Newish reader to Brandon Sanderson here! In just a month, I've sped through Mistborn Era 1 + Way of Kings (just finished an hour ago!) and what a wild ride!
As I was reading, I immediately noticed a few very striking similarities between Mistborn and Stormlight, from a plot, character, and literary structure perspective. What do you all make of this? Is Brandon just a more formulaic storyteller? Does this hint at broader themes in the cosmere? In what ways do you think the plots will diverge?
Here's what I've found so far:
Setting + Society
- Set in a "modern" time juxtaposed against an ancient history that has lost
- Society likely equivalent to 15th -17th century western civilization (pre industrial)
- Class system based on bloodlines (skaa vs darkeyes)
- Strong religious organizations / influence (Ministries vs. Vorin) that are later de-legitimized
- Scholars questioning religion and history (Sazed vs. Jasnah) -- they are the ones to discover the truth
Villans + Mystery
- Mysterious, pre-historical enemy that is known only as an abstraction, that is later revealed to be an unexpected twist (the Deepness vs. the Voidbringers / the Desolation)
- Said mysterious enemy's return is imminent and the world is in vast danger
- Lost or old texts that serve as clues to unravel the mystery (Alendi's journal vs. The Way of Kings and all the books Jasnah / Shallan read)
- An almighty force for good that has disappeared (Preservation vs. Almighty)
- Magic system that is related directly to physical objects and natural resources (metals vs gems)
- Monsters that are revealed to be descendants or related to humans (Koloss and Kandra vs Parshendi?...making a guess on the Parshendi)
Themes
- Central characters struggling with what it means to be a "good leader" (Elend vs Kalladin)
- "Good" characters and leaders being defined by upholding honor and maintaining trust
- Hope as an empowering force to save characters
Really curious to hear what everyone thinks! It did strike me a bit, reading through way of kings immediately after mistborn. It felt like I was playing the next generation of Pokemon games -- same overall template and predictable, but different enough that it's fun and entertaining.
I'm curious to hear if anyone thinks it's something more -- do all these similarities have something to do with the broader Cosmere mythology?
