Brandon Sanderson

All of Brandon Sanderson's epubs from his website ( https://brandonsanderson.com -> https://dragonsteelbooks.com ) are DRM-free: https://support.dragonsteelbooks.com/support/solutions/articles/660005…

As far as his epic fantasy stuff goes, I started with Mistborn (starts slow, but finishing the 1st trilogy is mind-blowing) & my friend began with Elantris (release order, in my opinion, his writing gets better every book--there are now 50 & I've read/loved nearly all of them). Alternatively, Way of Kings could be a good starting point as well (my personal favorite). And of course there's a ton of non epic fantasy (Skyward & Steelheart skew younger). See also: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

My favorite fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson, has long been against DRM and has written a few times about the topic. (https://www.brandonsanderson.com/some-faqs-you-might-enjoy/ for one instance.) Whenever I buy his books from anywhere (usually via Amazon, (or direct in the case of his Kickstarter books!) but I should start going direct through Tor for his other ones…) I get them DRM-free. I hope more authors and publishers start releasing their stuff DRM-free too. As it stands, I have a jailbroken Kindle that I run KOReader on; I use a Calibre plugin to bust the DRM off of any book I buy for my Kindle, then port the ebook over to my device. Of course, I wouldn't have to do any of that if publishers would just sell the darn things without DRM.

The author has a page dedicated to this question. :) https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ I started with the Mistborn series, which I found to be fantastic. I'll be diving into the Stormlight Archive in the coming weeks.

There's other replies in this thread linking to [0]. My personal recommendation is his Mistborn trilogy. He wrote all three before publishing any, so the books feel like a cohesive whole, but he wrote it in a way that the first book ends in a manner that you could feel satisfied with a good story after only reading one book. Mistborn is my favorite trilogy ever. I've read it multiple times and I know the plot very well. The reason I love it is the characters. They feel so real, and you get genuinely invested in their growth through the books. One-line description from the website: It’s a hybrid epic fantasy heist story with a focus on political intrigue and powerful action scenes. [0]: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

I read his 2021 retrospective, and it was kind of amazing- https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2021/ just spitting out novels like crazy.

Most authors will sacrifice some amount of "realism" in the interests of story-telling (compared to Yudkowsy with HPMOR at least). A couple of Magic examples come to mind: * Brandon Sanderson does a lot of Magic impacting Physics. The magic is often proper unexplained magic - but it's impact on Physics is pretty well modeled. In the most recent Mistborn book - there's a remark that explains that when the character magically reduces their weight while flying through the air - their velocity increases. I think Brandon points to that - but says that he loves the consequences at that level - getting to the point of red-shift/blue-shift for bubbles of fast/slow time is story breaking. See also his laws of magic: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/ * Pat Rothfuss in the Kingkiller chronicles has a magic called "Sympathy" where rule 3 is "The law of conservation".

It depends on on what type of fiction you like. If you're into fantasy with hard magic systems[0], I highly recommend anything by Brandon Sanderson. The narrators for the Mistborn and Stormlight Archives are pretty good. I can also heartily recommend the first 5 or so Artemis Fowl books. They also have a great narrator. [0] A hard magic is very understandable by the reader and can be used to resolve conflicts. Personally, I love them. See https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/

I just finished reading Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson. It is the third book in the Stormlight Archive series. It was a fantastic read and the entire series is totally epic. Sanderson has many different trilogies, novels, and short stories in a universe he calls The Cosmere. If you like fantasy and haven't read any Sanderson, you should definitely check his stuff out! https://brandonsanderson.com/books/the-stormlight-archive/oathbringer/

I found the second book of Name of the Wind really badly written and juvenile sex fantasy. Let me recommend the Stormlight Archive instead, fantastically written and imaginative world: http://brandonsanderson.com/books/the-stormlight-archive/

I love audiobooks; I've listened to a massive number of them, I've read, recorded and edited for Librevox, I briefly looked at moving into audiobook production while I was a dubbing mixer on TV programs - and I'd still love to do it if I could. But audiobooks suffer from some of the same malaise as the publishing industry in general - in that it's both blessed and cursed by Amazon. Audible has a stranglehold on the audiobook market - but as Brandon Sanderson recently said "The deal Audible demands of ... [authors] ... is unconscionable". The fact that they only pay 40% of the sale price to the author for an _exclusive_ deal (25% if not exclusive) is frankly criminal. It's bad for authors, but the knock-on effects on the industry where one player has a 90% market-share and a exploitative relationship with the creators is considerable. About 12 years ago I spoke to one of the leading audiobook production studios about contract work editing audiobooks. The hourly rate they paid was terrible - barely a working wage. Worse still, the rate was based on per finished hour rather than per hour worked, so the liability for a poor quality reading / recording was entirely put on a contractor who had no control over it. Other engineers who were working in the field basically did the job for beer money between other gigs. So - I can't imagine that AI won't replace a great deal of audiobook production - but that's because even now, with best-selling authors the economics barely work…

Brandon Sanderson (very prolific fantasy author) has a novella inspired by this: * Original: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/blogs/blog/i-hate-dragons * Extended: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/blogs/blog/i-hate-dragons-extended-ve…

There is a page titled "Where do I start?" on Brandon Sanderson's website: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

I suggest you first read some of his free stuff available on his website before going in. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/brandon-sanderson-online-library/#fre…

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2021/, search for "Alcatraz Series". The final book will be coming out September 20, 2022.

Linked this in a related discussion yesterday, he has a page specifically for this question: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/ "The Cosmere" is his overarching fantasy universe, with The Stormlight Archive as its big fantasy epic (beginning with The Way of Kings). That series has references to his other fantasy work, including his other big series (Mistborn), but you don't necessarily need to have read anything else first. I think there are 4 books now with 10 planned, I haven't read the latest one yet but I enjoyed the first three. It's been a couple of years but I remember really liking The Emperor's Soul, and it's a $5 ebook novella so you're not investing too much time or money to check it out. DRM free from Kobo, not sure if that's the case via Amazon/Kindle.

He actually has a section on his website with suggestions for where to start. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

I enjoyed this blog post where he talks about his writing process. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/my-work-life-balance-as-a-writer/ He seems very disciplined. Hate to say but I'm glad I'm not one of his kids. He wakes up around noon and then writes for five hours, and _then_ he hangs out with his family. So basically his kids don't see him all day until shortly before they go to bed.

First time hearing about this author - what's the hacker news angle here? From what I gather it is that: 1) he's a very popular sci-fi/fantasy writer, 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign I'm genuinely interested - for someone new to his work, where is a good book to start? Edit: as mentioned in other comments: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/

Brandon Sanderson takes this approach really far. His status reports on the multiple series he's writing and the release timeline for each is an ongoing source of inspiration for me. Here's his 2020-in-review post: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2020/

https://brandonsanderson.com/books/legion/legion-skin-deep/ Legion: Skin Deep is a modern-day thriller/mystery with some science fiction undertones. In this story, Stephen is taken on a case to find a corpse with important information encoded in its DNA.

His website has a good list of ways to dive into his creations. https://brandonsanderson.com/books/where-do-i-start/

I would second this. Sanderson projects release dates for his future books, and normally meets them: https://brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2016/ I remember reading an reddit ama by him where he said his process of writing is more of an architect style: that is, he develops the overall arc of the major events in a series, and then fills in the details in each book. This allows him to project book release dates 1-2 yrs. out. I enjoy Sanderson, but I really enjoy knowing when the next book in an enjoyable series is coming out as well.

Your description of this theme in sci fi reminds me of a Brandon Sanderson book that I've been thinking of reading, Legion. "Stephen Leeds, AKA “Legion,” is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills. As the story begins, Leeds and his “aspects” are drawn into the search for the missing Balubal Razon..." http://brandonsanderson.com/books/legion/legion/

Someone is doing Mistborn. Let's hope they don't bungle it. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/1074/Mistborn-Movie-Update-and-Hu…

You think they're horrible bc you see the world from rand/mat/perrin's eyes. If you were aes sedai & a bunch of ignorant kids with that much power popped up you'd do anything to control them. Brandon Sanderson said that as he gets older he finds himself thinking more like Moiraine. I feel the same way. link: http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/599/WoT-Read-Through-EYE-OF-THE-W… (running off to shadar logoth without telling anyone!)

4) Is this mindset a disadvantage in some areas? E.g. does it hurt you if you're a psychologist or a novelist? It depends on what kind of novelist you want to be, I think. A good illustration of the differences comes from Brandon Sanderson in his essay on "hard" versus "soft" magic. Hard systems give the reader the satisfaction of solving puzzles and difficulties along with the characters. Soft systems preserve a feeling of mystery and wonder. Both can make for good writing. On the one end you have Tolkien, and on the other, Asimov. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/40/Sandersons-First-Law

How about Brandon Sanderson's criticism of Audible? [1] > If you want details, the current industry standard for a digital product is to pay the creator 70% on a sale. It’s what Steam pays your average creator for a game sale, it’s what Amazon pays on ebooks, it’s what Apple pays for apps downloaded. (And they’re getting heat for taking as much as they are. Rightly so.) > Audible pays 40%. Almost half. For a frame of reference, most brick-and-mortar stores take around 50% on a retail product. Audible pays indie authors less than a bookstore does, when a bookstore has storefronts, sales staff, and warehousing to deal with. > I knew things were bad, which is why I wanted to explore other options with the Kickstarter. But I didn’t know HOW bad. Indeed, if indie authors don’t agree to be exclusive to Audible, they get dropped from 40% to a measly 25%. Buying an audiobook through Audible instead of from another site literally costs the author money. What's worse is if the audio book goes into their subscription service, the author gets paid an even smaller fraction, as it is 25% or 40% of the fractional time on the subscription fee. Amazon built the system to dominate the market, then used the dominant position to bully creators into a teeny tiny fraction of the profits Amazon makes on the work. [1] https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2022/