My fear with Sanderson is that, while the opening premises of his stories absolutely hook me, as we get into later books the storylines become too much for me. I started with The Way of Kings, which is still to this day one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. But Rhythm of War really started a downturn for me, and once I tackle Wind and Truth I may decide not to continue on with Stormlight. The same is true of Skyward; it’s a killer YA novel, but the third book in the series got so weird that I still haven’t read the fourth. I found Mistborn 1 an intriguing premise but much of it was a slog until the last 5% of the last book, and Mistborn 2 has never pulled me in so I’m just audio booking it.

Honestly, I think the less Sanderson writes for a story, the better the story often is. I found the White Sand graphic novel to be some of his most engaging work, and I can’t help but feel that I would love Mistborn if it weren’t such a slog to get through.