Just a Lifetime

A slightly belated welcome and upvote from me, Lunarhade. I just want to make sure you're aware of Writing Excuses, on the off-chance it's not yet on your radar. It sounds like it might be up your alley.

Welcome to the Shard! I hope we're not overwhelming you with all these replies. I just want to add $0.02: 1) My own WoT reread a few years ago was made much more enjoyable by following along with Leigh Butler's commentary. 2) Depending on what you're particularly critical about when it comes to books, I might suggest The Emperor's Soul as a good place to start. It's nicely self-contained, and I think the overall quality of its prose may be the best Brandon has written so far. And since it's a short novella, if it doesn't work for you, you'll quickly be able to move on to something else. The flip side of being a short novella is that it can't contain as much in the way of big climax 'avalanches' or detailed worldbuliding compared to the longer books. I personally enjoy the worldbuilding a lot, which helped make Mistborn my favorite when I first started reading Sanderson.

I like the way Jim Butcher plays with this concept in the Dresden Files. The following quote shouldn't spoil anything: At some point someone is sure to mention the Oath Rod in The Wheel of Time, so I might as well take care of that now.

I'm hesitant to post here, but curious to see whether venting somewhat publicly will be any more cathartic than silently raging to the uncaring sky. Over the past few days I've been failing to deal well with the stress of a short-notice deadline (on top of all the usual slings and arrows), to the point of feeling physically ill at times. When I try to focus on the task at hand (including attempting the usual tricks of breaking it down into a sequence of more manageable steps and setting a timer for work on the next step) I either freeze or let myself be distracted by less-important work that can wait. Rationally I know that both of these actions are the opposite of helpful, but rationality seems to be out of the mental driver's seat at the moment, which I find the least-pleasant aspect of these sorts of episodes. To add a dose of self-recrimination to the mix, I can't help but feel I should be better at handling this sort of stuff after all these years. Unfortunately it has not yet been helpful to have my inner Vito Corleone slap me in the metaphorical face and tell me to "Act like a man!" But I am feeling a bit better for having written this. The question now is whether to press Submit or Delete...

I’ll add Littlefinger to the list (Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones).

I've been around the block a few times. In terms of research, I use high-performance computing to learn new and exciting things about quantum field theory, which is what you get when you combine quantum mechanics and special relativity. In terms of 'trajectory' I'm approaching the end of an up-or-out stage of the academic career path. Since I have not yet managed to move up, it's looking more likely that I may soon be crashing out.

Welcome to the Shard! I'm late to this party, so I'll just say a couple of things. 1) Your intro post is perhaps the best I've seen. You might consider copying your story into this thread where folks share how they first heard about Brandon. This may bring it to the attention of a larger crowd, and you can also check out the other accounts that have accumulated over the years (if you haven't already). 2) The spam filter here seems quite wary of links from folks with zero reputation. It didn't let me insert an internal link into my first post. Now that you have some reputation (including a well-deserved upvote from me), that problem should be solved.

Possibly relevant (or at least potentially interesting) is this article I read a few days ago about a recent documentary called A Dangerous Son. While I have not seen the documentary, the article gives the impression that it tries to explore these and related issues (with an understandable focus on the most extreme cases).

The short answer is: No. Robert Jordan had some notes for (three?) "outrigger" novels, but Brandon has been emphatic that he doesn't feel he should write them (or any other WOT offshoots) with Jordan gone. Apparently Perrin would have been in at least one of the outriggers, but I'm not sure about Mat. I hope this disappointment doesn't sour you on the shard. Welcome!

I thought all the concept albums I'm familiar with had already been listed, but I just remembered The World/Inferno Friendship Society's Addicted to Bad Ideas, which follows the life and films of actor Peter Lorre. Perhaps I should also give a mention to Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown. I tend to prefer the songs on American Idiot, but if Wikipedia had not informed me that American Idiot was a concept album I would not have realized it on my own. Edit to add: I’m embarrassed to have forgotten This Is For Our Sins by lowercase noises. His The Swiss Illness may also qualify, though it seems more loosely tied together. An even later edit to add Empires by VNV Nation, which is organized to follow supposedly universal aspects of the ways empires rise and fall.

I like this initiative. If I've done things right, my profile pic should now be green and I should have a signature with a link here. Folks perusing this thread might appreciate this mental health discussion between Pat Rothfuss, Thera, and Travis McElroy. Pat seems to be organizing annual discussions of this sort, but the second (with Matthew Mercer and Holly Conrad) now seems to be down from twitch (where I watched it a few months ago) and not (yet?) up on youtube. Emily Davis's Two Extremes series of "Stories About [Her] Life With Bipolar Disorder" might also be useful. I hope all the links this post don't come across as spammy. I'll wrap up with just a couple more: one last video on "7 Ways to Maximize Misery" that I heard about from Rothfuss's assistant Amanda, and this page that was recommended by Rothfuss's 'Activism Team'. (When I started to write this post, I honestly had no idea how Rothfuss-obsessed it might make me look. I haven't even gathered the courage to read The Slow Regard of Silent Things yet!) It sounds maybe a bit like echolalia, though I'm certainly not qualified to say with any authority. I just happen to have browsed to that Wikipedia article (from the one on Asperger syndrome) a couple of weeks ago.

N. K. Jemisin is my master now. I'm nearing the end of her Inheritance Trilogy, and I'm going to go on from there to grab everything else of hers. But there are a lot of different authors whose work I can appreciate in different ways. Brandon's books, in particular, I find consistently enjoyable. Other authors I think of in a similar way are Jim Butcher and Ben Aaronovitch. (From a craft perspective, of those three I would say Aaronovitch does the best at writing diverse characters and voices. That said, I do appreciate Brandon's dedicated efforts to improve in this area over time.) I mentally contrast this against folks like Jemisin, Pat Rothfuss and GRRMartin (and Gabriel García Márquez & Colum McCann, if we're not restricting ourselves specifically to fantasy authors), whose works I more greatly appreciate for their... let's call it artistry, though that may not be the best way to say what I want. Let me also mention that over the years I've been greatly impressed by Brandon and Rothfuss in terms of their... public personas. Again maybe not the best words---I have in mind things like their interactions with fans/fandom, starting and supporting the Worldbuilders charity, and recent mental health outreach. (By specifically praising Brandon and Rothfuss I don't want to imply that other authors are necessarily lacking in this area---I'm just not aware of the same scale of awesomeness from others. I am perhaps blissfully ignorant of many things, given that what theuntaintedchild wrote about Card is largely news to me, though I don't find it hard to believe.) I think I know what you're saying, or at least it resonates with what I would try to say if words were cooperating with me today. I recall some Q&A with Jim Butcher, where he said (to paraphrase) that he deliberately tries to write so that his prose plainly and simply tells the story without becoming an end in itself. It's this sort of craftsmanshipish wordsmithing that I would contrast to the artsier style of the other folks I mentioned. On the other hand, it seems likely that different folks' Mileage May Vary for those sorts of artsier styles. As one example, I've heard lots of people recommend John Crowley's Little, Big as their favorite fantasy book, often comparing it to García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Although that comparison convinced me to read Little, Big, it never really grabbed my attention.

As I was growing up, an aunt carried out a many-year project to encourage my reading habits. With each birthday or Christmas she'd try to introduce me to a new fantasy author, evolving from the likes of John Bellairs, Brian Jacques, Susan Cooper & David Eddings, through Raymond Feist & Robert Jordan, eventually reaching Stephen Donaldson & George R. R. Martin. Even a few years into that process I was successfully indoctrinated and exploring on my own, both raiding my mother's bookshelves (Lord of the Rings, Prydain, Pern, Shannara) and browsing at a few local libraries. Anyway, out of that list, two early ones that I would highlight are Eddings's Belgariad and Cooper's The Grey King. The Belgariad didn't hold up so well as I grew up, but it successfully introduced me to second-world 'fat fantasy with maps'. I honestly don't remember many details of The Grey King (and much of it probably went well over my head at age... 7, I think), but what I do recall quite distinctly is the sense of wonder I got from that book's mythology and (Welsh) setting. (It is probably coincidence that I am again trying to get a job in Wales---I've gone 0/5 in Welsh job applications since 2013, but perhaps persistence will pay off.) Anyway, I thought this story might be interesting for those of you who are (or may become) aunts or uncles...

If you don't mind e-books, Brandon offers Warbreaker for free on his Web site. You can read his explanation at brandonsanderson.com/books/warbreaker/warbreaker/ and click through for a pdf download or an html version of the published book. Back in the day this experiment of his was a big factor in elevating me from a reader to a fan.

Perhaps Sadeas is competent when it comes to interacting with certain people (namely Gavilar and Elhokar) but my impression is that those people are few and far between. This certainly contributed to poor leadership of his army and warcamp at the Shattered Plains (for which Odium thanks him). Sure, Sadeas imposed a relentless drive to 'win' gemheart races, but on the whole Sebarial strikes me as a better leader, if only because he's capable of successfully delegating the bulk of the work. As for Kaladin, I think he still has a major issue with becoming too emotionally invested with the people he leads. Perhaps this could also be phrased along the lines that he considers himself more a protector than anything else (which may well be relevant to his fourth ideal). While his caring so deeply does help in some situations, we saw how it led to his breakdown in Kholinar, and his perceived failure to protect 'his people' was also shown to play a role in some of his earlier depressive episodes. This also limits the scale on which he can lead---he can't care about an army or a country the way he cares about and inspires his squad. I think Adolin does better in this respect, while also being able to motivate obedience, loyalty, trust, even admiration. It's true that we haven't seen Adolin inspiring anyone as beaten down as Bridge Four. And his reluctance to become king also shows that he doesn't (currently) consider himself capable of that particular leadership role. Of course, Kaladin hasn't had to wrestle with political leadership of the sort that Adolin is worried about and Dalinar is having such trouble with. So I ended up thinking about this a lot more than I anticipated, and after that reflection I'm going to hail Navani as the leader I'd want. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of Fen in future books.

Thanks for the welcomes. For many years Mistborn (The Final Empire) was my favorite---I quite like its worldbuilding and cast of characters. Nowadays I would rank Words of Radiance above it, and Oathbringer is also in the running. However, I only finished Oathbringer a few weeks ago, and I suspect my perspective may be skewed. Despite praising the cast of characters in Mistborn, I'll go with Vasher as my favourite---at least for now. (The profile pic is also old---almost twelve years old. I haven't looked like that for a long time, but the more recent photo I now tend to use is a bit too big for this system to accept. Rather than shrink it I just grabbed this smaller file.)

Hi all, I've been lurking here off and on (mostly off) for some time now. Back in the day I wrote a few posts on the old Timewaster's Guide, but I refrained from creating an account on this 'new' site until now. (I tried to link to my TWG profile, but that seems to have triggered the forum's antispam guardian. Strangely enough, it will let me insert the raw url: twg.17thshard.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1687) Apart from White Sand I've read all the published cosmere works (along with the annotations etc. on brandonsanderson.com), but not yet much of the non-cosmere stuff (just Snapshot and some short stories). I expect to read some more of the latter later this year. My post count will probably remain low, but it is now non-zero.