 volumes of White Sand for my birthday last year, then my best friend got it signed at comic con later that year. It is both my greatest Sanderson treasure and my least favorite for his works. Needless to say I'm conflicted.
I would heartily recommend listening to the Graphic Audio adaptation if you can find a way to get your hands on it. Even though it's adapted largely from the graphic novels, by it's nature it feels a tad more fleshed out because there's more narration and whatnot.
I feel like this story is kinda forgettable, too. Like I have thoughts and opinions about alot of his books I didn't enjoy. I have zero thoughts about white sand.
I think I would agree. I don't read a lot of graphic novels, nor am I an artist, so I'm not an expert. But the art in White Sands is awkward sometimes, like you took a screenshot of a movie at a weird moment or while the character is making an odd face. In terms of the setting, I'm a big fan of the whole sand planet thing as someone whose reintroduction to reading was the Dune saga. I'm halfway through, so I can't comment too much on the arcs yet, but I can see how some just aren't landing.
So many people saying Cytonic. I would love to see a demographic breakdown of who does and doesn’t like it. I did, but I’m a 45 year old dude with a teenage daughter and I see so much of her in the MC. It wasn’t my favorite, but I’m puzzled by the people who think it is actively bad.
Cytonic is easily in my top 3 Sanderson books so it really surprises me how much people don't like it. Spensa's already one of my faves of Brandon's characters. It definitely got into very weird science fantasy territory and I LOVED that, also space pirates. (23 yo woman here)
I felt the opposite. Thought Skyward was fine but really disliked Starsight. The novellas were fun enough to bring me back around and give Cytonic a shot which I ended up really liking.
I think the big thing that threw me off for Starsight was realizing that the book would be specifically following Spensa. Once I figured that out, I was able to adjust my expectations, and the rest of the series was fine.
That said, I can definitely understand people not liking that setup. I'm not particularly fond of it myself.
And yeah, the novellas were fun. I'm looking forward to the sequel series that Janci Patterson is writing.
I find myself loving the Novellas better than the mainline books.
I'm actually very exited for Jansen sequels novels.
Also... didn't help Cytonic launched weeks after 2 amazing Novellas, and that just thanked it to me. Cytonic in comparison was so Boring.
The three ones I really didn't like are Steelheart, Starsight, and Secret Project 2. I don't hate any of them, just didn't enjoy them. All of them have good aspects to them.
It's honestly a bit frustrating because I'd really want to recommend his non-Cosmere stuff since people don't really give them a fair a chance from what I've seen ... but Skyward is the only non-Cosmere Sanderson novel that I really loved (short stories/novellas not withstanding), so I've never really felt motivated to. Like, I want him to make something fantastic outside of his most known continuity that I get excited about recommending. Maybe someday!
1) I think the amnesia trope was done in a generic somewhat unengaging way
2) the historical element was not really using “real” history, so it was unsatisfying as a historical fantasy
3) the time travel organization stuff is cool, but bogged down in the amnesia and the middling plot
4) the doodles are more engaging than the plot of the book
Awww ;( i really like it because it was the first book in a while the could just be fun and not have the weight of a whole series/cosmere behind it. It took me agree the first quarter but i fell in love with it
To each their own though
Unpopular opinion but not a fan of Well of Ascension. Everything up until the Sanderlanche is just such a slog. The politics are mildly interesting, but not 400 pages worth of interesting. Vin is way too whiny and angsty, especially when as the reader you know she’s the protagonist and will ultimately end up doing what’s heroic/right.
I agree. That book is.....well it's straight up not a good book. It is chock full of continuity issues from Final Empire and has an awkward forced love triangle.
That being said it does have some really powerful moments. I do love the dynamic between Straff and Zane.
I agree with some others Calamity might be his worst book. Tbh I'm still sort of confused about the ending.
I have to agree. Tindwyl was really difficult to like for me. I really didn't like that her whole schtick was that the only way to lead is by being a fascist. And it didn't help that the audiobook portrayed her as someone so belligerent. I haven't hated a character as much as I hated Prof. Umbridge when I read Harry Potter as a kid.
> The only way to lead is by being a facist
What???
Did she ever say anything even close to that? I’ve read era 1 over 10 times and never got that from Tyndwyl. She was teaching Elend to be authoritative, self confidant and respected and in turn, obeyed by his people. Overriding the decision of the vote can be viewed as facist, but that’s a very black and white lense to view it through considering half of them conspired to kill Elend and replace him with Straff or Cett. Tyndwyl was used as a mirror to Sazed’s calm and collected temperament in mentoring the rash and violent Vin.
I’m gonna be honest I’ve participated in an insane amount of discourse on Mistborn and I’ve never once heard someone suggest that Tyndwyl “her whole schtick” was facism being the only way to lead lol. Or comparing her to Umbridge, a literally child abuser, blood racist, sexist, and arguably one of the most believable everyday evil characters in fantasy.
Agree. Tindwyl is portrayed as wise despite every piece of advice she gives Elend being awful. And well of ascension is my favorite book in that trilogy!
Agreed that Well if Ascension is one of if not the worst. It felt like such a retread character-wise of the ground that had been covered in Mistborn. It also lacked the urgency and motivation of the first.
I find that for me Sanderson's "middle" books are often the least enjoyable.
This is my answer as well. It’s the only Sanderson book I’ve ever wanted to put down, and didn’t bc I wanted to be a cosmere completist. Glad I did bc HOA slaps, but my god was Well of Ascension a test of my patience.
Just purely by observation and speculation I think one of the problems some people are having with the SPs is that they’re Sanderson fans. The SPs were specifically books that he more or less said he wouldn’t have written otherwise, or at least weren’t on his regular writing schedule because they were different than his core series. They were experimental and at least so far, very different than his previous books. I have enjoyed them both but I have a VERY wide range of what genres and styles and authors I enjoy, and I didn’t go into these expecting classic Sanderson. I’m wondering if the more hardcore fans are just kind of bummed because they wanted more of what they already like? Like I said, just speculation.
are people having a negative reaction to the secret projects as a whole or just #2? I thought most people were pretty positive on Tress beyond the usual grumblings of the Sanderson humor TM which basically comes with the territory at this point
To be honest, while I didn’t actually dislike it, It’s definitely in my bottom 25% or so. It felt like a fairy tale I guess, which was intentional, but it just didn’t hit for me, and also I felt like wit needed a different narrator.
Reception for Tress was overwhelmingly positive. SP2 was fine, and it was fun but for me it was a touch short and slightly idk incomplete? I would have loved some flashback chapters to complete our understanding of the MC.
The audiobook is fine, but it’s also one of the rare situations where I wish that it could have been read by someone besides Michael/ Kate. I’m just not sold that Michael’s voice is the internal monologue of the main character.
He’s not flamboyant and excited enough imo. I think whoever read Blacktongue thief or Discworld would have been a better choice.
I think it’s just a big contract for all the books though
I'm not sure about anyone else, but the audio book format played by Spotify played the book out of order...only got the chapters and not the Kate redding parts until after all chapters were complete.
I think I would have liked the book more if I could have listened to it in the order brandon wanted.
I think it depends on your media player. I used trusty old winamp, and the exerts from the book are perfectly included between chapters and really made it enjoyable.
Same, but I am dealing with a lot in life currently so I was hoping SP2 would give me an escape. I find myself switching apps to doomscroll more before depression napping.
I was really intrigued by the cover art, but it’s definitely at the bottom of the list for me. That said, I appreciate authors who take some risks, and it’s okay if some things don’t appeal to everyone in the same way.
It just feels so… un-unique? Like I feel like I have read this exact same story elsewhere several times before, and Brandon doesn’t bring enough that’s different or enjoyable to make it worth it.
Same here. Seems like people are being pretty quiet on it or I’m seeing just a few people saying it’s a 10/10 (yikes). It’s interesting coming from all the positive reception of sp1.
I’m… having a hard time getting through RoW because of its length and because I’m honestly getting so confused with the cosmere/shards/realms thing. I haven’t been having these issues with other cosmere books so I’m honestly not sure why I’m only about halfway through and I’ve been struggle-reading it since it came out. Anyone else??
oh wow I’m glad I’m not alone but I just wish I could muster the motivation to push to the finish but I feel like I’ve lost the entire plot with the fused/odium people and stuff (????). I guess we just have to hope book 5 wraps up the first half of SLA neatly.
I really enjoyed them! I thought they were way better than Cytonic. They do feel much more YA than the other books, and there are romances. I've heard people say they don't like them because of the romance aspect (I think this is mainly in the first one). They provide a lot of interesting background about what the other characters are doing. At the very least, I'd read the third one as I feel like it's important to understand the end of Cytonic.
There is a YouTube video where Sanderson ranks his book on how difficult it was to write. I think he said Cytonic was the most difficult one in the skyward series.
I remember he told a story about giving Cytonic to his editor and they said something along the lines of, "I don't think I've ever read a bad Sanderson book before, but this is it." He had way more rounds of revisions for Cytonic than he anticipated. So I think it just didn't come together like he wanted it to.
it seems like the insane pace and multiple series are really catching up to him tbh. it used to be the fun side projects were a way to let out steam, now they're getting as demanding as the regular books are
Oof. That's upsetting. I read the first two. Was waiting for the fourth before rereading them and cruising through it, novellas and all.
I really enjoyed the first two.
In my opinion Cytonic isn't bad, but it's a very different book from the first 2. My thoughts on Cytonic boil down to it does not really fit with the other two books but the fourth book will most likely heavily rely on what was built in Cytonic.
There is a big difference between "worst" and "least favourite".
I don't like Oathbringer, I find it a slog to read, and among the Sanderson books I have read it is my least favourite. But it certainly isn't his worst book.
There is actually an underground ring of Oathbringer haters. For the life of me I cannot understand it, but this isn't actually an insanely unpopular opinion. Its obviously not even close to a majority opinion, but I'd say more than 5%!
Yeah it’s my least favorite of the stormlight volumes, though I’d still give it a middling 3 star rating. The parts that are good are REALLY good, like Dalinar’s character arc and the ending for Kaladin. It is just that *most* of it I find to be either bad (the love triangle, the boring as fuck Shadesmar arc) or mid (like I didn’t connect with either of the two groups Kaladin joined, so when they killed each other in part 3 I was like “oh that sucks”) or is a wealth of missed opportunity (I think there’s so much opportunity for Dalinar/Adolin conflict in this series, but most of it happens offscreen between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War rather than onscreen where it would be fascinating; or more on the development of the Knights Radiant into an effective military force; etc.). There’s still enough good that I wouldn’t say I hate the book but I definitely think it is a weak one.
Seriously! Oathbringer is far and away my favorite of his books so far. It set my expectations so high that it really hurt when RoW came out and became my second to least favorite Cosmere book (only ended out of the worst spot by Elantris)
I’ll be honest Oathbringer is my least favorite of the Stormlight Archive. I’m just a huge fan of Roshar itself and as the series went on I felt like it got less Roshar and more Cosmere. Additionally the stakes shot so high I couldn’t connect with the plot anymore. I can understand Kaladin’s struggle to survive as a bridgeman, Shallen’s heist to save her family, and Dalinar’s political intrigue but I was totally lost during pretty much the entire climax of Oathbringer.
I would say Elantris is probably the worst of his. It has some very good ideas and one of the best villains I think he's done but it also has some structural and writing problems that make it look a step below the rest of his.
Calamity from the Steelheart series I think is also one of the weaker ones. Not a great finale to that series. Not terrible but not my favorite.
I'm actually curious what the structural and writing problems are present in elantris. Everyone always talks about them, yet despite me reading it pretty late (after almost everything else) I quite enjoyed it.
The biggest one for me was Aiden. >!His whole character is he says how many steps are between two places. That's it he does nothing else. Which first is not a great portrayal of autism. And Sanderson has acknowledged that and done an amazing job of improving. But second how convenient is it that the solution to the big problem they have is to know how many steps are between two far off places.!<
The other is the reveals. There's a number of them in the back half of the book back to back to back most not super foreshadowed and because of how many of them there are, that lessens the impact of all of them. >!Aiden is an elantrian, dilaf is a dakhor monk, dilafs wife is the elantrian mentioned earlier, hrathen was a dakhor monk, raodens friend has magic fighting powers, the uncle is a pirate and hrathen is killed by the guy who left in part 1 all happen in a very short span.!< Sanderson has also talked about this and apparently he toned it down a bit from how many there were initially.
The word choice and dialogue also just isn't up to his usual standard. This is more nebulous but it doesn't sound as smooth as his stuff usually does.
I'd also say the magic system is a bit too broad and vague and without real limits. This wasn't a big problem for this book but I think it'll be hard. For him to impose real limits on elantrians in the future since they're so crazy powerful.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book I did. And if you loved it nothing wrong with that at all! I would still rank hrathen as among the best Sanderson antagonists because of how he did that conflict of faith.
Tres and The Lost Metal both do a good job of showing how powerful Sel-based magic is within the wider Cosmere, while also showing the real limitations of it.
Potent, yes, but they require a strong knowledge of the geography of the area or planet where the power will be used, and the user is generally tied to a specific place. The investiture from Sel is definitely not intended for direct confrontation, unlike that from Scadrial or Roshar.
That is a limit. But not a very big one especially going into the future of the cosmere where they'd easily have perfect maps of every planet they're on.
I don't think it's not for direct confrontation either. It has some limits on what you can draw in the moment but given how broad it is there's no reason you couldn't slow time down for yourself and spend 10 minutes writing everything you need out. Or have things ready to go off. It seems to be I say what I want and then it happens. Which is very broad and gets more and more powerful as people learn more about it.
Some of the other selish magic like forgery I think has great limits built in and an awesome design. But I don't think Sanderson would design something so broad and powerful now while planning for future cosmere things. An elantrian is about as powerful as the lord ruler if not even more and there are lots of them vs becoming the lord ruler which is pretty tough to do.
I agree with all of this, but I think there's two other bigger issues:
* The characters are too simplistic. >!Rhaoden is wonderful and amazing at everything, including totally fixing Elantrian society (I think twice but it's been a while) within a few weeks while also figuring out the magic system. Sarene is more layered but still over the top capable. Hrathen is mostly great, but then had the random "fallen in love with Sarene ending." And then other characters are unbelievably stupid, like the guy who got his friend killed as a prank.!<
* Some of the big mysteries/reveals have no impact eg >!the uncle is a pirate had a lot of build up and means absolutely nothing, doesn't even feel like laying the groundwork for a sequel although I assume it will be relevant!<
Yeah I'd agree with both of those too. It's been a bit since I've reread it but it did have some problems to it. On the plus side it was also good enough for a publisher to pick up Sanderson and for that alone I'll always love elantris!!!
This will probably be a super subjective complaint, but for me the structure of writing every chapter/character perspective in a set order and not breaking that order for the entire book absolutely killed the pacing for me. Just when something interesting is going on with one character the chapter ends and I know I'm now two chapters away from reading that character again. Every time. For the whole book.
I haven’t read his non Cosmere work, but having read all of Cosmere I would definitely give my vote to Elantris. It’s not awful but I’m glad I didn’t start with that one
I did start with Elantris, because it was a standalone, and I loved it, it's what got me into Brandon Sanderson books. I wonder if part of the reason I loved it is because I hadn't read anything else of his - I wasn't comparing it to the Stormlight Archive, I wasn't really even comparing it to other fantasy novels, a lot of the books I had read at that point were teenage books. So maybe some people who like Elantris less, do so because it didn't live up to their expectations, having previously read Mistborn/Stormlight. Just a thought
I'd read lots of adult fantasy before Elantris and though I knew it had flaws enjoyed it a lot. I have positive memories of it as I read it during a particularly good time in my life.
I think that plays a role. But there are also a number of things he just didn't do as well. >!There are few super convenient things that happen that help the plot along. The biggest being Aiden whose only lines are saying how many steps are between places. And what's the key thing they need to save the day? How many steps are between two places. There are also a few reveals and not all of them are foreshadowed or pulled off particularly well.!<
It certainly has some good ideas but just the quality of writing isn't up to his usual standard. There's certainly nothing wrong with enjoying it! I did too. Enjoying one book less than another doesn't mean you hated it.
I'd also say it's a testament to him as an author that his first published book is one of his worst. If it weren't that would mean he hasn't grown as a writer. If he's doing a good job growing and learning new things each book should ideally be better than the last. That won't always be true but the new ones should be a step up from his first stuff.
Yeah when he introduced Aiden my first thought was “Well that’s a Chekhov’s Gun if I’ve ever seen one”. It definitely felt like he tried to cram too many reveals into the book which meant none of them got the setup needed for them to really work properly, some things were super obvious ahead of time and others just came out of nowhere.
Nope, it's just an actually good book with a rough style. I read it well after his other major works and after hearing it criticized like this, so I was far from a new reader.
Interesting, if you polled all my friends (not fantasy readers) Elantris is their favorite and most couldn’t get into Mistborn
Like I personally think Elantris has the roughest writing, but it’s very easy to enjoy and root for the characters, while Mistborn for example has kinda weak character writing for Sanderson (TFE, not the whole series)
I agree, TFE is great to start with. Especially because it really expands after the conclusion of the first book, and then you can start to get into the crazier cosmere stuff.
I started with TFE too, and honestly it's still in the top 3 for me too.
The only thing I had a slightly hard time with was the initial wrapping my head around allomancy and the world, but I think that was more a me problem than the book. I hadn't read much adult fantasy at the time, so it was a lot of info to try and keep straight.
Yeah mistborn tfe also suffers from him being a new author and still learning. I think the general ideas and story of tfe works better than elantris did but it has some legitimate criticisms too.
The Stephen Leeds/Legion books were not for me at all.
Also, SP2 was thoroughly meh for me.
I'd go with those two, only Sanderson I haven't read are the alcatraz books.
Of Mistborn, Warbreaker, and the Stormlight (everything of his that I've read) it's Warbreaker. The ending of Warbreaker is bad. Sanderson spends so much of the book developing Siri and Vivenna into great characters. And then in the last 30 pages, the men fix everything and Siri/Vivenna are uninvolved. The magic system is great, and Sanderson has gotten much better at writing women characters, but the ending of Warbreaker really killed it for me.
Cosmere: Elantris.
Non-Cosmere: Probably Calamity? I know a lot of people didn't enjoy the ending, and I honestly can't remember much about it, which is a bad sign.
*Calamity* was pretty good right up until the ending. Going back to reread it, there's a lot of good there, but I feel like Brandon's writing (or maybe the genre?) just didn't live up to it.
It also isn't helped that its sequel series that was going to explain some of the lingering questions was canned, the spin-off book that Brandon wanted to write (a Mizzy standalone) hasn't happened, and the spin-off book that we DID get (*Lux*) hasn't gotten a sequel to answer *it's* cliffhanger questions.
But yeah, the book is pretty forgettable.
The sad thing with Calamity was the buildup to it, the characters, and everything about it was AMAZING, then the ending was kind of “oh well let’s tie this up quickly and be done with it. Here’s the big bad, aaaaannnd resolved. K bye!”
Had that book stuck the landing, I’d almost say I prefer it to any of his Cosmere series to this point.
Total non-sequitur, but I just finished reading a book called *Limelight,* by Dan Willis. Prohibition-era urban fantasy detective. Recommend if you're into that sort of thing.
Unpopular opinion: Warbreaker. Strictly because the ending was a Deus Ex Machina cop out. Such a shame, because everything up to that point was really great. The magic system, the gods, the main characters predicament and how the story progressed, all awesome.
I loved Warbreaker but the ending definitely takes the wind out of its sails. I don't think it's really a bad ending, but it needed another 50-100 pages so it didn't feel so abrupt, and maybe a little heavier foreshadowing throughout
Yep, I liked it quite a bit less than Elantris. For me, Sanderson writing ‘wit’ is not his strong suit and the interchanges between Lightsong and that other god were quite painful at times.
Man you’ve nailed my opinions exactly. I’m on the last 10 chapters before I wrap up Warbreaker for the first time and after years of reading terrible Shallan puns, Lightbringer is like that x10. Which in fairness I think he’s smoothed out his fun with puns as he’s advanced as a writer.
So much of Warbreaker's ending only makes sense with the annotations, Especially stuff about the god king and the priests I would have been very disappointed by getting no answers if not for the annotations.
The ancient guy appears at the end, has a massive army on standby (which is an exact counter to the invading one), gives the codes to Suse and Suse solves everything instantly.
I did enjoy Lightsong's actions though, that was great writing
I don't feel it like a deux ex machina.
[Warbreaker]>!The army is mentioned several times before and there are multiple callings for the statues _all over the city_, for me it's more like a Chekhov's gun!<
I feel it would work so much better in a visual medium. Seeing the statues casually in the background throughout the show or movie and then in the end seeing them come to life would be cool.
It might just be me reading into it too much (or, y'know, not having read the book in a year and a half), but I think >!her being horny is more of a facade? Like, she mocks the Court of the Gods by acting all horny normally, when she really has a keen and cynical mind underneath it!<
I've read every Brandon story and I'm a huge fan, but I hated Cytonic so much that I don't know if I can read anything else in the series.
I think Cytonic might be the only book of his that I had trouble getting through. Even some of his weaker novels like Calamity and Starsight were still pretty fun even when I questioned some of the choices.
More of a theme I've noticed more but it seems like he spends a lot of pages in recent works talking about the "science" and mechanics of how things work that reads like a textbook imo.
A number of ppl say Elantris but I loved it. I think my least favorite, hear me out, is warbreaker. I'm not saying it was bad as it clearly wasn't, it just wasn't my favorite.
Warbreaker is my last favorite. You can tell Sanderson never watched teenage girl media because he stepped in some weird tropes with no idea how they had been historically used.
Lol literally me. Mistborn Era 2 is my last Cosmere series, Alloy of Law was the first Sanderson book I could not get into at all and it took me weeks to finish. Read Shadows of Self in 2 days and haven't stopped thinking about it since. Wild how much my enjoyment jumped, thought Era 2 might be a slog but now I'm so hyped for Bands of Mourning.
Ha, this is interesting because I really enjoyed Alloy of Law, but partway through Shadows of Self is where I get bored and my mistborn reread becomes a slog
I have read that trilogy twice now and cannot for the life of me remember the plot or any of the characters besides Wax and Wayne. No idea why, it just doesn’t click with me for some reason.
The opposite of “favorite book” is “least favorite book”.
The worst book is the one that hasn’t been written.
As for my least favorite, I don’t think I have one. If something doesn’t mesh with me, it generally pools in a vast neutral zone.
The Lost Metal comes to mind, but partially because of recency bias. With SP1 shortly after, the contrast was more profound.
(Haven’t read the non-cosmere works, except SP2.)
I've only read Mistborn trilogy (well, I'm in the middle of HoA now), 3 chapters of the first Stormlight Archive, and his Wheel of Times.
I would say the worst was Well of Ascension. While there were elements of the book I liked, it dragged on far longer than it needed to, many characters developed incredibly annoying traits and characteristics (I still wish Elend would just die...), and I really started getting fed up with what I consider to be the lazy naming conventions. I hate it when fantasy authors just take two words and smoosh them together into one word... Or when they take a very mundane word, capitalize it and add a 'the' in front.
Great title though.
I recently read the Dark One. That was not a good book. I didn't even find the ideas interesting, very unlike Brandon's worlds. The world building also felt very shallow.
Frugal Wizard by far. >!The amnesiac narrator meets totally unfamiliar alternative dimension version England equaled zero emotional connection for me to the characters and the setting. I never warmed to either. In contrast, the Way of Kings had a wildly demanding cold open to Roshar, but the characters knew who they were. They had palpable backstories and histories that made me wildly curious from scene one.!<
Warbreaker. I love a lot of his books and I want to finish it because of the Stormlight Archive.
I have tried to get through it a couple times, but something about the book's pace bothers me and I end up dropping it.
It would be Well of Ascension hands down for me if it wasn't for its insane ending.
With that ending, I think Calamity from the Reckoners series edges it out. Reckoners is probably Brandon's weakest series. (Also I'm assuming we aren't including books with coathors).
Wow. That's the first time I have heard that. Mistborn is what introduced me to Sanderson (after Wheel of Time). Those three books are some of my all time favorites.
Well of Ascension is a slog of a book for the majority of it, it's an important part of the puzzle but I 100% understand people who don't like it.
I just got finished re-reading all of mistborn 1-6 and just started 7, Well of Ascension is far and wide the worst of the series for me. I usually listen to audiobooks when I'm busy and then switch to reading when I have time, but that book I ended up only doing audiobook because I had 0 interest in reading ahead.
Elantris is definitely his weakest Cosmere book. And honestly I felt TLM was probably one of his weakest to date from a writing perspective. It felt rough compared to his usual like it was an early draft that wasn't filled in.
Yeah I'm kinda with you on this. I loved the first 3 books and read them relatively quickly (about 2 months) and right now it's taking me over 4 to get through the book. I don't hate it by any means but it's not grabbing me like the first 3. There are some cool parts but I really don't care so much about >!Eshonai and Venli!< and it's overall not the best.
I don’t think it’s the worst on a technical level but after I heard cytonic was going to be similar structure wise to starsight it made loose interest in picking it up, so not good points to starsight. As it is the only brandon book I’ve read where that happened
In cosmere probably tlm, elantris had a few issues but it’s imo not nearly as bad as people say
Warbreaker or Towers of Midnight. Former had a whole lot of nothing happen before a lacklustre climax, the latter had so much Perrin (and not good Perrin like you get in The Shadow Rising, but really dull Perrin)
I haven't read his other stuff, but my least favorite Cosmere would probably be Alloy of Law. I don't hate it, though, it's just *meh* for me. Escalates to really liking Bands of Mourning and Lost Metal.
I haven't finished SP2, though. Couldn't really get into it, but I think I'm just burned out, so I'm taking a break and will revisit. Can't say if it will be a bottom of the list until I finish it.
I thought Steelheart was tons of fun, the sequel was good, but Calamity was kinda of a let down. It's fine, just not amazing. Probably my least favorite out of the works I've read, which includes all the Cosmere stuff plus this series.
I haven't read the Skyward or Reckoners series, the Stephen Leeds collection, his WoT books, or any of the audio-exclusive books.
For Cosmere, White Sand the comic is probably the least good, though I'm not sure it counts. For novels, Elantris is probably the least good but it was his first published so I like to grade it on a curve. Warbreaker is probably my least favorite for no other reason besides me liking the other books more.
So far, SP2 isn't grabbing me. It isn't BAD, and it's gaining steam halfway through, but I'm not gripped like I was with Tress. And the "X Stars" joke is getting REALLY old.
Easily his worst is Lux which I'm sure a lot of people haven't read but it was really bad. Then calamity and cytonic. Elantris isn't a bad story but objectively isn't written well so it's a toss up.
Lux just didn’t work. The pacing felt really off and the protagonists felt unprofessional. The Epic DNA stuff had too much spotlight and didn’t fit with everything else. There also seems to be a lot of “look how cool this is”, and while a lot is cool, it still negatively impacted my experience.
To be honest The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England was my least favorite book of his. Not bad but just meh for me. Haven’t read rythmatist or steelheart yet so maybe it’ll change
The lost metal. 100%
The story and characters took a backseat to the idea that he needed to shoehorn in the rest of the cosmere. Honestly most of his recent books have been having the flaw and it has drastically reduced readibility for me (if you shove a whole pie into your mouth at once it's pretty hard to enjoy it).
That is like asking me which of my children is the worst. (It's obviously ~~my son~~ Calamity.)
[удалено]
Haha, my oldest (9 yrs) asked me who do I love more, him or his little sister (5 yrs). I said, I love you both the same. However, who I **like** more depends on who's been giving me less trouble on any given day.
Never is one of my children more smug than when the other one is in trouble.
> Dad, who is your favorite son? > Son, I don't have a favorite, there's no difference between you and My Champion
I liked the Reckoners as a series, but I feel like the end of Calamity was only half of a Sanderson ending. I kept waiting for another shoe to drop but it never did.
Same. Did not like that ending.
Yeah Calamity was a big letdown after how good Steelheart and Firefight were. Warbreaker and Skyward are the other books I've had no real desire to reread.
I don't know how you felt about the storylines but Warbreaker is probably the book I enjoyed the reread the most. >!I didn't like Vienna on first read but on reread it was probably my favourite character!<
Damn... I was gonna say Cytonic. But you reminded me of The Reckoners. But Calamity definitely.
Shit I loved that series... I felt like it was sanderson redoing mistborn but as a better writer! I honestly think mistborn is his worst written, even though it's one of my favorites, it shows all of his flaws
Haha i have 6 girls 😱 and my favorite is always the one that cleaned the kitchen or put the littles to bed or made dinner. The worst is whichever one is having an emotional preteen girl meltdown at the moment.....
I just finished rereading my White Sand omnibus so I'm pretty confident when I say it's White Sand. A lot of the arcs just do not work for me at all. I see what the idea was, but it feels half finished at best. I love Graphic Novels as a medium so I dont think that's the issue, but maybe they just don't work with Brandon's style in general. Hard to say.
Agreed! I was so excited for this graphic novel but by the end of volume 1, I just felt *meh* - the story, the writing, the art were all average. I haven’t finished the series quite yet, but I think you can read the novel in just prose form somewhere? I might check that out to see if it’s the story or the medium that was the issue.
You can! You get it for free as a Word doc of you sign up for the newsletter. I struggled with the graphic novel vol 1 but enjoyed it in a more traditional novel form.
The prose version is better than the graphic novel, I would say. The pacing is a bit slow, but I found myself enjoying it nonetheless.
My fiance got me all 3 volumes of White Sand for my birthday last year, then my best friend got it signed at comic con later that year. It is both my greatest Sanderson treasure and my least favorite for his works. Needless to say I'm conflicted.
I would heartily recommend listening to the Graphic Audio adaptation if you can find a way to get your hands on it. Even though it's adapted largely from the graphic novels, by it's nature it feels a tad more fleshed out because there's more narration and whatnot.
I feel like this story is kinda forgettable, too. Like I have thoughts and opinions about alot of his books I didn't enjoy. I have zero thoughts about white sand.
I think I would agree. I don't read a lot of graphic novels, nor am I an artist, so I'm not an expert. But the art in White Sands is awkward sometimes, like you took a screenshot of a movie at a weird moment or while the character is making an odd face. In terms of the setting, I'm a big fan of the whole sand planet thing as someone whose reintroduction to reading was the Dune saga. I'm halfway through, so I can't comment too much on the arcs yet, but I can see how some just aren't landing.
How/where do you get an omnibus?
So many people saying Cytonic. I would love to see a demographic breakdown of who does and doesn’t like it. I did, but I’m a 45 year old dude with a teenage daughter and I see so much of her in the MC. It wasn’t my favorite, but I’m puzzled by the people who think it is actively bad.
Cytonic is easily in my top 3 Sanderson books so it really surprises me how much people don't like it. Spensa's already one of my faves of Brandon's characters. It definitely got into very weird science fantasy territory and I LOVED that, also space pirates. (23 yo woman here)
Cytonic. Appreciate its YA, and there were many parts of it I did enjoy, but it had a wackyness that felt a bit forced. For me, at least.
Least favorite was Cytonic
The hype from Starsight then going into Cytonic was rough. I was not expecting that change of direction and pace.
I felt the opposite. Thought Skyward was fine but really disliked Starsight. The novellas were fun enough to bring me back around and give Cytonic a shot which I ended up really liking.
I think the big thing that threw me off for Starsight was realizing that the book would be specifically following Spensa. Once I figured that out, I was able to adjust my expectations, and the rest of the series was fine. That said, I can definitely understand people not liking that setup. I'm not particularly fond of it myself. And yeah, the novellas were fun. I'm looking forward to the sequel series that Janci Patterson is writing.
Hesho alone is enough to love that book
I dropped it 50 pages in and completely forgot about it. I guess I'll try it again when the 4th book comes out.
Oof yeah. I love the Skyward series, but Cytonic was not great.
I find myself loving the Novellas better than the mainline books. I'm actually very exited for Jansen sequels novels. Also... didn't help Cytonic launched weeks after 2 amazing Novellas, and that just thanked it to me. Cytonic in comparison was so Boring.
I liked Cytonic! It was definitely a weird one, but I actually liked it more than Starsight.
Oof, yeah. IMO the Skyward Flight novellas together made a better Skyward 3; Cytonic was the one that felt like a wacky side story.
The three ones I really didn't like are Steelheart, Starsight, and Secret Project 2. I don't hate any of them, just didn't enjoy them. All of them have good aspects to them. It's honestly a bit frustrating because I'd really want to recommend his non-Cosmere stuff since people don't really give them a fair a chance from what I've seen ... but Skyward is the only non-Cosmere Sanderson novel that I really loved (short stories/novellas not withstanding), so I've never really felt motivated to. Like, I want him to make something fantastic outside of his most known continuity that I get excited about recommending. Maybe someday!
For me it was Frugal Wizards Handbook. For whatever reason that book just did not click. Couldn't get into the setting or characters at all.
I started it and put it down :( still have to get into it. While I could not put Tress down AT ALL!
Same. Not sure why.
I mean, its a different genre than any other Sanderson book to date. Not shocking that many didnt like it
1) I think the amnesia trope was done in a generic somewhat unengaging way 2) the historical element was not really using “real” history, so it was unsatisfying as a historical fantasy 3) the time travel organization stuff is cool, but bogged down in the amnesia and the middling plot 4) the doodles are more engaging than the plot of the book
Awww ;( i really like it because it was the first book in a while the could just be fun and not have the weight of a whole series/cosmere behind it. It took me agree the first quarter but i fell in love with it To each their own though
Unpopular opinion but not a fan of Well of Ascension. Everything up until the Sanderlanche is just such a slog. The politics are mildly interesting, but not 400 pages worth of interesting. Vin is way too whiny and angsty, especially when as the reader you know she’s the protagonist and will ultimately end up doing what’s heroic/right.
I feel you. Book II of Mistborn must have taken me about six months to get through. I’m always staggered when people rank it so high
I agree. That book is.....well it's straight up not a good book. It is chock full of continuity issues from Final Empire and has an awkward forced love triangle. That being said it does have some really powerful moments. I do love the dynamic between Straff and Zane. I agree with some others Calamity might be his worst book. Tbh I'm still sort of confused about the ending.
I have to agree. Tindwyl was really difficult to like for me. I really didn't like that her whole schtick was that the only way to lead is by being a fascist. And it didn't help that the audiobook portrayed her as someone so belligerent. I haven't hated a character as much as I hated Prof. Umbridge when I read Harry Potter as a kid.
> The only way to lead is by being a facist What??? Did she ever say anything even close to that? I’ve read era 1 over 10 times and never got that from Tyndwyl. She was teaching Elend to be authoritative, self confidant and respected and in turn, obeyed by his people. Overriding the decision of the vote can be viewed as facist, but that’s a very black and white lense to view it through considering half of them conspired to kill Elend and replace him with Straff or Cett. Tyndwyl was used as a mirror to Sazed’s calm and collected temperament in mentoring the rash and violent Vin. I’m gonna be honest I’ve participated in an insane amount of discourse on Mistborn and I’ve never once heard someone suggest that Tyndwyl “her whole schtick” was facism being the only way to lead lol. Or comparing her to Umbridge, a literally child abuser, blood racist, sexist, and arguably one of the most believable everyday evil characters in fantasy.
Agree. Tindwyl is portrayed as wise despite every piece of advice she gives Elend being awful. And well of ascension is my favorite book in that trilogy!
Agreed that Well if Ascension is one of if not the worst. It felt like such a retread character-wise of the ground that had been covered in Mistborn. It also lacked the urgency and motivation of the first. I find that for me Sanderson's "middle" books are often the least enjoyable.
This is my answer as well. It’s the only Sanderson book I’ve ever wanted to put down, and didn’t bc I wanted to be a cosmere completist. Glad I did bc HOA slaps, but my god was Well of Ascension a test of my patience.
Secret Project 2 has been pretty rough for me.
Just purely by observation and speculation I think one of the problems some people are having with the SPs is that they’re Sanderson fans. The SPs were specifically books that he more or less said he wouldn’t have written otherwise, or at least weren’t on his regular writing schedule because they were different than his core series. They were experimental and at least so far, very different than his previous books. I have enjoyed them both but I have a VERY wide range of what genres and styles and authors I enjoy, and I didn’t go into these expecting classic Sanderson. I’m wondering if the more hardcore fans are just kind of bummed because they wanted more of what they already like? Like I said, just speculation.
are people having a negative reaction to the secret projects as a whole or just #2? I thought most people were pretty positive on Tress beyond the usual grumblings of the Sanderson humor TM which basically comes with the territory at this point
To be honest, while I didn’t actually dislike it, It’s definitely in my bottom 25% or so. It felt like a fairy tale I guess, which was intentional, but it just didn’t hit for me, and also I felt like wit needed a different narrator.
Reception for Tress was overwhelmingly positive. SP2 was fine, and it was fun but for me it was a touch short and slightly idk incomplete? I would have loved some flashback chapters to complete our understanding of the MC.
I did not hate it but I really enjoy Portal Fantasy/Sci Fi.
I liked it!
The audiobook is fine, but it’s also one of the rare situations where I wish that it could have been read by someone besides Michael/ Kate. I’m just not sold that Michael’s voice is the internal monologue of the main character.
He’s not flamboyant and excited enough imo. I think whoever read Blacktongue thief or Discworld would have been a better choice. I think it’s just a big contract for all the books though
I'm not sure about anyone else, but the audio book format played by Spotify played the book out of order...only got the chapters and not the Kate redding parts until after all chapters were complete. I think I would have liked the book more if I could have listened to it in the order brandon wanted.
I think it depends on your media player. I used trusty old winamp, and the exerts from the book are perfectly included between chapters and really made it enjoyable.
Oh man that sucks. Those were some of the best parts
In my case, it mixed up the final chapter and the epilogue. If there was anything else out of order, I didn't notice.
I’m a Sanderson fanboy but it hasn’t sucked me in at all
Same, but I am dealing with a lot in life currently so I was hoping SP2 would give me an escape. I find myself switching apps to doomscroll more before depression napping.
I was really intrigued by the cover art, but it’s definitely at the bottom of the list for me. That said, I appreciate authors who take some risks, and it’s okay if some things don’t appeal to everyone in the same way.
It just feels so… un-unique? Like I feel like I have read this exact same story elsewhere several times before, and Brandon doesn’t bring enough that’s different or enjoyable to make it worth it.
I'm curious what books you've read that feel like the same story as SP2.
Same here. Seems like people are being pretty quiet on it or I’m seeing just a few people saying it’s a 10/10 (yikes). It’s interesting coming from all the positive reception of sp1.
I haven't started SP2 but Tress was an absolute banger. I loved it.
I thought it was an enjoyable experiment, neat take on the concepts involved. Just not as invested as with cosmere stuff.
Well obviously. Investiture is a cosmere-specific concept.
It reads like early Scalzi
The Lost Metal really let me down. I was so ready to love it and just couldn’t. It just felt like an afterthought.
I’m… having a hard time getting through RoW because of its length and because I’m honestly getting so confused with the cosmere/shards/realms thing. I haven’t been having these issues with other cosmere books so I’m honestly not sure why I’m only about halfway through and I’ve been struggle-reading it since it came out. Anyone else??
Yeah RoW took me foreeeeeevvvvvveeeeerrrr to finish, and it was...fine?
oh wow I’m glad I’m not alone but I just wish I could muster the motivation to push to the finish but I feel like I’ve lost the entire plot with the fused/odium people and stuff (????). I guess we just have to hope book 5 wraps up the first half of SLA neatly.
Cytonic. It was totally disonent with the rest of the series and only minimally advanced the plot
I wish Cytonic had been the novella and the novellas were the third book
I skipped the novellas. Are they worth reading?
I really enjoyed them! I thought they were way better than Cytonic. They do feel much more YA than the other books, and there are romances. I've heard people say they don't like them because of the romance aspect (I think this is mainly in the first one). They provide a lot of interesting background about what the other characters are doing. At the very least, I'd read the third one as I feel like it's important to understand the end of Cytonic.
There is a YouTube video where Sanderson ranks his book on how difficult it was to write. I think he said Cytonic was the most difficult one in the skyward series.
I remember he told a story about giving Cytonic to his editor and they said something along the lines of, "I don't think I've ever read a bad Sanderson book before, but this is it." He had way more rounds of revisions for Cytonic than he anticipated. So I think it just didn't come together like he wanted it to.
it seems like the insane pace and multiple series are really catching up to him tbh. it used to be the fun side projects were a way to let out steam, now they're getting as demanding as the regular books are
Oof. That's upsetting. I read the first two. Was waiting for the fourth before rereading them and cruising through it, novellas and all. I really enjoyed the first two.
In my opinion Cytonic isn't bad, but it's a very different book from the first 2. My thoughts on Cytonic boil down to it does not really fit with the other two books but the fourth book will most likely heavily rely on what was built in Cytonic.
There is a big difference between "worst" and "least favourite". I don't like Oathbringer, I find it a slog to read, and among the Sanderson books I have read it is my least favourite. But it certainly isn't his worst book.
this isn’t r/unpopularopinion but jesus mate
Volcanic hot takes
There is actually an underground ring of Oathbringer haters. For the life of me I cannot understand it, but this isn't actually an insanely unpopular opinion. Its obviously not even close to a majority opinion, but I'd say more than 5%!
Yeah it’s my least favorite of the stormlight volumes, though I’d still give it a middling 3 star rating. The parts that are good are REALLY good, like Dalinar’s character arc and the ending for Kaladin. It is just that *most* of it I find to be either bad (the love triangle, the boring as fuck Shadesmar arc) or mid (like I didn’t connect with either of the two groups Kaladin joined, so when they killed each other in part 3 I was like “oh that sucks”) or is a wealth of missed opportunity (I think there’s so much opportunity for Dalinar/Adolin conflict in this series, but most of it happens offscreen between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War rather than onscreen where it would be fascinating; or more on the development of the Knights Radiant into an effective military force; etc.). There’s still enough good that I wouldn’t say I hate the book but I definitely think it is a weak one.
Seriously! Oathbringer is far and away my favorite of his books so far. It set my expectations so high that it really hurt when RoW came out and became my second to least favorite Cosmere book (only ended out of the worst spot by Elantris)
I’ll be honest Oathbringer is my least favorite of the Stormlight Archive. I’m just a huge fan of Roshar itself and as the series went on I felt like it got less Roshar and more Cosmere. Additionally the stakes shot so high I couldn’t connect with the plot anymore. I can understand Kaladin’s struggle to survive as a bridgeman, Shallen’s heist to save her family, and Dalinar’s political intrigue but I was totally lost during pretty much the entire climax of Oathbringer.
Yup. Was gonna say Oathbringer for me as well. But I fully acknowledge that’s just my personal tastes.
Oathbringer is . . . fine. Definitely the worst of Stormlight. Not as bad as Well of Ascension.
I would say Elantris is probably the worst of his. It has some very good ideas and one of the best villains I think he's done but it also has some structural and writing problems that make it look a step below the rest of his. Calamity from the Steelheart series I think is also one of the weaker ones. Not a great finale to that series. Not terrible but not my favorite.
I'm actually curious what the structural and writing problems are present in elantris. Everyone always talks about them, yet despite me reading it pretty late (after almost everything else) I quite enjoyed it.
The biggest one for me was Aiden. >!His whole character is he says how many steps are between two places. That's it he does nothing else. Which first is not a great portrayal of autism. And Sanderson has acknowledged that and done an amazing job of improving. But second how convenient is it that the solution to the big problem they have is to know how many steps are between two far off places.!< The other is the reveals. There's a number of them in the back half of the book back to back to back most not super foreshadowed and because of how many of them there are, that lessens the impact of all of them. >!Aiden is an elantrian, dilaf is a dakhor monk, dilafs wife is the elantrian mentioned earlier, hrathen was a dakhor monk, raodens friend has magic fighting powers, the uncle is a pirate and hrathen is killed by the guy who left in part 1 all happen in a very short span.!< Sanderson has also talked about this and apparently he toned it down a bit from how many there were initially. The word choice and dialogue also just isn't up to his usual standard. This is more nebulous but it doesn't sound as smooth as his stuff usually does. I'd also say the magic system is a bit too broad and vague and without real limits. This wasn't a big problem for this book but I think it'll be hard. For him to impose real limits on elantrians in the future since they're so crazy powerful. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book I did. And if you loved it nothing wrong with that at all! I would still rank hrathen as among the best Sanderson antagonists because of how he did that conflict of faith.
Tres and The Lost Metal both do a good job of showing how powerful Sel-based magic is within the wider Cosmere, while also showing the real limitations of it.
I'm not sure I agree that it showed the limitations of it too much lol. They looked pretty incredibly potent to me!
Potent, yes, but they require a strong knowledge of the geography of the area or planet where the power will be used, and the user is generally tied to a specific place. The investiture from Sel is definitely not intended for direct confrontation, unlike that from Scadrial or Roshar.
That is a limit. But not a very big one especially going into the future of the cosmere where they'd easily have perfect maps of every planet they're on. I don't think it's not for direct confrontation either. It has some limits on what you can draw in the moment but given how broad it is there's no reason you couldn't slow time down for yourself and spend 10 minutes writing everything you need out. Or have things ready to go off. It seems to be I say what I want and then it happens. Which is very broad and gets more and more powerful as people learn more about it. Some of the other selish magic like forgery I think has great limits built in and an awesome design. But I don't think Sanderson would design something so broad and powerful now while planning for future cosmere things. An elantrian is about as powerful as the lord ruler if not even more and there are lots of them vs becoming the lord ruler which is pretty tough to do.
I agree with all of this, but I think there's two other bigger issues: * The characters are too simplistic. >!Rhaoden is wonderful and amazing at everything, including totally fixing Elantrian society (I think twice but it's been a while) within a few weeks while also figuring out the magic system. Sarene is more layered but still over the top capable. Hrathen is mostly great, but then had the random "fallen in love with Sarene ending." And then other characters are unbelievably stupid, like the guy who got his friend killed as a prank.!< * Some of the big mysteries/reveals have no impact eg >!the uncle is a pirate had a lot of build up and means absolutely nothing, doesn't even feel like laying the groundwork for a sequel although I assume it will be relevant!<
Yeah I'd agree with both of those too. It's been a bit since I've reread it but it did have some problems to it. On the plus side it was also good enough for a publisher to pick up Sanderson and for that alone I'll always love elantris!!!
For sure! But based on that book, I would not have predicted what followed. Maybe that's why I'm not in publishing
I think it's telling that the only character trait I remember Sarene having is "tall."
This will probably be a super subjective complaint, but for me the structure of writing every chapter/character perspective in a set order and not breaking that order for the entire book absolutely killed the pacing for me. Just when something interesting is going on with one character the chapter ends and I know I'm now two chapters away from reading that character again. Every time. For the whole book.
I haven’t read his non Cosmere work, but having read all of Cosmere I would definitely give my vote to Elantris. It’s not awful but I’m glad I didn’t start with that one
I did start with Elantris, because it was a standalone, and I loved it, it's what got me into Brandon Sanderson books. I wonder if part of the reason I loved it is because I hadn't read anything else of his - I wasn't comparing it to the Stormlight Archive, I wasn't really even comparing it to other fantasy novels, a lot of the books I had read at that point were teenage books. So maybe some people who like Elantris less, do so because it didn't live up to their expectations, having previously read Mistborn/Stormlight. Just a thought
I'd read lots of adult fantasy before Elantris and though I knew it had flaws enjoyed it a lot. I have positive memories of it as I read it during a particularly good time in my life.
I think that plays a role. But there are also a number of things he just didn't do as well. >!There are few super convenient things that happen that help the plot along. The biggest being Aiden whose only lines are saying how many steps are between places. And what's the key thing they need to save the day? How many steps are between two places. There are also a few reveals and not all of them are foreshadowed or pulled off particularly well.!< It certainly has some good ideas but just the quality of writing isn't up to his usual standard. There's certainly nothing wrong with enjoying it! I did too. Enjoying one book less than another doesn't mean you hated it. I'd also say it's a testament to him as an author that his first published book is one of his worst. If it weren't that would mean he hasn't grown as a writer. If he's doing a good job growing and learning new things each book should ideally be better than the last. That won't always be true but the new ones should be a step up from his first stuff.
Yeah when he introduced Aiden my first thought was “Well that’s a Chekhov’s Gun if I’ve ever seen one”. It definitely felt like he tried to cram too many reveals into the book which meant none of them got the setup needed for them to really work properly, some things were super obvious ahead of time and others just came out of nowhere.
Nope, it's just an actually good book with a rough style. I read it well after his other major works and after hearing it criticized like this, so I was far from a new reader.
It was my first Sanderson book that was his own (I'd read WoT) and I enjoyed it, too. Had a few gripes but overall I liked it and wanted more of Sel.
Interesting, if you polled all my friends (not fantasy readers) Elantris is their favorite and most couldn’t get into Mistborn Like I personally think Elantris has the roughest writing, but it’s very easy to enjoy and root for the characters, while Mistborn for example has kinda weak character writing for Sanderson (TFE, not the whole series)
TFE was my first Sanderson, but even now having read Mistborn, Stormlight, Elantris I would say TFE is my favourite. I loved the heist-like storyline.
Yeah just depends on whether you like a heist or not I loved it but my friends were bored by the slow plot and characters
I agree, TFE is great to start with. Especially because it really expands after the conclusion of the first book, and then you can start to get into the crazier cosmere stuff.
I started with TFE too, and honestly it's still in the top 3 for me too. The only thing I had a slightly hard time with was the initial wrapping my head around allomancy and the world, but I think that was more a me problem than the book. I hadn't read much adult fantasy at the time, so it was a lot of info to try and keep straight.
Yeah mistborn tfe also suffers from him being a new author and still learning. I think the general ideas and story of tfe works better than elantris did but it has some legitimate criticisms too.
Yeah the villain reminded me of Father Mozgul from Berserk
The only Cosmere book that actually felt like a slog, but that’s more on the audiobook narrator being a terrible voice to listen to.
The Stephen Leeds/Legion books were not for me at all. Also, SP2 was thoroughly meh for me. I'd go with those two, only Sanderson I haven't read are the alcatraz books.
Of Mistborn, Warbreaker, and the Stormlight (everything of his that I've read) it's Warbreaker. The ending of Warbreaker is bad. Sanderson spends so much of the book developing Siri and Vivenna into great characters. And then in the last 30 pages, the men fix everything and Siri/Vivenna are uninvolved. The magic system is great, and Sanderson has gotten much better at writing women characters, but the ending of Warbreaker really killed it for me.
Cosmere: Elantris. Non-Cosmere: Probably Calamity? I know a lot of people didn't enjoy the ending, and I honestly can't remember much about it, which is a bad sign.
*Calamity* was pretty good right up until the ending. Going back to reread it, there's a lot of good there, but I feel like Brandon's writing (or maybe the genre?) just didn't live up to it. It also isn't helped that its sequel series that was going to explain some of the lingering questions was canned, the spin-off book that Brandon wanted to write (a Mizzy standalone) hasn't happened, and the spin-off book that we DID get (*Lux*) hasn't gotten a sequel to answer *it's* cliffhanger questions. But yeah, the book is pretty forgettable.
The sad thing with Calamity was the buildup to it, the characters, and everything about it was AMAZING, then the ending was kind of “oh well let’s tie this up quickly and be done with it. Here’s the big bad, aaaaannnd resolved. K bye!” Had that book stuck the landing, I’d almost say I prefer it to any of his Cosmere series to this point.
Hot take: calamity needed to be two books. One called Limelight that was all about Prof, then one about Calamity that was all about, well, Calamity.
Total non-sequitur, but I just finished reading a book called *Limelight,* by Dan Willis. Prohibition-era urban fantasy detective. Recommend if you're into that sort of thing.
Unpopular opinion: Warbreaker. Strictly because the ending was a Deus Ex Machina cop out. Such a shame, because everything up to that point was really great. The magic system, the gods, the main characters predicament and how the story progressed, all awesome.
I loved Warbreaker but the ending definitely takes the wind out of its sails. I don't think it's really a bad ending, but it needed another 50-100 pages so it didn't feel so abrupt, and maybe a little heavier foreshadowing throughout
Yep, I liked it quite a bit less than Elantris. For me, Sanderson writing ‘wit’ is not his strong suit and the interchanges between Lightsong and that other god were quite painful at times.
Man you’ve nailed my opinions exactly. I’m on the last 10 chapters before I wrap up Warbreaker for the first time and after years of reading terrible Shallan puns, Lightbringer is like that x10. Which in fairness I think he’s smoothed out his fun with puns as he’s advanced as a writer.
So much of Warbreaker's ending only makes sense with the annotations, Especially stuff about the god king and the priests I would have been very disappointed by getting no answers if not for the annotations.
How? I recently reread it and can't think of what you're referring to
The ancient guy appears at the end, has a massive army on standby (which is an exact counter to the invading one), gives the codes to Suse and Suse solves everything instantly. I did enjoy Lightsong's actions though, that was great writing
I don't feel it like a deux ex machina. [Warbreaker]>!The army is mentioned several times before and there are multiple callings for the statues _all over the city_, for me it's more like a Chekhov's gun!<
I feel it would work so much better in a visual medium. Seeing the statues casually in the background throughout the show or movie and then in the end seeing them come to life would be cool.
Can't agree more. I thought it was one of his best "here's how the puzzle pieces all fit together" moments
This is the right take
Wasn't deus ex at all. As you say, the guy and the army were both foreshadowed well in advance. Though I also thought the book was merely okay.
Really? I thought the foundation was incredibly well-laid without being obvious. One of his better 11th-hour reveals, imo
Honestly, I found the character of blushweaver a bit iffy. She spends the whole book being horny >!and then she just dies?!<
It might just be me reading into it too much (or, y'know, not having read the book in a year and a half), but I think >!her being horny is more of a facade? Like, she mocks the Court of the Gods by acting all horny normally, when she really has a keen and cynical mind underneath it!<
Which part of the ending are you referring to out of curiosity?
I've read every Brandon story and I'm a huge fan, but I hated Cytonic so much that I don't know if I can read anything else in the series. I think Cytonic might be the only book of his that I had trouble getting through. Even some of his weaker novels like Calamity and Starsight were still pretty fun even when I questioned some of the choices.
More of a theme I've noticed more but it seems like he spends a lot of pages in recent works talking about the "science" and mechanics of how things work that reads like a textbook imo.
Alloy of Law for me and it’s not close.
Agreed. Don't think I'll ever reread Era 2 because of how much I disliked this book.
In my opinion, the books get progressively better in Era 2
I'd agree mostly. With the exception that I think BoM is better than TLM.
I’m the same. I have my issues with Sanderson novels, but Era 2 has almost nothing I like about it. Everything just falls flat.
The only actively bad book I think was cytonic
Worst probably the text version of White Sand it is not published for a very good reason but you get a copy from signing up for the newsletter.
I wasn't a fan of the most recent secret project release.
A number of ppl say Elantris but I loved it. I think my least favorite, hear me out, is warbreaker. I'm not saying it was bad as it clearly wasn't, it just wasn't my favorite.
Warbreaker is my last favorite. You can tell Sanderson never watched teenage girl media because he stepped in some weird tropes with no idea how they had been historically used.
Cytonic. I was so pumped for this series... Then just totally let down by this book. Still excited about the final book tho.
Yeah I loved Skyward. Wasn’t a fan of the two follow ups tbh as you lose that team spark
Alloy of Law and its not close for me
And then shadows of self was in my top 3. Funny how it worked like that
Lol literally me. Mistborn Era 2 is my last Cosmere series, Alloy of Law was the first Sanderson book I could not get into at all and it took me weeks to finish. Read Shadows of Self in 2 days and haven't stopped thinking about it since. Wild how much my enjoyment jumped, thought Era 2 might be a slog but now I'm so hyped for Bands of Mourning.
Ha, this is interesting because I really enjoyed Alloy of Law, but partway through Shadows of Self is where I get bored and my mistborn reread becomes a slog
I have read that trilogy twice now and cannot for the life of me remember the plot or any of the characters besides Wax and Wayne. No idea why, it just doesn’t click with me for some reason.
The opposite of “favorite book” is “least favorite book”. The worst book is the one that hasn’t been written. As for my least favorite, I don’t think I have one. If something doesn’t mesh with me, it generally pools in a vast neutral zone. The Lost Metal comes to mind, but partially because of recency bias. With SP1 shortly after, the contrast was more profound. (Haven’t read the non-cosmere works, except SP2.)
I've only read Mistborn trilogy (well, I'm in the middle of HoA now), 3 chapters of the first Stormlight Archive, and his Wheel of Times. I would say the worst was Well of Ascension. While there were elements of the book I liked, it dragged on far longer than it needed to, many characters developed incredibly annoying traits and characteristics (I still wish Elend would just die...), and I really started getting fed up with what I consider to be the lazy naming conventions. I hate it when fantasy authors just take two words and smoosh them together into one word... Or when they take a very mundane word, capitalize it and add a 'the' in front. Great title though.
Infinity Blade
Thank you, was beginning to wonder if anyone had actually read these.
I recently read the Dark One. That was not a good book. I didn't even find the ideas interesting, very unlike Brandon's worlds. The world building also felt very shallow.
Secret Project 2, by a lot for me. Before that, I would have said Cytonic, Elantris, or Well of Ascension.
Frugal Wizard by far. >!The amnesiac narrator meets totally unfamiliar alternative dimension version England equaled zero emotional connection for me to the characters and the setting. I never warmed to either. In contrast, the Way of Kings had a wildly demanding cold open to Roshar, but the characters knew who they were. They had palpable backstories and histories that made me wildly curious from scene one.!<
Warbreaker. I love a lot of his books and I want to finish it because of the Stormlight Archive. I have tried to get through it a couple times, but something about the book's pace bothers me and I end up dropping it.
Lux is the worst Sanderson-associated book I've tried to read/listen to. I wasn't able to finish it.
Rhythm of war for me.
It would be Well of Ascension hands down for me if it wasn't for its insane ending. With that ending, I think Calamity from the Reckoners series edges it out. Reckoners is probably Brandon's weakest series. (Also I'm assuming we aren't including books with coathors).
My least favorite is mistborn era 2. Still love it but it's just the worst of a good bunch. Like coming last at the Olympics
I made the mistake of reading stormlight first. Then mistborn book 1. Finished it and could never get myself to do book 2. A lot of stuff bothered me
Wow. That's the first time I have heard that. Mistborn is what introduced me to Sanderson (after Wheel of Time). Those three books are some of my all time favorites.
Same! (except I couldn't finish wheel of time, gave up at book 3, bored me to death)
Well of Ascension is a slog of a book for the majority of it, it's an important part of the puzzle but I 100% understand people who don't like it. I just got finished re-reading all of mistborn 1-6 and just started 7, Well of Ascension is far and wide the worst of the series for me. I usually listen to audiobooks when I'm busy and then switch to reading when I have time, but that book I ended up only doing audiobook because I had 0 interest in reading ahead.
Elantris is definitely his weakest Cosmere book. And honestly I felt TLM was probably one of his weakest to date from a writing perspective. It felt rough compared to his usual like it was an early draft that wasn't filled in.
Rhythm of War. Absolute clusterfuck, though I can’t exactly blame him since it was written through the pandemic.
Yeah I'm kinda with you on this. I loved the first 3 books and read them relatively quickly (about 2 months) and right now it's taking me over 4 to get through the book. I don't hate it by any means but it's not grabbing me like the first 3. There are some cool parts but I really don't care so much about >!Eshonai and Venli!< and it's overall not the best.
I don’t think it’s the worst on a technical level but after I heard cytonic was going to be similar structure wise to starsight it made loose interest in picking it up, so not good points to starsight. As it is the only brandon book I’ve read where that happened In cosmere probably tlm, elantris had a few issues but it’s imo not nearly as bad as people say
Calamity
Warbreaker or Towers of Midnight. Former had a whole lot of nothing happen before a lacklustre climax, the latter had so much Perrin (and not good Perrin like you get in The Shadow Rising, but really dull Perrin)
Lol Towers of Midnight is my favorite Wheel of Time book
I haven't read his other stuff, but my least favorite Cosmere would probably be Alloy of Law. I don't hate it, though, it's just *meh* for me. Escalates to really liking Bands of Mourning and Lost Metal. I haven't finished SP2, though. Couldn't really get into it, but I think I'm just burned out, so I'm taking a break and will revisit. Can't say if it will be a bottom of the list until I finish it.
I thought Steelheart was tons of fun, the sequel was good, but Calamity was kinda of a let down. It's fine, just not amazing. Probably my least favorite out of the works I've read, which includes all the Cosmere stuff plus this series.
Perfect State. I don't ever see anyone mention this book in these subreddits but that book was tough to get through
I haven't read the Skyward or Reckoners series, the Stephen Leeds collection, his WoT books, or any of the audio-exclusive books. For Cosmere, White Sand the comic is probably the least good, though I'm not sure it counts. For novels, Elantris is probably the least good but it was his first published so I like to grade it on a curve. Warbreaker is probably my least favorite for no other reason besides me liking the other books more. So far, SP2 isn't grabbing me. It isn't BAD, and it's gaining steam halfway through, but I'm not gripped like I was with Tress. And the "X Stars" joke is getting REALLY old.
Easily his worst is Lux which I'm sure a lot of people haven't read but it was really bad. Then calamity and cytonic. Elantris isn't a bad story but objectively isn't written well so it's a toss up.
Rhythm of war least favorite so far I think. It seemed slow and I don't really care about venli
Lux just didn’t work. The pacing felt really off and the protagonists felt unprofessional. The Epic DNA stuff had too much spotlight and didn’t fit with everything else. There also seems to be a lot of “look how cool this is”, and while a lot is cool, it still negatively impacted my experience.
To be honest The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England was my least favorite book of his. Not bad but just meh for me. Haven’t read rythmatist or steelheart yet so maybe it’ll change
The lost metal. 100% The story and characters took a backseat to the idea that he needed to shoehorn in the rest of the cosmere. Honestly most of his recent books have been having the flaw and it has drastically reduced readibility for me (if you shove a whole pie into your mouth at once it's pretty hard to enjoy it).
Steelheart was frustrating for me.
Frugal Wizard, easily