Timewaster's Guide Archive

Alcatraz has a male main character
Elantris has three  main characters, two male and one female.
Warbreaker has (I think) four main characters, two female and two male.
And Mistborn has a female main character, though arguably Elend take a main role by book 3.

So by my count, that's 7 published novels, and a male/female lead ratio of 6 to 6.

I think it's just that he writes powerfully strong female leads, so they stand out. Whereas we're all used to powerful male leads.

When I said "I would like him to write more books with male protagonists" I meant epic fantasy. I've read Alcatraz and I like it, but I guess I should have clarified that I was just thinking about epic fantasy.

I think it was Reaves comment that made me realize what I wanted was more male protagonists, not just strong male main characters. I haven't read Elantris in a long time (I need to re-read it), but it is the only published Sanderson book I've read with an actual male protagonist. (And I've read all of Sanderson's published books and some of his unpublished works.)

And a little more about Elantris...

RE: Elantris - I considered the princess to be the (capital M, capital C) Main Character. She certainly seemed to have the most screen time.

Like I said before, I haven't read Elantris in a long time, but if Sortitus is correct and the princess has more screen time than Raoden, it muddies the water a little bit. I believe Raoden is still the protagonist of Elantris, but if the main female character has as much or more POVs than the male protagonist, it still confirms echigo109's observation that "All of the books that i've read by brandon sanderson has a girl main character".

I'm just saying that I observed the same thing echigo109 did.

Elantris - male protagonist, but the main female character seems to steel the show
MB trilogy - female protagonist
Warbreaker - female protagonist* - the two most common POVs were female

In my mind all 5 of Sanderson's published epic fantasy either had a female protagonist, or the female main character stole the show.

I'm a guy and I grew up reading fantasy where the protagonist is almost always a guy. I guess that's how I've come to expect my fantasy. I do really enjoy the WoT with its many female main characters and POVs, but I get the impression Sanderson is going a little overboard with all of his female protagonists and main characters. Don't get me wrong, I like his books, but my favorite book of his is Dragonsteel. I think I like Dragonsteel more than all the books he's published because the protagonist AND the main POV is a guy. I relate to him more.


-- slight Warbreaker spoiler -- you've been warned
* - I realize the protagonist of Warbreaker depends on how you define the term. Now that I think about it, the "hero" of the book turned out to be someone else, but for the purposes of this thread I think we can agree the story was about the two sisters.

I did my re-read-through on my 80 mile daily drive with audio books. It's the only way I made it through the last half of the series. Even then, It was all I could do not to completely skip sections that were insanely repetitive. So yeah, I know what you mean. To me, book 2 was the high point.

Miyabi - I've learned to respect Important Bookstore Guy's opinions on these forums, BUT I've also learned he's not your average WoT fan. He is much more critical of WoT than most of us WoT fans on this forum. I would take his WoT opinions with a grain of salt. 

I definitely like book 2, but I feel that the series really takes off around the end of book 3. I think books 4 and 5 are my favorite.

I'll get back to this soon, hopefully.  I just keep picking it up and starting to read, but then I just think about how huge this series is and become all blah about the whole thing and only read a page or so and want to like, not read it. ha ha. xD

A huge epic fantasy story makes you feel "blah"?
Hmmmm, sounds like you aren't a fan of big long epic fantasy series. Not sure if you'll like WoT then, since that's exactly what it is.
I think Robert Jordan is a master story teller and I love his writing style. Try the first book and see if you like it!

D: I wish I could have stayed later, but my sisters were being all bratty and wanted to go.

Freaking sisters. They're always getting in the way! I should know. I have seven of them. 

It looks like I will be able to make the release party tonight. Should get there around 7:00.

Ookla, do you think Brandon will read anything from Way of Kings? That would be AWESOME!

Dang! I should have pre-ordered one! I started reading it online, but got tired of reading on the computer screen. Sounds like Warbreaker has some of the best reviews of Sanderson's works so far. I'm really looking forward to reading it!

I never thought Mat was raped. He is pursued by a VERY aggressive and powerful woman, but I never had the impression she made him do anything he didn't want to.

I thought the scenes where Tylin is domineering Mat were actually quite funny. At this point in the story Mat has grown quite a bit and has a very strong personality. It was fun to see the tables turned on him a little bit.

Now if a similar scenario were to play out in real life, I think it's almost guaranteed the aggressor would be committing rape at some level. But, we are talking about a fantasy story in a fantasy world. Mat is a super-character and he could take control of the situation if he really wanted to.

We're still talking about Mat freaking Cauthon here!!!! If he doesn't want to be in that situation he gets out of it! End.Of.Story.

Amen to Madness

I personally feel it hurts the series.

I agree with you 100% on that one. I think WOT is one of the best fantasy series out there, but I think it has the worst cover art. It would probably be even more popular if the covers were appealing instead of ... awful.

I like the UK covers much more.
http://www.dragonmount.com/Books/Gathering_Storm/Images/tGS_Uk_01.jpg
You'd think Tor would recognize that Sweet's covers are hurting the series and do something simplistic, like the UK version.

I'm assuming Brandon was trying to find something positive to say about it when he said "My thoughts? I like it a lot better than the sketch that was floating around." If that's the best thing he can say about it, then he doesn't care for it either.  Oh well. WOT isn't his baby. We're just lucky he's finishing it.

Someone on Dragonmount made up a caption for the art that made me laugh:

“Blood and ashes!! I said no Traveling inside the house!”

Hahahaha! 

After reading that, the first caption that popped into my mind was:

"Light blind you, Semirhage! I wanted that hand!"