Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Elmandr on October 24, 2008, 05:06:30 PM
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I, after reading HOA and letting out an "OOooha Man!" in attempt to express the sheer awesomness of the Trilogy, approached my bookshelf and tried to catergorize it...
I wasn't sure where to put it, and i still don't know:
Should i place it Near Goodkinds Sword of Truth Series? It is a fantasy epic that has plenty to do with a young couple in love.
Should I have placed it In my Mystery category? I presume you all know why that is a possibility.
then i saw The Name of The Wind, and Brandon's Mistborn Rivals it in uniqueness.
I was also tempted to shelf it near my WOT books.
I think you are all beginning to see me problem.
So, with that in mind, in a sentence how would y'all describe and/or categorize Mistborn?
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"Written by someone whose last name is s-a-n-d-e-r-s-o-n."
I think my organization scheme is different than yours... :D
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only slightly
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While my system is different, I think it is kind of similar....I don't categorize based on content so much as I categorize based on enjoyment. I have Brandon with Melanie Rawn, another of my favorites, with Anne McCaffrey, with Gone with the Wind and Scarlett, and Alice Borchardt as well. No rhyme or reason really, just shelved as my enjoyment dictates. I don't know if that will help you though.
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Don't think I'd be much help, all my stuff is organized by genre. ;D
I find it the easiest set-up for me.
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I know! I know!! With all your other Brandon Sanderson books! With Elantris and Alcatraz! :D
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I'm having a big problem with this because I only have one bookshelf. Top shelf is currently Terry Brooks, second shelf is Orson Scott Card and Robert Jordan, and the bottom is classified as "other". And thusly, I haven't even really put my Sanderson books in there yet. Waiting on getting a new shelf to work with.
But in the more strict sense of the question, all I really have is fantasy/sci-fi, hence the alphabitzed order. Trying to arrange them by type would be confusing since Alcatraz would be over here, and Mistborn would be over there.
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You guys try too hard. My books are literally all stacked up in my closet randomly on some larger shelves. I know where they all are. It's great.
It would take someone else a good twenty minutes to find anything, though. Like literally; fantasy, classics, mythological, contemporary, sci-fi, writing, linguistics, etc...are all just mixed up together. Let's call it ordered chaos.
On a similar, yet, unrelated note--you all should see my writing notes. If I died halfway through writing the series I am planning, there would be no one who would be able to put the rest of the story together. Nothing is in order and most of it is just random note after random note.
Here, let me grab one.
On a sticky note that was attached to some prose that had nothing to do with the note: "Dagger doesn't really hold hidden powers...it's just a piece of the puzzle you need on the road to TDP. The enchantment may work now...think."
Or this:
"On Atrius:
'I should feel guilty.'
He didn't.
____________
9/26/08
The Beowulf monty python thing...."(I can't reveal the rest of this :P)
It's going to be hell when I actually have to put this all together! Woo!
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You guys try too hard. My books are literally all stacked up in my closet randomly on some larger shelves. I know where they all are. It's great.
It would take someone else a good twenty minutes to find anything, though. Like literally; fantasy, classics, mythological, contemporary, sci-fi, writing, linguistics, etc...are all just mixed up together. Let's call it ordered chaos.
On a similar, yet, unrelated note--you all should see my writing notes. If I died halfway through writing the series I am planning, there would be no one who would be able to put the rest of the story together. Nothing is in order and most of it is just random note after random note.
Here, let me grab one.
On a sticky note that was attached to some prose that had nothing to do with the note: "Dagger doesn't really hold hidden powers...it's just a piece of the puzzle you need on the road to TDP. The enchantment may work now...think."
Or this:
"On Atrius:
'I should feel guilty.'
He didn't.
____________
9/26/08
The Beowulf monty python thing...."(I can't reveal the rest of this :P)
It's going to be hell when I actually have to put this all together! Woo!
Duuuuude. If there was such a thing as linguistic acrobatics, i can imagine that as a primary example. Either that, or on the blooper reel for the sport...i can't real tell yet.
Reminds me of the Metal art--where the "Artists" put together a pile of mashed up or smoothed up slabs and chunks of I'm sitting there thinking, "Is there a specific order to all this? Was this intentional? Perhaps he knew that the pompous rich folk wouldn't dare call it crap, fearing that others might understand it and they will be seen as less than competent. So they sit there admiring in full focus. Making his random, artless piece, into an "abstract" art...
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Ah, yes <nodding head in a sagely manner> The "Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome." (ENCS) It affects so much of the arts now-a-days.
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Ah, yes <nodding head in a sagely manner> The "Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome." (ENCS) It affects so much of the arts now-a-days.
That nod, where have i seen it before?
...My psychiatrist.
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As I'm trying to type this post, I quickly realize that my bookshelf is far stranger than anyone else's.
My top shelf is stuffed full of video games (hey, give me a break. I'm a college student and bookshelves happen to be the best organizational thing anyone could ever have!), and my second one has CDs and DS games. Then I have my third shelf completely devoted to school-related stuff. My fourth shelf has a bunch of box sets.
My final is the one with Mistborn, Elantris, and, uh... Eragon. Yeah. My organizational technique works like this: "I puts them where there's room". Though, in retrospect, I should really switch the fourth and fifth shelves of stuff around. For some reason Mistborn--the books I pick up the most--is on the shelf which is the most inaccessible, because right now there is a stack of boxes blocking the bottom shelf.
So yeah, the answer is "put them where there is room."
...You should all be happy I don't work at a library.
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As I'm trying to type this post, I quickly realize that my bookshelf is far stranger than anyone else's.
My top shelf is stuffed full of video games (hey, give me a break. I'm a college student and bookshelves happen to be the best organizational thing anyone could ever have!), and my second one has CDs and DS games. Then I have my third shelf completely devoted to school-related stuff. My fourth shelf has a bunch of box sets.
My final is the one with Mistborn, Elantris, and, uh... Eragon. Yeah. My organizational technique works like this: "I puts them where there's room". Though, in retrospect, I should really switch the fourth and fifth shelves of stuff around. For some reason Mistborn--the books I pick up the most--is on the shelf which is the most inaccessible, because right now there is a stack of boxes blocking the bottom shelf.
So yeah, the answer is "put them where there is room."
...You should all be happy I don't work at a library.
Yeah i'll find a medical journal about a paraplegic in the midst of the children's section...
What i mean, though, by the question, is what category of fantasy does it fit in. The First law books, i would call grim or Dark Fantasy. Then, of course, theres the epics that i presume i need not explain. There is also a type that Patrick Rothfuss calls Epic Heroism--which is the epic life of a single person, rather than the epic of story of a world. There is also Romantic Fantasy...
Where in these, and other categories that i'm sure i missed (feel free to point out), does Mistborn fit?
Of course its Epic, but its also a Romance, and it gets pretty explicit at times (marsh breaking Vin one bone at a time)...so it does have a Dark aspect...
what do you think?
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If I was going to categorize it with one of those, I'd go with "epic fantasy."
"Romantic fantasy" is more like Patricia McKillip or something... And I'm not really sure what could be categorized as "dark fantasy."
But like many people, I don't categorize my bookshelf. I think Elantris is next to some Jane Austen and Mistborn is crammed in with all my Tolkien stuff...
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I don't think Mistborn is too dark to be real dark fantasy. Sure, it's dark, but I wouldn't classify the characters as "dark". You could claim that Kelsier is dark, but he always smiles, so it's a stretch to call him a darker character because he ruthlessly kills noblemen.
While it has its romantic elements, Mistborn is epic fantasy. It's classic epic fantasy, but at the same time, it's refreshing epic fantasy. That's what makes it a great book.
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You guys try too hard. My books are literally all stacked up in my closet randomly on some larger shelves. I know where they all are. It's great.
It would take someone else a good twenty minutes to find anything, though. Like literally; fantasy, classics, mythological, contemporary, sci-fi, writing, linguistics, etc...are all just mixed up together. Let's call it ordered chaos.
On a similar, yet, unrelated note--you all should see my writing notes. If I died halfway through writing the series I am planning, there would be no one who would be able to put the rest of the story together. Nothing is in order and most of it is just random note after random note.
Here, let me grab one.
On a sticky note that was attached to some prose that had nothing to do with the note: "Dagger doesn't really hold hidden powers...it's just a piece of the puzzle you need on the road to TDP. The enchantment may work now...think."
Or this:
"On Atrius:
'I should feel guilty.'
He didn't.
____________
9/26/08
The Beowulf monty python thing...."(I can't reveal the rest of this :P)
It's going to be hell when I actually have to put this all together! Woo!
Duuuuude. If there was such a thing as linguistic acrobatics, i can imagine that as a primary example. Either that, or on the blooper reel for the sport...i can't real tell yet.
Reminds me of the Metal art--where the "Artists" put together a pile of mashed up or smoothed up slabs and chunks of I'm sitting there thinking, "Is there a specific order to all this? Was this intentional? Perhaps he knew that the pompous rich folk wouldn't dare call it crap, fearing that others might understand it and they will be seen as less than competent. So they sit there admiring in full focus. Making his random, artless piece, into an "abstract" art...
Did I just get compared to a bad artist?
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I'm not sure.....but, just for my part, I don't think a college student's bookshelf is anything like metal art. Yours actually sounded pretty organized, just eclectic. Nothing wrong with that at all. :)
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You guys try too hard. My books are literally all stacked up in my closet randomly on some larger shelves. I know where they all are. It's great.
It would take someone else a good twenty minutes to find anything, though. Like literally; fantasy, classics, mythological, contemporary, sci-fi, writing, linguistics, etc...are all just mixed up together. Let's call it ordered chaos.
On a similar, yet, unrelated note--you all should see my writing notes. If I died halfway through writing the series I am planning, there would be no one who would be able to put the rest of the story together. Nothing is in order and most of it is just random note after random note.
Here, let me grab one.
On a sticky note that was attached to some prose that had nothing to do with the note: "Dagger doesn't really hold hidden powers...it's just a piece of the puzzle you need on the road to TDP. The enchantment may work now...think."
Or this:
"On Atrius:
'I should feel guilty.'
He didn't.
____________
9/26/08
The Beowulf monty python thing...."(I can't reveal the rest of this :P)
It's going to be hell when I actually have to put this all together! Woo!
Duuuuude. If there was such a thing as linguistic acrobatics, i can imagine that as a primary example. Either that, or on the blooper reel for the sport...i can't real tell yet.
Reminds me of the Metal art--where the "Artists" put together a pile of mashed up or smoothed up slabs and chunks of I'm sitting there thinking, "Is there a specific order to all this? Was this intentional? Perhaps he knew that the pompous rich folk wouldn't dare call it crap, fearing that others might understand it and they will be seen as less than competent. So they sit there admiring in full focus. Making his random, artless piece, into an "abstract" art...
Did I just get compared to a bad artist?
No, i talentless yet clever artist. :P
-
You guys try too hard. My books are literally all stacked up in my closet randomly on some larger shelves. I know where they all are. It's great.
It would take someone else a good twenty minutes to find anything, though. Like literally; fantasy, classics, mythological, contemporary, sci-fi, writing, linguistics, etc...are all just mixed up together. Let's call it ordered chaos.
On a similar, yet, unrelated note--you all should see my writing notes. If I died halfway through writing the series I am planning, there would be no one who would be able to put the rest of the story together. Nothing is in order and most of it is just random note after random note.
Here, let me grab one.
On a sticky note that was attached to some prose that had nothing to do with the note: "Dagger doesn't really hold hidden powers...it's just a piece of the puzzle you need on the road to TDP. The enchantment may work now...think."
Or this:
"On Atrius:
'I should feel guilty.'
He didn't.
____________
9/26/08
The Beowulf monty python thing...."(I can't reveal the rest of this :P)
It's going to be hell when I actually have to put this all together! Woo!
Duuuuude. If there was such a thing as linguistic acrobatics, i can imagine that as a primary example. Either that, or on the blooper reel for the sport...i can't real tell yet.
Reminds me of the Metal art--where the "Artists" put together a pile of mashed up or smoothed up slabs and chunks of I'm sitting there thinking, "Is there a specific order to all this? Was this intentional? Perhaps he knew that the pompous rich folk wouldn't dare call it crap, fearing that others might understand it and they will be seen as less than competent. So they sit there admiring in full focus. Making his random, artless piece, into an "abstract" art...
Did I just get compared to a bad artist?
No, a talentless yet clever artist. :P
...
You would have to see my writing before you come to that conclusion. Personally, I like to think I'm talented. ::)
I'm not sure.....but, just for my part, I don't think a college student's bookshelf is anything like metal art. Yours actually sounded pretty organized, just eclectic. Nothing wrong with that at all. :)
Ha-ha! Whats more--when I actually looked at it this last weekend, it was actually a little more organized then I had previously thought. Take that bookshelf!