Brandon Sanderson who is and what do you think?

[Corbett]

I've been a WoT fan since I pIcked up The Eye of the World 5 years ago. The only bad part of coming back from bootcamp was finding that the worlds greatest author had died while I was away. Today I found out that Harriet choose Brandon Sanderson to finsh the series. I've never heard of him and am wondering what everybody thinks of his abilities and if he'll do a good job.

[Dragon21]

You should read his posts on these forums and his interview with dragonmount. Sounds like he will do great. Hariet picked him, he has to be good. He was a big WOT fan himself, which is a big plus.

[Corbett]

i did read them and i'm impressed. i've also picked up 2 of his books and will read them soon but i also want to the the general opinion of dragonmount

[Zachary]

I think he'll do well.

[Davian93]

First and foremost, I believe that BS is a true fan of the series and that I trust Harriet's judgement.  The only thing that somewhat scares me is that while RJ loved all his characters, BS seems to have some annoyances built up like any other fan.  I think he is a good enough writer to overcome this.  I trust Harriet's judgement.  She read his books and found him worthy of taking Callandor from the Stone and following after RJ so I will go off that...as long as he tells us who killed Asmo.

[Stooge]

I just finished Elantris by BS, it was actually similar to WOT in some respects.  I bet the transition won't be seamless (RJ to BS) but it will be satisfying to his readers. He seems to focus on setting and charecters in the same way as RJ but maybe not as deeply.  All in all he is talented.

[aevogt]

Let's also not forget the old saying:

 

"Behind every great man is a great woman, usually rolling her eyes"

 

"Behind her is an amazed mother-in-law"

 

Now, don't get me wrong, RJ is a fantastic writer with a vision that most normals wouldn't even comprehend, but a lot of the quality of this series, I'm certain, comes from Harriet's editing.  She has been his partner since before the beginning.  She knows what is supposed to be in the last book and I highly doubt she'll let anything be published that doesn't pass muster.  Since we know that most of the female characters share something of her, I'm not worried.  Brandon might be.

 

As a fan of the series himself, I'm sure the Brandon won't let us down.  I almost feel sorry for him.  We get to read it (the easy job) he has to make it happen. 

 

To be honest, I'm just glad it's going to get finished.

[Viezael]

haha I find it extremely amusing that his initials are BS...especially when people say things like, "The transition from RJ to BS is going to be..." ... I guess I'm immature :).

 

I love Brandon Sanderson's books, though.  You guys who haven't read them really should go check them out.  The Mistborn series is particularily good (the books of his I read most recently), but I must have loved Elantris too, because it caused a fight between me and my then-boyfriend (now husband) about how I spent all my time reading instead of spending time with his family on my trip out to his home town.  *haha*  He has since learned how much I love reading and is more understanding (and I am careful about when I start one of Brandon's books, because I know I'll be reading until it's over).  Anyways, I know he'll do a great job.  Every book I read of his I like better than his last one (which was already a lot).

 

I am a little worried about his character biases too--because I usually love characters most people (except RJ) hate.  He probably won't let this interfere--but I keep wanting to send him messages saying "Don't KILL GAWYN/EGWENE/ELAYNE/NYNAEVE/LAN/MAT unless it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!" or "Feel free to kill Rand--it would be putting him out of his misery."  But--that wouldn't do any good :).  So, I'll just have to trust him.

 

 

[Orange Fescue]

 

As a fan of the series himself, I'm sure the Brandon won't let us down.  I almost feel sorry for him.  We get to read it (the easy job) he has to make it happen. 

 

To be honest, I'm just glad it's going to get finished.

I have to say, I feel a little sorry for the kid, too. Although I haven't read his work (but will be stopping by Border's on the way back from the gym), Harriet has approved him so I'm almost certain he'll be up to the task. The problem is going to be the fanboys who will never be satisfied. They're like bitter society women waiting for new trophy wives to destroy only fatter and smelling of doritos.

 

Even if Sanderson gives a virtuosic performance in writing AMol and writes so perfectly that even RJ himself couldn't tell which parts were his and which parts were Sanderson's, some percentage of the fan base is going to give him crap. The fanboys will say he wasn't good enough, argue whether information that comes out in AMoL is really trustworthy and really what RJ had in mind, analyze every comma to try and find flaws and, finding no flaws, will say "it just doesn't 'feel' right". "There's not enough embroidery on the bodices." "There's too much embroidery on the cuffs." "RJ would never have had (name) kill Asmodean."

 

Sanderson thus has my sympathies as well as my congratulations. I wish him well and I'll do my best to whole-heartedly support his efforts to fill some very big shoes. For what they're worth, I'm sending him psychic hugs right now.

[Lord_Naryb]

I hadn't heard of him before, but I went to his website and downloaded the rough draft of Warbreaker and it was pretty good. I'll probably read some more of his books as well.

[Darth_Andrea]

I'm fairly sure many people had simular reservations about Tolikens son finishing the Silmarlian which wasn't more than a pile of notes when J.R.R died. All we can really do is wait and see. I personaly wish him well in this as this is more than likely going to be what he is known for for the comming years. Each of his own works will be given the tag line, Author Who Finished Robert Jordan's Epic The Wheel Of Time. Wheather he likes it or not it's gonna be the way it is.

 

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]

[Leopoled Boothe]

I am a little worried about his character biases too--because I usually love characters most people (except RJ) hate.  He probably won't let this interfere--but I keep wanting to send him messages saying "Don't KILL GAWYN/EGWENE/ELAYNE/NYNAEVE/LAN/MAT unless it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!" or "Feel free to kill Rand--it would be putting him out of his misery."  But--that wouldn't do any good .  So, I'll just have to trust him.

 

Harriet has put together a bascic outline of how the remainder of the story is suposed to progress.  I'm sure that Sanderson will not kill off any character that RJ did not intend to be killed off.  Remember that Sanderson is a fan of WOT and just like any fan he wants to know how Robert Jordan's story ends.  He is not out to make it end the way he wants it to end any more than is any other fan.  Moreover, RJ always said that he began with the ending of WOT and everthing else was writen as a way of getting to that ending.  Therefore, I would surmise that RJ probably spent a great deal of time during his last days working on the final chapter in order to make sure that the ending unfolded according to his origional vision.  If this is the case then Sanderson can't very well kill off anyone who is still alive at during the ending sequence.  According to what RJ has said we know that at least Mat, Tuon and Nyneave are safe.

[hurryupnwait]

I can think of another positive.  Brandon is a new enough author that he won't be overly impressed with himself (Terry Goodkind=arrogant ass) and allow that to interfere with the story RJ left behind.  I also am planning on picking up some of Sanderson's books to familiarize myself with his work.  Plus if his work has been judged good enough to warrant him filling in for RJ I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

 

BTW I am think of changeing my signature to Terry Goodkind=arrogant ass

What do you guys think?

[Viezael]

Oh Nynaeve survives?  I hadn't heard that--excellent!  :)

 

I heard about Mat, but I'm still a little paranoid because he's my favorite. 

 

I'm sure Brandon will do great. 

[Shard]

How do we know about Nynaeve surviving?

 

I also am sending positive energy along to Brandon Sanderson! I want to know how it ends!!

[Davian93]

BTW I am think of changeing my signature to Terry Goodkind=arrogant ass

 

What bother stating the obvious?

[Leopoled Boothe]

How do we know about Nynaeve surviving? 

 

Whenever RJ spoke of how he has known the ending sequence since before he began EtoW he commeted that Nyneave is there.  So unless she dies during this actual sequence we can assume that Nyn must survive.  So I guess she's not completely safe but there is a good chance she will survive.

 

Honestly, given RJ's love of his characters I suspect that very few main characers will die.  I just don't think WOT is a story that will have a huge death toll.

[Darth_Andrea]

How do we know about Nynaeve surviving? 

 

Whenever RJ spoke of how he has known the ending sequence since before he began EtoW he commeted that Nyneave is there.  So unless she dies during this actual sequence we can assume that Nyn must survive.  So I guess she's not completely safe but there is a good chance she will survive.

 

Honestly, given RJ's love of his characters I suspect that very few main characers will die.  I just don't think WOT is a story that will have a huge death toll.

 

 

 

 

 

Well alot of people said the same about the Harry Potter series. Yet JKR killed off one of the Wesely twins, Lupin and Tonks, Harry's Owl, Mad-eye Moody, Dobby The House Elf, and more all characters she said she had great love for.

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]

[Thorum]

and don't forget Dumbledore and Sirius Black!!

 

Any link to somewhere Jordan is saying Nynaeve'll survive till the last scene? This is the first I read of it.

[Leopoled Boothe]

Well alot of people said the same about the Harry Potter series. Yet JKR killed off one of the Wesely twins, Lupin and Tonks, Harry's Owl, Mad-eye Moody, Dobby The House Elf, and more all characters she said she had great love for.

 

Good point.  Very good point.  Ok you win.

[Duneflayer]

i havn't read any of his books but if Mrs Jordan whom RJ calls his "Heart and his Light" picked him he should do well

 

my only negative right now is that no body can replace RJ

[Viezael]

I disagree about Rowling's love of her characters.  She might love some of them lol.  She has nowhere near the characterisation that RJ does--most of them are stereotypes (ok, so I have an axe to grind here...)

 

She was also kind of psycho about "they had to die"--and it seems like she kind of enjoyed killing them off.  RJ has shown that he doesn't kill important people in 11 books.  JKR started her killing fest kind of in book 4 and certainly book 5.

[Cybertrolloc]

Any link to somewhere Jordan is saying Nynaeve'll survive till the last scene? This is the first I read of it.

Go through the from the creator section of the wotmania faq. It's tongue-in-cheek though (many of the irc ones are).

[stoneface]

Lots of authors kill off main characters at the end, and supporting characters throughout.  I haven't seen Brandon Sanderson's books yet, but I read a couple reviews (teasers); evidently he is willing to kill off main characters in mid series.

 

Different authors have different approaches.  GRRM started killing main characters from the start.  JKR has been killing from Book 1, starting with referenced deaths, then minor characters, later major characters, and then the bloodbath grand finale in Book 7.  RJ started killing off lots of Forsaken even in Book 1 but brought them back, and always seemed very reluctant to kill off a major character; we don't know what he had in mind for the final book but lots of forum members expect a bloodbath.  RJ had an overall optimism, and I think that Rand's answer "To live you must die" shows that things will be OK somehow or other in the end.