Introducing Sanderson's works to friends

[skaa]

I've been trying to introduce my friends to the wonderful Cosmere of Brandon Sanderson. So far, I've convinced one to read the Mistborn trilogy, but he doesn't seem interested in reading the other stories. Another friend was weirded out by the "swallowing metals" thing, so I guess mentioning that was a bad idea.

 

Anyway, I'm sure lots of you guys have fared way better at this than I, so I'd like to hear your stories and advice. How did you spread the word about Brandon's books? How did you Endow your friends with the Warbreaker Breath, or grant them the Mistborn Investiture, so to speak?

[Kurkistan]

Nowadays, three letters: T.E.S. It's the easiest introductory sell you could ever ask for. So far as getting them to read more, I usually don't bother if they weren't interested after at least reading the Mistborn trilogy. Maybe the occasional reminder of awesomeness to come if they keep reading Sanderson, but you can only lead a horse to water.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Senor Feesh]

Yeah, I'm fairly lucky in that my RP group doubles as a book-club if one of us finds an awesome series, we'll share the love around and know that most of us share very similar reading tastes.

 

If you want to get your friends involved, find a parallel to the books they already love. Exciting combat scenes? Mistborn and Way of Kings have some of the most visually exciting fight scenes I can recall. Excellent and consistent worldbuilding? ANY of Sanderson's books Fan of epics? Stormlight Archives, for sure. Want something easy to read but with surprising depth? Warbreaker.

 

There really should be something for all tastes here

[skaa]

Nowadays, three letters: T.E.S. It's the easiest introductory sell you could ever ask for. So far as getting them to read more, I usually don't bother if they weren't interested after at least reading the Mistborn trilogy. Maybe the occasional reminder of awesomeness to come if they keep reading Sanderson, but you can only lead a horse to water.

 

Sounds like a good idea. It's small enough that even the busier ones might find time for it. I was thinking that maybe TES was more for fans who are already aware of Hoid and Realmatics terminology, but I guess knowledge of those things isn't really needed, strictly speaking. I'll try this next time!

 

 

If you want to get your friends involved, find a parallel to the books they already love. Exciting combat scenes? Mistborn and Way of Kings have some of the most visually exciting fight scenes I can recall. Excellent and consistent worldbuilding? ANY of Sanderson's books Fan of epics? Stormlight Archives, for sure. Want something easy to read but with surprising depth? Warbreaker.

 

There really should be something for all tastes here

 

Indeed. The second guy I mentioned (the one that found burning metals weird) was into MTG, so I figured he'd like the complex rules of Mistborn's magic systems.

 

I wonder, how would you describe Mistborn's story to a friend?

Edited May 22, 2013 by skaa

[Joe ST]

I wonder, how would you describe Mistborn's story to a friend?

Magical physics heist based in post-apocalyptic dictatorship

[HemalurgyIsMessy]

Magical physics heist based in post-apocalyptic dictatorship

Heck yeah, that's the best thing I've ever heard.

Whenever I try to let people know about Sanderson I just tell them how awesome the stories are. Usually works but not always. Their loss, in my opinion.

[Observer]

I wonder, how would you describe Mistborn's story to a friend?

 

A group of theives attempt to rob their physical god of an emperor.

[skaa]

All great descriptions, everyone! I guess that was my problem. For most people, it's the plot that's exciting, but I focused too much on describing the magic systems, so the things I said didn't interest them at all.

[Senor Feesh]

I wonder, how would you describe Mistborn's story to a friend?

I usually tell people it's an inversion of a common fantasy trope. It's really common to have heroes fighting some nebulous dark lord who wants to remake the world in his own image. It's rarer to find a world where that already happened, and far enough in the past that most people simply accept it as normal.

So I guess that, added to the much more concise comments above.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I don't think Stormlight is a good starting place.  Szeth's intro has a real 'tutorial level' feel, and it's very difficult to get past the first couple chapters - and once someone's opinion has soured on a book, it makes the remaining thousand pages a slog.

[Nepene]

In describing a book you have to focus on the things that are interesting to them. You are interested in magic systems, they may not be.

 

Plot lines and characters are a safer bet.

[Morsk]

I wonder, how would you describe Mistborn's story to a friend?

I can't write it to sound as good as a book blurb, like some people did. But I'd explain the story as being about Vin and the balls, since that's how I always remember it. She grew up as a street child, unconsciously using her latent powers to survive. At the start of the story she's "discovered" by high-class thieves who train her as a spy and assassin, give her the first real family in her life, and send her to infiltrate high society. Also their goal is to assassinate an immortal tyrant who's ruled for 1000 years. Edited May 23, 2013 by Morsk

[king of nowhere]

I have an intersting case of a friend I got to read the mistborn trilogy. She claimed to like it, but she took, like, 4 months to read it, and she would oftenput it down to read something else. On the other hand, she showed actual appreciation for it, and she had no reason to lie to me, she showed interest when i mentioned alloy of law, so I believe her. She then picked up the way of kings, but stopped in midread claiming that the amount of bad stuff that happens to kaladin is too much and makes her depressed.

I'm inclined to think that the steep learning curve of sanderson's books make them stuffy to her, even when she enjoy them.

 

On the other hand, her son became a good fan of the books. Unfortunately I haven't been able to expand their cosmere culture because of several concurring factors

- I read the books in english, but they are not comfortable with that and require the italian translation, so I can't just lend them my copies

- books are incredibly expensive in italy. At least those books. I spent 30 euros to buy them TFE and get them intersted in the series.

- apparently, italian libraries are ignorant of what constitutes good fantasy. Sanderson's books are difficult to find. Many libraries won't even have a single book by terry pratchett! Last time I went into one, three quarters of the "fantasy" section were filled with either werewolves/vampires stuff or elves and other glorified tolkien fanfiction.

- my friend and her husband don't have a card for internet purchases.

- she and her son are quite lazy when it comes to doing stuff outside of their routine (not that I am any better). The husband and other son are not intersted in reading.

- italian translation sucks! Really, all the magic terms are translated in a totally unsatisfactory way. I read the first szeth scene from the italian version and was horrified by how stupid all the words sounded when translated that way (admittedly, it isn't easy to come up with better words). The funniest translation I found was in a piece of the wheel of time, where warder was translated of "protettore". While protettore means literally "guy who protects" and so could easily fit in the context, in everyday language it is most often use to refer to the male boss of a group of prostitutes (google translation gives "pimp" as the english term, but I don't know if it is accurate). I still laugh every time I think of that passage sounding as if moiraine was a prostitute under lan's patronage.

 

So, for all those reasons I couldn't spread Sanderson's work much in my home country.

[Kurkistan]

The funniest translation I found was in a piece of the wheel of time, where warder was translated of "protettore". While protettore means literally "guy who protects" and so could easily fit in the context, in everyday language it is most often use to refer to the male boss of a group of prostitutes (google translation gives "pimp" as the english term, but I don't know if it is accurate). I still laugh every time I think of that passage sounding as if moiraine was a prostitute under lan's patronage.

 

So, for all those reasons I couldn't spread Sanderson's work much in my home country.

 

Legit lol here. Also, yes, "pimp" is the right equivalent.

[makromag]

While protettore means literally "guy who protects" and so could easily fit in the context, in everyday language it is most often use to refer to the male boss of a group of prostitutes (google translation gives "pimp" as the english term, but I don't know if it is accurate). I still laugh every time I think of that passage sounding as if moiraine was a prostitute under lan's patronage.

 

In that case Rand is the biggest pimp of them all, with him bonding 4(!) women at once.

 

I am totally unsure of what aspects about WoT to put in spoilertags, so better safe than sorry.

[king of nowhere]

It was from New Spring, when moiraine was asking lan to become her warder pimp.

It makes sense if you think about it: she's a pretty woman, and while she acts prude, chairienins have shown they can be very disinibited in the right circumstances, so she fits well for the job.

But she needs a strong men to protect her, or the other pimps would beat her to prevent her from making cuncurrence to their own girls. So asking Lan is a reasonable choice for her

Now I can't shake off of my head an image of Lan dueling with the sword to decide which girl will stand under the best streetlight.

As I write this, the image just expanded: his opponent is rand, and he's trying to place Elayne in the contended spot.

 

Sorry to go off topic like that, but I keep having flashes in my head where i see those silly scenes and then I roll on the floor laughing for a while before calming myself. If someone were to see me repeatedly burst out laughing for no apparent reason like that, they would probably think I'm mad.

 

EDIT: that image keeps growing in my head and I can't stop it!

Now it's like I'm reading that duel from a book, and all the swordforms have been renamed to fit the situation (I won't write them there: this is a forum where language is supposed to be kept reasonably clean). And then Lan is quoting "a condom is lighter than a feather, boobs are heavier than a mountain"

I don't have yet a good response from Rand, and I hope I can fall asleep before one pops up. I'm trying to sleep, but that stuff keep showing up in my head and keeps me awake!

 

EDIT 2: Ok, new expansion: Rand is saying "the dragon reborn supports Trakand in the Succession for the spot under the streetlight" while elayne insists that she want to gain the chance of luring clients under that streetlight on her own right. Meanwhile an embassy of elaida is trying to persuade them to join the red ajah so she won't have to pay a percentage to a men.

And I got a few sword forms that I can write here. The duel goes like "Rand attacked with Whipping The Submissive, which he turned in midstroke to Exibitionist In The Park. Lan parried with Voyeur At The Window and counterattacked with Haggling For The Price..."

Edited May 24, 2013 by king of nowhere

[Iredomi]

I don't think Stormlight is a good starting place.  Szeth's intro has a real 'tutorial level' feel, and it's very difficult to get past the first couple chapters - and once someone's opinion has soured on a book, it makes the remaining thousand pages a slog.

Yeah that was where I started and only got to Shallan before calling it quits. Of course I went back and read it after reading everything else and it's freaking awesome but very hard for someone who hasn't read other Brandon books.

 

I have gotten my Nan and two friends to read the books. My nan will read anything so that was easy she really enjoyed Mistborn. The other two were also easy to convince. Actually one of them is now a member on this site, Sodalis. My other friend is now on WoK and is probably enjoying it more than I did. 

 

I think I would start a casual reader on Mistborn or Emperor's Soul. But I really enjoyed reading them in publication order myself as it has a nice progression to it.

[Aethling]

I would start them off with Warbreaker.  It is stand alone, relatively normal sized, and is way more polished than Elantris, his other stand alone.  Mistborn is a series, so that might be a problem for someone that has never read him.  Kings is just too bloody long for a virgin.  Alloy loses some of its appeal if you don't know what happened in the original trilogy, and Soul is too short and doesn't have his usual deep character development.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Warbreaker is also free.

[skaa]

Warbreaker is also free.

 

LOL, that might be the best argument I could give to some of my friends.

 

But yes, Warbreaker was the next Sanderson book I read after HoA exactly because it was free. (I'm a skaa, after all.)

[FeatherWriter]

Yeah, I usually recommend Mistborn to read first. Magic-based Oceans Eleven taking down the hero who failed and became an evil overlord. With a physics-based magic that will blow your mind, the greatest plot twists ever, and an awesome romance on the side if that's your thing.

 

Warbreaker's okay if they don't mind reading online. It's good because it's stand alone and also has some awesome characters and twists. But lots of people don't like reading on computers.

 

I never recommend Stormlight Archive to start, though it's my absolute favorite. Brandon said it well at PCC, it requires a trust on the reader's part. If you're gonna start Stormlight Archive, you've gotta be committed for the long haul.

[skaa]

I never recommend Stormlight Archive to start, though it's my absolute favorite. Brandon said it well at PCC, it requires a trust on the reader's part. If you're gonna start Stormlight Archive, you've gotta be committed for the long haul.

 

Funnily enough, I was chatting with a friend earlier today and I was able to divert our conversation towards Brandon Sanderson via the Stormlight Archive. We were talking about conlangs and cool alphabets, so I described the Alethi script to him, which lead to Brandon Sanderson's books (it's not that big of a segue... we were talking about another fantasy series a few minutes before that).

 

I told him about how the stories were all set in the same universe but on different planets, and about the Shards, and a little bit about Hoid... so now he knows about the Cosmere background even before reading any of the books. I figured that was okay since I didn't really give any big spoilers about the stories themselves.

 

Anyway, I'll lend him my copy of The Final Empire later (you're probably right about the Way of Kings, Feather). Hopefully I'll have my first convert soon.

Edited May 30, 2013 by skaa

[happyman]

I never recommend Stormlight Archive to start, though it's my absolute favorite. Brandon said it well at PCC, it requires a trust on the reader's part. If you're gonna start Stormlight Archive, you've gotta be committed for the long haul.

 

This, this, this, this, this.  Do you know how many people I've spoken to who were badly put off by Wheel of Time by its shear weight?  I can include myself in this; it took me way too long to start it.  I only started it when it became obvious just how popular it was among friends with different tastes.

Brandon's best two ideas, as an author, was (1) making fantasy that connects to the other worlds, without being tied to the other worlds, and (2) making his books, even the ones that are part of a series, have their own arc that begins and ends clearly.

Big epics have their place, but sometimes they can grow in ways that turn readers off.

[Ete'ni]

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Edited June 23, 2014 by Ete'ni