Book Recommendations?

Oh... ARC! Advanced Reading Copy! ...Nice.

That Sanderson article is a *mess*. Here's someone who has read at least *17* of his books, who knows how highly his work is regarded in the fandom, and yet half the article is about how she can't get an interesting insight into her subject's life and body of work to meet her deadline!

Cassius (to Brutus): "Men at some time are masters of their fates: the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Might you become master of your fate through choice, no matter what the stars say?"

If the author of the article had to struggle so far to find something interesting about an author who has written seventeen books she read from start to finish, and who lives his life in a very public way, then I would suggest the fault is not with Sanderson. I want to know more about his family, his pets, his logomania, his apparent inability to feel things but yet how he can write deep, evolving characters. His ability to channel other writers to finish their own monumental series to the satisfaction of their fans (and commercial success). And the fact that he can do while being a nice, even an inoffensive person, who happens to believe a religion that is no less ridiculous and a hell of a lot less harmful than more mainstream ones (even if we find it peculiar with the usual social damage inherent to mass delusions). All of that around her, and the only thing that raises an emotional response is a shower. Which rates only two or three sentences.

She would do well to reread Julius Caesar, I think, and take in Cassius' words. Not try to change the world but to realize that she, not her subjects, is responsible for finding interesting things to write about in the world she inhabits.

Robear wrote:

his apparent inability to feel things but yet how he can write deep, evolving characters.

The article is paywalled for me. Is this a real thing about Sanderson?

Apparently it is. He gets dental work with no anesthetic and seems to have a flat affect (implied by the story). The only thing that seems to excite him is writing.

Autistic, perhaps?

Wired wrote:

The writers’ group still meets every Friday, which is what today happens to be. It’s the most PG gathering of writer types I’ve ever been to. There are chips and sodas. Someone’s baked an apple crisp. Before the meetup kicks off, I corner some regulars in the kitchen. They’re gossiping, cracking jokes. One—Dragonsteel’s new “head of narrative”—lets slip that Sanderson feels no pain. It’s true, Sanderson’s sister-in-law says. Even though he writes for eight hours a day on a couch, he has no backaches. The hottest of hot sauces cause scarcely a sweat. At the dentist, he refuses novocaine for fillings. When I ask Sanderson later to confirm this, he does but asks if I really have to print it. I’m sorry, I say. I really do.

The writers’ group is standard stuff: What’s this character’s motivation? Can the reader follow that fight sequence? Sanderson gives feedback with half his brain, the other half occupied with autographing books. It’s only afterward that the real talk happens, such as Star Wars debates. When those subside, I bring up the pain thing again. Turns out Sanderson doesn’t seem to feel pain of any kind, even emotional. On roller coasters, he’s dead-faced, while his wife is shrieking. “It’s sick and wrong,” she says, smiling. She likes to say she married an android. For his part, Sanderson actually, at this moment, looks pained. He might not feel, he says, but his characters do. They agonize and cry and rejoice and love. That’s one of the reasons he writes, he says: to feel human.

He also is compelled to write. It's a clinically diagnosed mania, apparently.

Wired wrote:

It’s not that Brandon Sanderson can’t write. It’s more that he can’t not write. Graphomania is the name of the condition: the constant compulsion to get words out, down, as much and as quickly as possible. The concept of a vacation confuses Sanderson, he once said, because for him the perfect vacation is more time to write—vocation as vacation. His schedule is budgeted down to the minute, months out, to maximize the time he spends, rather counter-ergonomically, on the couch, typing away. Most days, he wakes up at 1 pm, exercises, and writes for four hours. Break for the wife and kids. Then he writes for four more. After that he plays video games or whatever until 5 am. A powerful sleeping pill is all that works, finally, to get him, and the voices in his head, to shut up.

In the five months or so it has taken me to sit down and write this magazine story, which is 4,000 words long, Sanderson has published two books. During the Covid lockdowns, he wrote and/or edited seven: two for his regular publisher, a graphic novel, and four more in secret, telling no one but his wife until he surprise-announced a Kickstarter in March 2022 to crowdfund their publication. (Hence the $42 mil, raised in a month, by far the most successful Kickstarter ever.) Since his debut, Elantris, in 2005, Sanderson has published 30-plus books, the biggest ones in excess of 400,000 words; there are far more if you count the novellas and graphic novels and stuff for kids. I’ve read 17 of the actual books. Or maybe it’s 20. Exactitude is pointless here. As the major books are all set in the same universe, which Sanderson calls the Cosmere, they’re all but meant to blur together.

Robear wrote:

He also is compelled to write. It's a clinically diagnosed mania, apparently.

Notice that the way the article is worded, it doesn't say whether Sanderson is clinically diagnosed, self-diagnosed, or armchair diagnosed by the writer of the article. My money's on the latter.

Could be. That's why I weasel-worded it. But given the evidence...

My dad never used any painkiller at the dentist. Apparently the Air Force didn't use any in the 50's, so he didn't need think he needed it.

MannishBoy wrote:

My dad never used any painkiller at the dentist. Apparently the Air Force didn't use any in the 50's, so he didn't need think he needed it.

Jesus, I hope he never had a root canal!

EvilDead wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

My dad never used any painkiller at the dentist. Apparently the Air Force didn't use any in the 50's, so he didn't need think he needed it.

Jesus, I hope he never had a root canal!

He had all kinds of work done, including teeth pulled for a bridge.

Don't know if he let them knock him out for actual surgery like a root canal or not. Can't remember. But for fillings and caps he didn't use Novocain, etc.

Badferret wrote:

As I was first reading it, I really did wonder if the article was meant to be tongue in cheek, but my reading of it was that the author was being completely serious, and was generally baffled by why Sanderson, his fans, Utah and the fantasy genre even exist.

That seems totally reasonable. Thinking about it, maybe the idea that someone would seriously write that kind of article was just not something that occurred to me at the time of reading so I jumped to the wrong conclusion.

I hope Sanderson isn't taking it too seriously but there is a betrayal of trust.

EvilDead wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

My dad never used any painkiller at the dentist. Apparently the Air Force didn't use any in the 50's, so he didn't need think he needed it.

Jesus, I hope he never had a root canal!

I had a root canal without any anesthesia, it was completely painless. The dentist said I did so much trauma to the tooth that the nerve was completely dead making anesthesia unneccessary.

Clumber wrote:
EvilDead wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

My dad never used any painkiller at the dentist. Apparently the Air Force didn't use any in the 50's, so he didn't need think he needed it.

Jesus, I hope he never had a root canal!

I had a root canal without any anesthesia, it was completely painless. The dentist said I did so much trauma to the tooth that the nerve was completely dead making anesthesia unneccessary.

Cheater! Nerve pain is the worst.

Badferret, the author makes the point that they've read tons of SF and fantasy all their life, so I don't think that their perspective is that of an outsider disdaining the interests of the nerds. I honestly think they don't know what to make of a writer who is obviously neurodivergent and simply not flamboyant, without dark secrets or deep struggles in his life, who simply wants to write and make people happy.

And is capable of doing in one day what took the article author 2 months to do, and has over $54M to show for it, in spite of all the technical flaws the author perceives. Which, remember, the author thinks they are flaws and "bad writing", but the audience for which he writes obviously disagrees, with credit card in hand.

As I said above, the self-awareness in this one is not powerful... Honestly, he should have spent the last two months writing his first book "in the style of Brandon Sanderson" as a cash-in, if he's so qualified to judge. I mean, why not?

Unless he simply can't do it. And that's got to be frustrating as hell, to meet someone different, but nice about it, who makes what you perceive as all the mistakes a writer can make, and yet still hits it big, AND writes books you enjoy so much you've read 17 of them...

I haven’t read Sanderson so won’t comment on his writing but the article is jaw dropping. Rather than out that kind of negativity into the world just publish anything about something you love. On that note I have battered through the first three books in the Laundry Files and am starting on the fourth, thanks for the recommendation Robear.

bbk1980, thanks so much for letting me know! Find a reading order guide, because the series splits into two and it's not entirely clear which book to read when, after a certain point. But I'm so glad you enjoyed them like I did. Snarky comedy spy horror is absolutely my thing (just like snarky comedy Murderbots lol).

He's got such a rich world set up, I want to see an open-world RPG/ARPG based on it at some point. And some movies. This could put Ghostbusters to shame, although it would be much darker.

Great fun.

Just read the series synopsis on Wikipedia and that sounds right up my alley, too! Like Dresden meets SCP/Control.

Robear wrote:

bbk1980, thanks so much for letting me know! Find a reading order guide, because the series splits into two and it's not entirely clear which book to read when, after a certain point. But I'm so glad you enjoyed them like I did. Snarky comedy spy horror is absolutely my thing (just like snarky comedy Murderbots lol).

He's got such a rich world set up, I want to see an open-world RPG/ARPG based on it at some point. And some movies. This could put Ghostbusters to shame, although it would be much darker.

Great fun.

Just checked the reading order and I am good up to where I am. I seem to have missed a couple of short stories, fortunately the important ones were included in the e books I am reading and I’ll mop up the two I have missed after the apocalypse codex. Interesting the wiki suggests some rpg books are in existence which I might poke my head into.

If you like the Laundry series, you'll probably like Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, and vice versa.

His story about unicorns is absolutely brutal.

Speaking of upcoming books, I just found out that Travis Baldree has a new novel scheduled for release in November!

The title is Bookshops & Bonedust. Looks like a prequel to Legends & Lattes, telling the story of one of Viv's adventures as a mercenary.

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

If you like the Laundry series, you'll probably like Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, and vice versa.

I started reading these books when we lived in London for a few months. I strongly second this recommendation! I loved them.

Rivers of London is decent but kinda slow and the overall tone is sedate.

If the Dresden Files is a summer blockbuster, Rivers of London is, I dunno, Midsomer Murders.

Sanderson responds to the Wired article. Interesting to get some insight into how he feels about the writing of said interview.

Sanderson's response pretty much validates the original interview's assessment of him as a weird guy who would probably benefit from some therapy, to be honest.

Jonman wrote:

Sanderson's response pretty much validates the original interview's assessment of him as a weird guy who would probably benefit from some therapy, to be honest.

Or instead it validates any reasonable person's assessment that the original interview was a mean-spirited hatchet-job and that Sanderson is a helluva decent guy.

Math wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Sanderson's response pretty much validates the original interview's assessment of him as a weird guy who would probably benefit from some therapy, to be honest.

Or instead it validates any reasonable person's assessment that the original interview was a mean-spirited hatchet-job and that Sanderson is a helluva decent guy.

Weird and decent aren't mutually exclusive.

Neither are mean-spirited hatchet job and truth.

Sanderson may be weird, but so are many of us here. I can entirely relate to his outsider ruminations, just the cause was different for me. I don't find anything in there that makes him creepy, or even in need of therapy if he is comfortable in his skin.

Just finished Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, and it’s one of my favorite books from the last few years. I’m diving into the sequel right away.

beanman101283 wrote:

Just finished Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, and it’s one of my favorite books from the last few years. I’m diving into the sequel right away.

Warning: it's very confusing, but it ends up being a lot of fans' favourite of the series, so stick with it if you enjoyed the first one. My daughter and I are getting my wife to listen to the Ht9 audiobook right now.

beanman101283 wrote:

Just finished Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, and it’s one of my favorite books from the last few years. I’m diving into the sequel right away.

I'm on the same path, finished Gideon a week or two ago and now drawing toward the finish of Harrow. Utterly fantastic series so far, even considering that it's been unreservedly gross enough to turn my stomach at multiple points. Moira Quirk's narration of the audiobooks is also extremely good.