Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Cash

[Poobah]

I thought the personal jabs were crass, unnecessary and say more (negatively) about the writer than Sanderson and his family/fans (complaints about food tastes and other similar choices), but otherwise wasn't surprised that Sanderson is all around a pretty standard nerd with a side of mormonism who's pleasant, polite, boring, and not particularly charismatic, witty, quotable etc.

And yeah his writing is mostly pretty mediocre though I wouldn't characterise it as outright bad most of the time - I've read or attempted to read far less readable prose than his many a time in published works, and I know that is rather a damning with faint praise kinda statement but it is what it is. His writing doesn't bring me joy to read or anything but is relatively serviceable if rather a chore sometimes but eventually takes you to the places he cares about - big superhero magic battles, moments of apotheosis and other such big plot things which he tends to deliver fairly well if in bombastic Marvel fashion, painting with simple direct emotions. To be honest ultimately what I get from the piece is a sense of envy, the writer is fuming that Sanderson can get so rich and attract so many fans given the quality of his work, which rather shows that the writer doesn't understand that it isn't artistic merit that makes a work successful, far from it.

[williamjm]

2 hours ago, Poobah said:

And yeah his writing is mostly pretty mediocre though I wouldn't characterise it as outright bad most of the time - I've read or attempted to read far less readable prose than his many a time in published works, and I know that is rather a damning with faint praise kinda statement but it is what it is.

"Author with bad prose sells a lot of books, how can this be?" did seem a weird premise for an article. Has the writer never read a Dan Brown book?

I agree that it also seemed a bit harsh on Sanderson's writing to call it bad. He's a competent writer and storyteller, even if there's no flair to his writing.

[Ran]

I think the premise wase "Why has no one around this geeky office heard of him? Why have I, long-time SF/F reader, not heard of him when he's got a $40+million record shattering kickstarter?" The answer appears to be that Sanderson and his work isn't actually interesting, so no one in the sphere or culture writing or criticism bothers to discuss it, even though it's very popular. And since he hasn't landed a TV show or movie deal, he hasn't been covered by mainstream media until the Kickstarter, basically.

I'm sure there are multi-million book selling mystery and detective authors that a lot of us have never heard of. Similarly, the 20th century was full of hugely popular, best-selling authors mostly forgotten today (like Patrick Dennis.)

 

[SpaceChampion]

Hasn't there been a ton of interest in Hollywood for adaptations of his work?  He's been edging closer to an adaptation deal for years.  There are many reasons for those to collapse, as most here know.  He's written a Mistborn script, so clearly he want to be involved and that's unacceptable to some producers/directors.  We all know of shitty adaptations, and he plainly is less interested in a cash payout than seeing something faithfully adapted.

And he's spoken of the process here:

https://www.17thshard.com/news/brandon-news/adaptation-news-likely-in-the-coming-months-r866/

Quote

Brandon explained that rather than going through the traditional option process, different teams at many studios have been approaching him and pitching their vision, rather than Brandon having to pitch to them. The conversation centers around how the pitch matches Brandon's vision, what role will he have, how much the budget will be, their commitment, etc. This time, instead of spending time deciding if they're making something with the property, they're so confident they will, that they're buying the rights and the goal is to be in production in 6-8 months, though as always in Hollywood it isn't a sure thing. Brandon followed up by telling us to expect some announcements in the coming months, but that the people he's working with will handle that PR in their own way, and that he would be surprised if they aren’t on set this time next year.

Adaptations were mentioned several other times in the stream. u/LettersWords asked about the possibility of changing Rosharan ecology to make filming easier with how alien this planet is, and Brandon gave a rather interesting answer. He said that they would not have to change Rosharan ecology to make live-action adaptation easier with the budgets they've been regularly offered, citing locations that would work for filming, the idea of using Volume stages (the LED panels used in the Disney Star Wars shows) and editing plants out with visual effects as ways they could avoid that problem.

There’s a wide range of possibilities for studios, when announcements will come, and how those will be handled. There hasn’t even been a confirmation of exactly what property is being adapted. For now, all we can do is wait, and see.

Google finds that pretty easily.  The Wired article author didn't do much research clearly.

 

Here's the video that info was taken from, cued up to the point at which he disscuss it specifically:

 

Edited March 25 by SpaceChampion

[Ran]

Yes. However, until something actually gets made, no one in the media world really cares. Per the Wired article, the writer did interpret some remarks Sanderson made as suggesting something will be happening "soon". Personally, my guess is that Sanderson will do something Vox Machina-like and kickstart an animated series or short film or something.

[polishgenius]

I'm no fan of Sanderson but that piece seems mostly to be the interviewer/writer throwing a tantrum about his own inability as a writer to portray Sanderson properly, and blaming it on his subject. It's a dreadful article.

If the Clarke piece was him, it honestly feels like he's a dude whose got a job at Wired because the management there simply just don't know anyone else who's interested in covering that kind of subject, and also don't have the knowledge to tell when he's being shit at his job. 

[DaveSumm]

@SpaceChampion

Despite addressing it specifically in that quote, I’m not at all convinced Stormlight is filmable as it is. The amount of constant CG work, even with a volume and a huge budget, would be mental. Pretty much every scene would need a backdrop of bizarre plant life adapting to the weather, spren popping in and out of existence, etc. In fact Mistborn wouldn’t be much better, with the ash and gloomy skies. 

But I can definitely see why the Cosmere would be a very attractive property. The current issue HBO have of mining aSoIaF for spin-offs would be gone; if you had a successful Mistborn series to kick things off then you’ve basically got like 20 years of material to rake in money off of. And an author who can provide more material as quickly as you could adapt it.

If Sanderson had the humility to recognise that his dialogue would need to change a lot for TV, and you got some good actors involved? Could be a gold mine for someone. 

[Zorral]

9 hours ago, Werthead said:

Rothfuss has comparable sales to him with 2 novels and a novella versus ~30 novels, novellas, graphic novels and short story collections.

Ha! In the Granada bookstore a local contact (professor, architect specializing in light and historical design, does work in the Alhambra) recommended we go to, All of the Great Big Novels of Rothfuss were  there, in the YA section, where all the sf/f was, and so was some of Sanderson.

 

13 hours ago, Ran said:

I was recently at Eurohorse, a multi-day equestrian exhibition

Ha! And I just was, two weeks ago, at the Royal Andalusian institute of Equine Arts. for a dressage competition.  No smells of any kind, not in Southern Spain, NOT EVEN FROM THE HORSES.  Yes, we were outdoors for most of the exhibitions, and the big ones inside were not yet happening -- that would be at night, and we had to go to the final night of the Flamenco Festival, featuring the Greatest Of Them ALL (still living, that is).  While we were there it was mostly the scions of the ancient lines of Spanish Grandee families, who were (mostly, not entirely) doing this.  Royal, you know.  As in anglaterre, it does exist full blown in Spain too. Ha!

 

[Ran]

14 minutes ago, Zorral said:

No smells of any kind, not in Southern Spain, NOT EVEN FROM THE HORSES. 

Perhaps March is pleasanter in Jerez de la Frontera than May was in Osuna when we were there for their fair and all the horsemen (and women) were out in the streets with their horses. But the smell of horses is, regardless, a pleasant one, once you're used to it. A few thousand people packed in the aisles between exhibition tents in a convention hall is certainly less pleasant.

@DaveSumm I don't know too much about Stormlight but I gather it's a very epic, alien world. I don't know why Sanderson is talking live action, animation makes more sense by the sounds of it. 

 

 

[Zorral]

20 minutes ago, Ran said:

A few thousand people packed in the aisles between exhibition tents in a convention hall is certainly less pleasant.

Clearly the Osuna events are massively larger than where we were.  Though a national event, it is a Royal Institute with events, and though the grounds are extremely extensive, with one after another palatial edifices for the multiple administrative parts, including the records of pedigrees -- though they must be in many places in Spain -- and incredible stables, there are space limitations for visitors. For one thing, outside cannot accommodate such crowds for observing the competitions. The stands seem to hold mostly friends and family and buyers, i,.e. only very serious professionals as competitors, owners, breeders, buyers .... sponsors . . .   The indoor ring, probably only has about a 1000 seats. So no wonder the difference.

Spain is horselandia.  Even the novel I'm reading now I'm back centers a competitive fab wealthy horse competitor in the north of Spain (where I was not, but that's the rich part of this very prosperous country, which already, its thousands of years of successful husbandry, is being destroyed by climate catastrophe.

[Ormond]

5 hours ago, Ran said:

 

I'm sure there are multi-million book selling mystery and detective authors that a lot of us have never heard of. Similarly, the 20th century was full of hugely popular, best-selling authors mostly forgotten today (like Patrick Dennis.)

 

Well, since the regular publishing of fiction began there have been authors who were supremely good at putting out bestsellers in their time who are forgotten today except by the small group of academics who research past popular culture. 

Ever hear of Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth? Maria Cummins? Mary Jane Holmes? Marie Corelli? George Barr McCutcheon? Harold Bell Wright?  All authors who were hugely popular with the general public and who contributed to fashions for baby names with their characters, but who very few people in 2023 have heard of.

--As for the article, I don't see it as being as nasty as some of you are portraying it. And I was excited to see how the author met people who attended the convention who had named babies after Sanderson's characters, confirming the post I made pointing that out last September.

[DaveSumm]

39 minutes ago, Ran said:

@DaveSumm I don't know too much about Stormlight but I gather it's a very epic, alien world. I don't know why Sanderson is talking live action, animation makes more sense by the sounds of it. 

I would assume Mistborn would be the first on the list for any adaption. It’s finished, it’s only three books long, it’d be easier to film, and it has cool super powered people doing cool shit. It’s widely agreed to be the best starting place for the Cosmere and I think the same logic would apply to adapting it. 

Stormlight is only 4/10ths finished, the books are enormous, far more wide reaching and epic. But IF (big if) someone were to make a Mistborn series (and maybe some movies / animated films of the other works, Elantris, Warbreaker) that approached GoT level success, then Stormlight is the best series in the Cosmere and I suspect it’d be too tempting to pass up a fully fledged live action adaption. Maybe the technology improves enough in that time scale to make it feasible, I’m not sure. 

I’d love to see an animated version, I’m just not sure someone would buy the rights to adapt the Cosmere and then not attempt a rival for GoT / Rings of Power etc.

[Ran]

10 minutes ago, Ormond said:

George Barr McCutcheon

The only name I recognized in the list, because of the Richard Pryor adaptation of Brewster's Millions!

[IFR]

Of that Wire article, as I far as I could discern there is only a single passage of real insight or value:

Quote

Sanderson has millions upon millions of fans all over the planet; it doesn’t matter that some losers at a single magazine (even if it is one of the nerdier ones) had never heard of him.

Otherwise I would describe that article as "hack author does hack job on more talented individual".

I've actually met Sanderson and he is an exceedingly nice and accommodating individual. His writing is not really my cup of tea, but I do recognize that in specific areas he is incredibly talented (such as world-building). I can't say I saw anything resembling talent or intelligence in that article, and I find great irony in the author suggesting Sanderson is generic when the substance and prose of what the author produced is striking only in how aggressively mediocre they manage to be. I think the only true contribution the article author can really make to society is apologizing for attempting to contribute anything at all, and as an act of contrition strenuously attempt with the full effort of their shockingly underwhelming abilities to remain as anonymous as they can muster, and live out the rest of their days without further inflicting society with their "hot takes" on any issue whatsoever.

Edited March 26 by IFR

[williamjm]

I wonder how many extra books Sanderson will sell as a result of the publicity caused by this kerfuffle?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I just wish some of the better writers would release new works so we don’t have to talk about Sanderson…

[williamjm]

36 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I just wish some of the better writers would release new works so we don’t have to talk about Sanderson…

I find Adrian Tchaikovsky is good at being similarly prolific while writing better books than Sanderson.

[baxus]

14 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I just wish some of the better writers would release new works so we don’t have to talk about Sanderson…

You are aware there is a button to mark threads as read without taking part in them, aren't you?

[SeanF]

I don’t find Sanderson terribly gripping, but I’ve never found him an incompetent writer.

And, yes, it’s a shitty article.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

12 minutes ago, baxus said:

You are aware there is a button to mark threads as read without taking part in them, aren't you?

Yup.  And I absolutely do not understand Sanderson’s appeal.  He is the mac and cheese of fantasy fiction.

Hearing people talk about Sanderson it sounds like gushing over the packaging for processed food.  “It doesn’t taste all that great but… wow… the box is so cool.”

Edited March 28 by Ser Scot A Ellison