Re:Earthsea – A Rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin (2015)
by stcredzero on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @01:14PM
(#16224894)
(I'd tried Mistborn years ago but didn't get into it)
Sanderson appeals to readers with certain sensibilities. The rules of his world always make sense, and things follow those rules, even including the magic. There are lots of readers for whom this is a great boon, because otherwise, magic feels like mere plot convenience and deus ex machina.
I also admire his obvious and sincere efforts to include non-neurotypical characters in the series. He specifically thanks people he consulted with about this in his acknowledgements. The Stormlight Archive includes, among its main and secondary characters, people with depression, PTSD, and autism. I think it's great that he's giving people who have those, especially kids and teenagers, a chance to see themselves as heroes in an epic fantasy series. The depictions aren't perfect, but they're pretty good, and they avoid some common pitfalls. Nobody gets superpowers from their mental illness, for example.