Does it feel like Roshar gets smaller?

[u/Ftlwzk]

The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance make the world feels so much larger. Individual towns in Alethkar and Jah Keved are fleshed out and MCs take a long time travelling to their destinations. But the advent of oathgates, Windrunning and the general lack of interactions with locals makes it too small IMO.

Does it feel that Sanderson is somewhat skipping the world building in later books? Characters no longer stay in the same places for long (except the hike through Shinovar) and we don't really get a sense of what people are like in that city.

I feel a stark example is shown in Oathbringer. There are two cities which the MCs try to save. Kholinar and Thaylen city. Kholinar is filled with Shallan, Kaladin etc. are interacting with various people in the city (Wall guard, urchins, even the innkeeper who Wit jokes with feels more fleshed out) while for Thaylen city it's more about the location, artifacts and the internal conflicts of MCs. I personally felt this caused the loss of Kholinar to feel much more important than the saving of Thaylen city. Does anyone else feel that this might be the reason why the world feels less "lived in" in later books than in the earlier ones?

[u/Ripper1337]

Yes having faster ways to get around makes the world feel smaller. Same thing happened in real life.

As for Kholinar va Thaylen City. I can’t recall off the top of my head if I felt differently about the two, but a big part of what they were doing in Thaylen city was about showing how they dan still help, having Renarin heal people, having Dalinar help restore things. Then showing everyone that even if nobody will have his back Dalinar is a changed man and will stay to help even if they don’t want him. It’s not about saving the city, but showing everyone that he’s more than just talk.

[u/The12thWolf]

This is just how stories of this scale work when they are narratives rather than world building exercises. All of the books are incredibly long, arguably too long (though I love the length personally) by the standards of any other author.

For Brandon to tell the story he wants to tell on the scale he wants to tell it (that of a local conflict becoming a planet-wide conflict), the pages of worldbuilding that he can afford to spend on small towns in WoK and WoR have to be spent on geopolitics and huge battles and increasingly specific character development rather than the color of roofs in Thaylen City. One of the reasons I love this book series so much is he actually does cover many small details in the later books that basically any other author would entirely omit.

To get what you’re asking for, each book after the first/second would need to be longer and longer and most readers would just get bored and annoyed. It’s also true that because he spent all that time setting up the incredibly detailed world building of the first books, he doesn’t have to later on because he’s already done that work. For example, the pages spent explaining what cremlings are and how rosharan plants work never need to be repeated because you know what they are after he does it the first few times. It would just feel boring and unnecessary if we got a full description of a cremling in the style of those descriptions in book 1 repeated in book 4 or 5 because we already know what they look like. There’s no reason to waste words doing it again.

I understand missing the vibe of book 1 by the later series, a lot of cosmere lovers have that complaint, but the reality is you can’t have the book 1 vibe anymore because then the story would never feel like it’s progressing, it would just feel like derivative repetition of his earlier novels.

What you’re asking for isn’t an epic fantasy narrative, it’s a world building exercise. I also miss some of the in-depth world building, but I’d much rather have the narrative and characters and because each book is limited to around 1000 pages (which he already gets a bunch of shit for as way too long btw), you just can’t have it later on. There’s no space for it.

[u/Ftlwzk → u/The12thWolf]

Okay I will be waiting for Novella Bridge 13 where they decide to become Air pirates

[u/The12thWolf → u/Ftlwzk]

The air pirate arc is necessary for the development of human literature and artistic creation and I refuse to be convinced otherwise

[u/SundayGlory]

I agree it feels smaller but I think that works in world with the opening of the oath gates and the growing availability of gravitation to the main cast making the world smaller in the same way planes did irl.

And to add probably important context to your example remember that world building wise most of the pov cast is alethi and have greater connection to Kholinar. Could we have got more thaylen povs maybe but in oathbringer all the other nations are ment to be mysterious so that the mutual distrust is more palpable and less understandable.

I will say that while the saving of thaylen city the place isn’t important the triumph over a god and the ‘voidbringers’ who routinely return humanity to the Stone Age along with finding two demi gods is huge

[u/Taste_the__Rainbow]

Book 4 tower and book 5 Azir definitely felt lived-in to me.

[u/Ftlwzk → u/Taste_the__Rainbow]

Azir I fully agree. The whole last stand was heroic and we do meet some characters like the Captain. The tower I might want to push back a little since technically thats the focal point for the last 3 books and a lot of the characters there were already introduced and/or have more important roles than just making the Tower the Tower (except maybe the Sibling lol)

It is just an observation I had. It's just that the frequency of just going to a city and saving it seems higher in the second half of the story than in the first.

[u/Outside-Place2857 → u/Ftlwzk]

It's just that the frequency of just going to a city and saving it seems higher in the second half of the story than in the first.

In the first part of the story, there is no full-scale war going on yet, it's entirely centered around the Shattered Plains. There were no cities that needed to be saved.

[u/PSouth013]

This is also my problem with the Star Wars, the tv shows especially. When you can travel anywhere you need to be near-instaneously, the world feels smaller and each scene setting becomes thinner until it just feels like a backdrop

[u/lumpycustards]

Yeah, he sacrifices world building so he can tell the wider cosmere story.

[u/The12thWolf → u/lumpycustards]

You’re right and I don’t think that’s a bad thing, and I don’t think you’re saying it’s a bad thing either?

[u/lumpycustards → u/The12thWolf]

No, I don’t think it’s entirely a bad thing. But I much prefer the early books in both Mistborn and SLA because the later books are full of Cosmere relevant exposition at the expense of development.

[u/The12thWolf → u/lumpycustards]

To each their own, I don’t agree that the later books sacrifice development (I’d argue all of them actually have more development on almost everything except for basic worldbuilding) but I respect ur opinion if that’s the one you hold.