this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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I have a few quibbles, but otherwise it’s a pretty solid list:
+1 for the Dark Tower books.
But I'd note, there's a dramatic tonal shift between the first half and the last half.
After book 4, you lose the flashbacks to Roland's youth and it's a straight through narrative for books 5, 6 and 7.
I think the accident that almost killed him put the fear of god in him.
Any time I see Mistborn on a list like this, I immediately become dubious about the person's taste and discount the rest of the list.
Whats wrong with Mistborn? Have not read that series but I did enjoy Stormlight archive.
For me personally it's the same as with all his series: they build up into something super interesting and then they fizz out with a compromising ending that feels like he ran out of time and had to throw something together.
Here I am on the verge of having my mind blown and thinking "finally, this is what it has all been about, now we're getting to the really good stuff!"... only to have things wrapped up abruptly in a way that's really unsatisfying.
I don't know what the hell is up with that, it's like he's planning for a whole other book and his publisher comes in and forces him to end it early or something.
After it happened three times I said that's it, he's not getting me again — it's too frustrating!
Yeah I guess I can see that. I do enjoy his worldbuilding though.
Absolutely this. The first half of his first book in any given series always feels like it's going to lead to something amazing, then nothing. I feel like another writer could take his unique ideas and do something really cool with them, but I won't ever read Sanderson again.
Sometimes I wonder if he managed to wrap up Wheel of Time satisfyingly for its fans.
He did! But Jordan left extensive notes on what he wanted to happen and how things must wrap up, and Sanderson did not deviate from Jordan's narrative style. Within those confines and with so much plot and so many characters to wrap up it was a monumental task and he did a great job. I think it was the reason I became interested in reading more from him.
It has an interesting idea for its world and magic, and then fleshes it out with the most infuriatingly boring set of characters. The main character is bland enough to allow a reader to self-insert to a degree (this is similar to the main character in Twilight — something that people critique it for.) Then some of the supporting characters border on harmful stereotypes. Plus, I guessed the "twist" in the first trilogy very early on.
Aesthetically I want to like it, but I found it awful. I only read it because it was the #1 rated fantasy book on Goodreads at the time, and since then I haven't listened to aggregated internet reviews for anything.
This looks like a lot of white dudes ...
That’s definitely a part of my quibbles. Ursula K Le Guin deserves a spot on here at the very least, Victor LaValle too, IMHO. I’d say the repeat authors should get 1 book and let’s add in some variation here.
He's a friend of mine! This is the first time I've seen organic mention of the book - very cool!