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Topics - ryanjm

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A quote from his blog: "None of you ran out to get the book because of me." WRONG!  I had almost given up hope reading WoT books after the last several that were so mediocre. I told myself after the last one "I will NOT buy another one of these books until reviews are written that say it's worth buying." 

I thought Gathering Storm was excellent. I haven't read the first few WoT books in a while, but from my hazy memory of them I would say this is up there with the best in the series, which is around #3-6 if I remember correctly.  Maybe this book would have been just as good if Jordan wrote it himself, but I have a strong suspicion it wouldn't have been based on the declining quality of the series.

I don't mean to disrespect Jordan, because it was pretty awesome of him to leave a ton of notes so that the series could be finished, but I think maybe part of him was happy to hand it off to someone who still had passion for these characters, and the skill to pull it off.  Or maybe he was totally clueless about what his fans thought, I don't know.

What I DO  know is that Brandon is trying to stay humble and give credit to Jordan, but I can't help but feeling I wouldn't think so  highly of this book if it had been solely Jordan's work. I suspect there would have been 1/2 the story progression, quite a bit more hair-pulling, gossiping, and random nonsense rather than the massive plot advancement we got. And so I want to say thank you to Mr. Sanderson, because no matter what he will say publicly, the success of this book is in large part to his ability and hard work as a writer.

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I have to say I'm impressed with his blog and the way he's handled the release of Warbreaker.  I don't follow the blog religiously, and honestly didn't know he had a book about to be released, but as soon as I read his post on Warbreaker I printed out my Border's coupon and walked over to the store and bought it.  I didn't read any of the book  online to see whether I might like it,  but I figure I haven't read a bad Sanderson book yet.  That, combined with his well written post respectfully suggesting people to buy the book if they like it, struck me as exactly the right kind of thing to say to win people's respect.

I also really like the idea of showing people the writing process and releasing the book electronically for free. I think it shows a level of respect for his fans in trusting them to buy the book if they want to support him. If they think it sucks, and don't want to support him, well then they got to read something for free and it didn't cost Brandon anything.  I can't really say if this will make Brandon more money or not, but from a consumer's point of view, I love it.

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Brandon Sanderson / Sex and sexuality in the Mistborn series...missing?
« on: January 24, 2009, 10:43:38 PM »
I just finished the first two Mistborn books and really liked them.  I especially enjoyed the first one's incredible fast pace and Kelsier as a central male character.  But back to the topic:  Did anyone else notice a lack of sexuality in the books?  There is a mention of prostitute here, rape there, but the actual main characters themselves never discuss sex or mention women/men sexually.  It's all *blush* *giggle* stuff, and for a 22yr old male, Elend has a remarkable ability to keep his eyes always on Vin's face, with nary a hint of sexual desire, appreciation of her athletic body, etc...  the same goes for the other men in the crew.  Everyone is a white shining knight who would never dare sneak a peak at a low cut dress, or admire the shape of a well formed behind.

 I think I only notice this because of its conspicuous absence, because I've never noticed a lack of sexual energy in a book before, and I've read more than a few.  It's almost as if being a 'good man' is associated with chastity and chaste thoughts as well.  Anyone who openly has sex is a deviant ala Straff Venture. 

I went through a few hundred pages of the second book wondering if Vin and Elend were just friends or lovers.  And it didn't appear they did more than kiss until they were married...two years after they met.  Really? In a medieval society with no religious teachings/guilt holding them back?

I did a quick search for 'sex' before posting this to see if it's been discussed before, and ended up coming across some postings of Brandon Sanderson's talking about his Mormon faith and related issues.  I'm actually pretty impressed that he is able to believe in that faith and write Sazed's character so well, acknowledging the existence of many faiths all proclaiming to be correct and others to be wrong, and the birth and death of those religions as time passes.   Anyway, that got me to thinking that perhaps his religious views have influenced this area of his writing.  Any thoughts? If he can write about religion well without the need to show his characters as deeply devout, then I think he can step outside of the box when it comes to separating Mormon views on sex with how a character in a medieval'ish world without any organized religion would behave.  What do you all think?

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