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Sanderson is a huge favorite of some of my friends' -- they got me to read the Mistborn series and part of Stormlight last year. Very awkward, because I didn't care for them. The writing struck me as bad to bland, and the worldbuilding/magic system was so unimpressive, bog-standard fantasy fare that I started to wonder if I'd missed something important -- because the worldbuilding is what everyone praises.
I chalked it up to, "Well, I must not like fantasy anymore." A year later, I can't tell you anything about those novels I read. It was a breath of fresh air to see this article critiquing Sanderson's writing today.
But it's by far not a perfect article, or even a good one. It descends quickly into "Sanderson is a bad writer because he's WEIRD" and makes some especially half-hearted attempts to tie in Sanderson's Mormon religion as evidence that his books are subpar. I also read an article rebutting this, which struck me as very Defensive Fanboy -- lots of "Sanderson IS SO a good writer!!" with no actual rebuttal of the examples given. But rightfully, it lambasted this author's focus on Sanderson's Mormon religion and made a good point, which is that the author mostly seems frustrated that he couldn't force Sanderson into conforming to the author's idea of a good juicy interview.
I chalked it up to, "Well, I must not like fantasy anymore." A year later, I can't tell you anything about those novels I read. It was a breath of fresh air to see this article critiquing Sanderson's writing today.
But it's by far not a perfect article, or even a good one. It descends quickly into "Sanderson is a bad writer because he's WEIRD" and makes some especially half-hearted attempts to tie in Sanderson's Mormon religion as evidence that his books are subpar. I also read an article rebutting this, which struck me as very Defensive Fanboy -- lots of "Sanderson IS SO a good writer!!" with no actual rebuttal of the examples given. But rightfully, it lambasted this author's focus on Sanderson's Mormon religion and made a good point, which is that the author mostly seems frustrated that he couldn't force Sanderson into conforming to the author's idea of a good juicy interview.
