BEFORE YOU READ THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE | EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

hi guys so today's video is going to be a before you read which is kind of like in introduction into the store my archive by Brandon Sanderson if you've ever seen those before you buy videos in reference to video games it's gonna be kind of like that it's gonna be an overview of some information that might be helpful to know before going into the store my archive or at the very least maybe will make getting into it a little less daunting because these books are all currently over a thousand pages and I know looking at them it can be a little scary before we get into it even if you are already familiar with the store my archive I'm sure there's going to be something that I don't mention that you might think is helpful for other people to know so if that is the case please feel free to leave your helpful information in the comments down below the more information we can provide the more hopefully people will get in to store my archive because it's awesome I have a few different topics that I want to cover in this video I'm gonna have time stamps for each of these I'm gonna give you a rundown right now for what those are going to be the Kazmir fandom the formatting of the books the writing style the character work how dark or how adult it is what the content in general is like and what's it about I think it's helpful to start with what's it about what the heck is going on in these giant massive tomes so this is a story that follows a cast of characters if you like ensemble casts and books then this one is probably going to be right up your alley but what I absolutely love about it is despite it being an ensemble cast it doesn't sacrifice fantastic character work a lot of times when you have a lot of characters it's more about a bird's-eye view of everything going on and how all these people are connected but with this one while we have some of that you get so deeply connected to some of the characters and it really is truly here's our main characters here's our side characters but everybody has a great deal of depth in my humble opinion in the first three books we have arguably three main perspectives and those would be Caledon Chillon and dalla dark Caledon is a slave in this world and you kind of see this caste system where they have people who are light eyes and people or dark eyes and the dark eyes are considered lesser and then you see different degrees of that in between and Caledon is a part of the dark eyes and a slave so he was pretty much at the very very bottom meanwhile we have Dallin our who's essentially at the very top and he is a high prince so he's not the absolute ruler in their land but he is somebody who wields a lot of political influence and he is directly involved in the war that is going on and so you kind of see how these two differing men are a part of this same thing this war that has kind of the thing that their society feeds off of the third main perspective would be chillon she is a scholarship she's definitely fairly removed from the war and these other two individuals I know that can be kind of frustrating for readers when you have characters who are very far apart from one another but Shalon in all honesty well I thought her plotline in the first book was pretty freakin boring she does provide a lot of very organic world building and introduction to this massive world there's of course so much more going on in these books than just that it's definitely really difficult to pin down what the exact plot is but that kind of leads me into the formatting of the book because there's a few different things about the formatting that I think are helpful to know first off would be the fact that there are interludes in these books Sanderson has described the writing process for the store my archive as though each book is its own trilogy and then you have interludes throughout in between the books not that each one is broken up into like three specific books necessarily but there are interludes that sometimes can be quite long and sometimes can follow people that are in totally different places in the world and you have no idea how they are involved with the rest of the characters and having read the first three which are the only ones that are out I still don't know how some of them are default with the rest of the characters if they are it's sometimes very very vague but one thing to know about Brandon Sanderson in case you're like well can I skip these interludes one thing about him is that pretty much every single little detail that he has included is important it probably will come back at some point it's just you I have to go back and reread or if you're one of these fans that loves to to think like oh wait what's this what does this mean what could this possibly have to do with everything else then it might be really fun to see these little things make predictions and then see how it plays out later as a fan to be completely honest I don't love the interludes I just sometimes I'm like I don't know how this is relevant and I don't really care about these people but sometimes the interludes are about fascinating people or they provide really interesting information to the rest of the world besides these interludes it's also important to note that these books spend a lot of time in the past that's something that a lot of people don't love about books when you go back and forth between present and past but the way in which he's chosen to do it is that you're taking a very intimate look at one particular character within each of the books so in the first book you get to see the character Caledon the slave eventually you kind of piece together how he went from the life he had to becoming a slave I'm not always a fan of the use of flashbacks if they're done really well then I think they can very much enhance the story but a lot of times it feels like they're a crutch in books it feels like they're just there because the author didn't know how to naturally incorporate this information into the story but I personally feel it was such an obvious decision to make and it was made at a time in Brandon Sanderson's career where he's already proven that he can write a lot of stories that don't don't rely on flashbacks that he clearly is wanting to take the time to have you get to know these characters and I personally loved the flashbacks they are not necessarily always super relevant to the present sometimes there's some crossover for sure but really it's just getting to know the characters so well that you feel like you just feel like you know them you just feel like that's a real person I loved Caledon so I was definitely afraid that my like of the flashbacks was based entirely on the fact that I liked Caledon I'm a very character-driven reader so getting to read more about a character that I loved was right up Ali so I was a little nervous with the sequel's that I wasn't going to be as big of a fan but honestly I thought that the way he did them in each of the books was so good and there's definitely a lot of debate as to which character's backstory is the best they're all very deep they're all very tragic and I just feel like they're all really good of course these two particular elements are part of why these books are so long if you cut out the backstories and you cut out the interludes they would be much shorter but they're kind of part of what makes these books what they are if you have the time and really want to dive into it I think I think you probably won't regret getting to see these things play out one of the other reasons that I think this actually worked really well it's because Brandon Sanderson's writing style his prose is pretty straightforward and I I almost feel bad saying that but I I personally don't think that's a negative thing to say some people feel that if your prose isn't the most beautiful thing in the world that it's it's really demeaning to point that out or to say that something doesn't have amazing prose or amazing writing style but honestly getting to know these characters if I have to read a lot of extremely purple prose really elegant stuff I just personally think that one these books would probably be even longer and two I don't know if I would feel as invested with the characters and the world as I do when he's writing in a more direct fashion so if you are intimidated by the size of these books know that the size comes from getting to know the characters not from density I just don't think they're that dense one last thing to touch on in the formatting this has less to do with the formatting of the individual books in the series as a whole so Sanderson is projected the Stormlight archive to be ten books long but he has said that they are going to be broken up into two five-part arcs we have rhythm of war coming out this year and as a result that means there's only one book left so if you're the kind of person that's like I don't want to start a series that isn't completed yet oh there's only three out okay that means there's seven more I don't I don't want to start it yet actually there's about to be four out and then we live one more left and it's basically gonna be the end of a series next I want to touch on how the Stormlight archive is tied into Brandon Sanderson's cosmere and what the Kazmir is I do have a whole video dedicated to going in-depth about Brandon Sanderson's Kazmir that's not what's gonna happen today the Kazmir is just a shared universe that's the simple explanation for it and that's really I feel like the only explanation you need but how much the store my archive is tied to the Kazmir is something I know a lot of people wonder because they think do I have to read all these other books before I read this I've heard I got to read this one called war breaker do I actually have to do that the tie-ins from the Kazmir are not extreme it's not like if you don't read the rest of the books that were published before Stormlight archive you're gonna be missing out on a ton or you won't know what's going on Sanderson has himself said that you can just start in any of his series and you won't be left out the exception to that that a lot of fans like to add in is that a lot of people think that you should read war breaker first war breaker if you look at Sanderson's plans for it it was originally intended to be store my archives prequel but when he was riding it out he ended up just writing it and he's like well this is done and so he published it and so now War Breakers available I feel like that gives you a little bit of a clue it definitely there is some some tie-ins but if it was originally intended to come after and then be a prequel so like the events take place before but it was gonna be written out you guys know what prequels are war breaker is currently a standalone and I think it's a ton of fun so if you want to pick up more breaker first especially if you've never read any Sanderson I highly recommend that but if you just want to dive right in to store my archive I'm not gonna spoil you and say what exactly the tie ends are it's just that there's a certain thing that you see in war breaker that you end up seeing an oath bringer and there's very very very minor side characters that show up and store my archive that might have a been in or breaker but they're not even named by the same things there's just a couple of things that they say that you're like wait a second is that so-and-so from over there if you read store my archive first and then you read war breaker you're gonna get that same information you're just gonna get it that way instead of reading war breaker and then seeing it in storm like the only other addition to this is there is what is kind of called Stormlight archive two and a half which would be edge dancer this follows a side character that shows up in one of the interludes and you can read that it's basically a short story novella you read that and then that takes place chronologically between books two and three next up would be the fandom and I don't just mean the store my archive fandom but rather the Brandon Sanderson fandom as a whole I have been making YouTube videos about books for a while now and I have found sander fans I think is what we're called I think it's a quite welcoming community of people and a lot of times they're they're just excited because they like these books and they're nice and they like to read both his young adult works and his adult works they they just love that there's so much they they're just generally very nice very welcoming if there's one thing even remotely negative - it's not remotely it is a little negative to say if there's one negative thing to say about the Brandon Sanderson fandom it's just that sometimes sometimes the goggles can be on a little thick when it comes to the the love of his works because the man's written a lot of books and a lot of times people if you criticize his works and you do so even if it's a respectful criticism sometimes people will be like no it was great but I mean that's the case with most fandoms and it's honestly not that that bad but that would be the one negative thing about the fandom sometimes if you don't love everything about his works then you're gonna see maybe a little bit a little bit of pushback but usually that pushback is fairly respectful still feel like the fandom is a really really great one going along with the fandom as well I have to compliment how amazing all of the different different resources online there are there's so much amazing fan art first off there's something called the 17th shard which is great for reading people's theories or just seeing people die sucked characters and discuss characters I think it's so much fun it's one of those things where you're not only reading these books but then you're part of a bigger community of people geeking out online which is so much fun especially when there's these like Easter eggs essentially throughout his cosmere or there's little things within the books that you're like wait do you think that this means this is gonna happen it's just so fun because a lot of times when we read we're like I don't actually have anybody to talk to about the things I'm reading but there are always people to talk to about Brandon Sanderson's books the last thing I want to touch on is the how dark is it there's definitely I personally have seen a lot of individuals who are looking for a grittier more real examination of storytelling and I think as a result we a lot of times they're starting to see more violence in books or just bleakness there's just a lack of hope I feel like in a lot of adult fantasy and if they were movies a lot of them would be rated R that kind of a thing with this particular story it is not too dark if you're somebody who's like I'm squeamish or you're just uncomfortable with excessive violence they can be violent absolutely they do tackle some pretty mature themes but overall I find these books to be to be pretty pg-13 level I do want to touch on how that can potentially be seen as a positive or a negative thing within the book so I am going to reference a specific thing in store my archive which would be when Caledon that particular character is a slave he is a slave within a group of people who he has to kind of work together with in order to make their lives halfway decent and try to survive and these people are slaves because supposedly they're supposed to be criminals the worst of the worst absolutely terrible that sort of thing and in this group you you basically see that they're not that a lot of times they're people like Caledon who are not bad terrible human beings they've just been dealt a bad hand or society's views on these individuals have placed them in these positions and one thing that I feel like could have been done that would have been fascinating to examine is if you maybe had this be a little more grimdark you would have found likely at least one of the members of this particular group would have been a terrible person they are people who have their struggles you're gonna see people who have addictions in this group you're gonna see people who stole your you're definitely seeing some criminals but none of the criminals are criminals that you absolutely can't root for basically I'm trying to avoid spoilers as well but it's not like we have anybody in that group that's just flat-out a murderer who went around and killed a bunch of innocent people or something because that would have been a super interesting thing to examine how when you have to work together as a team and kind of leave people's past behind how do you then reconcile what they've done with what needs to be done in order for the greater good of the group and the survival of this group that would have been really interesting to examine but for the most part for the most part there's some exceptions I would say most of your good guys are pretty good guys they're all layered they're all flawed you're definitely gonna see very well fleshed out people but your good guys are usually people you can root for I am NOT trying to imply though that this is a negative thing this is definitely a preference thing if you are looking for a story where you can root for your good guys sometimes you don't want to root for them because they make mistakes but for the most part your good guys are your good guys I feel like the story is definitely that there's definitely instances where you're finding they give you hope there's those moments where you just want to like fist bump the air because the most heroic awesome things happen there's definitely a lot of that but there are still consequences they're still stakes man are there stakes some of the times in the story where you're like no no darn it there's definitely a lot of that also to follow up on the concept of how dark is it and the themes that are explored I think that this story does a fantastic job of exploring mental health and on top of that how things in society that aren't perfect can affect other people I mean just the fact that you have this system where people with dark eyes are looked down upon and sometimes those people end up becoming criminals in the eyes of society for basically nothing compared to what people who are in the upper class the upper class groups of people can get away with being terrible where the lower class you're not always able to have that much flexibility when it comes to your morality I feel like that in and of itself is such a difficult thing to write about and to do so with class and maturity and I feel like you get that in this story you get a great depiction of depression the depiction of survival guilt is amazing seeing how people can suffer from not handling trauma well there's just so many things about this story that I think are so incredibly well done if you have the time if you have the patience to read over a thousand pages per book start my archive I mean I guess two thumbs up from me I hope you liked it if you pick it up if any of you are stirring my archive fans and you would like to add something else to this conversation that you think would be helpful please feel free to do that also I will have my entire Brandon Sanderson that playlist linked down below if there's other information that you would like to see or some fan inspired artwork or music that sort of thing I've got a lot of love for a lot of the Kazmir and just Brandon Sanderson books as a whole so I'll have that linked down below but anyway thanks so much for watching if you pick up Stormlight I hope you love it have a great SEO day fine [Music]

Channel: Elliot Brooks

Views: 72,353

Rating: 4.9508944 out of 5

Keywords: elliot brooks, elliot, brooks, booktube, booktuber, fantasy, before you read, before you read the stormlight archive, stormlight archive, Brandon Sanderson, Elliot Brooks Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Sanderson Elliot Brooks, way of kings, words of radiance, oath bringer, rhythm of war, cosmere, cosmere videos, before you read way of kings, Brandon Sanderson cosmere, Elliot Brooks cosmere, Brandon Sanderson reading order, everything you need to know about stormlight archive

Id: JvOjfa5ptus

Length: 19min 36sec (1176 seconds)

Published: Sun May 03 2020