Tarcanus t1_j1yz8ra wrote
Yeah, you're experiencing the big issue with Sando.
The man's a machine, and his stories are fun, but I still think he belongs in the YA section and has pulled the entire fantasy genre as a whole more toward YA and less toward more complexly written literature.
He tells, barely shows. His attempts at metaphor and simile are often cringe(I literally cringed at some of his attempts in the WoT books he wrote), and despite you thinking his worlds are deep, when you look again, they're broad and shallow as heck. He just picks a single cultural tic and beats that into the ground, but he has so many different cultures it tricks the reader into thinking it's complex.
But yeah, great intro author, but I think he's extremely overhyped to the point he's damaged the quality of other fantasy from his popularity.
zedatkinszed t1_j269on7 wrote
>he belongs in the YA section and has pulled the entire fantasy genre as a whole more toward YA and less toward more complexly written literature.
This is probably the best summing up of half of the damage Sanderson has inadvertently done to the genre. He's cemented the idea that it is a kids' & teenagers' genre.
The other half is made up of his laws, his volume of production and his impact on the readers but that's another story.
Tarcanus t1_j28mmw3 wrote
Yep, I agree.
It's always hard to have these conversations, though, because of his popularity. The fans will usually be upset at the criticism leveled at him and it's frustrating.
I think it's great his books are so fun and that so many people are reading, now, because of how accessible they are. I just don't think he belongs in the adult fantasy section and I've noticed WAY more fun, fluffy, fantasy in the adult section since Sando got popular that would be more appropriate in the YA section.
zedatkinszed t1_j28yo7h wrote
Yeah, I'm sad that we don't have the next GGK or Gaiman or LeGuin coming through. In fact I suspect it's because publishers _want _ the Sando type (volume over quality, YA over lit) that we aren't.
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