What is your favourite individual story by Brandon?

[Moash]

Spoilers below for words of radiance and extremely slight ones for wheel of time and mistborn

 

 

 

I just wanted to see what everyone's favourite book by Sanderson is. I do not mean which series but which individual story he has written. It could be any novella, short story, etc (even the I am a stick one) or book in one of his series cosmere or non cosmere, wheel of time is included two but only the final three of course. What is your favourite individual story? For me it is tough as I really loved all three wheel of time books and I really enjoyed the way of kings but loved words of radiance ten times more. I also loved the first 2 mistborn books a lot, especially the second one for its intensity (most people seemed to find it not as good), the third was amazing but so dark at times it was tough. I think when it comes down to it I will choose Words of Radiance as I still cannot determine my favourite wheel of time by brandon (TGH was great I thought and advanced the story, TOM was awesome and did a lot of good stuff for storylines like Perrin and AMOL was the emotional and epic conclusion).

 

 

 

 

I think I will choose words of radiance because despite it taking time for me to get into the series, the way of kings was bumpy for me and I had to slowly plug away at it over a month because I was busy and felt it was a little slow paced. Parts 4-5 were so awesome though that with all the plot points for book 2 I was really excited. I then spent lots of time on 17th reading stormlight theories+predictions and getting more excited. Then tor started building the hype train with all of the advertising for WOR with the glimpses of radiance, practically all of part 1 revealed in sample chapters which I read multiple times (gave me a problem later on as i still intended to work through part 1 when I got the book but it was like a third reread and there was all the unknown amazing chapters past part 1 but I had to work to get to them). There was also the way of kings rereads by tor and the analysis posts about the flora and fauna of roshar, etc. The cover of Kaladin vs Szeth also gave me major goosebumps because when Mr T sent szeth off to kill Dalinar I immediately thought about kaladin vs szeth.

 

 

With all the awesome hype released I binge read the book in about 20 hours and it fulfilled and went beyond my high expectations while feeling like a truly epic experience that had almost zero disappointments. So overall book 2 of the stormlight archive is my favourite brandon book and I think it won't be surpassed for a couple years because I think stones unhallowed will be a little less insane in the sense that he won't focus on making an insanely massive and awesome book as he did for words of radiance because of the long delay between words of radiance and the way of kings. I think he will focus on fewer things in this book while still having tons of epicness. Then again that could make it better than book 2 perhaps. I am sure though that he will release an even greater stormlight book with an even more climactic feeling to it. anyway that is my opinion on words of radiance being my favourite book by brandon. What do you fellow 17th shard users consider your favourite brandon book?

Edited December 7, 2014 by Moash

[Haradion Drogon]

Hmm... This is interesting, because I enjoyed the Story of Elantris very much.
The themes on Religion, Romance, Politics, Social injustice, all fairly typical themes that appear in many books, but pulled off so well it wasn't an glorified pamphlet.

However, Its not his best written book.

Equally, White Sand was a very good read, mainly because it was so self contained, and was a nice change of pace from he universe shattering (Forgive the pun) of the events elsewhere in the Cosmere...

My all time favorite though, has to go to "The Well Of Ascension".

Its the classic second act of the trilogy. Earthshaking things are revealed, it ends on a dismal note, with friends lost the success of the  good guys far from certain.
A wonderfully portrayed siege, a marvelous villain in the form of Elend's father, the character of Zane, and the individual character arcs of Elend, Vin and Sazed were marvelous.

A triumph.

[Purelake Earthquake he/him]

For me it was Words of Radiance, no contest.  It's my favorite novel in general.  Runners up would maybe be Way of Kings, Hero of Ages, A Memory of Light, Towers of Midnight, maybe Warbreaker.

 

I'm hoping Stones Unhallowed will top the list when it comes out.

[Moash]

Hmm... This is interesting, because I enjoyed the Story of Elantris very much.

The themes on Religion, Romance, Politics, Social injustice, all fairly typical themes that appear in many books, but pulled off so well it wasn't an glorified pamphlet.

However, Its not his best written book.

Equally, White Sand was a very good read, mainly because it was so self contained, and was a nice change of pace from he universe shattering (Forgive the pun) of the events elsewhere in the Cosmere...

My all time favorite though, has to go to "The Well Of Ascension".

Its the classic second act of the trilogy. Earthshaking things are revealed, it ends on a dismal note, with friends lost the success of the  good guys far from certain.

A wonderfully portrayed siege, a marvelous villain in the form of Elend's father, the character of Zane, and the individual character arcs of Elend, Vin and Sazed were marvelous.

A triumph.

 

yeah it is nice to see someone else who found well of ascension awesome. It was just so intense and dramatic, many awesome characters introduced. Character development such as that of Elend which I liked (I forgive you... but my kingdom cannot!), straff was such a despicable and nasty person, his ending was very satisfying. Zane was a cool character and I liked Cett for being pretty entertaining with his attitude. The battle of luthadel was amazing and utterly insane, I recall reading it after finishing a french test back in grade 8 years ago and my hands were shaking as I was reading about the battle with the koloss. Book 2 was really amazing I thought, so intense and dramatic.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

My favorite complete story... I would have to say is Mistborn: the Final Empire. 

 

It was such a fresh story in the genre that it kind of rocked my world a bit. Even from the outset premise, "what if the hero of prophecy had failed and now the dark lord has reigned for a thousand years...?" was awesome. Then you throw in the cinematic metallic arts and all the great fight sequences, the layers upon layers (there is always another secret) and it has to be my favorite story. Part of that is sentimentality on my part too as it was my introduction to Sanderson. 

 

I also really, really enjoyed his two short "hard sci-fi" stories Elysium and Firstborn. 

 

Favorite scene that Sanderson has written for me would have to be one each from tWoK and WoR where Kaladin says the 2nd and 3rd Ideals of the Windrunners. Each one sends chills through me every time I read them. 

[Curiosity he/him]

My favorite story for character's sake is probably The Way of Kings. Yes, WoR was awesome, but it just didn't carry that same... beauty that WoK did. And Dalinar... I really like him. *emphasis*

However, my favorite book as a work is The Emporer's Soul. It was an fast read the first time through with a lot of suspense and interest. However, it has a lot of beauty to be considered. Its insight on the nature of art and beauty is really thoughtful. Yes, it has a Hugo Award, but that's not why I chose it. I didn't even know what the Hugos were before I read it. But it really struck me. It's artistic, and that's something that I don't often see in fantasy. Oh yes, there's beautiful prose (see Patrick Rothfuss for one, who I haven't read enough), but when a story itself communicates wisdom through well crafted circumstances such that you understand with the characters; that is when I stop and see beauty. That is rare talent. As much as Brandon may be philosophical and, to a degree, religious in his writing, no other story matches the concise beauty that this story gives. 

[Retsam]

I'd definitely say Kaladin's story from Way of Kings.  It's just one of the best character arcs I've ever read, and man, that ending.  

[sanderfan she/her]

My all time favorite would have to be Mistborn: the Final Empire. The others, of course, were amazing as well as all of his other books, but something about Mistborn just gets me so excited to read it every singe time. I truly care for all of the characters and find each one of their journeys really inspiring. The ending, of course, broke my heart, but I've honestly never felt so much emotion over a book before, and that's really the best part, whether or not that emotion is happy or sad.

[kaellok he/him]

Are you asking favorite story, like you said, or favorite work (such as short story, novella, novel, etc.)?  Because my favorite story is Shallan in the Stormlight Archive series.  How I feel about the other characters have waxed and waned, but her story just keeps getting better and stronger with every re-read.  To a very, very large degree I see elements of my own life reflected in Shallan, both in troubles at home (although mine pale in comparison of magnitude) and how we dealt with them.  I think that WoR is, for the most part, the best written novel of Sanderson so far, and includes my favorite character, but there were enough events that snapped me out of it and back to reality on my first read-through that it's not on my short-list for favorite work (Kaladin in WoK was awesome; I didn't like him nearly as much in WoR, but I understand that I'm not in the majority of this opinion on these boards).

 

For my favorite novel/novella/short, though, that's a whole hell of a lot harder.  Probably the first Mistborn, because it was the first work of his that I read (I read the one WoT novel first, but I still consider those to be Jordan's works, rather than Sanderson's).  So there's that very strong "first moment" reaction that lingers on.  Possibly Warbreaker, which starts off so--not really good, but then turns great by the end.  I missed the importance Hoid in it the first time around, but there was still so much there that gave me a glimpse into what more was going on Cosmerically speaking (yeah, I didn't really get that same feeling on the initial read-through of Mistborn.)

[Moash]

i mean best individual work

 

Are you asking favorite story, like you said, or favorite work (such as short story, novella, novel, etc.)?  Because my favorite story is Shallan in the Stormlight Archive series.  How I feel about the other characters have waxed and waned, but her story just keeps getting better and stronger with every re-read.  To a very, very large degree I see elements of my own life reflected in Shallan, both in troubles at home (although mine pale in comparison of magnitude) and how we dealt with them.  I think that WoR is, for the most part, the best written novel of Sanderson so far, and includes my favorite character, but there were enough events that snapped me out of it and back to reality on my first read-through that it's not on my short-list for favorite work (Kaladin in WoK was awesome; I didn't like him nearly as much in WoR, but I understand that I'm not in the majority of this opinion on these boards).

 

For my favorite novel/novella/short, though, that's a whole hell of a lot harder.  Probably the first Mistborn, because it was the first work of his that I read (I read the one WoT novel first, but I still consider those to be Jordan's works, rather than Sanderson's).  So there's that very strong "first moment" reaction that lingers on.  Possibly Warbreaker, which starts off so--not really good, but then turns great by the end.  I missed the importance Hoid in it the first time around, but there was still so much there that gave me a glimpse into what more was going on Cosmerically speaking (yeah, I didn't really get that same feeling on the initial read-through of Mistborn.)

i mean best work

[nochange]

I thought from an overall perspective was Emperor's Soul, it covered a lot of great themes, had likeable characters, and had an interesting flow. It was missing the Brandon Avalanche at the end, but it probably would have been out of place.

 

I think his best story in his books was that of the bridgemen. He captures the feeling of hopelessness and what this does to a person so well. They were about as low as I could imagine someone going and the way that Kal turns their perspective around was really neat.

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Mistborn the final empire.

Non cosmere would have to be legion 2

[Fatebreaker he/him]

My favorite story is the Rosharan children's tale about the piece of wet slime and the disgusting crab thing with seventeen legs and their insufferably rainy adventure over the rocks, as told by Hoid.