301 replies to this topic

[murphy]

Jurble, on 04 September 2010 - 07:40 PM, said:

Sweet Zombie-jesus, wikipedia says it has 1007 pages.  God damn, how fast does Sanderson write?  He could race Erikson.  I haven't read anything of his other than TGS, and Warbreaker, which I read for free on his website, and I thought that was pretty meh, its plot was thoroughly predictable.

Sanderson says in the WoK that he finished the first draft in 2003 but had been working on it since the late '90s.   So, not so fast as Erikson.

[The Evil Hat]

Well, not as fast within this one book. On the whole, though, he's definately comparable, I'd say, when one considers that since 2005, he's published two novels, a trilogy, (soon to be) two Wheel of Time books, The Way of Kings (which still needed editing), and five young adult books. I mean, he's an author that takes a break from writing by writing.

Anyway, I'm about halfway through A Way of Kings. I'm not reading as quickly as I expected, but it's a very different book than I thought I was getting, far more interested in character than a breakneck pace, and I've been enjoying every page of it.

[Basileus777]

murphy, on 04 September 2010 - 08:09 PM, said:

Sanderson says in the WoK that he finished the first draft in 2003 but had been working on it since the late '90s.   So, not so fast as Erikson.

I believe he finished it back then, and then completely rewrote it more recently.  Either way, the guy is insanely prolific.

Edited by Basileus777, 05 September 2010 - 12:41 AM.

[Memory Lane]

I finished it yesterday. A couple of thoughts:

Spoiler

1. Once you got past the Crustaceans and Highstorms*, this was basically a "conventional" epic fantasy executed well. Dalimar's arc was pretty predictable (although interesting when he was in the Highstorm Dreams), and so was Shallan's before the last two or three of her chapters. Kaladan's leaned that way as well (I pegged him for figuring out Knight Radiant powers not long after they were introduced), although I liked the way that Sanderson described him trying to deal with a soul-crushing, nearly hopeless situation with the bridgemen. Add in lots of battles, a treacherous adviser/lord, and there you have it.

Knowing Sanderson, that probably means he'll try to throw in a mind-fuck or two in the next book (if Mistborn is any guide).

* That's one part I definitely agree with Neth on. Sanderson seems to have found his world-building "niche"/style.

2. This book was an excellent page-turner, in spite of its size. I couldn't put it down, and the prose was easy enough that you could fly through it. It's one of the few fat fantasy books I've read where I enjoyed its immense length.

3. The setting, of course, is unique and rather interesting. Sanderson does a good job of describing a world that's regularly battered with massive storms, and the life that's evolved(?) to deal with it: crustaceans, opening and closing plants, and so forth. At the same time, the human society didn't seem to quite fit with the world it has been shaped by over thousands of years - it felt like too much of the common "european-inspired" society and not enough like one that's been shaped by thousands of years of being hammered by storms.


3. The magic system was interesting, although much harder to pin down than the "metal magic" he used in the Mistborn trilogy. I didn't really have a decent idea of how Lashing and the Soulbending stuff worked until he threw in that primer after the end of the book.

4. He seems to be doing the "returning doom that's become clouded and mis-remembered by time" theme again with this series, just like what he did with Mistborn. It's interesting, but also predictable - I figured that as soon as we started hearing about the Voidbringers, we would ultimately find out some type of "twist" about them.

I didn't think they'd be the Parshmen, though.

5. Speaking of which, what's up with the Parshmen? I'm having a hard time mentally picturing one, other than "humanoid with black and red marbled skin".

6. I'm wondering what's the deal with that super-armor, and it's ability to appear out of nowhere (plus the fact that in the Herald Prologue, the Knights Radiant and Heralds had it even while the humans were using much more primitive weaponry). It might have something to do with the "Tranquiline Halls" that humanity was supposedly banished from.

7. I noticed the "no sex and sexy thoughts" thing too. It sort of makes sense (Shallan's young and busy, Kaladin trying to fight for his life on the bridge crews and exhausted, Dalimar fighting and not over the wife that's been burned out of his memory for some reason), but still feels kind of weird.

Edited by Guardsman Bass, 05 September 2010 - 07:33 AM.

[Jerec]

I actually find it quite easy to put down. It's heavy.

But seriously, I'm liking it a lot so far. It'll probably take me a few weeks to read, I like to take my time with books I'm reading for leisure.

[ben1xy]

I finished this a few days ago. Although i planned to take a couple of weeks and slowly plough through it, it turned out to be a real page turner. This resulted in me finishing it within a couple of days. Taking into account my reading speed, this is really quite amazing.

I really enjoyed the epic-ness of the book and will certainly be looking forward to its sequel.

[Memory Lane]

One other thing-

Spoiler

It more or less said outright that Wit was one of the former Heralds with his comment at the very end, but which one? Was he Karak, or the king Herald?

[kcf]

@Guardsman Bass

Some of the comments you have I shared. I asked Sanderson a couple of questions about them in the interview that I did with Pat, Wert, and a couple others. From what I saw on Twitter, Sanderson has provided some detailed answers though I haven't seen them yet. (they were dictated which means someone is transcribing them - a job I don't envy)

[Memory Lane]

So they're on Sanderson's Twitter account? I'll have to go looking (although please link to the interview when it gets fully transcribed - that sounds fascinating).

[Larry.]

Guardsman Bass, on 05 September 2010 - 11:50 AM, said:

So they're on Sanderson's Twitter account? I'll have to go looking (although please link to the interview when it gets fully transcribed - that sounds fascinating).

No, it's Sanderson's personal assistant/freelance editor who recorded and transcribed the interviews (there's another one as well that'll be posted in the coming days, I think).  I believe the answers have been emailed to Pat, but I may have misread the tweet I received from the PA.

[pat5150]

Haven't received anything yet, but that's not surprising. Brandon likes to take his time and make sure he answered each question the way he wanted to, which can take time. There were a lot of pointed questions once again, so I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to paint himself into a corner or say something he might want to take back later.

Patrick

[kcf]

His assistant mentioned to me on Twitter that he has only just finished transcribing the answers. There was a slight delay due to DragonCon. I imagine that Pat will receive them soon.

[End of Disc One]

Will this Q&A contains spoilers for TWoK?

[Werthead]

End of Disc One, on 06 September 2010 - 12:37 PM, said:

Will this Q&A contains spoilers for TWoK?

The questions I asked were pretty general, but at least one (about TWoK's position in the greater Sanderverse) was vaguely spoilery. I can't speak for what others might have asked, of course.

[pat5150]

No, not really, especially since only two of the four of us had finished reading TWoK when the questions were sent to Brandon.

And the author tries to avoid spoilers like the plague, so I figure anyone will be able to read and enjoy the Q&A without fear. There will even be WoT questions!

Patrick

[Mathis Waters]

This isn't Sanderson-specific, and I hope it comes out as friendly and curious rather than hostile, but: Way of Kings is over a thousand pages, and is the first book of a planned ten-part series. How much is packed in to each of those pages? It's hard for me to see how you could spread a story across 10,000 pages without monstrous padding.

[The Evil Hat]

I haven't finished it yet, but I've read 700 pages, so I can probably say a bit about the pacing. It's nothing like Mistborn, Warbreaker, or anything Sanderson's done. The book is quite deliberate, focused far more on world and character than it is on plot so far. That being said, I've enjoyed it all, have been inspired to keep turning the pages, and haven't read any passages (yet) that felt like they were just there to suit the author's fancy. Of course, I still have no idea how I could possibly be far less than a tenth of the way through the whole thing, but, then again, the main plot has only been hinted at so far, so I'll see what comes.

[Curethan]

Pretty much every phrase contains a Compoundedword, thus bloating the book by about 10-20% over the usual size for something with the same Wordcount.  Also, there seems to be the standard tautological tendency to describe everything in two or more rather verbose ways.  The author likes to explain the same thing (with slight embelishments) in seperate instances as per current fantasy tendencies with the apparent intent of clarifaction through repeated exposition.

[kcf]

Werthead, on 06 September 2010 - 02:50 PM, said:

The questions I asked were pretty general, but at least one (about TWoK's position in the greater Sanderverse) was vaguely spoilery. I can't speak for what others might have asked, of course.

Considering I had only read 300-400 pages of the book when I sent in my questions, there shoudln't be any chance of big spoilers in the replies. My questions mostly focused on worldbuilding and the general development of the series, though I did ask for a teaser of things to come (I doubt Sanderson will offer much in the way of spoilers though).

[Larry.]

I submitted five questions and since I prefer to focus on non-plot issues, I think it'll be interesting to see how Brandon answers my questions, especially since one of them has to do with faith and his stories.