Since Brandon Sanderson was announced to be the guest of honor at Bubonicon, I have been DEVOURING his books.
Most recently, I downloaded Way of Kings from Audible. It's narrated by two people: a man and a woman. The man took a little getting into...but when the woman started reading....gah!! I don't know if her voice was modified somehow in post-production or what, but she sounded like a robot. Any other time, I probably would have dealt with it, but the audiobook was 45 hours long. Since the book was so compelling, I had to drop the audio book and buy it on my Kindle. I needed to read it at my own pace and absorb as much as I possibly could. I don't have a preference for audiobooks versus hardcopy, but I have to have certain books in my hands. Habit, I suppose. And if I fall in love with a book on Kindle, I purchase it again. If I think my friends will like it, I buy it for them, too.
Back to Way of Kings...all I can say is, THANK GOODNESS it's the first in a series. And THANK GOODNESS Brandon Sanderson is my age, so that he can keep writing for...well, forever would be good. I have nothing but respect for this guy. I wish I had a tenth of the ideas he has! Maybe I can commission one, then I would buy the rights and write my own books from it. Every time I read something else of his, I think "Dammit, Sanderson! Leave the rest of us some ideas too!" He imagines the most insane, cool, out there, makes-you-think worlds and magic systems ever.
As I was reading Way of Kings, I had to slow myself down while I was reading it. I knew it would be over soon, and that I've read everything else BS has put out. It was like eating M&Ms, one at a time, knowing that it was the last package of fresh M&Ms on Earth. All other packages would be old, stale, lifeless. And yet I couldn't put the book down. And now that I'm finished...argh! I need more book!
Now, the first time I'd heard of him, I was a little biased. We all have our little biases...and my bone to pick with anyone is religion. I don't want to hear about anyone's religion. We all believe what we believe, stop shoving it in other people's faces. Brandon Sanderson is a Mormon, and he doesn't try to hide it. He doesn't harp on it or use his books to puch an agenda. After listening to him talk at Bubonicon, I actually stopped thinking of Mormons as weird.
Shush. It was one of my last holdouts, and I'm baring all here, okay? We all make assumptions about the people that are loudest and in our face. It only takes one person to change your opinion.
Sanderson has really deep philosophical arguments in his books. He writes about things that real people have to deal with, even if we're not Mistborn or Knights Radiant , highprinces or slaves. He writes about very real fears, honor, love, loss, guilt, pride, belief--and he writes about them in a very compelling way.
I don't know how this man has room in his head for all the fantasticness that comes pouring out and can still function as a normal human being. I regret not being able to pull my fangirl head out of my fangirl butt and been able to truly tell him how much his books have touched me and my life. How they've made me a better person--how he's made me a better person. To maybe get my picture taken with him. I hope so much that he comes back to Albuquerque. I think I'm going to knit him a scarf.