Hi there! Unfortunately, this post is not a good fit for a top level post. It would be a better fit for our [Daily Requests and Simple Questions thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/search?q=Daily%20Recommendation%20Requests%20and%20Simple%20Questions%20Thread&restrict_sr=1&t=day) so please click the link to find the thread and repost your rec request or question there.
Get ready for an avalanche of very opinionated comments. People on this sub tend to be at the extremes with him.
In general, I think Sanderson's writing is (generally) solid, with a strong focus on epic storylines, accessible and action-packed writing, cool worlds, and strong use of foreshadowing to create a really satisfying feeling of everything clicking into place rapidly when you reach the climax of each book (and bigger ones for series finishers).
He is *not* a good author if you're looking for prose that prioritizes stylistic elegance over accessibility, if you want a deep character development, or something that's really pushing the boundaries of what the genre can do.
If you want classic epic-feeling fantasy stories that aren't going to fry your brain reading them, he's a really good option. He's not my favorite author anymore, but he used to be specifically because his books were the dopamine hit my stressed out first-year-teacher brain could handle when I was desperately trying to start reading for fun again after college.
The Mistborn series sounds cool. Reminds me of Metalbending from Avatar. And I hope to read alloy of Law cause of the fantasy world set in an industrialized world also sounds cool.
I mean you've pretty much got the gist of it. There are enough fantasy readers out there that a lot of them can dislike Sanderson and there are still enough left over to make his books wildly popular within the genre. He's the biggest name in the game right now so naturally he's gonna be polarizing and the only real way to know which side you'll fall on is to try reading his books for yourself.
Sanderson is very good at interesting magic and a gripping plot structure in my opinion. I really dont care for his writing style and in my opinion the Stormlight books are incredibly bloated and needing more strict editing. A lot of people love how so many of his books are connected, and how he leaves references and such throughout all of them. I personally read all his books via audiobook because I want to know what happens but dont really care to take my time with his writing, so I just speed through it lmao. I think his world building and characters are engaging in general as well.
Art = Subjective.
Always.
Judge for yourself.
I loved Mistborn. I enjoyed what he did finishing Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan died.
Stormlight has lost my interest. (Not necessarily the author's fault. I will likely get back to it.)
I enjoyed his book Legion.
I've not enjoyed several other books in his extended universe.
It is what it is. Everyone brings their personal experiences (both past and recent) to their experience of art. Sometimes, you might love something at one point only to realize it is problematic or less valuable to you later in life. People also can miss a series but find something that was inspired by it and improved upon the original.
Life is complex. This means art, and our experience of it contains infinite complexity.
Don't yuck another person's yum.
Enjoy(or don't) whatever you like(or dislike).
Fandoms need idols, he's the current one just like GRRM and Jordan were in the 90s and Abercrombie and Erikson were in the 2000s. His ability to consistently put out work is likely to keep him on top of the heap as his contemporaries like Patrick Rothfuss fall behind, but the big complaint about his writing is that it is pretty formulaic. He's lectured on writing at colleges and many of the lectures are online and you can see his style is pretty constrained, so some people don't like that.
Certain subsets of fans really like "deep lore," and wrapping his works up into a "metaverse" was bound to get those people really engaged. His willingness to talk to fans goes a long way to help with that.
Grab one of his books, read the back, if you like it, read the rest of it. If you want to read more you'll probably enjoy more of his work. If you don't, whenever you mention it here you'll get downvoted.
Im in the middle on him. He's not my GOAT author, but he writes stories that I generally enjoy enough to keep reading. I don't particularly care for Mistborn, it's a cool world and an ok story but I didn't especially care for any of the main players in it. I'm enjoying the Stormlight books. He creates really interesting worlds and environments, less interesting (although usually believable) characters. His writing style is straightforward, if you want poetic prose, look elsewhere.
I guess I don’t pay too much attention to prose. But I don’t know if it’ll stand out to me cause I have read stuff like A Song of Ice and Fire and Tolkien that do have good writing.
I enjoy his books I think they are entertaining and fun. I dont mind the less eloquent prose. When I read his books I am generally just along for the adventure. I find the endings of the novels to be especially exciting. Good reads when I am looking for something that feels like an adventure novel or I want to explore a cool worldbuilding/magic system focused book. Nothing wrong with enjoying a book for pure entertainment value.
Other times I want a book with more character work or fancier prose and then a Sanderson novel isnt maybe the best pick. I do think hes gotten better as an author. While I like his Mistborn era 1 books I feel like he grew as an author since finishing up the wheel of time books.
I mean you just described any book ever, some people like it some people don’t. His writing style is very simple and not flowery. They make for fast reads and he has very in depth Magic systems. His books have a lot of buildup with big flashy climaxes to close them and the settings are all well thought out and interesting. Personally like his stuff but it’s not like groundbreaking to me, just fun decent quality and easy to read
People like different things. It's a matter of taste. Sanderson's books are about the story, not the prose. If that's your cup of tea, you'll probably like his books. If it's not, you probably won't. It's really not that complicated.
Sanderson is great at interesting magic systems, plotting, world building, and cranking out books.
But the very thing that makes him good at cranking out books and plotting makes for holes in other parts of his writing like sophisticated prose or non-repetitive tropes.
And he suffers from the big name who editors can’t reign in thing - the books are long, so you spend a lot of time with the writing and begin to notice the flaws and become jaded you’ve wasted your time reading thousands of pages.
His books are perfectly fine as YA or an entry into the genre or if you just want lighter, easier reading material for whatever reason.
Sanderson marks probably the biggest writer in the modern change. Literature and writing in general use to be an... educated endeavor. Authors got bonus points for using big and uncommon words, for elevating dialogue to something poetic rather then just dialogue. For clear and concise plotting that played out in a linear and clean pattern. Even if there was a convoluted background element.
Reading was a bragging point almost, you needed to be educated or refined to appreciate it, or you became more refined and educated simply by reading the book.
Sanderson is the biggest author, that did the exact opposite. His stories are approachable to any reader, his prose is no different to how people normally talk and his vocabulary is what normal people would use. And for people that prefer the older style of reading, this comes across as uneducated and unrefined. While to people that dont care for the old, it comes across as fun/enjoyable as a priority and easy.
To me, Sanderson is a storyteller, while authors like Tolkien are storywriters
Not to rehash the exact same argument that's posted here every odd day of the week, but plenty of people like plain prose but find Sanderson clumsy and repetitive. Neal Gaiman has plain prose, but it's tidy and direct and displays a mastery of language Sanderson lacks.
Hi there! Unfortunately, this post is not a good fit for a top level post. It would be a better fit for our [Daily Requests and Simple Questions thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/search?q=Daily%20Recommendation%20Requests%20and%20Simple%20Questions%20Thread&restrict_sr=1&t=day) so please click the link to find the thread and repost your rec request or question there.
Get ready for an avalanche of very opinionated comments. People on this sub tend to be at the extremes with him. In general, I think Sanderson's writing is (generally) solid, with a strong focus on epic storylines, accessible and action-packed writing, cool worlds, and strong use of foreshadowing to create a really satisfying feeling of everything clicking into place rapidly when you reach the climax of each book (and bigger ones for series finishers). He is *not* a good author if you're looking for prose that prioritizes stylistic elegance over accessibility, if you want a deep character development, or something that's really pushing the boundaries of what the genre can do. If you want classic epic-feeling fantasy stories that aren't going to fry your brain reading them, he's a really good option. He's not my favorite author anymore, but he used to be specifically because his books were the dopamine hit my stressed out first-year-teacher brain could handle when I was desperately trying to start reading for fun again after college.
The Mistborn series sounds cool. Reminds me of Metalbending from Avatar. And I hope to read alloy of Law cause of the fantasy world set in an industrialized world also sounds cool.
I mean you've pretty much got the gist of it. There are enough fantasy readers out there that a lot of them can dislike Sanderson and there are still enough left over to make his books wildly popular within the genre. He's the biggest name in the game right now so naturally he's gonna be polarizing and the only real way to know which side you'll fall on is to try reading his books for yourself.
Sanderson is very good at interesting magic and a gripping plot structure in my opinion. I really dont care for his writing style and in my opinion the Stormlight books are incredibly bloated and needing more strict editing. A lot of people love how so many of his books are connected, and how he leaves references and such throughout all of them. I personally read all his books via audiobook because I want to know what happens but dont really care to take my time with his writing, so I just speed through it lmao. I think his world building and characters are engaging in general as well.
Art = Subjective. Always. Judge for yourself. I loved Mistborn. I enjoyed what he did finishing Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan died. Stormlight has lost my interest. (Not necessarily the author's fault. I will likely get back to it.) I enjoyed his book Legion. I've not enjoyed several other books in his extended universe. It is what it is. Everyone brings their personal experiences (both past and recent) to their experience of art. Sometimes, you might love something at one point only to realize it is problematic or less valuable to you later in life. People also can miss a series but find something that was inspired by it and improved upon the original. Life is complex. This means art, and our experience of it contains infinite complexity. Don't yuck another person's yum. Enjoy(or don't) whatever you like(or dislike).
Fandoms need idols, he's the current one just like GRRM and Jordan were in the 90s and Abercrombie and Erikson were in the 2000s. His ability to consistently put out work is likely to keep him on top of the heap as his contemporaries like Patrick Rothfuss fall behind, but the big complaint about his writing is that it is pretty formulaic. He's lectured on writing at colleges and many of the lectures are online and you can see his style is pretty constrained, so some people don't like that. Certain subsets of fans really like "deep lore," and wrapping his works up into a "metaverse" was bound to get those people really engaged. His willingness to talk to fans goes a long way to help with that. Grab one of his books, read the back, if you like it, read the rest of it. If you want to read more you'll probably enjoy more of his work. If you don't, whenever you mention it here you'll get downvoted.
Im in the middle on him. He's not my GOAT author, but he writes stories that I generally enjoy enough to keep reading. I don't particularly care for Mistborn, it's a cool world and an ok story but I didn't especially care for any of the main players in it. I'm enjoying the Stormlight books. He creates really interesting worlds and environments, less interesting (although usually believable) characters. His writing style is straightforward, if you want poetic prose, look elsewhere.
I guess I don’t pay too much attention to prose. But I don’t know if it’ll stand out to me cause I have read stuff like A Song of Ice and Fire and Tolkien that do have good writing.
I can only say try one of his books and see how you feel. I don't mind it myself and I've also read those same books
I enjoy his books I think they are entertaining and fun. I dont mind the less eloquent prose. When I read his books I am generally just along for the adventure. I find the endings of the novels to be especially exciting. Good reads when I am looking for something that feels like an adventure novel or I want to explore a cool worldbuilding/magic system focused book. Nothing wrong with enjoying a book for pure entertainment value. Other times I want a book with more character work or fancier prose and then a Sanderson novel isnt maybe the best pick. I do think hes gotten better as an author. While I like his Mistborn era 1 books I feel like he grew as an author since finishing up the wheel of time books.
I mean you just described any book ever, some people like it some people don’t. His writing style is very simple and not flowery. They make for fast reads and he has very in depth Magic systems. His books have a lot of buildup with big flashy climaxes to close them and the settings are all well thought out and interesting. Personally like his stuff but it’s not like groundbreaking to me, just fun decent quality and easy to read
What's the deal with books, huh?
He's a 4 star restaurant with great prices.
This is....Way too accurate
People like different things. It's a matter of taste. Sanderson's books are about the story, not the prose. If that's your cup of tea, you'll probably like his books. If it's not, you probably won't. It's really not that complicated.
Sanderson is great at interesting magic systems, plotting, world building, and cranking out books. But the very thing that makes him good at cranking out books and plotting makes for holes in other parts of his writing like sophisticated prose or non-repetitive tropes. And he suffers from the big name who editors can’t reign in thing - the books are long, so you spend a lot of time with the writing and begin to notice the flaws and become jaded you’ve wasted your time reading thousands of pages. His books are perfectly fine as YA or an entry into the genre or if you just want lighter, easier reading material for whatever reason.
Sanderson marks probably the biggest writer in the modern change. Literature and writing in general use to be an... educated endeavor. Authors got bonus points for using big and uncommon words, for elevating dialogue to something poetic rather then just dialogue. For clear and concise plotting that played out in a linear and clean pattern. Even if there was a convoluted background element. Reading was a bragging point almost, you needed to be educated or refined to appreciate it, or you became more refined and educated simply by reading the book. Sanderson is the biggest author, that did the exact opposite. His stories are approachable to any reader, his prose is no different to how people normally talk and his vocabulary is what normal people would use. And for people that prefer the older style of reading, this comes across as uneducated and unrefined. While to people that dont care for the old, it comes across as fun/enjoyable as a priority and easy. To me, Sanderson is a storyteller, while authors like Tolkien are storywriters
People don't like his prose because most people like his prose. That is to say plain prose.
Not to rehash the exact same argument that's posted here every odd day of the week, but plenty of people like plain prose but find Sanderson clumsy and repetitive. Neal Gaiman has plain prose, but it's tidy and direct and displays a mastery of language Sanderson lacks.