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Comment by TylerE | Hacker News Reader

What kills Sanderson for me is the dialog. Real people don't talk like a Mormon sunday school teacher. No warrior on a field of battle is going to yell "oh butterfingers!" in the middle of a battle.

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I don't think he is super great at dialog, either, but I like how his cursing is world-specific rather than just reusing what we think of as cursing in our world. He has quite a bit of it in Stormlight Archives (see: https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/7204-swearing-in-rosha...) but it doesn't "offend" us here in our world because it is specific to their world.

That's kind of a high fantasy trope. "Blood and ashes!" from Wheel of Time comes to mind. It's like how they like to use different measures of time and distance. "It took him a fortnight to travel all those leagues." Helps take you out of the real world.

> "Blood and ashes!" from Wheel of Time comes to mind

Probably fair to note that Sanderson wrote a bunch of those books to finish up the series after the author died and at his estates request?

Blood and ashes was a Robert Jordan thing, blasted Sanderson had nothing to do with it.

I meant it more in the way that he did it first and Sanderson ended up finishing his magnum opus? Basically two birds in a tree.

It's the ultimate giveaway in the cosmere when someone curses with a different word than used locally, is the sure sign they are far more powerful than they seem.

Characters in general for Sanderson books tend to feel like Sanderson picked one trait, and something 'surprising', and made that their whole personality. Then he builds from there. They eventually become complex characters but for awhile after their introductions they feel like a cardboard cutout. And of course the characters still feel much more puritan and sterile than I would prefer.

Agreed. I read Sanderson for his superb world building skills. He does an excellent job of exploring how magic systems impact the world and societies within it. But the characters and dialog are all pretty weak. His books are all easy reads, and he’s prolific so it’s nice to have something reliable to fall back on when I’m searching for more substantial novels.

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