Sanderson and AMOL

[Auld Manriva]

Is it just me or does anyone else have minor issues with Brandons' character dialogue sometimes? His narrative for all his books that I've read (The Mistborn's and Elantris) seems fine but the character dialogue sometimes seems stilted or something. Maybe it's the language. It seems too contemporary for the worlds he's built on occasion. I cannot give specific examples but on listening to the books I've thought several times, That doesn't sound right.. (I listen to books btw as I drive for a living; I have many hours to listen, and very few to read)...

 

It's not the readers (though I don't care a whit for the reader they have for Elantris). They've both had decent rhythm and not been mono-toned, it just seems the words used don't ring true for the characters now and again. On second or third "reads" I may figure it out. Or maybe someone else might shed some insight.

 

 

 

 

 

[OsaroLJ]

Perhaps you need to take a look at how you see the characters. Sometimes, our mental picture and attributes of a character does not fit the author's.

[Jethro]

At least with audio you know how to say the names without a doubt. I was dissapointed when I found out Taim is said as Ta-eem. Fair play to RJ for different nations pronunciations and all that, its realistic, but that isnt how I say it lol.

[Tyrell]

I rhyme Taim with maim.

[DhaiMon]

I rhyme Taim with maim.

 

You're not alone there...

Myself, I pronounce the "Ae" in Aes Sedai the same way as "ä" in my native language. Sounds far better to me than "Eyes Zeh-die", as it seems to be pronounced in this one WoT-PC game from '99...Is it the same in those audio-books? If so, I feel all the more right in my notion to prefer the written word.

 

About the topic at hand...I myself haven't read Sanderson's work so far, I might once I've done my reread of WH and finish Martin's AFfC. Care to give an example what Sanderson's style is like, and what bothers you about it?

[Thorum]

I rhyme Taim with maim.

 

A wonderful quote from Obert Jordan (he said it numerous times)

 

Taim cannot be pronounced tame. Not him.

[Jethro]

I also rhyme it with maim. It fits him better I think. Hes in my top 3 for sure

[ROB_88]

am i the only one who rhymes Taim with "time"

"it is time to go to Taim"

[zzyzx_scarecrow]

Is it just me or does anyone else have minor issues with Brandons' character dialogue sometimes? His narrative for all his books that I've read (The Mistborn's and Elantris) seems fine but the character dialogue sometimes seems stilted or something. Maybe it's the language. It seems too contemporary for the worlds he's built on occasion. I cannot give specific examples but on listening to the books I've thought several times, That doesn't sound right.. (I listen to books btw as I drive for a living; I have many hours to listen, and very few to read)...

 

It's not the readers (though I don't care a whit for the reader they have for Elantris). They've both had decent rhythm and not been mono-toned, it just seems the words used don't ring true for the characters now and again. On second or third "reads" I may figure it out. Or maybe someone else might shed some insight.

 

I think I know what you mean, but I don't see it as a bad thing.  Robert Jordan had his own voice, and no author (good or bad) could finish AMoL the way he would have.  Brandon Sanderson is good, and in ten years he'll be even better, but he'll never sound exactly the way RJ did.  I think we're reading his books hoping it will sound like RJ, which it won't.  Sanderson's voice is younger, maybe a little more optimistic - and I think that reflects in the dialogue.

 

Also, Sanderson has said that he works very hard in the world-building process to avoid rehashing old cliches - he has yet to write a medieval England setting.

[mb]

I have not yet read any of Sanderson's books, but I imagine character dialogue would be one thing that Jordan's wife would edit; so it might not entirely stray from Jordan's style.

 

Like I told in another thread, I think I would buy at least the Mistborn series after I finish this series (which would be after getting the prequels).

 

[Auld Manriva]

I'll try and work on that example Dhaimon...

 

It's not his optimism or any mood type thing. It's actual words.. I seem to recall some of it in "snappy retorts" or the like. And it could very well be something he purposely put in a character. Back to optimism.. his endings for Elantris and Hero Of Ages were optimistic but they both fit their tales, which were not optimistic to any great degree getting to their conclusions.

 

Harriet will of course have a lot to do with characters voices ringing true to what they have been and I know from his interview and things I've read that Brandon himself is VERY conscious of the same. This isn't his story he's writing though, as he said himself, and his use of vocabulary will need some alteration to fit the style of the previous books.

 

About the audio I listen to... I heard EotW and every book up to CoS and PoD and all those after those two, which are the only ones I've read. *Chuckles* I've had the same problem reading some of the names. They look nothing like what I heard them to be.... Kate Reading and Michael Richards both have some different pronunciations for a few words here and there. Mostly names.. Moghedian for instance. Mogga-deen, Mo-GEED-eeyun and Mo-GED-eeyun being the most memorable to me at the moment. Jordan listened to all of the books for his stated reason of making sure what he wrote is what he meant to say. So he heard all the pronunciations and no doubt conveyed corrections to the producers of the Audio Books. Though one thing in the iPod interview caught my ear. The Readers both pronounce Aiel.. Aye-eel. Which one of the people on the Podcast said was incorrect according to RJ. Which I find hard to accept since they've done it consistently over all the books and Jordans' reputation for insisting on correct pronunciation is fairly well known.

 

My post to begin this thread wasn't criticism as such, but just a question if anyone else had noticed what I did. I have not a doubt Brandon Sanderson and the team of people editing and researching can complete this story in fine fashion and any other "outrider" books he's allowed to attempt should be fine too.

[RAND AL THOR]

Haven't read Mistborn yet.

 

The only problem that I had with Elantris was the use of the word 'metabolism.'

[zzyzx_scarecrow]

I agree with mb - Harriet will make sure the dialogue feels right.

 

RAND - if you read BS (what a great set of initials) the one thing I can tell you is that you can sense his growth as an author between Elantris and Mistborn.

[RAND AL THOR]

I agree with mb - Harriet will make sure the dialogue feels right.

 

RAND - if you read BS (what a great set of initials) the one thing I can tell you is that you can sense his growth as an author between Elantris and Mistborn.

 

I immensely enjoyed Elantris, though I was a little let down by part of the ending that seems like Deus Ex. If Mistborn is much better, then I can't wait to get my hands on it. Elantris was so gripping that I got through it in less than 40 hrs.

 

 

 

[Auld Manriva]

There's a great deal of growth between the stand alone Elantris and the trilogy of Mistborn. Depth of character being only one thing. Though his style isn't nearly as descriptive as Jordan there is much more of that also... I read the Mistborn books because they weren't on Audible yet. I ended up buying Hero of Ages a day or so before it was available as an audio book and could NOT put any of the three down.

[Hybrid]

I agree with mb - Harriet will make sure the dialogue feels right.

 

RAND - if you read BS (what a great set of initials) the one thing I can tell you is that you can sense his growth as an author between Elantris and Mistborn.

 

I immensely enjoyed Elantris, though I was a little let down by part of the ending that seems like Deus Ex. If Mistborn is much better, then I can't wait to get my hands on it. Elantris was so gripping that I got through it in less than 40 hrs.

I agree (with you and zzyxx).  Elantris was good, but the ending was a bit of a letdown.  I didn't mind the deus ex machina that much, but it was also really rushed.  Mistborn, though, is really really good. 

 

**Minor Spoilers (no details)**

I only really dislike part of the end of the second book where one character gets changed in a certain way which also seemed a bit like deus ex machina and IMO changed the power dynamic between two of the characters for the worse.

[Charlz Fel]

As far as the language seeming too contemporary, Sanderson made the following comment in response to an e-mail I sent him:

 

"I usually write my worlds just a tad more advanced than they should be in areas of learning.  It makes the characters easier to relate to."

 

By similar reasoning, he may make the character dialogue more advanced.

 

 

[Majsju]

 

By similar reasoning, he may make the character dialogue more advanced.

 

 

 

With AMOL? Not intentionally. To do it in his own books is one thing, there he plays with characters he created. With AMOL, he has a couple of thousand pages establishing how people think and speak. And as he has said himself, he will strive to write as similar to RJ as possible, without making it sound stupid. (Ie, do not expect him to try to sound exactly like RJ, that would result in a book worse than if he uses his own voice.)

[Charlz Fel]

An important part of my point is that Sanderson does this deliberately in his own books.  Since it is deliberate, rather than a mistake or deficiency in his writing style, he has a reasonably good chance of modifying this aspect of his style as appropriate for aMoL.

[Majsju]

Haha, I read you the other way around, since the word 'advanced' was used in both the quote from Brandon, as well as in your following sentence ;D

 

The curse of message boards, nuances are not always as clear in writing as when spoken.