Author Topic: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly  (Read 6667 times)

demon

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Brandon, and other forum members,

 First off i would liek to say that th mistborn series is amazing. about four months ago my then girlfriend, now fiance had gotten me interested in reading again. so i picked up a few books one by an author named Patrick Rothfuss. after reading his novel i went to take a look on his website to see if he had anymore. Well on one of his blogs he said he was reading a book called mistborn by yourself. he also had a link to your site. i checked out the siteand your books and read the firts chapter of mistborn , at first i actually was not impressed but decided to buy it anyway because i did find it interesting.

i picked up Mistborn and it completely chanegd how i look at writing i read it in two weeks, taking it in stride. it  fascinates me. when the first description of vin came into my mind, it was a perfect description of my fiance. i could not believe myself. through the whole book i imagined my fiance as vin... especially when she met elend, because his description also fits me, which amazed me even further. but what really got me and changed our lives was The Well of Ascension.

heres why.  SPOILERS


vin and elends relationship is not unlike my fiance and myself.  we had been having troubles trusting and figuring out eachother for the longest time ( we have been toghether for two years) there is a paragraph on PG.236 that took my breath away

"how much she's changed since i first met her,Elend thought, smiling. Almost two years had passed. the she had been a youth,albeit one with the life experiances of someone far older. now she was a woman-- a very dangerous woman but one who still looked up at him with eyes that were just a bit uncertain, just a bit insecure."

this sums up our life toghether, and after i read this i had her read it... and it made us understand our veiws on each other . i dont know how i could ever thank you. after i read mistborn 2 i had her read it, and with all of the relationship element sin this book, it has braught us closer to each other than ever.i cannot wait for mistborn 3 to come out already the anticipation is killing me.

i just wanted to thank you and mayeb get some feedback as i am a brand new user on here. thank you for reading this and thank you for your time.
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Natalie Perkins

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2007, 02:06:29 AM »
And again, Mistborn changes the life of someone else as well.
Ha - I will now be forever known as the girl who reads alot.
‘Never trust a teenage boy in a room of teenage girls to be on time.’ (Wievorann Ch.6)

charity

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2007, 03:27:26 AM »
over the summer a lady at  church referred to me as an 'avid reader.' I'm still stunned by that, I like to read (alot) but that was a first for me. I know what you mean.

demon

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2007, 03:49:45 AM »
well i never expected a book to have such a profound effect on a life.

but as fo reading, i read mistborn 1 in 2 months. i read mistborn 2 in 3 days. read 400 in a day then deciding i needed to pace myself better.

does anyone know of any authros who write similar to brandons style? im looking for somehting ot hold me over until mistborn 3 comes out.

and i am reading the warbreaker e book also.
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Drerio

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2007, 03:54:47 AM »
In light of todays news, I think recommending the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan would be appropriate.  The first book is The Eye of the World.
http://www.amazon.com/Eye-World-Wheel-Time-Book/dp/0812511816/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197341668&sr=8-2

charity

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2007, 05:10:48 AM »
That'd sure hold you over!  :o since you've got you know 11 books to get through. (and theirs always book 10 which can take a bit  ;))

I myself like.... hmmm, nope can't think of any ;)

Seriously though, Brandon, IMO is in a class of his own. You could always read Princess Bride, that's a good one. My husband was really pleased with Dracula, so if you haven't read that one maybe try it (I actually haven't read it but he seemed to enjoy it)

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2007, 02:31:34 PM »
I'm going to go ahead ahd DIS-recommend anything by Robert Jordon. It's an unpopular positioin, but he's tedious. Of course, if you really obsess and need to read all 10 billion pages of the series before book 12 (by Sanderson) comes out, be my guest. I have better things to do.
You might try Barbara Hambly, Dragonsbane, which turned Brandon on to fantasy in the first place, and it's a really good book I read in my teen years as well. Also George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows are epic level fantasy, though less thoroughly permeated with magic, of a very high quality.

Bookstore Guy

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #7 on: December 11, 2007, 04:40:02 PM »
Is this where I say what I gave to people after they were done reading Sanderson's works?

Here is the thing, Brandon doesn't really write like other authors, so it's hard to say, "get this, it's like his stuff."  However, that being said, here are the books I recommend people read:

1) Steven Erikson - He is always my #1 (sorry Brandon), but he has the steepest learning curve of any author I have read (with the exception of R Scott Bakker - see below).  He has the complexity of a Martin world, but with an extreme amount of magic.  The first book is Gardens of the Moon

2) Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Reading about the only Wizard in Chicago's phone book never disappoints.  Fun, fast reads that have managed to get better with each novel, as well as getting more complex with each novel.  The first book is Storm Front

3) George R R Martin - Already mentioned, but worth it again.  The one drawback is some fairly explicit material at times, and his tendency to kill off characters faster than he introduces them, and it takes him forever to publish the next volumes.  However, this is an amazingly well told story that he miraculously pulls off some how from 43985748937938763 view-points.

4) Robin Hobb - Great stuff told from First Person.  On of Brandon's favorite authors.  Cover quoted him for Mistborn 1.  The book to start with of her's is Assassin's Apprentice.

5) John Scalzi - SCALZIIIII!!!!!!!  Beat out Brandon's Elantris for the Campbell Award in '06.  Good stuff.  Fun SF.  First book is Old Man's War.

6) Scott Lynch - Along with Brandon, lost to Namoi Novikfor the '07 Campbell Award.  The main character in his stuff is a con-artist.  Awesomely put-together.  First book is The Lies of Locke Lamora.

7) R Scott Bakker - I love this guy, but I rarely recommend him.  He's really really deep, and pretty graphic.  His story, however, is amazing.  The first book is The Darkness that Comes Before.

8) David Farland - Way cool ideas.  Brandon took the writing class he currently teaches from Dave back in the day.  Dave is also one of the classiest guys I have met from signings.  First book to read is Runelords.

9)My last favorite is James Clemens.  The Wit'ch series is great dark fantasy.  His new series is getting great reviews also.  He also writes fun fiction under the name of James Rollins (Map of Bones).
Check out our blog, Elitist Book Reviews at:
http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/

demon

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2007, 08:17:56 PM »
thank you all for recomending these books im really interested in looking a some of them. i have to get back to work now before the boos comes and see sme on here.
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CtrlZed

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2007, 11:14:50 PM »
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  This is the book that kept me sane while I was sequestered in Germany over the summer.  Very fun and readable book by a first time author.  Rothfuss has also spoken very highly of the Mistborn books.

demon

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2007, 12:11:40 AM »
i read that, rothfuss recommended mistborn to me actually
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Insomnius

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2007, 08:23:06 PM »
Hey Not Bookstore Guy - I would very much like to engage you in a respectful discussion of the merits (or complete lack thereof) of George RR Martin's series, "A Song of Ice and Fire".

Not to denigrate your opinion but I could not disagree more with your assessment. I had no trouble with the explicit nature of the writing - what I could not stomach were the inconsistencies - to me his world changes whenever he needs to have something different in the story. Three things stood out -

(I put down book 3 half way through and I have never done that before - it was about a year ago so I am going by memory here)

1 - Language - the first inconsistency - the world introduced to us  is one where knights refer to each other using the ancient Ser not even Sir. And then they swear in the modern vernacular - f-bombs and other modern swear words in a ancient setting? Utterly ruined the consistency of the world - for me :)

2 - Undead - the second inconsistency - the mother who died and then came back as undead - two complete books and NO MENTION of undead or anything like that and then suddenly, a character comes back from the dead. And interacts with the live characters - in something like Wheel Of Time, the dark lord from the very first book is referred to as the lord of the grave and a number of references to him being able to reach the dead and bring them back allow for the return of a couple of bad guys much later in the series without disturbing the continuity of the world.

3 - Religion - the third inconsistency - the system of beliefs presented has no mention of heaven or hell - there is no reference to an afterlife or anything like that - the belief system is based in the current living world - and yet certain characters tell others to, "Go to hell" - perhaps this ties in with the first inconsistency but I isolated this as it refers to a system of religious beliefs that is not part of the world.

For those reasons, I put down George RR Martin in favor of other authors....


May I suggest Neil Gaiman?

charity

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #12 on: December 14, 2007, 09:38:00 PM »
I couldn't even get through Shaman's Crosssing. I guess that goes to show the.... everyone likes different books for different reasons.

Jhaeli

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2007, 09:42:08 PM »
As has been said, Brandon Sanderson doesn't write like other authors. It's one of the reasons I enjoy his books; they take fantasy and literary clichés and flip them around.

However, I do have a number of books that I can recommend.

David Eddings: Okay, first of all, to clarify, I mean his older series. I've been disappointed with his newer series, to be honest. The Belgariad series, which starts with 'Pawn of Prophecy' and the sequel series The Mallorean, plus accompanying books, are probably the best he's ever written, followed by The Elenium and The Tamuli. Eddings is not a philosophical writer; his books are purely enjoyable, straighforward fantasy. They're the kind of books you want to read when you don't want to analyse, you just want a book to lose yourself in and enjoy. His strength is his characters, not his plotlines.

Kristen Britain: If you don't mind a female heroine, the Green Rider series is very, very good. It's got a certain realism to it; the protagonist, Karigan, is a very brave hero, but she's also a very believable one. Her bravery is driven by fear for herself and for others; while she has some heroic qualities, they're driven by realistic reasons that have the reader being able to relate on a personal level, rather than put her on a pedestal. Magic in this series is subdued and not entirely understood due to events that happened pre-series, but it's still weaved in very well. You also get the chance to see a lot of the geography; a Green Rider, as an occupation, involves carrying messages for the King across the country. The one problem with this series is that it isn't finished yet and the author likes to take her time with each novel; it's quite a cliffhanger. The books are Green Rider, First Rider's Call, and The High King's Tomb which just came out in November.

I'm at work right now; these are a couple I can think off the top of my head. Let me think on it a bit and get back to you. I've got tons I can name!
"My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel - it is, before all, to make you see." - Joseph Conrad

demon

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Re: I just wanted to thank you for helping - slight spoilers possibly
« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2007, 01:08:56 AM »
those all sound great thank you guys so much for the reccomendations, i am requesting some of them as christmas presents
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