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Just finished the White Sand prose, some thoughts on it


LewsTherinTelescope

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  • I prefer novels to graphic novels in general, so for the medium, I prefer the novel.
  • The first half of the prose version just felt painful. Had to put the book down between each chapter. But somewhere in the second half, I finally got hooked and read through probably 2 or 3 times faster than the first half.
  • I prefer the ending to the Drile fight in the graphic novel, but the exact word choice they used was just cringy to me ("No sand masters die under my watch. Not today, not ever!"). So that ending but with better dialogue is my preference.
  • Really that applies to most of it, the prose had some terrible dialogue at times, but the graphic novel used that as a base and then cut out most of it, leaving even the better parts bad. Although Ais's "The Sand Lord may judge me a heretic, but I am grateful" felt better to me than the prose (even though I liked the scene as a whole better in the prose).
  • Speaking of Ais, because I read the graphic novel first, I still imagined Ais as a woman the whole book, and got tripped up almost every single time it used male pronouns. Not really a pro or con between the two necessarily, just that one ended up sticking in my head and somehow never changed.
  • While graphic novels aren't something I love, there are definitely some benefits, like being able to see Elorin speaking to the Sand Lord in the background during Kenton's confrontation of him. I think I prefer that scene in general in the graphic novel (or once again, I would if the dialogue was better). A confrontation with Drile, where both Kenton and Drile ask the other why they sent assassins, would probably be better than either, but I still prefer the GN's version to the prose's.
  • The epilogue on the ship was obviously better in the GN, considering it was non-existent in the prose.
  • Not sure if I prefer seeing the priest dude take over (prose epilogue) or just the Lady Judge predicting it, possibly leaving it for a sequel.
  • I prefer the GN's ending with Kenton, him just rushing off on an in-the-moment decision with no real preparation in the prose was kinda lame. His whole arc was learning responsibility, that kinda undoes that part.
  • Undecided on the Gevin reveal scene (besides, once again, the prose having superior dialogue). Gevin turning out to be pretty terrible in the prose was interesting, but not sure how I feel on it
  • I do wish some of the scenes cut from the GN (such as Khriss's arrival) were included. I do remember there being some scenes I was glad were cut, but I was too lazy to take notes, so I forget which scenes.

Somewhat surprisingly to me, I think I might have to say that I actually like the graphic novel, when it comes to enjoyment. I don't like graphic novels, and most of the graphic novel had inferior dialogue, and I missed some of the deleted scenes, but the first half of the prose, and even a lot of the second half, was just so. painful. that I think it successfully (if that's really an appropriate word here) managed to outweigh every flaw of the graphic novels for me.

Going to reread the graphic novels tomorrow, because I haven't read them in a couple months, but I don't think that my ultimate opinion will change.

[Insert here my usual disclaimer about being tired, because for some reason I never finish a book before one in the morning, and using the tiredness as an excuse for typos or weird-sounding phrases.]

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For most of the altered plot elements the GN was better. The prose version just had better more in-depth worldbuilding, and better way of conveying the characters' internal conflict, especially compared to GN part 1. I prefer the Khriss Gevin/Nilto confrontation/revelation more in the GN. I preferred the Drile fight in the prose more actually. GN's ending, no Khriss x Kenton was definitely better.

I preferred GN part 3 more than its corresponding section in the prose, whereas the corresponding prose section was better than GN part 1 & 2. Khriss and Kenton have awful characterization in the GNs. I don't think either version of Aarik and Ais were better than the other. I don't really like Ais either way. There is a missed opportunity with Ais in the GN, I feel, the gender dynamics on the Dayside of Taldain shouldn't have been changed from prose to the graphic novels. It would've made for a stronger characterisation for Ais if she had to deal with being a Trackt, a Kerztian and a woman within that society. Ais' fanaticism and anger issues were downplayed in the GN, I feel.

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13 minutes ago, Honorless said:

For most of the altered plot elements the GN was better. The prose version just had better more in-depth worldbuilding, and better way of conveying the characters' internal conflict

I think this sums up a lot of my thoughts much better than I thought of lol. I agree with all 3 of those.

11 minutes ago, Honorless said:

I preferred GN part 3 more than its corresponding section in the prose, whereas the corresponding prose section was better than GN part 1 & 2.

Seems to be the most common opinion I've heard, they probably took a lot of the criticism from earlier parts and tried to improve on it for the later ones.

16 minutes ago, Honorless said:

It would've made for a stronger characterisation for Ais if she had to deal with being a Trackt, a Kerztian and a woman within that society.

On one hand, I agree, but on the other, not sure it would have been done well, considering that iirc most of the internal conflicts tended to be cut, so it probably would've had only an occasional brief mention rather than being a proper thing. But adding a third layer in there could be interesting, if the conflicts were covered more.

10 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Ais' fanaticism and anger issues were downplayed in the GN, I feel.

I kinda wonder if this is because Brandon changed Ais's gender, and then they realized "maybe 'too emotional for this job' plus woman could come off badly" lol. The graphic novel in general kinda suffered from the internal conflicts not showing as well, from my memory (probably because that's just plain easier in books than a graphic novel).

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I really haven't been a fan of Brandon's works in graphic novel format. So far it has only been the three parts of White Sand and The Dark One and I've only truly enjoyed part three of White Sand. And that was only because the resolution that happens after Kenton's duel in the prose was very rough and part three was where they cleaned it up. The other two were just abridged versions of the prose with the worldbuilding replaced by, in my opinion, poor illustrations. The Dark One didn't really grab me either, but I may just not be a fan of a story getting chopped up into smaller segments that seems to be common in Graphic Novel formats, so the jury's still out on that one. I just don't feel that Brandon's writing style is currently suited to the graphic novel format, but maybe with time it will get better. 

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  • 7 months later...

definitely like the prose version better. It had much better character development and gave a clear view of their internal struggles. I wish it had ended on a less open note and I'd have liked to see Ais as a woman there. But, overall, the prose was a whole lot more complete than the GN and conveyed the world with a depth that the GN didnt.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 3/18/2021 at 2:25 PM, Listener said:

definitely like the prose version better. It had much better character development and gave a clear view of their internal struggles. I wish it had ended on a less open note and I'd have liked to see Ais as a woman there. But, overall, the prose was a whole lot more complete than the GN and conveyed the world with a depth that the GN didnt.

Definitely would love to see Ais as a woman in the White Sand prose version of the world. That would be super interesting for her character.

I rather loved Kenton. His struggles might not have been as poignant and stuff as some other Cosmere characters, but a lot of it was very relatable for a younger audience, imo. Very coming-of-age.

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