Are the books getting shorter?

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Now, I am serious. Are they getting shorter in the sense of their internal time covered in them? TLM took a few days. In fact is that just me or does this book have no middle? It felt like intro -> Sanderlanche starting without barely a transitory part. Elantris and Era 1 books covered the better part of a year in most cases. WoK and WoR are many months. Oathbringer was already shorter. RoW a few weeks.

I see a general trend.

[Little_Dagger she/her]

I think the latter books in the series tend to be 'shorter' because it is all action and barely any world-building or new character introduction. And the Sanderlanche comes early because it is the end for the entire series, not just one book. But... I loved the pace. Couldn't put TLM down until I was done with it...

[+Oltux72 he/him]

29 minutes ago, Yuliya said:

I think the latter books in the series tend to be 'shorter' because it is all action and barely any world-building or new character introduction. And the Sanderlanche comes early because it is the end for the entire series, not just one book. But... I loved the pace. Couldn't put TLM down until I was done with it...

I doubt that we can seriously maintain that TLM lacks worldbuilding and does not introduce new characters.

[Little_Dagger she/her]

31 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

I doubt that we can maintain that TLM lacks worldbuilding and does not introduce new characters.

I mean it in comparison to the first few books of a series. All the main characters are by now well known and loved. And the rest are mostly cameos from other worlds or eras, like Shai, Marsh, Sazed, Kelsier, even horneaters (presumably?). 

The magic is well-established as well. We don't go through the whole "this is steel, Vin, it pushes things" moments as much as it happens earlier

[Philomath she/her]

After doing a reread of all of Era 2 leading up to this, I was kind of surprised to realize that every book of Era 2 takes place in like 3 days or less. This particular series has always been a short time period in world. 

[Who Sharded?]

Yeah I think Brandon took a different approach with Era 2 compared to Era 1.  I think it's because he kind of wrote Alloy of Law on accident, starting as a short story or novella which turned into a novel.  I wonder if Era 3 will go back to the length of Era 1 books, since Era 3 was part of Brandon's plan a long time ago.

It's funny, the 600-700 page books used to be most of what Sanderson wrote (Elantris, MB Era 1, Warbreaker).  We haven't gotten anything of this length since Warbreaker.  It's either 1000+ page doorstoppers or shorter 300-500 page books.

[+Child of Hodor]

11 minutes ago, Philomath said:

After doing a reread of all of Era 2 leading up to this, I was kind of surprised to realize that every book of Era 2 takes place in like 3 days or less. This particular series has always been a short time period in world. 

The series is more of an adventure serial than Era 1 or SA. Both Era 1 and SA have at least 1 book focused on siege warfare which is inherently a drawn out process.  3 days or less is kind of surprising since these novels are 500+ each. 

Also this:

2 minutes ago, Who Sharded? said:

Yeah I think Brandon took a different approach with Era 2 compared to Era 1.  I think it's because he kind of wrote Alloy of Law on accident, starting as a short story or novella which turned into a novel.  I wonder if Era 3 will go back to the length of Era 1 books, since Era 3 was part of Brandon's plan a long time ago.

It's funny, the 600-700 page books used to be most of what Sanderson wrote (Elantris, MB Era 1, Warbreaker).  We haven't gotten anything of this length since Warbreaker.  It's either 1000+ page doorstoppers or shorter 300-500 page books.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Child of Hodor

[StormingTexan he/him]

I do remember thinking while reading it that holy cow this is all happening like in one day! 

[lacrossedeamon]

I think this might be the reason I like MB Era 2 more than MB Era 1. The length and pacing matches the plot better than Era 1 barring TFE. I feel WoA and HoA needed to be Stormlight levels of length to do their plots justice.