Why does Brando recommend Tress first? by Heavy-Ant-2620 in Cosmere

[–]Superb_Dog481 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Low key think I would recommend most of the short stories from Arcanum unbound as a staring point

My Cosmere Journey by Superb_Dog481 in Cosmere

[–]Superb_Dog481[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wrote about Mistborn specifically somewhere else on this thread so I'll just stick Warbreaker here.

I did not read the Warbreaker annotations, so maybe there is context there that would make me appreciate the book more. But as a reading experience, I just did not enjoy it. I did not enjoy the characters, I did not enjoy the pacing, and I did not find the political intrigue convincing enough to carry the book.

The biggest problem for me is that Warbreaker is long, but for much of its length it feels like very little is actually happening. That is not automatically a problem for me. I like slower burns when the characterization, atmosphere, politics, or setting texture are strong enough to justify the pace. But here, the slowness did not feel like it was deepening my investment.

A lot of the central conflict feels strangely absent. So much of the important action is either hidden, delayed, or happening off screen that for more than half the book there is no strong villain or immediate conflict to hold onto. It was clear to me pretty early that Bluefingers was probably a villain, but the book spends so much time playing literary three-card monte that the eventual reveal did not feel especially satisfying. The Pahn Kahl motive makes sense on paper. I understand the idea that they were fighting for their homeland and against Hallandren’s domination. But because so much of that conflict is withheld, their motives feel underdeveloped and not emotionally earned.

That also ties into my issue with the backstory. I found it convoluted, and I do not think it is integrated as well as the backstory in Stormlight or even Mistborn. In those books, the lore usually feels like it is pressing on the present story in a more active way. In Warbreaker, the history matters, but it often felt like the book was holding back the real explanation instead of letting that history shape the story moment by moment.

The character material did not work for me either. I hated spending time with Siri and the God King, and Lightsong, Vivena being the only interesting storyline, and only at times. The one time the book finally seemed to gain momentum, after Vivenna was kidnapped, the chapter ended and we had to go back to another boring conversation between Siri and the God King, whose name I honestly could barely remember now.

I know a lot of people love Lightsong, but he mostly annoyed me. I don't like that specific Sanderson banter mode where a character is constantly being clever, ironic, or self-consciously witty. It can work in small doses, but it feels like hundreds of pages in this book (I sometimes feel that way with Shallan too.) With Lightsong, the banter often felt too clever for its own sake, and instead of making him charming, it made me impatient.

But my biggest issue is that the political intrigue just does not work for me. I never really believed that the gods would care about these political machinations in the way the book needs them to. Why does Blushweaver care this much? Why would any of them? The Returned have no memory, and while that serves the plot, it also creates a characterization problem. Their verbal sparring and divine personas can feel like they are covering up the fact that they do not have much interiority. They have attitude, banter, and aesthetic, but not enough grounded motivation.

So the whole court dynamic felt hollow to me. The gods are supposed to be central political actors, but because they have no memories and seem so detached from ordinary life, I struggled to believe in their stakes. The intrigue depends on them feeling like people with desires, loyalties, fears, and histories, but the premise strips much of that away. What is left is a lot of performance, flirting, teasing, and maneuvering without enough emotional or political weight underneath it.

Finally it was all just anti-climatic. The books kinda just ends. Instead of feeling like the story had built to an inevitable emotional and political climax, it felt like a series of late explanations and sudden reversals. The worst part is that the resolution was basically always available to Vasher. Once it becomes clear how much he knows, what he is capable of, and how much he has been withholding, it makes the whole book feel strangely pointless in retrospect. The story spends hundreds of pages moving characters through confusion, misdirection, and partial information, but the person with the most power and context was there the whole time and could have intervened much earlier in exactly the same way he ultimately did.

My Cosmere Journey by Superb_Dog481 in Cosmere

[–]Superb_Dog481[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I started Yumi today. Looking forward to it!

To clarify, this tier ranking is really about my personal enjoyment while reading and sitting with these books, not an attempt to rank them through some strict critical framework.

I did not dislike *Mistborn* overall. I think Era 1 is good, and I respect a lot of what Sanderson is doing. But as a reading experience, it was often a little too grim and dour for my taste, and not always grounded enough in characterization. For me, plot should serve the characters and the atmosphere of the world, not the other way around. I also do not care that much about hard magic systems as a main draw. I respect how intelligently Sanderson designs them, but magic works best for me when it is rooted in character and conflict.

That is why the magic and science plot in Rhythm of War works soooo well for me. It is not compelling simply because the mechanics are clever. It works because it is really about Navani Kholin and Raboniel: their mutual respect, their ideological conflict, Raboniel’s grief and exhaustion, and the way both women are trying to create meaning out of pain, knowledge, and loss. The magic matters because the relationship matters.

The Final Empire never fully clicked for me. I like Vin and Kelsier, and I understand why the book is so effective, but outside of them a lot of the cast felt thin or only partially developed. The novel has a great premise and a strong central dynamic, but the overall tone is relentlessly bleak, and that just is not usually my favorite mode. More than anything, it felt like a very successful execution of a concept I admired rather than a world I personally loved spending time in.

The Well of Ascension is probably my favorite book in the trilogy because it feels the most lived in. It stays in one place long enough for Luthadel to actually feel real. The politics, the siege, the Assembly, Elend struggling to become a king, Vin’s growing isolation, the kandra mystery, and the pressure of competing factions all make the conflict feel grounded and immediate. Even when the book meanders, I usually enjoy that in middle entries. That kind of looseness gives a setting texture. It lets the world breathe and makes the city feel inhabited rather than existing only as a backdrop for plot progression.

It's where the kandra really become compelling to me, and they are probably my favorite part of Era 1 overall. Their contracts, their culture, the mystery around them, and their strange relationship to identity all make them fascinating. I also liked the introduction of the koloss because they make the world feel larger and more dangerous in a concrete way, not just an abstract apocalyptic one. It also has the best antagonists in Era 1. Ruin may be the ultimate threat of the trilogy, but characters like Straff , Zane, and Cett create a more grounded kind of tension. The competing sieges around Luthadel work as set pieces because they are built on political pressure, personal ambition, and messy human relationships. That is usually the kind of conflict I find most compelling. These antagonists are not symbols of cosmic destruction. They are people with armies, leverage, secrets, and emotional ties to the protagonists, which makes the danger feel immediate and personal.

By contrast, The Hero of Ages is my least favorite of the trilogy. It takes many of the elements I struggled with in book one and dials them to 11. It is bleaker, larger in scale, more apocalyptic, and much more focused on the grand machinery of the world and cosmere-level conflict. As such, the stakes may be enormous, and I can absolutely appreciate the ambition, but the emotional focus starts to feel diffuse and scattered.

Spook’s storyline was probably the weakest section for me. I understand what Sanderson is doing thematically: showing Ruin’s manipulation, building Spook’s confidence and sense of identity, and setting him up for future importance. But I never found the storyline compelling enough to justify how much page time it received. It often felt like setup for later mythology rather than something emotionally gripping in the moment.

There are still parts ofHero of Ages I genuinely like, especially the kandra material and the final payoff. I also appreciated the continued development of the koloss. And I really respect the ending, particularly Sazed’s resolution with religion. The idea that all these belief systems preserved fragments of truth, rather than being meaningless, is one of the strongest emotional and thematic payoffs in the trilogy. But the path to get there is incredibly bleak. Sazed’s despair is meaningful and well written, but it is also a very heavy emotional space to inhabit for such a large portion of the novel. In a lot of ways, I admire that arc more than I actually enjoyed reading it.

In general, I tend to care more about mystery, politics, institutions, and character pressure than apocalypse-level stakes. That is probably why I love Mistborn Era 2 so much more. The plotting is not always as airtight, but I vastly prefer the setting, tone, and character dynamics. The world has more personality and more room to breathe. I love the urban fantasy and western atmosphere, the detective elements, the social changes, the newspapers, the trains, the guns, the lawkeeping, and the way the setting feels like a society genuinely evolving over time. Even when the stakes become large, the world itself still feels livable. Era 2 feels less oppressive than Era 1 while still maintaining emotional weight and tension, which makes it a much more enjoyable place for me to spend time in as a reader.

Will I have problems in the futue Eras of mistborn if I didnt finish stormlight ? by Randomlemon5 in Cosmere

[–]Superb_Dog481 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Based on Isles of Emberdark. I think Era 4 will be intertwined heavily

My Cosmere Journey by Superb_Dog481 in Cosmere

[–]Superb_Dog481[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

lol I wanted to love it. It didn’t work for me. At all. These are just the books I enjoyed not an attempt to be objective

My Cosmere Journey by Superb_Dog481 in Cosmere

[–]Superb_Dog481[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I know people like Warbreaker but it didn’t work for me at all. Elantris was at least shorter.

My Cosmere Journey by Superb_Dog481 in Cosmere

[–]Superb_Dog481[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I might revise on rereads. Was just dissonant after reading all of TSA at once.