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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1670 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 23, 2025

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Making my way through The Way Of Kings. The prose is really mediocre, actually seems worse than his Wheel of Time entries, almost like he just doesn’t try as hard when he doesn’t have Jordan’s standard to live up to. Spren are still really annoying. Still, there’s a hint of a really interesting plot here. Dalinar and Shallan have more interesting stories than Kaladin.

Usually I read long series like this one straight through so as to not forget important details but there’s so much summary content available for Stormlight I might space it out. Will likely read a different genre next. I’m thinking either House of Leaves, Neal Stephenson’s Ananthem, or Pillars of the Earth.

I adored Anathem. Read it ages ago, though.

Personally, I bounced off of Anathem within several chapters when I first picked it up. Then, quite a few years afterwards, I was able to dive right in and plow through it, enjoying it greatly. Even now, the only difference that I can point to as a possible explanation is that I had devoured a lot more Neal Stephenson in the intervening years.

Eh, it really wasn't my cup of tea.

Like so many other of his novels, it felt very much like two or three novels roughly grafted together, and where only the first one was interesting. Not as egregious as Seveneves, but that's not saying much.

I like stormlight archives but I feel that the writing gets worse as we go along. There must be a line between character development and pop psychology, and it feels like along the way EVERY one of the main characters has to go through multiple rounds of "processing" their "trauma". To the ridiculous extent that Kaladin actually invents group trauma therapy for soldiers with PTSD! I loved book 1 Shallan but she gets worse. Loved early Dalinar, he gets worse.

Sandersons mind is an enjoyable place to hang out but honestly his wheel of time ending was stronger than his own books.

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