Your Least Favorite Cosmere Story And Why

[Stormrunner1730]

Well of Ascension.  Too long winded, and not enough happened.  I actually liked Zane's character and his interplay with Ruin and Vin.  There are alot of good ideas in this books (I enjoy the political discussions), but it's just way too drawn out and doesn't really have a focus other than "two armies are going to attack the city at some point".

Probably Warbreaker after that (I'm not counting White Sand until all three volumes are released).  I love Vasher and Nightblood.  The concept of Awakening and Breaths is super unique.  But I just wasn't as drawn in as a lot of his other books.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Stormrunner1730

[OrangeJedi he/him]

For me it is either WoA or the White Sand adaptation. While WoA had its moments, I didn't like the whole Zane thing or some of the Elend stuff. And I really don't like the White Sand graphic novel, the 1999 (I think) version was so much better.

On a side note, it was funny for me to see that there are several books that are not mentioned anywhere on this tread. Looks like no true Cosmerenaut can hate SA or HoA.

[Nathrangking he/him]

I know I'll catch flak for saying this,but lift is major league level annoying. The whole mindset sets me off every time that I read edgedancer and her interlude. Her logic seriously bothers me as a result she is my least favorite character. thus WoR is a paradox for me both my favorite and at the same time not so much.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Nathrangking

[Shadowmancer he/him]

A lot of good critiques. Sanderson himself has admitted that he likes to be a little over-the-top, making his writing seem pretentious at times [acknowledgments in one book somewhere]. I see that come through more in his short stories and earlier stories than the more recent novels he's done. But to respond to the thread, I think it's a tie between Warbreaker and Well of Ascension.

Aside from the Zane/Vin/Elend love triangle that made us all think "Twilight," I think WoA had a couple of flaws as far as plot development. The story was paced too slowly, and was even more political than Elantris was, without having the philosophical/moral/religious discussions that made me love Elantris (I like thinking books, to be honest). I couldn't finish the book and didn't pick up another Sanderson novel until Way of Kings in 2013. That said, Sazed and Marsh and Allrianne made the reread worth it. Their characters made the boring plot and Mary-Sue-ish-ness of the other characters more bearable.

Warbreaker ... well, let's start with the ending. We don't get the story behind the friggin title of the book until the ending? I just felt like Sanderson was yanking me around a bit too much in the book. Starting out with Vasher and not seeing him until halfway through the book, and then revealing he's the main character of the book, that was a little ... I don't know. Deus ex machina? I wanted a bit more than I got of Vasher. And the ending just felt chopped, to be honest. There should have been more of a resolution, in my mind. Then the awkward naked scenes felt unnecessary, though it certainly makes him fit right in with Jordan (whose work I love, to be clear, I just think there are more naked people than there need to be).

Anywho, that's my two spheres.

[SolsticeGelan]

I might get some flack for saying this, but for me it has to be WoK. I read Stormlight Archive last of any of the full books, and its a good thing I did; it took me nearly 500 or so pages to get invested in the story. I honestly would've abandoned it had it not been a Sanderson novel. Admittedly, this is probably because it WAS one the last of the Cosmere books for me and I refused to be spoiled until I was done Ars Arcanum, but I just had to put it down too many times. I was perhaps just a bit too distracted by trying to piece everything together and screaming about shards, especially since I had just finished  Bands of Mourning. I even had to sit the book down to read Warbreaker first against my friends advice to calm myself down.

Going back, I reread it all and enjoyed it immensely. But as I read it originally? I admit it's sort of ruined the first half of the book for me, far more than any of the other books people enjoy saying they hate or dislike in the Cosmere, like Well of Ascension, Elantris, and Warbreaker. Especially since I rather enjoy all of them a great deal, particularly Elantris.

WoR luckily didnt have that problem for me, considering I knocked the whole thing out in a day.

 

Edited August 21, 2017 by SolsticeGelan
Adding lists.

[CaptainRyan he/him]

"Shadows of Self" is, in my opinion, the worst Cosmere book.

I wrote about it elsewhere but, in the end, I guessed Sanderson had a lot of trouble writing this book before he told us he did. It was, to me, fairly obvious that he was not sure how to get to the ending of the book. Also, compounding has ruined the Metallic Arts for me a bit. Way too stronk imo.

"The Hope of Elantris" is my least favorite short story by far. There really is not much to recommend it. 

[asterion137 he/him]

I'd say out of the full novels WoK was by far my least favorite. Shallan just bored me (felt more like a worldbuilding experiment for the first half of the book) and Dalinar's chapters and chapters of not doing anything except wondering whether he was insane or not was kind of annoying. Plus Kaladin living a crappy life gets kind of old too after a few chapters.

[Asrael he/him]

I feel I will engender the wrath of all by claiming Warbreaker as my least favorite; the ending (post Lightsong) just fell really flat for me. Like that last few pages was just really underwhelming compared to other stories. Meanwhile Elantris is special to me as my first BS book. Hrathen was such an amazing character and Raodens optimism is inspiring

 

All this being said Warbreaker is still better than most other books I've read the differences here are strictly relative.

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

On 7/24/2017 at 1:48 PM, Cowmanthethird said:

Many people have been saying that White Sand is their least favorite, but I actually really like the adaptation. Of course, that could be because I'm generally a fan of graphic novels.

My least favorite Cosmere story was Sixth of the Dusk. I liked it as a whole, but I thought that it was too short to show off the world, and the lack of speaking characters impeded some of the dialogue that I love Brandon for.

I am a huge fan of graphic novels, and comic books in general. It's why I also have major issues with White Sand GN. (Prose is great.) The graphic novel keeps insisting on telling me things when it should be showing them. But they don't even do a good job of telling the story. So the story told by the GN is my least favorite. But I love the prose novel.

My least favorite prose book is WoA. I HATE love triangles. I LOATHE the whole Elend/Vin/Zane plot that insists on dominating the middle of the book. I like the politics, Elend's development, Tindwyl, TenSoon, and Marsh. But the romance mess made the rest of the story unpalatable. But you have to eat yucky vegetables to get dessert - and HoA made it all worthwhile.

[Penumbra]

WoA. It was worth it times a million to get to book 3 though and have everything make sense, but a lot of felt like I was just reading with one eyebrow raised waiting for Vin to kick butt.

Spoiler

Which, thankfully, happened eventually.