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My first time


Swifftalon

First Sanderson?  

1240 members have voted

  1. 1. Which was your first Sanderson book/series?

    • Mistborn (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages)
      546
    • Stormlight (the Way of Kings and Words of Radiance)
      325
    • Elantris
      155
    • Warbreaker
      29
    • The Rithmatist
      29
    • Steelheart
      57
    • Legion
      3
    • The Emperors Soul
      7
    • Other?
      89


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I learned about him through the Wheel of Time. I got into the series just before Robert Jordan died, and finished right about the time that Brandon started his rereads of the series. Following his blog for WoT stuff, I eventually decided that I should probably read his stuff. I found that he put some preview chapters up for his books, and read the first chapter of Elantris. I was immediately hooked and bought the book. I loved the book, but I didn't pick up anything else of his for months. Then I decided to get the prequel novel for WoT, and when I picked it up, I saw the wonderful cover of Mistborn: The Final Empire. I noticed that it was Brandon's, so I picked it up and read it. Ever since then, I've been hooked. He has written by far my favorite books in the fantasy genre (which for me means the best books EVAR) and has done the Wheel of Time justice. That last bit is probably the main reason I picked up The Way of Kings immediately instead of waiting for reviews.

TL;DR: Brandon's awesome.

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The first time I heard about Brandon was in an indirect, roundabout kind of way, about, oh, a year, year and a half ago?  Only that long?  Wow.

It was after one of our high school's band concerts, which I had gone to to write something for a class (also cuz our band rocks), and afterward I was talking to a friend of mine.  He had another friend with him, and then our mutual friend had to leave.  I was waiting for my ride and so was this friend-of-a-friend, we started talking.  He mentioned the WoT, which I hadn't heard of, and he told me some about it.  He told me about how RJ had died and they had gotten someone else to replace him.  I'm not exactly sure if he mentioned Brandon by name or not, but we moved passed the topic pretty quickly.

Then, last winter, I was getting a ride home from a choir performance with a couple of friends and we started talking about books.  One of my friends mentioned how much he loved Mistborn and said I should read it.  So I did.  And OH MY GOSH, it was so good!  I've been hooked on Brandon's stuff ever since.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I passed the friend who recommended it to me on fandomness once I started reading annotations.  :P

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I was walking through the BYU bookstore, just a little while after TFE came out.  It still being relatively recent, and written by a teacher at the University, Elantris was very prominently displayed.  The cover caught my eye, and I walked over.  On the front is the quote by OSC calling it "one of the finest novels of fantasy in many years."  This intrigued me, so I picked it up and read the back.  "Eternity ended ten years ago."  Then I was really interested.  It was on sale for $7.  Hardback.  I bought it.  I read it.  Then I went and found the newly released TFE.  This was a little more expensive (Read: Full price), so every day between classes I sat in the bookstore and read.  I missed WoA and HoA because I was in Japan at the time.  I got back home, read both of them in a week each, and officially upgraded from Fan to Fanboy.  Discovered TWG and Hoid, and the rest is history.

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I got into Wheel of Time back in high school, and fell in love. I read the entire series that was out at the time (up to book 10) in one stretch; sitting on the couch reading WoT was pretty much my entire summer break that year. I found Dragonmount, learned to RP, and followed the fandom. When I read that Robert Jordan had died and that Brandon had been chosen to finish the series, I checked out his website and blog, and then one day decided to check out his own works. I started with sample chapters, then went out and bought Elantris. I couldn't put it down. So when I finished I went back and devoured the Mistborn trilogy, then Warbreaker when it came out, and so on. Found TWG, met some awesome friends, and now here I am!

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It was quite a while ago, when Mistborn 1 just came out.

I was in something  of a reading dark age so the book initially didn't interest me (my dad had bought it for his library).  I was bored a couple weeks later and started reading it.

  And loved it.

This led to me finishing off Elantris then the other two Mistborn books then Warbreaker.  I am now working on reading Way of Kings.

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  • 1 month later...

I actually heard about it from my twin brother (Nehex) who heard about it from one of his online friends. It was a short while after Elantris had just been released, and I devoured it. Stayed up until almost 5 am (which used to be a big deal) to finish it. I've been hooked ever since. I thought it was fascinating that to actually meet an author. Until I met Brandon at one of his signings for Mistborn, Authors were forign and far off. More like an abstract concept than real, physical people, you know?

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A library was moving and giving away some of their damaged books for free.

One was The Shadow Rising, the other one of the Books in the Dranai series by David Gemmel.

After reading that, I joined the now defunct wotmania boards and spent a lot of my online time there (mainly lurking, so I doubt you've heard of me).

It was there I learned that WoT would be continued by Brandon Sanderson, so I started reading.

Yea, here I am. 

Edited by Kykeon
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was at my cousins wedding and my aunt told me about a book called Mistborn that had just come out I intened to go and read it but it slipped my mind. I kept hearing about it from random places like peoples book reports in my english class, my Dad ended up getting FE for Christmas, I started it a when he was done and got only 30 pages and stoped. that summer I was bored on day and picked it back up read it cover to cover and LOVED it, I had to wait for my dad to get WoA (sucked cause he waited for paperback) read that but not as fast and then had to wait for school to start because the city library had a 5month waiting list, got it from the school library and LOVED it also. Read Warbreaker on the 7 hour car ride to scout camp and read Elantris just  2 months ago. and obviouslly I've read Wok. convinced my parents to the midnight signing at BYU but not to stay to get it personalized so I need to get that personalized along with my others.

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I first heard about it from a penfriend on fanfiction.net.  We had been chatting back and forth for some time, and she had mentioned that her boyfriend had just given her a book that she enjoyed, and reccomended that I pick it up. So, later that week, I picked up Elantris, and fell in love with it. Soon after I finished it, I found out that Brandon had another book coming out in about a week. So, the day it came out, I picked up Mistborn, read it in three days, and met Brandon when he was signing at my local Barnes and Noble a week later. 

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  • 4 months later...

I first heard about Brandon when I started reading Wheel of time a few years ago. I immediately started checking into him and bought Mistborn: Final Empire shortly thereafter. I was hooked. I bought and sped through the Mistborn trilogy and then checked out Elantris at the library because my local bookstore didn't have it. I didn't know about the Alcatraz series until a few years later and I have yet to read any of them. I went to a signing for Brandon on his Way of Kings tour and got my copy signed. I eagerly look forward to anything he writes and I love discussing his work. This man is the author who inspired me to write.

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Yeah WoT for me too. I cant remember but I think I read tGS first and then was just so stunned by his awesomeness that I conquested Mistborn. I tried to wait whiles for books to be published in the UK, but I ended up getting American copies of Elantris and Warbreaker, cause I just couldnt wait XD.

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I'm Pre-WoT. My family picked up Elantris mainly because of the quote on the cover from Orson Scott Card. We all loved it so much, that we went right out and bought Mistborn (the only other one out.)

I only started theorizing, however, after HoA. My first thread that I saw was the HoA Q&A that still, even now, provides the main foundation for our understanding of the Cosmere. It's the first time we heard Shard, the first time we talked about Hoid, and the first time we started trying to piece it together.

EDIT- All the books together. People had been trying to piece together Vin and hemalurgy and Ruin for a while beforehand.

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I think technically I first heard of him from the webcomic "Unshelved" which does book reviews (in graphic format) on weekends. The comic is about librarians and they chose to recommend Alcatraz ... I dunno, seems suspicious. But, I did not read the book at that point. Some time later, I was lent "Elantris" by a friend who assured me that "it's by the guy who's finishing WoT, but don't hold that against him," or something to that effect (I have nothing against WoT, my friend though, doesn't seem to be a huge fan). I read it very quickly and loved it, although it took me a couple more months before I read Mistborn -- I think there was this thing called school that got in the way a bit. It was not until much later that I made the connection that, oh, Brandon wrote that wacky-sounding book that Unshelved recommended, too.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Saw the Elantris hardcover in the Mcnally Robinson (A Canadian Bookstore, the big kind, but many of them have been going out of business, so there's only one or two left :( ) on the new release shelf. I was in a stage of reading where I was sick and tired of waiting for the next book in the series to come out in like five different series, so I was attracted by the fact it was a stand alone. Too bad, I loved it so much I ended up waiting just as much for Mistborn: The Final Empire as I would have if it had been a series. From Final Empire onward, I have pre-ordered every single one of his books on amazon.

Also, you people who don't buy books, I envy you. I have a book buying addiction. My second book shelf is filling up, and still I continue to buy books instead of like... clothing, or food. I read them so fast, my one friend is like: "Why don't you just buy it and return it?" but I just love having them so much, I can't NOT buy them. They just look so awesome on my shelf, and I hate not having books that I've enjoyed so much, that I have even went out and bought books that I have already read.

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Also, you people who don't buy books, I envy you. I have a book buying addiction. My second book shelf is filling up, and still I continue to buy books instead of like... clothing, or food. I read them so fast, my one friend is like: "Why don't you just buy it and return it?" but I just love having them so much, I can't NOT buy them. They just look so awesome on my shelf, and I hate not having books that I've enjoyed so much, that I have even went out and bought books that I have already read.

HAHAHA exactly! I've ended up rigging up some extra shelves between my wardrobe and the wall >.> using other books as shelves....And my bookshelf is packed to the rafters, and I have a number of books on my parents bookshelves too >.> *hoard*

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  • 3 months later...

I picked up The Wheel of Time, on the recommendation of my brother, about the time Knife of Dreams came out. I was rather distressed at Robert Jordan's passing. When I heard that Brandon was going to finish the series I immediately went out and bought Elantris (I wasn't going to sit in agony wondering if he would ruin the best fantasy series since Tolkien). By the time I had finished reading it my fears evaporated and I spent the next six months telling everyone I knew that Brandon Sanderson was the best author in the genre and recommending they read him.

I read the Mistborn books later and enjoyed them, though they can't hold a candle to Elantris in my mind. I followed his blog and read Warbreaker as he posted it, promptly buying the Hardback when it came out (ahh the days of financial carelessness!). I even read his Scribbler sample chapters and was quite distressed to hear it would not be published, yet...

And now I spend time rereading, cross-referencing with itself, and generally dissecting The Way of Kings. A rather generic path to Fandom, perhaps, but I got here just the same.

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  • 1 month later...

My parents are huge fantasy readers and the reason I read fantasy. They actually started reading the Wheel of Time which is how I came to start reading it as well. The first time I only read through the first 3 books before moving on. Then I joined a Wheel of Time site many years later and had to read the entire series. I wouldn't say RJ is one of my favorite authors, I think there are too many little things that annoy me about his writing but I do love the story and would always have continued. It was through this WoT forum that I learned who would be continuing the series and unlike a lot of other fans, I wasn't worried either way. It wasn't until some of my friends checked out his books and loved them that I decided to pick 'em up. I started with Mistborn and was hooked! I didn't like Elantris nearly as much but it was quite soon that I decided that Brandon was one of my favorite authors. I think half the reason I haven't finished Way of Kings yet is because I don't want to have to suffer the wait until the next book!

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Somebody left Elantris on the counter at my workplace... I stared at it for eight solid hours and decided to bring it home with me since the owners didn't seem to want it anymore. I had never heard of Sanderson or any of the books he wrote but for some reason, I wanted to add Elantris to my book shelf. I started reading it a few days later... I don't believe I have ever been obessed with a book before. Immediatly afterwards, I spent 30 bucks on The Way of Kings hardcover and finished within two weeks. Mistborn was finished withing four days... the rest is history. So looking forward to the next Mistborn book! :lol:

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Also, you people who don't buy books, I envy you. I have a book buying addiction. My second book shelf is filling up, and still I continue to buy books instead of like... clothing, or food. I read them so fast, my one friend is like: "Why don't you just buy it and return it?" but I just love having them so much, I can't NOT buy them. They just look so awesome on my shelf, and I hate not having books that I've enjoyed so much, that I have even went out and bought books that I have already read.

I was going to link you to a blog post about book-buying addiction thing, but I can't find it. D: Anyway, I don't have any money, but my library always has a stack of old books for free. Whenever I go there I can't resist taking a few, even if I probably won't read it ever or they are random archaeology books. When I do get money, I like to go to used book shops...because they smell more book-ey than bookshops with just new books.

Right. So about three years ago I was tired of reading fantasy novels that just...weren't amazing. The ones that I had been reading were good, but I wanted something new. I started looking at book recommendations on this random forum put some on my list, but it wasn't until I saw Mistborn on my library's website (under a list of fantasy books) that I heard about Brandon Sanderson. I went to the library and checked out some of the recommended ones as well as Mistborn...which I read last. It totally blew my mind. I think I read it in 3 days, and kept telling my friends at school that they should read it. I immediately put the next two on hold and read through those really fast.

At this point, no one I knew read them and so I kind of stopped looking into Brandon's stuff. This is because I love talking to people about books, but had no one to talk to at the time. After about a month, my friend finally picked up Mistborn and read it in a week. It took her about a year to get through the WoA because of school and trips and such, then told me that WoK came out (I still wasn't paying too much to Brandon stuff at this point). I read through that in a week, then became a full-fledged fangirl. :D

Edit: I found the quote about book buying~

‎"Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it. Those who do not do it, think of it as a cousin of stamp collecting, a sister of the trophy cabinet, bastard of a sound bank account and a weak mind."

— Jeanette Winterson

Edited by Feloxia
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I met Brandon at a signing for Elantris. I had no idea who he was, but I just happened to be in the mall that day. I read Elantris and fell in love. The book was my favorite of his books for a long time. (My new favorite is one that comes out next year.) I soon made my way to his forums (this was back when he was still able to post on his forums) and began to chat with him. Over time I kept buying his books, and started going to release parties. Over time I've managed to get my name in the acknowledgments of Way of Kings and The Rhythmatist when it comes out next year.

I have not read, but I did buy, the WoT books he wrote.

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