Brandon Sanderson - Author Deep Dive

stop making noise so I can work pips please stop make noise so I can work so I've made several different series on my channel in the past some of which have continued on and been very successful others were successful but just an energy drain and I didn't want to keep it going but this one I feel like I will really love and should probably get a pretty great response from y'all because what I'd like to start doing on this channel is these deep dives into some of my favorite authors some of your all's favorite authors and talking about how they got started what their history is they're reaching of success oddities of careers some pivotal moments for them all these things just so that we all can share knowledge about some of the most interesting fascinating people whose content we love and enjoy I thought there'd be no better way to start this series than with one of my personal favorite authors of all time and know many people my audiences personal favorite author of all time and that is with the magnificent prolific critically acclaimed massively selling Brandon Sanderson he's obviously deeply connected one of my favorite series of all times but even disregarding that he is certainly worth taking heavy note of I personally consider him the best modern current working fantasy author his output is remarkable and the quality of that output is certainly worth note as well but let's start back at the beginning and I mean the real beginning Brandon Sanderson was born December 19 1975 and of all places Lincoln Nebraska I didn't even feel the need to double fact check this I just sold on one source and went yeah that's probably true he was an avid reader of fantasy when he was a young man cuz you know duh he also attended BYU after completing his missionary service in the Mormon Church and majored in English literature and he currently does lectures at that school regularly well attending college Brandon Sanderson got a job at a hotel because it allowed him to write during his shifts something he took advantage of throughout his college career by the time he had graduated he had 12 novels finished all unpublished and was approached by tor publishing well in grad school and for a random sidenote just for fun because why not his roommate in college was a early Ken Jennings you might know him for having one of the most successful runs on Jeopardy of all time random fun side note and while attending BYU Brendan was also on staff for a magazine called leading edge and serve as the editor-in-chief for one year he finished undergrad in 2000 and went on to finish grad school 2004 but before graduating in 2003 Brendan was approached by tor books to have one of his books published through one of the most well-known Fantasy publishing companies out there burton sanderson chose his novel Elantras which received relatively positive praise something that not many first-time published authors can even come close to claiming by 2006 he had released the first book in the Mistborn trilogy the final Empire which made waves in the fantasy community and is highly regarded as one of the best ongoing fantasy series and with the third era of the Mistborn series still being worked on as of filming this video within the next few years Brandon Sanderson released several more critically acclaimed books and had quite a bit of success for an up-and-coming author but everything changed in 2007 when very tragically Robert Jordan the author of The Wheel of Time series passed by December of that year Brandon Sanderson was actually tapped to finish this series the reason he was chosen was the amazing blog post he did basically saying how Robert Jordan influenced his life reportedly Harriet mcdougal Robert Jordans widow saw that post and was touched and decided to let this young author finish off Robert Jordans works there was some controversy and pushback people not wanting someone else to finish Robert Jordans series but with Robert Jordan pretty explicitly saying he wanted these series finished regardless of he was able to finish it or not I think now we all realize it was the right choice to tap Brandon Sanderson to finish it off after being handed this task and being told he needed to finish the series in one book Brendan made the decision that that would not be possible and instead he would add three entries to the Wheel of Time series now look at this as an outsider it's already remarkable a young up-and-coming author is tapped to finish off one of the best-selling modern fantasy series of all time with one of the largest world's ever built within the genre I could not imagine these stress and pressure put on someone to do this there are many quotes by Brandon Sanderson about what it was like to be chosen from this and we're gonna go over a couple those right now in a frequently asked questions section of a blog post brendan has put responses to many fans questions about what it was like to be asked to finish the Wheel of Time series first and foremost why did they pick you and Brandon responds I wish with all I can give that I were not the one doing this book I wish it were Robert Jordan himself as I am a longtime fan of the series and his works I think his death is a tragedy for the fantasy community one will be feeling for many years to come however he made it clear that he wanted this book written after his death his wife read through novels by several authors whom Tom Dory the CEO of tor and others had suggested she enjoyed my books and chose me partially because of my novels and partially because she had read my eulogy of Robert Jordan and she knew that I was a big fan and follower of the series the next question being did you seek to be involved with this project and Brandon responds no I had no idea was even being considered until I was called by Harriet talk about a surprise question how did you become involved in October 2007 I received a call from Harriet Robert Jordan's wife asking if I was interested in the project I was stunned to be honest a few weeks earlier I had written a essay on my website discussing what Robert Jordan in his books had meant to me apparently this drew some attention at tor and someone had Ford the link to Harriet when she called me I said that I would certainly be interested in working on this book a month or so passed as she considered in late November I received a call officially offering me the chance to complete the book what was your reaction to being asked I felt honored and overwhelmed at the same time well I didn't ask for this the truth is that I'm extremely excited to be involved I love this series and I want to see book 12 written as much as any other fan for a writer like me the next best thing to having mr. Jordan write the novel is being able to work on it myself I can't do the job that mr. Jordan could have nobody can but I will do the best I possibly can and I'm confident in the quality of my work this will be a fantastic book his vision and foresight will make certain of that now this openness to fans has actually been a pattern throughout Brandon Sanderson's career not only does he run a very active blog well he will give percentage updates on how far he is in each book making it no fan has to ask him when will the book be released you can check on the actual progress but he does great posts about his own personal worldviews how he feels about the genre it's very interesting and allows you a deep look into the man's mind who's crafting some of the works we all know and love now this begs the question how did we love time fans like Brandon Sanderson's finishing of the series there have been some murmurs of people unhappy with pacing changes in the way some characters were handled but from my experience dealing with the Wheel of Time the fan response has been overwhelmingly positive Brandon did a phenomenal job of wrapping up the series he clearly had intimate knowledge with the characters the world and was a fan himself that shows in his works and as in a recent reddit post I made on the Wheel of Time subreddit I pointed out there and I still feel absolutely true now I am grateful as a Wheel of Time fan that Brandon Sanderson was chosen to do so he wrapped up the series wonderfully and we're all grateful moving on from kissing but now as I've mentioned Brandon Sanderson's output as an author is truly remarkable and that has remained true from his college days until now averaging over a book a year but is most well known and critically acclaimed series currently is the storm light archive one of my personal favorite fantasy series and it's not even halfway through being written but oh my god is that truly Brandon Sanderson's epic since his releasing of The Wheel of Time the Mistborn series has also become one of the biggest names in the fantasy genre and Brandon is widely regarded as one of the best current working fantasy authors very influential time will tell whether or not his influence will reach far but his writing style certainly appeals to millions that being said there have been some fairly consistent criticism of Brandon Sanderson's writing throughout the years a couple of which I'd like to go over and give my opinion of how valid I think they are the first is that Brandon seems to shy away from having very grim dark tones within his books going against the modern fantasy trend which is steering more and more towards that dark gritty realism we're seeing from the isang of Ice and Fire influence now if you like that current trend it certainly could turn you off from Brandon's works while his book certainly do have dark moments and deep flawed characters genocidal level events he doesn't go into the graphic detail and unpleasant torture scenes nearly the extent of someone like a George our Martin or a Terry Goodkind this is not necessarily a good or bad thing but it is a legitimate criticism if you feel that that is your type of reading of fantasy Brendon might not have the appeal for you was a reader though I still think the quality of his writing and storytelling could easily make up for the lack of that content and personally I don't buy into the grim dark trend as much as some people so it doesn't really bother me the other criticism that has remained consistent and I do feel is unfair is people accusing Brandon of slipping his religious or political views into his books this is an accusation that comes from him being Mormon I do not want to speak for the man himself he has made several posts on his blogs about his changing views and how they have evolved I don't know what he currently believes so I'm not going to touch that though I do think and this is my opinion people rather seek out to make those connections within his stories and I don't feel Brandon is ever preaching to his audience in any kind of grotesque over-the-top way very good kind he's even started to include LGBTQ characters and his stories I do not feel he's ever preaching Mormonism to me in his stories I find that rather unfair and someone just wanting to take shots in a Mormon I personally find that criticism completely invalid and this is coming from someone who is read most everything the guys put out multiple times and is rather annoyed when a book does get overly preachy he has several more books planned to be released within the next year to two years if you're ever looking for an author who's just going to consistently fill your reading habit and you're a slow reader Brandon can do that his writing style is remarkably approachable he might not have quite the grimdark trendy storytelling that a lot of people buy into but I personally find myself getting into the grimdark and pulling out and needing a refresher and Brandon Sanderson's writing is kind of like a cool glass of lemonade in the hot summer day it's just relaxing and fun and joyous to get into I can't imagine how difficult it was to finish the Wheel of Time and do it justice but by god the guy pulled it off obviously this is a glowing deep dive into an author and it's because I think Brandon Sanderson does nothing but contribute positively to this genre and into other genre he's for I didn't - he's dabbled into both young adult sci-fi and children's books now with my personal recommendation and this is how I'm going to end every author deep dive of how you should get into this authors works if you have not already personally I would go with Miss borne arrow one and if you absolutely love it maybe go with some of his one-off novels then after that dive into these Stormlight archive by then there'll be a few more books entered in the series and you can join us along the ride going to the end of this fantasy epic I hope you guys have enjoyed this author deep dive I'm very excited to start this series as well let me know what you want to see me do next in the comments down below you don't see me talk about Tolkien do me so you talk about Jordan Martin Brooks sprint weeks Marlon James I'm open to anybody just throw some names down they're the most uploaded ones I will certainly consider higher than the rest have a great day y'all like and subscribe if you have not already and have a good one peace [Music]

Channel: Daniel Greene

Views: 59,438

Rating: 4.9652495 out of 5

Keywords: brandon sanderson, fantasy, author, daniel greene, mistborn, robert jordan, wheel of time, stormlight archive, history, author deep dive

Id: dg4VeaXtcSg

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 18 2019