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Am I missing something about Mistborn? I'm really not seeing where all this praise is coming from...


Jaerid

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I think Sanderson handled sensuality and sex better in Warbreaker than he usually does in his books. One sensual character is done well, and there's also a fairly well-done "fade-to-black" sex scene.

It didn't bother me that much in Way of Kings for some reason. Maybe it's because all the major characters were in situations where sex was very low on the priority list (below "trying to survive" for at least one of them).

EDIT: His assistant beat me to it. That's what I get for speed-reading a thread. :blushing:

I thought he handled it great in Warbreaker. I honestly don't remember it being a big deal in the Mistborn Trilogy either but I read those a while ago.

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I thought he handled it great in Warbreaker. I honestly don't remember it being a big deal in the Mistborn Trilogy either but I read those a while ago.

The scenes in Warbreaker were his best in my opinion. I think the problem with Mistborn is that he's created such a dark and violent world where the main character can kill hundreds of people in occasionally graphic detail so the lack of sex becomes far more noticeable.

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Look: I like Brandon Sanderson as a person. The dude is very cool and very smart and plays Magic the Gathering with his fans (who the hell else does that?).

You DON'T know him. His (and other authors') frankness is just a MARKETING tool.

perpetuated by his Amazon and Goodread reviews, especially his MISTBORN TRILOGY and WAY OF KINGS, on Westeros, Goodreads, and Reddit.

Again, it's called MARKETING. 90% of these 4-5 stars "reviews" are bogus, fake, plant etc.

+ My favourite quotes regarding bs:

"Brandon makes Jordan look like a master political writer in comparison, which Jordan hardly was."

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You DON'T know him. His (and other authors') frankness is just a MARKETING tool.

Again, it's called MARKETING. 90% of these 4-5 stars "reviews" are bogus, fake, plant etc.

+ My favourite quotes regarding bs:

"Brandon makes Jordan look like a master political writer in comparison, which Jordan hardly was."

This is stupid. If hes a genuinly nice guy, hes a nice guy. It's not all marketing and cynicism.

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You DON'T know him. His (and other authors') frankness is just a MARKETING tool.

Again, it's called MARKETING. 90% of these 4-5 stars "reviews" are bogus, fake, plant etc.

Haha. Wow. All authors are jackasses who are manipulating their fans via fictional online personas? Okay.

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All of this discussion makes me wonder what other boarders think about writers and "experience." There's the old axiom to "write what you know" and it certainly seems like it would be difficult to write about sex not having ever experienced it or to convincingly portray cultural specific profanity without being someone who curses...and yet Sanderson is more than capable of writing about allomantic magic and I'm fairly certain he's never Pushed an Inquisitor.

It's a good question. People also say things like that you can write a good murder mystery without ever committing a murder. I think a large part of the difference here is—how many murderers enjoy reading murder mysteries? The percentage is going to be lower than the proportion who swear regularly or are sexually active. If you try to fake that and get it wrong, more people are going to call you on it.

But then that argument is turned on its head when male authors are praised by women readers for the verisimilitude of their female characters, or female authors for their male characters. So I'm guessing it's possible to get this right even with sex and swearing, if you think it's worth working at hard enough.

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90% of these 4-5 stars "reviews" are bogus, fake, plant etc.

I'll admit I posted a 5-star review of ELANTRIS on Amazon shortly after it came out and there were a couple of 1-star reviews in a row. But now that's just counterproductive, and I didn't post reviews of any of his other books. I deleted the review a few weeks ago when I came across it again. Nowadays very few people who are Brandon's friends post reviews of his books.

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You DON'T know him. His (and other authors') frankness is just a MARKETING tool.

Again, it's called MARKETING. 90% of these 4-5 stars "reviews" are bogus, fake, plant etc.

+ My favourite quotes regarding bs:

"Brandon makes Jordan look like a master political writer in comparison, which Jordan hardly was."

BZZZZT BZZZZT

TROLL ALERT

TROLL ALERT

GO TO DEF-CON 3

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I'll admit I posted a 5-star review of ELANTRIS on Amazon shortly after it came out and there were a couple of 1-star reviews in a row. But now that's just counterproductive, and I didn't post reviews of any of his other books. I deleted the review a few weeks ago when I came across it again. Nowadays very few people who are Brandon's friends post reviews of his books.

Indeed. But that's only because there's Guatamalans who will do it for pennies on the dollar.

Outsourcing strikes again.

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You DON'T know him. His (and other authors') frankness is just a MARKETING tool.

Again, it's called MARKETING. 90% of these 4-5 stars "reviews" are bogus, fake, plant etc.

Tell me, have you ever considered the possibility that just because you don't like something doesn't mean everyone hates it? That maybe different people like different things, and that someone who enjoys something you don't doesn't necessarily work for the evil marketing department? Or the possibility that some people, sometimes even authors, can be genuinely nice people and not just nice because they are trying to con you into buying something they made?

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It's a good question. People also say things like that you can write a good murder mystery without ever committing a murder. I think a large part of the difference here is—how many murderers enjoy reading murder mysteries? The percentage is going to be lower than the proportion who swear regularly or are sexually active. If you try to fake that and get it wrong, more people are going to call you on it.

And now I'm envisioning an online messageboard where murderers go to rip Agatha Christie because her murders are way too convoluted and bloodless! :)

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I think the problem with Mistborn is that he's created such a dark and violent world where the main character can kill hundreds of people in occasionally graphic detail so the lack of sex becomes far more noticeable.

I didn't notice it at all in the first book. There's no time for relationships. It's the later two books where I noticed issues. Whoever mentioned maturity is completely right. I don't care about sex in a book, but the romantic interaction is often juvenile. Though I imagine it's a hard thing to do without "sounding" cheesy.

But anyway, overall I do enjoy Sanderson. My opinions on his writing in general.

Plotting: Good. Clear story arcs, various parts hold together well. I disagree somewhat with whoever said it was predictable; while you can see the general shape of the story, he does manage to throw in some twists without being inconsistent in what's come before.

Setting: Interesting worldbuilding. Notable for pretty original magic systems and non-human creatures. Otherwise, somewhat limited in scope, but that may change with Way of Kings et al.

Characterization: Weak point. Relies on common archetypes to substitute for personality with the exception of a few main characters. Worst in the first Mistborn book.

Prose: Accessible. High level of readability, pretty good with action scenes. But no, not Joyce.

Humor: Stop explaining the punchlines! The most frustrating thing for me personally, style choice or not.

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I definately agree with those who say that the lack of sex was more jarring in the last two books then the first.

I mean, Kelsier didn't seem to have a romantic interest in Vin, and nobody really had TIME for sex in the first Mistborn book. The lack of swearing was much more obvious to me.

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as someone with a terrible shit mouth, who believes fuck is the most useful word in the english language, the lack of naughty english in a fantasy novel being used as some kind of knock on the book strikes me as completely ridiculous. i like sanderson's books because they are fun reads. the lack of the occasional "fuck" or "cunt" doesn't even register with me while reading. because you know.... i'm reading about some made up world.

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