AquaRegia

My unpopular opinion? I worry Brandon is trying too hard to be woke. Social justice themes in Stormlight Archive (with no claims of completeness): Slavery and reparations. Racial privilege. Immigrant/refugee rights. Upending the social/economic class structure. Religion/atheism. Undoing traditional gender roles. Gender identity/fluidity. Physical disability. Mental illness. Major viewpoint characters demonstrate alcoholism, drug addiction, traumatic brain injury, autism spectrum disorder, major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative identity disorder... you name it, someone has it. We even witness the birth of the support group on Roshar. Don't get me wrong: as a proud progressive liberal myself, I'm LOVING it. However, I find myself wondering “is it too much?” Has Brandon taken it upon himself to write not only the towering fantasy series of our generation, but the most supremely WOKE fantasy series of all time? If the SJW slant stands out so starkly to me, might it be souring the experience of other readers? Might it even be alienating people who would otherwise be potential fans? It sure won't stop ME from buying and reading books, though! ;-)

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/452-youtube-livestream-23/#e14523

While I'm absolutely all in on Stormlight, I still think Mistborn Era 2 is the most sublime reading experience of my life so far. CANNOT WAIT for the final chapter of Wax & Wayne!! Every single page Lift is on is precious to me. I wish I could be her when I grow up... although that's kind of ironic, isn't it? That's a tough one... right now I'll say Arcanum Unbounded. The Emperor's Soul, Edgedancer, Mistborn: Secret History - ALL SO GOOD. But ask tomorrow, you might get a different answer. Thanks for the warm welcome!

Anybody who TL;DRs this is missing out. Really interesting. I did not appreciate the level of parallel between the two. Given that Moash is completely obsessed with Kaladin, who seems ready to head out on a Shinovar adventure with Szeth, it certainly seems plausible there might be an opportunity for some exciting interactions. I'm looking forward to some fascinating conversations between Szeth, Kaladin and Nightblood... and I'm sure Nightblood might have some entertaining things to say to Moash as well. Szeth + Nightblood vs Moash + Jezrien's honorblade? Sign me up!

I’m late to the party, but I just want to say I have really got a lot out of this topic. I want to thank EVERYONE for sharing their perspectives on the issue of marginalized representation in fiction, and specifically about Renarin and Rlain. As someone who’s playing this game of life at the lowest level of difficulty - white, male, cis/het - I had what I thought were some clever insights regarding representation in Stormlight… “is Sanderson just trying to check all the woke boxes?” This discussion has helped me see that I need to examine my own biases some more. I’m really glad I didn’t start a new topic without doing some reading first! Again, to all of you who were brave enough to explain the details of your own struggles and worldviews, what these characters mean to you, and why their stories make sense, thank you. Is not one of the goals of fiction to help us make sense of our own stories?

Greetings, fellow Sanderson nerds, I exist! Long-time reader, both of Sanderson and of this community, but I finally decided to get off the bench and make an account.

Are these the only two options? I have no problem with S-are-a or s-air-a... but why not s-ar-a where the middle sound is the "arr" of "arrow" or "carrot"? Also, welcome - I'm also new here (but not to the cosmere).