How did you become a Sanderfan?

[Odiumiumium]

I first learned about Brandon Sanderson when watching youtube videos, and I heard he was "pretty good". I read Mistborn, and finished Era 1 immediately upon discovering there were sequels to TFE. Later, a friend told me pretty much every day, "read Way of Kings", so I read Way of Kings. At that point, I was a fully fledged Sanderfan and read every single book by him that I could get, starting with Words of Radiance. I'm not sure how I found the 17th Shard, but it was probably through the Coppermind. Now I'm waiting for The Lost Metal and listening to the Shardcast. 

How did you guys become a Sanderfan? 

[S. Stormy]

On 8/14/2022 at 2:47 PM, Odiumiumium said:

a friend told me pretty much every day, "read Way of Kings", so I read Way of Kings.

You're welcome .

Edited August 18, 2022 by Shallan Stormblessed
Smiley

[SymphonianBookworm]

I was in a book club, and someone I enjoyed talking and complaining about books with recommended Six of Crows and the Stormlight Archive. I read SoC and loved it, and had my brother buy me WoK, which I loved. And then I read all of the SA, Mistborn Era's 1 and 2, and then a lot more books.

[The Wandering Wizard]

I read the rithmatist in fifth grade, and found mistborn in middle school. But I didn't read stormlight until my sophmore year and then devoured the rest of sandersons books later that year.

[Luckspren]

I found Steelheart in the book section at Goodwill. Sat right down, started reading, and by the time my mom was ready to check out, I was hooked. I read the rest of the Reckoners as soon as I could, but wasn't aware he'd written anything else. 

I found the first Alcatraz at the library, and laughed myself just about to death. Because the author picture was a potted plant, I didn't make the connection that they were the same Brandon Sanderson.

A while later, I checked out Alcatraz again, looked at the author bio, and made the connection. I looked up a list of his books, but kept forgetting to look for them. 

Another while later, at the library again, I spotted Way of Kings, checked it out, and here I am. 

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood]

I read White sands first or Alcatraz (I know, white sands...)

[AerionBFII]

I was reading Wheel of Time for the first time when Sando took over, I was really impressed how he took over from another author and was able to emulate another authors writing style while staying true to his own. I would have preferred if RJ could have finished it but I was impressed enough to check out his own work.

I'm not ashamed to admit I really struggled with Elantris and Emperors Soul (which I later came to love) and really enjoyed Mistborn but........ Stormlight..... Stormlight Archive really rocked my world. It was on that read that I notice a couple of things that made me really suspicious (I had no Idea the Cosmere existed at this point) enough to Join the 17th Shard and again, my world was shaken to it's core. Reread followed reread and positive fan interactions on the 17th shard made the fandom enjoyable and I'm still here. 

[+sugjesstive]

I began with Sando in the summer of 2018; a friend had recommended Stormlight in particular. 

I read through Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer before September. It consumed me! Which was very surprising. I hadn't even attempted to read a novel in years; ADHD can make it hard; nevermind an epic fantasy novel with 1200+ pages. But Brandon's characterization & world-building were unlike anything I had ever been exposed to before. 

[Side note nobody asked for: I saw so much of myself in Shallan, I took my ass back to therapy. Life now is so much better than it was in 2018.]

I read Mistborn Era 1 during Fall 2018, since I couldn't get enough, and quickly inhaled Warbreaker after that — and for what it's worth, it was honestly Warbreaker that convinced me that this man was indeed worth the pedestal I had(have) him on. That novel is stormin' beautiful. 

Now it's Summer 2022 and I've consumed all the cosmere stuff, and the novellas.  Plus the Skyward series. I am in the process of rereading The Final Empire and Way of Kings now. And sometime next year, I'll probably begin his other non-cosmere works. Alcatraz 5 (?) ending was spoiled for me in one of the 17S eps — but it was so dark, it made me wanna pick it up more.

 

21 hours ago, AerionBFII said:

I'm not ashamed to admit I really struggled with Elantris and Emperors Soul (which I later came to love) and really enjoyed Mistborn but........ Stormlight..... Stormlight Archive really rocked my world. 

You aren't the only one who struggled with Elantris! It's rough, and IMHO Raoden is a Mary Sue. Hrathen is the rust, but also insufferable. And part of the ~experience~ is feeling perpetually uncomfortable as all the Shaod characters deal with a very painful/gruesome/grotesque curse.

I liked the novellas set on Sel, BUT ONLY AFTER reading the intro to Arcanum Unbounded, and looking at the damn maps on the inside covers of the collection. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by sugjesstive

[Just a Silvereye]

I began to read WoT about 2 years ago, at a friend's recommendation. I really enjoyed it but all along I was worried about the end because I knew it was written by another author and even though everyone on the Internet loved the last books, I was still afraid it would not be satisfying.

Then I reach the Gathering Storm. And my craziest expectations are blown out of the water bc it's just great. Immediately, I rush to check what else that Sanderson guy has written outside of WoT, I hear about a thing called the Cosmere, try to find more information, and stumble on a site called Coppermind. After quite a time of wandering on it, I realize two things:

1)I should not have read that much pages, there are spoilers everywhere

2)I want to read everything set in this universe.

A few weeks later, I get to the library, and find a copy of Emperor's Soul. I take it, read it, and make it read to my entire family.

A few months later, I had read all of the published Cosmere books except White Sand 

[nukeboy1970]

I found a battered Alloy of Law in a library sell-off.  This was 2012 or 2013.

I then read all his Cosmere stuff that was out at the time.

[S. Stormy]

On 8/18/2022 at 9:05 AM, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

I read White sands first or Alcatraz (I know, white sands...)

How did you even...

[The Sibling]

My neighbor wanted my dad to read TWoK. He did, and said that it was long and boring, but he explained the fights on the Shattered Plains to me and they sounded rally cool. When I was at a bookstore I bought TWoK and read the whole thing very quickly. After I was done WoR and Mistborn, the neighbor told me that, you know, the Cosmere exists, and after that I was hooked.

[ecjhtheedgedancer]

I read WoK on my brother’s recommendation in 5th or 6th grade and downward spiral from there

Edited February 27, 2023 by ECJHtheEdgedancer

[Trutharchivist]

Well...

I used to go to the Fantasy shelf at my library, look around for a while at the books there and end up taking something I've already read (mostly). Well, a book named Alcatraz VS the Evil Librarians caught my eye, so I borrowed it. It was amazingly hilarious, and had a sample chapter from the next book at the end. Only I was reading in Hebrew, and the next book wasn't translated. Anyway, I really liked the book.

Years later, my eldest brother reads thus book called Mistborn. I ask him about it out of curiosity. He recommends it, but me being me I start of by reading about this book in Wikipedia and spoiling it to myself entirely, never to think of it again... Until my brother, a few years later, tries to convince me to read books by this author called Brandon Sanderson. I'm not sure if by that time I made the connection to Alcatraz, but I agreed to try. I borrowed Elantris from my local library, then Mistborn, then SA (I'm pretty sure it was in that order). Suffice it to say I highly enjoyed those books, and that was the start of an amazing readership history! One that included me illegally downloading books, too.

Hope that wasn't too long...

[+Tekiny]

A bit of (maybe unnecessary) context first:  In 6th grade, there was this guy in my friend group who started to sit next to me on our ride to school. I had the privilege to get on the bus at the first stop, whereas my friends got in at the same time as everyone else. They had to fight for their seats or else they would stand for the next 20-30 minutes. So I made a vow to use my backpack to hold free one seat for them because blocking enough for all of them would have been rude and would have meant a great deal of contortion on my side. But this vow also included not to discriminate against any of them, so whoever was first at my seat would get it. I didn't tell them that to keep it fair and not make it a competition. This unfortunately had the effect that aforementioned guy just needed to get the seat first for about the first one or two weeks until the others decided that this was his spot. 

We didn't really know what to talk about but somehow came to the topic of books. I found out he liked to read as well and we pretty much just talked about that. Then he got to read SA and he tried for I think half a year to get me to read it. You must know, the harsher someone tries to get me to try something, the more will I avoid this exact thing. So he fought a losing battle.

Until he one day got into his seat and just... handed me WoK with the words "You will read this." and after another two months, he successfully had guilted me into doing it. I devoured everything Sanderson he had in one vacation. And yes, inbetween all of this, he became my best friend.

TL;DR: A guy I vaguely knew slowly guilted me into reading WoK and became my best friend along the way.

[Argenti]

So back when I was in like 5th grade, I read Alcatraz. Interestingly I stoped reading it midway through the series (I still haven't read past scrivener's bones) because I didn't like it? Anyhow, years later, I picked up Mistborn and fell in love. Over the next two or so months, I read every single cosmere book (save White sands cus, you know its impossible to find at a library). I still need to read Cytonic and the reckoners and maybe restart Alkatraz.

[S. Stormy]

5 hours ago, Tekiny said:

A bit of (maybe unnecessary) context first:  In 6th grade, there was this guy in my friend group who started to sit next to me on our ride to school. I had the privilege to get on the bus at the first stop, whereas my friends got in at the same time as everyone else. They had to fight for their seats or else they would stand for the next 20-30 minutes. So I made a vow to use my backpack to hold free one seat for them because blocking enough for all of them would have been rude and would have meant a great deal of contortion on my side. But this vow also included not to discriminate against any of them, so whoever was first at my seat would get it. I didn't tell them that to keep it fair and not make it a competition. This unfortunately had the effect that aforementioned guy just needed to get the seat first for about the first one or two weeks until the others decided that this was his spot. 

We didn't really know what to talk about but somehow came to the topic of books. I found out he liked to read as well and we pretty much just talked about that. Then he got to read SA and he tried for I think half a year to get me to read it. You must know, the harsher someone tries to get me to try something, the more will I avoid this exact thing. So he fought a losing battle.

Until he one day got into his seat and just... handed me WoK with the words "You will read this." and after another two months, he successfully had guilted me into doing it. I devoured everything Sanderson he had in one vacation. And yes, inbetween all of this, he became my best friend.

TL;DR: A guy I vaguely knew slowly guilted me into reading WoK and became my best friend along the way.

Can I just say your friend is amazing. And you are too. But wow.

[+Tekiny]

16 hours ago, Shallan Stormblessed said:

Can I just say your friend is amazing. And you are too. But wow.

Yes, he is. He knew I would enjoy it but came to the (right) conclusion that I would never pick it up on my own. And I think had I been confronted with SA without the guilt of "my friend is waiting for me to finish this book", I wouldn't have made it past the first hundred pages or so. I'm a pretty fast reader but my attention span for stuff I'm not completely immersed in is pretty short.

[chongjasmine]

I am a long time fan of WOT, and heard of Brandon after Robert passed away. Love Brandon's WOT. Check out Elantris and became a sanderfan.

[Weaver of Lies]

I read through TWoK in 5th grade because my brother (another huge Sanderson fan, can’t join the shard yet because he’s serving a mission) payed me to. I earned my 20 dollars, and started reading WoR. I didn’t like it (forgive me, I was young then), and stopped reading. I decided I would try Sanderson again, and read Mistborn about a year later. I loved the series, and tried Stormlight Archive again, loved it, and have since become a huge Sanderfan.