For the record I've never read a Sanderson novel, but I've heard they were rather socially conservative for the most part. No sex, no modern politics, no R-rated scenes. Moderate T for Teen level content.
Sanderson has also been pushing for Hollywood deals for a long time, but had no luck.
The most recent book suddenly had homos and non-binary and all that stuff. Then boom, TV deal signed.
Thoughts?
I have friends who know him. He got really busy about 5 years ago and hasn't had a break. Almost everyone he has talked to is in the media by some form or another. Even his cousins, friends, students don't get very much time with him. The, media types push hard on the left. Since that's all he interacts with, it's not a surprise. He's being controlled by the left leaning corporate suits.
This is fairly common with any artsy thing. You can be right leaning, but the higher up the ladder you go, the less it is allowed.
He sold out on his last book I believe, gay characters or some shit I forget. He wouldn't get the tv deal otherwise. I enjoyed his first couple books in the series but got bored partway through the second last one (rhythm of war I believe). The chick character is insufferable and she has way too much POV time. The two main male characters are pretty dope though.
The gay and trans characters weren't even the worst part. This was:
I didn't bother reading the fifth book. Never will. Sold the previous four and I'm simply going to forget I've ever read them. Also never going to buy another Sanderson book again.
The whole "schtick" of Stormlight is that almost all of the main characters are broken in some way. That's integral to how the magic system works.
The last 2 books have had more "cringe" moments than any other pieces of Sanderson's writing.
I think the real reason is that his longtime editor, Moshe Feder, left. Moshe had edited I believe every single Mistborn and most of the other Tor books. Oathbringer (Stormlight book 3) was the last book Moshe worked on.
I don't think it's a coincidence that books 4 and 5 were far weaker. Sanderson does this whole "alpha readers" and "beta readers" feedback groups, and with a strong and good editor in place, that's manageable. Without a strong guiding hand, it's easy to get bullied around by shitty superfans.
Oh wow, that's bad. Might well be the gayest line imaginable. Woulda been less gay to just kingdom-cum-in-my-ass the character.
It's not just gay. It's a bit very modern day millennial gay for a medieval semi-apocalyptic fantasy world.
Spoken by what was formerly the most awesome character in the series. A character who is essentially sidelined in the last book in the series so we can get gay inter-species romance bullshit.
Thank the Lord I decided to stop reading them before this. I might have actually had a stroke. Tumblr bullshit
He put gay characters in the WoT books he (co-)wrote. And he made sure to explicitly point out that the fact that it was OK that this minor character who only played a role for a few chapters in the last few books was gay.
I don't recall Jordan doing anything other than making sideways allusions to any characters other than the Forsaken (several of whom were complete sexual degenerates) being gay.
Jordan didn't write the final books so I consider them fanfiction tier. I don't care if his wife sanctioned them, she's not Robert Jordan.
Publishers probably had a hand in that too. Doesn't mean that Sanderson didn't sell out, just that they're some of the main players trying to push and promote it (for DEI bucks or whatever).
Sanderson was always woke. His first book, Mistborn had a female main character, who was almost a Mary Sue.
His first book was Elantris, which also featured a Mary Sue type protagonist.
Something I've said for years is the action girl protagonist is inherently a male fantasy.
a gamma male fantasy.
Oh absolutely
Sanderson writes a decent first book of a series then fumbles the bag immediately afterwards.
I read alot of them but he cucked hard in the stormlight archives and even wrote a groveling apology on his site because he had offended the queers. Never reading anything from him again
Read James Islington instead
Just read through the first two books of the Hierarchy series. I immedieately began a re-read. Can't second this endorsement enough. It's everything I wish Stormlight Archive had been.
Read the Licanius Trilogy as well. The prose isn't as strong but the story is fantastic.
Before his announcement that he was going Woke, you could see the cracks appear in his Mistborn Era 2 series. Interesting enough his quality went downhill rapidly also. He also tried to do his stupid sanderverse thing which made also ruined the quality in my view.
I thought Misborn Era 2 was great. Yes, there are signs of Hollyweird peaking through, but it's pretty minimal.
Sanderson saw how Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time got absolutely raped by the networks. He's said some stuff that doesn't totally burn his bridges but also made it clear that it's crap and he knows it.
I'm not thrilled about it being Apple, but there's not a single producer or network I WOULD trust today.
I'm cautiously optimistic that keeping enough control will at least keep them watchable. In his announcement, he said (basically) that Apple offered him the most control.
I'm a very big admirer and fan of Sanderson. I absolutely agree that the most recent Stormlight books have been some of his worse, the gay/alien/autistic relationship is drainingly bad, and I'm very afraid for the 2nd Stormlight sequence (the next 5 books).
Sanderson is one author who treats his fans with the utmost respect, and he's a very hard worker. I respect him for that a lot. I'm sorry he's been battered by the leftwing culture warriors.