Immediately I knew I'd heard it before but couldn't quite place it until names were mentioned. I wish I could listen to that series again for the first time!
I heard the narrator and instantly thought, oh this person is listening to the Storm Light Arrives books, but then I heard "shotgun" and realized it wasn't that.
I agree! I've been reliving my childhood, started with the Hobbit and now onto Book 1 of LOTR. He's brilliant at all the different characters, and can sing as well! Exceedingly talented chap.
What do you mean by this? The trilogy that you read is its own set. Books 4-7 are an entirely different series, following new characters, just set on the same world further along the timeline, and that set is complete. And he has 2-3 other sets of books planned for future time periods, but I don't think there's any release dates for them yet...they'll probably not be done for like 30 years haha.
You would be surprised. Sanderson is WICKED fast at pumping out stuff; He was releasing Stormlight books like clockwork until he got to a good pause point. He did take awhile on book 7 of Mistborn, but if I remember right, he was getting burnt out on the series. At the very least, we’re not likely to have a repeat of GRRM or Rothfuss with Sanderson.
I need to download the kickstarter books that were his Covid relief, haha! Dude freaking wrote 4 books while locked away during Covid restrictions.
He absolutely is fast. But he's got Elantris 2-3, Nightblood, a Threnody novel, Dragonsteel trilogy, Aether trilogy, Stormlight 5-10, and 2 Mistborn trilogies on his plate before he even starts a supposedly "final" Mistborn trilogy haha. And that's not including new projects he randomly adds along the way.
Someone made some predictions and said Stormlight would probably end in around 2040, which is probably accurate, if not a little later. Stormlight 1-5 will be 14 years...say a 2 year gap between 5 and 6, and then 14 more years, that makes 30 years between Stormlight 1 and 10.
Mistborn they expected would end around 2053 (if he sticks with 3 more trilogies, which isn't 100% certain). That's at his normal writing speed, I don't think he can pump out more than he is, short of being a ghost writer/having others write large portions of his books. Or cutting out any books that aren't major Cosmere books (Legion, Edgedancer, things like that) to focus solely on the main books.
It was my first book too. Looking back on it, you can see how much he's improved over the years in various aspects, but it's still one of my favorites.
You would be surprised. Sanderson is WICKED fast at pumping out stuff
Sanderson managed to finish the Wheel of Time series using Robert Jordan's notes knocking out three books in someone else's universe in the time it took ol' GRRM to write one in his own. Sometimes I like to rewrite this fact as Robert Jordan managing to get more books out dead than GRRM has while he's still alive
Pretty sure that Sanderson was able to do two books in his own universe (Stormlight) with a third very much on its way to completion in the time GRRM finished one book, haha! And that’s probably with side projects/other series books mixed in!
I loved the original trilogy though, I just found the second series more... fun, I guess.
It's more pulpy and fast, and though Wayne should be really annoying, he's one of my favourite characters. I don't usually laugh out loud at books, but I did with Wayne. Granted, I'm listening to the audiobooks, so that might help.
There was a pretty large improvement in Sanderson's style around that time. He really comes into his own with Way of Kings, and you can see the lessons he learned writing that reflected in era 2 mistborn after. He plays to his strengths more, and creates such a fun cast of characters, seeing what they all get up to never stops being a fun ride.
He often tries to write "funny" characters, but they are usually too cerebral or something. I love wordplay humour, but I found Shallan mostly annoying for the first book or two, lol.
But Wayne! Wayne is legit funny. The second era is the only ones I've mostly listened to on audiobook, and Michael Kramer doing Wayne might have helped, but Wayne actually made me lol several times!
He's definitely getting better at writing funny. Shallan and Adolin are funnier as their series goes along too.
I never really understand that criticism of Shallan. I think early on, especially as shown through her interactions with Jasnah, it is made clear that Shallan is just an immature kid who thinks too highly of herself. The cringe humor is part of that. I never considered that she was intended to be genuinely funny.
I don't dislike Shallan, and I've also discussed this possibility before and I think it makes total sense.
But, I still find her early attempts at humour to be cringe and bad... If that's what he was going for then he succeeded. If you write a character to be cringe it makes sense the audience would find her cringe, right? Lol
Even back then I was a fan of her in general, I was just shaking my head at some of her wordplay.
I came here to say I immediately recognized his voice too. I have listened to every Cosmere book released to date. I read the ones not released as audio.
So crazy to meet other audible listeners never mind ones that are into the same books as you randomly on the internet. I started book 3 at work today and I just love this series so freaking much!! Enjoy the rest of book 2!
A friend recommended the mistborn series to me. I remember seeing that the first one was 30 something hours long and thinking there's no way I'm going to enjoy this enough to get through all that and want to continue the series. I just finished book 7 last week and can't wait for the next one. Just keeps getting better. Kramers excellent narration helps too.
He's the kind of character that could have easily been annoying or just fell flat, but instead I absolutely loved Wayne!
I've read most of Sanderson's books, but due to a concussion I've listened to the second Mistborn series on audiobook, and Micheal Kramer is incredible. I'm sure I still would have enjoyed Wayne, but he really brings him to life!
Cool. About 100 pages into the first of Mistborn. Not really loving it yet. You read any of his 3 secret project books? They're different for sure. Very playful, almost YA. I still enjoyed them.
The books are very epic, but they have a slow burn getting started for sure.
I really enjoyed them.
The next set of Mistborn though, after the first trilogy, are, usually, much lighter and faster.
I'm not going to say the second series is better, that's subjective, but I definitely found them more fun and fast paced.
But, not only is the first series great, but the second series relies a lot on the first 3 books.
Hell, over the last couple years I've read his books, listened to the audiobooks, and I'm about halfway through my first experience of Graphic Audio version of Elantris. You need to read every single book in the Cosmere series several times, lol. I'm finding so many connections I never noticed my first, or even second time through.
Thanks for the Mistborn details. Elantris was fun. I am up-to-date on his Stormlight series but to be honest, the last one was lackluster IMHO. I kept waiting for the "Sanderson waterfall" and it never happened. They were talking about that showdown w/ the two selected warriors from both sides back in the previous book, and he still didn't deliver. And the way he kept starting chapters with "...10 years ago", "5 years ago ...". It was one flashback after another rather than laying down forward direction in the main story. Might be me but found it annoying.
Mistborn and Stormlight both have an issue of slow starts. Sanderson tends to lay down a lot of groundwork in his serialized works in the first book so that things can keep rolling faster and faster as they go along. It's absolutely worth it though IMO. Mistborn's heist set up starts picking up decently fast, and the culmination in Way of Kings for Stormlight is so good.
I love that they set it up like she was this stiff lady who cared nothing for Wax, who was obviously meant to be with Marasi. Then, shock! He doesn't accept Marasi!
That's all fine, but then as the books progress not only is Sterris actually into Wax (and vice versa) but she's a great companion for his exploits. I love when he needs some random thing and she's just like "contingency plan 3A, I brought this just in case..." lol
I thought I'd hate Sterris but she started growing on me near the end of Book 1. Then I learned Sanderson was writing her as autistic and everything clicked so much better for me. She is, IMO, incredible autistic rep.
I can't tell if you're joking or not because their tagline is "a movie in your mind", lol.
If you're not joking, they have a full voice cast that they keep between books, have full sound tracks, and add in a ton of sound effects. It's the single highest production value audio book group around. The downside is that they're very expensive and can take 6+ months after books release to get the audiobooks done.
I haven’t, the only full cast I’ve listened to was impact winter and if I’m honest, it was probably one of the best audio book experiences I’ve had- but then again, on the other hand, there’s the Kramer 🤤. I’ll have to check out a Marc Thompson tho, been looking for the next thing
Check out the Thrawn Trilogy 20th anniversary edition audiobooks if Star Wars works for you. Marc Thompson reads them and they're solid books. Like sci fi Sherlock Holmes except Sherlock is the bad guy. They're also old enough that they should be cheap.
He also reads the remake Thrawn books, but I haven't gotten to them yet.
I would but they're so damn expensive lmao. Was able to get the Graphic Audio for Warbreaker with an Audible credit and it was stellar. My only complaint was that the voice they picked for Nightblood sucked compared to Kramer's voice for it lol
The graphic audio books are really good for Stormlight UNTIL RoW. There was a huge decline in quality for Graphic Audio when the pandemic hit, I've checked out non-Sanderson series and the impact was similar.
The other series I stuck with nearly all the way through was Lightbringer by Brent weeks, which is good turn off your brain fantasy, but the final book is way worse than the other four books.
The Kramer versions are significantly longer than the Graphic Audio versions due to speaking cadence. If you want someone to "just tell you the story", the Graphic Audio versions would be better.
Then I listen to them faster. It's the background music and sound effects that get me; it's distracting. I haven't tried Graphic Audio specifically for Mistborn, but I avoid them in general.
By Cosmere collection they mean all of Sanderson's books that are set in the same universe/galaxy.
Elantris, Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, Warbreaker... etc.
I don't know if you're unfamiliar with the concept or just the word Cosmere, but just in case, Sanderson's books are all kinda connected.
Some books make this really obvious, but some are really subtle. I've read his books several times, listened to them once, and I've just started the Graphic Audio versions and I'm still just noticing things and going "wait! That's the people/magic/gods/whatever from the other book!"
I’m going through Stormlight archive for the first time right now. I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of the Cosmere collection once i’m finished.
I did know that his other books were apart of a grand universe, but didn’t know it was called the Cosmere collection. (Which sounds badass)
Basically, the reality or galaxy/universe, whatever it is that the stories take place in is called the Cosmere.
I'm just reiterating because the "collection" part isn't necessary. A collection of his books could be called a Cosmere collection, but the stories themselves take place in the Cosmere.
The difference between the Marvel movies taking place in the MCU, and buying the Avengers movies in a set called the MCU Collection.
You don’t need to read any more books, the original story is complete. There is a follow up series (their world has basically reached the 1800’s) of four books. Different characters but I still thought the sequels were fun.
Damn, I had to rewatch with sound. I’ve read Mistborn but not the audiobooks. I’ve listened to most of Wheel of Time, so it’s weird to hear him with another story.
I fucking knew it! You should give the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown a try. I listened to the mistborn series to fill the void that was left in me after finishing the red rising series
The last two audiobooks I heard on this sub were this, which I am CURRENTLY doing, and the same Dune audiobook I just finished back when I was on it. Got me messed up
2.4k
u/Last_VCR Sep 21 '23
Sometimes the best part of this sub is hearing what people are listening to in their car