My review (and our discussion) is here. Alloy of Law was really weak, IMO - almost as bad as Elantris.

 

I think a lot of writers, fanfiction and otherwise, like to start off each chapter with some flowery prose but don't keep it up. That just makes it read forced and unnatural. It's purely opinion, of course, but I mostly prefer Sanderson's writing, which largely just gets the hell out of your way and lets you plow straight through it.

 

It's more a matter of voice, I think, than anything to do with elegance or flowery. The voice varies from book to book of the same author, but it's always there. You can't take the voice away from Dresden Files, from Discworld novels, from Moby Dick, from Shakespeare. You can make an adaptation to another medium, but the story loses something without the voice.

This is especially evident if you're bilingual. Most of the authors I like write in English and since I speak it, I'll take English. But when the books only arrive here in Spanish, I sometimes bite the bullet and take them. It's readable. Later, when I get a copy in English, I read it again and it's just so much better when you have the right words.

Sanderson doesn't do this very well (yet). To be fair, it's hard to do well. Butcher might have it down pat for Dresden Files because the voice is his voice on superpowers, but he isn't nearly as good in his other works like Codex Alera.

 

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/1186/State-of-the-Sanderson

Some updates on what he's been doing. He said he has the editor's notes now, and him and his assistant are doing a "tight copyedit" of the entire manuscript. The publisher is still saying a January release date, but to be honest, Brandon doesn't seem super confident that they'll meet it. It's at 360K words, close to what A Memory of Light was. Regarding future Stormlight books, Brandon said he was dissatisfied with the 3+ year wait between Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, and that he wants 18-24 month gaps at most.

Other, non-Stormlight Archive news:

Rithmatist sequel: Never read the first one, did anyone here? Is it good? I know it's one of his YA series, set outside the Cosmere.

Elantris sequel: Can't wait to see how his maturation of an author goes in that universe (not counting The Emperor's Soul, though it is technically on Sel, the Elantris planet). I enjoyed Elantris, but you could REALLY tell that it was his first novel.

Still working on getting funding for a Mistborn film.

Shadows of Self: Next Wax and Wayne mistborn novel. Hopefully it's not a beyond meh novella like The Alloy of Law. I'm not sure if the Wax and Wayne "Mistborn Adventures" series is the steampunk trilogy he said was going to be set on Scadrial, and that afterwards is the Sci-fi trilogy portion, but I'd like to think not.

 

Eh, I enjoyed the Alloy of Law for what it was; a western mystery in the Mistborn world. It was never meant to be on the scale of Mistborn, but it was fun and light hearted and didn't take itself too seriously. A neat little addition to the Cosmere, more a side-story than anything of real impact.

 

I liked the Rithmatist, but it's clear that it's YA. The concept is pretty weird, but it's unlike anything I've read before, which is nice. It's very well written, and very enjoyable.

 

Fuck, He has so many projects in the pipeline. Steelheart should be awesome. The RIthmanist was a good read and I liked it.. A Legion TV series can have huge potential and the sequel will be fun to read,

 

Words of Radiance Cover. Release date is still not fixed. Middle of January is the estimate

 

This thread made me order the book. It had better not suck.

 

Full spread. Implications are... fucking awesome



Here's the original link in Whelan's article where he describes his process.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/brandon-sanderson-words-of-radiance-cover-reveal-michael-whelan

 

I saw on Brandon Sanderson's Facebook page yesterday that the release was being pushed to March of next year because of the time needed for the remainder of the editing and printing process. Hopefully it won't get delayed even further.

 

Nothing really important, but this is an interesting screenshot on Sanderson starting draft 3. It's cool looking at the POV chapters on the left, and that's a huge amount of folders on the left.

edit: pic was too damn big

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BP_cInkCQAAfZ7a.png:large

Dunno, just another interesting insight into the day-to-day work of an author, which is something I find fascinating.

 

I liked seeing those few folders on the right with names I didn't recognize

 

The first three chapter of Words of Radiance :awesome

March 4 2014. Mark your calendar

 

I just finished The Way of Kings, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As mentioned before, possibly the best world building I've ever seen.

Cheers for the link to the WoR chapters. Would of never found it otherwise.

 

Not excited at all. Nope. Not me.

Those excerpts were good for setting the stage, though if I know Sanderson he'll take my expectations and run them off a cliff.

 

http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/01/...radiance-prologue-chapter-three-four-and-five

Next three.

 

And this time, it shall be me who shares the wealth!

Read and enjoy folks.

Chapters 6, 8 and 9

(apparently chapter 7 is too cool to be previewed, or at least thats what I presume)