What's Brandon's best written accomplishment?

[Ausar]

Okay this kinda needs clarification.

 

What I mean by accomplishment isn't his best book, but what his written work has within. 

Examples would include: magic systems, politics, or how his complex plots work.

 

As since I just started reading Brandon's books, I don't have such a knowledge of the Cosmere and all of that, so I'll just post what I like and leave the topic to you guys until I read some his others books.

 

 

 

My choice for an accomplishment is how he turned the gameplay of Infinity Blade perfectly into a story format.

 

Infinity Blade was just an IPhone game that was fancy, but was still all about the gameplay. Brandon expanded nearly every aspect of the gameplay into a story point.

 

The reason for one on one battles: Aegis Forms code of Honor

Reason Character has armor 'from' father: The God King wants the sacrifice to happen so he can get the power of the Infinity Blade active so he gives the body of the last warrior to the people.

 

Reason for the God King being in such a destroy castle: Isn't really is home, just a trap for the sacrifice.

 

He used every aspect of the gameplay and turned into a plot point, expanding on everything while including his own mythos.

 

So yeah, Infinity Blade. Awesome sauce.

[Ete'ni]

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Edited June 11, 2014 by Ete'ni

[Shardbearer]

I love how he uses "Sandersons Third Law Of Magic" in his writing, which states that you must consider how magic will impact the rest of the world. I love all three laws but this one really makes all the difference.

 

WoK is a perfect example of this. You can see rotspren and how it reacts to water and anesthetics, so the medical field developed much sooner than it would have without that. You can soulcast food and shelter for armies, which changes the logistics of battle drastically.

[king of nowhere]

yep, I'm also going wwith "the way he explore interactions and make his worlds internally consistent". Many writers don't consider deeply how magic affects the world, and many writers don't care that much, but I do, and I like that sanderson also does.

 

As an example I keep remembering, in baldurs gate II there was a belt of poison immunity, with the description "the royal assayers of this ancient country used to wear those belts". I immediately found it totaly ridiculous. First, the task of the assayer is to be poisoned by eventual poison in the food, so that the king will be warned. but if they are magically protected, they may eat poisoned food withoiut consequence and then give the ok singal to the king, who will die. But second and most important, just give the belt to the king and save the trouble. the whole concept of assayers is made useless by that belt. in fact, even the belt is pretty pointless in a world were detect poison is a first level spell.

There are many mistakes like that in fantasy and sci/fi literature (abeit not that blatant, normally), and brandon is never going to fall like that.

[Windrunner]

Best written is tricky. I'd definitely go for The Emperor's Soul as his best written shorter work, and The Way of Kings for his best written longer work. I'm not sure which I'd rank above the other, or if I even could.

[Aether]

Best written is tricky. I'd definitely go for The Emperor's Soul as his best written shorter work, and The Way of Kings for his best written longer work. I'm not sure which I'd rank above the other, or if I even could.

Couldn't agree with you more, though I'd like to name the Emperor's Soul his best written word, period. The prose is just on a higher level than even the Way of Kings (though not by far). The latter, however, is by far his best work if you add in the world-building and character development.

[Quiver]

Maybe it isn't his best written accomplishment(for a given value of all the words in that sentence) but creating a fictional physics, with laws diverse enough to allow dozens of different magic systems, but which remains entirely self-consistent? That's impressive.