Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Cash

[DaveSumm]

Yea the UK editions I’ve seen, even the hardbacks are split in two for each book. There is a single volume for Way of Kings available but the publisher didn’t commit to whether they’d do the whole series. I normally don’t like split editions but Oathbringer particularly is a stupidly massive book, it does make more sense. Plus Gollancz have done an awesome job keeping the Cosmere stuff consistent, I have an entire shelf of them and they look great.

[Werthead]

Sanderson names his top five living fantasy authors:

His list is:

1. George R.R. Martin
2. Jane Yolen
3. NK Jemisin
4. Neil Gaiman
5. Guy Gavriel Kay

Amusingly he later remembers that Robin Hobb exists, and ponders swapping her with Kay.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Werthead

[Ninefingers]

On 8/11/2023 at 6:27 PM, Werthead said:

Sanderson names his top five living fantasy authors:

His list is:

1. George R.R. Martin
2. Jane Yolen
3. NK Jemisin
4. Neil Gaiman
5. Guy Gavriel Kay

Amusingly he later remembers that Robin Hobb exists, and ponders swapping her with Kay.

I'd happily put Robin Hobb in place of 4 different authors on that list. 

[Rhom]

Secret Novel #4 arrived today.

Sunlit Man is a cosmere novel.  Looks like it has an interesting hook to it.

I've yet to start actually reading any of these four books.  My backlog is still too great and my reading speed is greatly diminished at the moment, but this one looks like it would be the one that would grab me the most.

Interestingly, I just noticed that the book is currently going for $200 on eBay (or at least its listed for that much).

[DaveSumm]

I’m pages away from finishing Lost Metal, then I’ll start the secret projects. It’s bonkers that I started reading the Cosmere just before Lost Metal was out, and he’s released 5 more books in the time it took me to read.

[Rhom]

I have finally taken time to sit down with Tress of the Emerald Sea.  (Secret Project #1)

It is delightful.  The Stormlight Archives books are sometimes a chore to read for me.  But this one was light hearted and upbeat the entire way.  Reading his Author's Notes about the origin of the story (What if Buttercup had gone off in search of Westley?) made for a great sense of adventure all along the way with the stakes being much more personal and much less world shattering.

In some ways, I do have the same problem with this book as I do with some of the other recent Sandersons... the Cosmere is becoming much more front and center which causes me to feel overwhelmed at times.  I won't get into the details too much, but I will say that this book at least is not hiding the Cosmere stuff behind a wink and a nod, it becomes forefont in the story fairly early.

The humor he uses as he develops his narrators voice at times resonated with me on my most middle school of levels, but at times felt like he was trying too hard (which may have been the point at those times) but there are moments of good philosophy in there as well.

In the end, I am trying to come up with a good comparison and trying to think back to his earlier novels which I enjoyed so much, but the tone is entirely different from Elantris/MIstborn as well.  I'll just leave it that I liked it.

[Rhom]

Have now finished Secret Project 2 and 3.  Considering it took me less than two weeks to complete both, that says something about what a quick and easy read both were.  I liked them.

Frugal Wizard's Guide to Surviving Medieval England was definitely a big deviation from his Cosmere books.  The set up was interesting.  We have discovered alternate dimensions and naturally, we find a way to turn them into profitable entertainment.  The in universe guide which serves as a framing device periodically throughout the book has some very self aware humor that did make me chuckle.  Certainly not a deep book by any means, it was a fun read.  The twists at the end were a bit too convenient, but that's sort of what I should expect at this point I think.  

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter jumped back into the Cosmere and as I mentioned above with Tress and the Emerald Sea, there are moments where it feels a bit too much... but not as much as Tress did.  There are Cosmere travelers involved, but they serve more as info dumps than they do as part of the story.  Which does lead me to my main complaint with the book.  

Spoiler

Everything is moving along nicely.  The two protagonsts are discovering their place in the world at a believable pace... and then in the last 30 pages or so, Sanderson gives up on Show entirely and decides to have the narrator (Hoid) spend three pages entirely Telling us what's going on.  Its really quite jarring with almost a whiplash effect of "By the way, here's what's been going on Painter and Yumi really have no good way of finding this out... so I'm just going to tell you about it."

Honestly, it left a bad taste in my mouth and really spoiled what had been a nice read to that point.  In his post book notes about the inspirations for the book, I could totally see where he took ideas from Final Fantasy X and he also mentioned some anime/magna's I'm not familiar with and mentioned the concept of people falling in love without really interacting.  Which reminded me a lot of one of my favorite short reads a couple years ago "This is How You Lose the Time War."  For Sanderson's first real jump into "romance" I did like it.

As I mentioned with my short review of Tress, these books feel much more like the Elantris/Warbreaker/Mistborn style of pacing and not the Stormlight glacial pacing full of navel gazing.  I like them all much more than the last couple of SA books.

Stopped by my office and swapped out Yumi for Sunlit Man on my shelf and will likely start tonight.

[SpaceChampion]

3 hours ago, Rhom said:

mentioned the concept of people falling in love without really interacting. 

I hope mentioned only in the sense that the concept is stupid and love is more than feelings, but requires interaction.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

I hope mentioned only in the sense that the concept is stupid and love is more than feelings, but requires interaction.

The story he referenced was something about two people on a ship that had to share a bunk but were on different shifts and their only interaction is leaving notes to each other in the bunk and eventually find themselves falling for each other. That’s what reminded me of Time War.  But he said he wanted Painter and Yumi to interact without being able to touch.  (It makes sense in the book.)  Further, they are each isolated and lonely for different reasons and in some ways they are each the only outside interaction they have.

[Argonath Diver]

I never judge anyone of faith, as belief in the unbelievable to me is a foundational part of self consciousness that elevates us above chimpanzees and octopi, etc. 

So with all respect to Sanderson's faith, that man could use some wildly hot sweaty sex with someone he barely knows.

[Larry of the Lawn]

I've never read a Brandon Sanderson book, have no desire to, and probably never will, but this thread has been wildly entertaining and I will return here time and time again.  Thanks for the good reading, all

[IlyaP]

Stormlight Archives book 5 title announced: Wind & Truth. 

 

[Mudguard]

On 12/17/2023 at 6:50 PM, Rhom said:

The story he referenced was something about two people on a ship that had to share a bunk but were on different shifts and their only interaction is leaving notes to each other in the bunk and eventually find themselves falling for each other. That’s what reminded me of Time War.  But he said he wanted Painter and Yumi to interact without being able to touch.  (It makes sense in the book.)  Further, they are each isolated and lonely for different reasons and in some ways they are each the only outside interaction they have.

There's an anime movie called "Your Name" that must have served as inspiration.  Part of the plot involves a high school aged boy and girl that switch bodies when they wake up and then switch back after they go to bed.  This happens repeatedly and early part of the movie is about their struggles trying to get through the day without messing up everything for the other person.  The two realize that they are switching bodies with each other and start communicating by leaving notes.  I'm not a big anime fan and had no idea what the movie was about when I watched it.  Very pleasantly surprised.  Highly recommend watching it.  The body switching plays an integral role in the larger plot, but don't want to spoil the movie.

[Rhom]

Okay.  Sunlit Man down.  So I’ve now finished all four secret project novels.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is the most Cosmere centric of the four and also my least favorite of the four.

The set up is good enough.  Sanderson’s take on the old Western trope of the grizzled old gunman coming in to help a town and gets involved against his will before becoming attached and having to move along.

The problem was with the main character and my poor memory.  After finishing the book today, I checked the Coppermind wiki and realize I should definitely have remembered Sigzil better than I did.

But he kept referencing events that I felt I must have missed in another book… but then when reading the wiki it looks like, I didn’t miss anything?  So maybe there are things that will happen in Stormlight 5 that will lead to Sigzil/Nomad’s status in this book?

I dunno.  It constantly left me feeling like I forgot something… but I wasn’t sure while reading if I had forgotten or it might be a revelation later in the book.  So it was weird and very distracting.

I also think his Cosmere relies entirely too much on extra-textual references to understand.  As the people who follow him too much refer to them as WoB.  “Words of Brandon.”  Maybe Robert Jordan was guilty of that to a certain extent in his heyday as well, but those books at least followed one narrative across a consistent timeline.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Rhom

[DaveSumm]

It seems there’s a Secret Project 5… because why not I guess.

Someone in the comments has listed all the books Sanderson has written since GRRM put out A Dance With Dragons and there’s THIRTY THREE BOOKS on that list. More words than GRRMs entire career apparently.

[Infidel]

That's certainly a....quantity...of words.

[baxus]

On 3/5/2024 at 9:48 PM, DaveSumm said:

Someone in the comments has listed all the books Sanderson has written since GRRM put out A Dance With Dragons and there’s THIRTY THREE BOOKS on that list. More words than GRRMs entire career apparently.

I don't see the point of this comparison, and I like both GRRM and Sanderson. They are completely different persons, completely different types of personalities, completely different types of authors etc. It's like comparing LeBron James and Tom Brady and saying "LeBron's plays as many games in one season as Brady plays in 5". I mean, it is correct, but it doesn't mean anything.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, baxus said:

I don't see the point of this comparison, and I like both GRRM and Sanderson. They are completely different persons, completely different types of personalities, completely different types of authors etc. It's like comparing LeBron James and Tom Brady and saying "LeBron's plays as many games in one season as Brady plays in 5". I mean, it is correct, but it doesn't mean anything.

I can't agree with you here.  They are different sports.  Sanderson and GRRM play the same "sport."

Maybe you could say; LeBron plays 82 games a year, but this other guy plays the 82 plus he plays in some summer pick up games and leagues. 

Edit:  And lets be honest... to stick to the NBA example, GRRM hasn't retired been taking an awful lot of load management.   Like Pop used to say about Tim Duncan "DNP-Old"

Edited March 9 by Rhom

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

6 hours ago, baxus said:

I don't see the point of this comparison, and I like both GRRM and Sanderson. They are completely different persons, completely different types of personalities, completely different types of authors etc. It's like comparing LeBron James and Tom Brady and saying "LeBron's plays as many games in one season as Brady plays in 5". I mean, it is correct, but it doesn't mean anything.

Quantity will never ever be superior to quality.  Sanderson may have written… more… but what GRRM has written while lower in quantity is better in quality to anything Sanderson has written.

Edited March 9 by Ser Scot A Ellison

[Werthead]

It's an odd comparison, and a slightly risky one. One could point out authors like Erikson in the 2000s, Dan Abnett through almost his whole career and Adrian Tchaikovsky, who have all been more productive than Sanderson (Erikson used to write a Stormlight Archive-sized novel in nine months, not four years, and usually superior in quality, if we quickly elide over Dust of Dreams) and arguably all superior in quality over a longer period of time.