I just finished the Misborn series by Brandon Sanderson. It had been on my reading list for a little while now, as I always enjoy Brandon’s ideas and comments on the Writing Excuses podcast. But it was my best friend reading them and giving me the “you HAVE to read this now now now now now” act that got me to bump them to the top of my list. He was right.
Sanderson’s writing is great. Not the actual language of it, of course. If there is poetry in the words, they didn’t translate in to the reading on the audiobook*. If I recall, there was at least once or twice where some word choice drew an actual grown from me.** I’ve written far worse, of course, and the point is not to read Sanderson’s text for liquid prose. You read it because Sanderson is smart and because he’s thought the content out so thoroughly.
I ended the first book thinking that his world was pretty cool and the plot was fun, but that the most impressive idea he’d included was the magical system described. Allomancy is a very concrete system, just this side of a fictional science as compared to the soft magical systems in other fantasy. It’s a really good idea, and seeing how Sanderson has constructed it has made me rethink how I approach magic in my own works.
By the end of the third book, though, the intricately detailed magical systems are probably the least interesting thing going on in the story. All that stuff you thought was just fluff from the first half of the trilogy? It’s basically all a series of Chekhovs guns***. As I’m not fearful of spoilers, I had some idea of what was going to happen at the end of the series and Sanderson was building little things into big things for the entire series, something few series writer’s match. I am impressed.
I’ve read quite a lot of the annotations for the books and it’s useful. I wish more authors would post this sort of commentary on their work, as it lets you see a lot of the thought process behind the finished work. That is very useful for someone trying to learn from it.
*My preferred way to ingest books these days.
** A particular use of two forms of the word distance in the same sentence comes to mind.
*** Chekhov’s armory, if you will.
Mistborn
I just finished the Misborn series by Brandon Sanderson. It had been on my reading list for a little while now, as I always enjoy Brandon’s ideas and comments on the Writing Excuses podcast. But it was my best friend reading them and giving me the “you HAVE to read this now now now now now” act that got me to bump them to the top of my list. He was right.
Sanderson’s writing is great. Not the actual language of it, of course. If there is poetry in the words, they didn’t translate in to the reading on the audiobook*. If I recall, there was at least once or twice where some word choice drew an actual grown from me.** I’ve written far worse, of course, and the point is not to read Sanderson’s text for liquid prose. You read it because Sanderson is smart and because he’s thought the content out so thoroughly.
I ended the first book thinking that his world was pretty cool and the plot was fun, but that the most impressive idea he’d included was the magical system described. Allomancy is a very concrete system, just this side of a fictional science as compared to the soft magical systems in other fantasy. It’s a really good idea, and seeing how Sanderson has constructed it has made me rethink how I approach magic in my own works.
By the end of the third book, though, the intricately detailed magical systems are probably the least interesting thing going on in the story. All that stuff you thought was just fluff from the first half of the trilogy? It’s basically all a series of Chekhovs guns***. As I’m not fearful of spoilers, I had some idea of what was going to happen at the end of the series and Sanderson was building little things into big things for the entire series, something few series writer’s match. I am impressed.
I’ve read quite a lot of the annotations for the books and it’s useful. I wish more authors would post this sort of commentary on their work, as it lets you see a lot of the thought process behind the finished work. That is very useful for someone trying to learn from it.
*My preferred way to ingest books these days.
** A particular use of two forms of the word distance in the same sentence comes to mind.
*** Chekhov’s armory, if you will.