Thanks so much for having us on! Super fun time 🤠

No one hates Tom Bombadil as a character, they hate how the already slow plot stops to introduce a character that is completely irrelevant to the rest of the book.

Rothfuss weekly round-up: “Hi all, wrote nothing new. Rewrote the whole book for the 10,000th time. I owe you nothing. Be patient till next week’s update where I give you nothing and please don’t ask in between updates.”

Loved this discussion because of the friendly dynamics in the disagreement and the thoughtful opinions from everyone! I didn't know about these guys but I was immediately sold when he said "the movies are going for the opposite tone that the books try for" with regards to LOTR and TB. Well-observed! So while I didn't agree with everything, loved how hard everyone tried to defend their own points and you all let each other speak!

Great idea bringing your channels together, loved the interaction, it was super fun.

Tom Bombadil perfectly fits the tone and texture of the books. Every life-threatening section of the books is followed by something life affirming. From the beginning, the first encounter with the Black Riders is followed by a stay at the farmers house. After the trip through the Old Forest, they meet and stay with Tom Bombadil. After the encounter with the barrow-wights, they spend time singing and drinking at the inn in Bree. After their encounter with the Black Riders, they spend a long time at Rivendell. Etc. Even in Mordor, Frodo and Sam get a break when they spend time with Faramir in Henneth Annun. The movies go for a much more consistently grim tone. You really only get moments of joy and simple relaxation at the very beginning and end, whereas the books have those moments included throughout. In part, I think this is because the movies establish a faster pace. The movies feel like the events are taking place over the span of weeks. The books make it clear this takes place over the course of a year.

I’ve tried several Sanderson books and only finished The Final Empire which was ok. I don’t get the Sanderson hype. I’m done trying.

Narnia as children's literature absolutely holds up and I will read it to my children for sure

I understand the desire for a nice background when you're filming, but many booktubers' bookshelves have begun to look the same with similar titles and matchy-matchy editions. It's getting a little boring. My mismatched bookshelves are filled with new books and thrift store books and it feels so cozy and personalized to me. 📚💚😊

I see 2ToRamble in the thumbnail and it gets an instant watch and thumbs up!

Refreshing to watch people having fun over their disagreements 🙂

Scenes that focus on characters and relationships are actually much better than the main plot for me more often than not. I think that's where a lot of modern epic fantasy loses me. They have the action, magic and plot, but they don't have the heart, soul, emotion and characters I can grow attached to.

I think the key for unfinished books are the amount of notes the author left behind.

This has to be my favorite collaboration EVER

Sanderson puts me to sleep. Talk about slogs. Why do people forgive him for this? It’s like no one edits. The Way of Kings was great, but every follow up puts me to sleep. If he cut 1/2 to 2/3 of the books out, he would have a decent story.

James SA Corey could finish ASOIAF

This was hilarious🤣 Bombadil is a king amongst men. Also, Golden Son was my least favorite in RR because I was so not ready for “space opera”😅

Love this ! Such a fun video 😊

MY 2 TO RAMBLE FRIENDS! I'm glad Tom is feeling the love

Brandon Sanderson is everything wrong with modern fantasy

First off, Tom Bombadil is amazing. Period. Secondly, in addition to the movie poster cupboard being banned the "Now an [insert streaming service] original series" sticker should be banned as well! I hated them when they were *actually* stickers and now they had the *audacity* to PRINT them directly on the covers! Books 10, 12, and 13 of Wheel of Time on my book shelf will forever be marred by Amazon.

Cosmere is literally the MCU of fantasy books, in a lot of ways. From how series and characters connect to how immensely fun but far from a literary masterpiece it is.

I read the first 4 stormlight books in under a week. I literally couldn’t put them down and it was my first fantasy series since some YA books in elementary school.

I have read the first two books of mistborn and I have the 4 books of stormlight archive and I prefer stormlight better because I couldn’t relate or like any character from mistborn

This was so awesome ❤

love these videos!

I agree about Narnia. I don’t love it as much now, but when I read it in 3rd or 4th grade, I absolutely loved it! I’m a Christian as well, but I think I prefer more vague and indirect allegories in my fiction.

How you talk about Red Rising is how I feel about Mistborn. I've read the first two books and they both got 4 stars but everyone talks about it as it it's one of the greatest fantasy series of all time and I was just... where? Are you reading different books from me? My expectations were really high so I ended up disappointed.

The Cosmere universe felt very tacky and repressed. It felt like it was written for teens, which is fine. But it's not this high fantasy god tier content that everyone seems to worship it for.

Stormlight was actually the second fantasy series to read after ASOIAF so I guess you can say I dove into the deep end. I really don’t know if I am weird or it’s just not true to say that beginners shouldn’t read epic fantasy

My conclusion after watching this video is that I need to read LOTR again 🤣

Always a blast!

6:33 well no he can't. That's like the entirety of Oathbringer right there.

Sanderson maybe just wants to create a large quantity of works rather than torture a page for style reasons and I'm totally cool with that - his writing is not bad at all and the Cosmere as a whole could go well into the 2040s and beyond, so yeah. Buuut the last Wax and Wayne book and Triss were both grating at times because the humor isn't working for me and they were both going out of their way to try to be funny. And he's just generally not particularly funny, but he does try. I find it pathetically generic humor, maybe a pun. Like a Mormon committee was tasked with generating jokes. Wayne and Lift as characters are a bit of a copy and paste of each other, with Wayne turned up to 20 in the last book it was just...not funny to me. I'm not sure if Wayne is supposed to be mentally ill in that way exactly, but Lift kinda is and is generally pretty funny, plays well off her voidbringer, etc. Perhaps Brandon's greatest and only success in humor actually, that running voidbringer joke. Wayne not so much, just annoying, exhausting, childish. I hope he works on that, but it's probably a huge PITA to be funny. On a side note the next audiobook I started after listening to Triss was a Hitler biography that I had no idea was narrated by Kramer, it worked a lot better with him describing Nazi atrocities than a teenage girls fairy tale.

Always like watching ur videos 🎥🎥🎥🎥

In my experiences discussing Bombadil with people, its either they love him or hate them

Sanderson isn't over rated he just isnt epic fantasy tho in the league of tolkein hobb martin and those who bring a world with a story that you just see lore and lose yourself in it. he tells to much rather than show. this allows people that are not use to fantasy to follow and not be over whelmed and enjoyed. Storm light is trying and being a bit more grander but the more books that come out the more he pulls back and recaps so it is feeling less and less this is that grand fantasy world because he goes back to explaining. half of mistborn elantris warbreaker focuses on and telling us the rules like we don't get it is fantasy, that it is that world stop telling us how it is different from our own just tell the story.

Tom is my actual favorite character lol. #JusticeForTom

When I think of movie posters as book covers, I think of The Martian and I think every edition of that book has had great covers. So I’m good with it.

Steven Erikson could finish GRRM’s book. As simple as that. He is famous for being able to write as other writers and he is (let’s be on hot take) better than him creating worlds by far and that kind of politics.

If there's any author trustworthy enough to finish ASOIAF, it's Joe Abercrombie.

Sanderson CAN write well, but more recent entries have sometimes devolved into reading like a Marvel script. Oathbringer's last act being a notable offender

IMO, Brandon Sanderson is definitely overrated. He's very good, but none of his books have the characters, plot or grandoise of works such as Lord of the Rings, ASOIAF, or the Name of the Wind, among others. The fact that he releases books very often in a time when fandoms are thoroughly disappointed in the slowness of the writers of the previously mentioned books, Rothfuss and Martin, makes the fantasy fandom value him a lot more, I guess. To the point he's being overly deified, almost. His books are good (very good in Stomlight's case imo), but can't compare to other sagas.

I agree with wanting to see A Song of Ice and Fire concluded. Sanderson did great for Wheel of Time, but he isn’t the right fit. For ASOIAF, I think Joe Abercrombie is the guy

Why Tommy b works in the books and not the movies is that the movies are an action franchise and the books are a more episodic whimsical camping adventure journey.

In regards to someone finishing a song of ice and fire my vote is for Abercrombie.

I wanted this video to be an hour and a half :(

Tom Bombadil is a great character!!! And The Sword of Kaigen is just perfect!!!!!

I kind of disagree with you on mismatched shelves, I love having an eclectic mix of books. It feels a lot more cozy and lived in. However, it does depend on the books a little. For example, I don't keep matching sets of classics, they can all be their own thing, in fact I vastly prefer that. With something like Discworld where the books are related but many also can be read alone, I am not that concerned either way. But for a more contained linear series, I want them to match. I often have a mix of hardcover and paperback, just depending on what was available, that's ok, but the artwork needs to match. I don't want Fellowship of the Ring in one style and Return of the King in another.

If someone else had to finish ASOIAF, maybe Abercrombie, I've only read 1.5 of his books but I think if he had the outline maybe.

I agree with Sanderson being overrated. He bores me. Too reliable on plot, not skilled as a writer. ASOIAF was already finished by other authora and we all know what happened. I'd rather have it unfinished, just in case.

Hard agree with Austin on the red rising bit.

agree about dream sequences, i have never enjoyed a hallucination/dream sequence in any media EVER

I don’t understand the red rising is meh stuff personally. Im not a sci-fi guy and have always preferred fantasy as a genre that being said Brown is a great author and red rising is some of the best stuff I’ve read this year, the only book I enjoyed more than Dark Age and Golden Son was literally Dune which in my opinion is a perfect book so that’s high praise. I started RR because Rythm of War for me was really burning me out on Sanderson and it’s been a total slog. I’ve now gotten to Lightbringer and I think this is seriously a top 10 series for me personally. I get not everyone has the same preferences and that’s fine but I seriously can’t agree with RE being meh. Not a single book in my opinion goes blow a 7 (can’t say the same for Sanderson. ) So in summary totally disagree with the RR statement and super hot take i think currently Red rising is a more enjoyable series than Stormlight archive which was the series that got me back into fantasy and reading

Totally agree. I DNF'd Words of Radiance. I guess he's good for people just coming into fantasy but I suspect hell be a flash in the pan once you start reading other stuff.

YES, VERY MUCH SO!!!

I agree with the vast majority of the opinions but I will say that you guys were a lot nicer to Red Rising than I would have been.

I gave up on wheel of time after the forth book. Just couldn't get behind how annoying a lot of the characters were/are especially the female protagonists. Should I give it another shot?

People are living to 100 nowadays! She just finished her 11 book series War of Light and Shadow. I think she could handle 2 more books. GRRM should ask her to collaborate just like Raymond Feist did.

I think the problem with Sanderson's writing is that he's writing too fast and that always translates into a lesser level of quality. Now I'll absolutely give him props for being consistent on a level a lot of other very popular authors never reach, but when I think of brilliantly written fantasy, Sanderson basically never comes up in that inner monologue. Now there's a lot of authors I really like to read that aren't even as good as he is, so I won't hold that against him, but contrary to most of those other authors, I think he could be way better than he already is if he wanted to. And I'm pretty sure that this is a sacrifice he willingly made for sake of greater monetary success. So while I would agree that he could be one of the goats of modern fantasy if he wanted to, saying that he already is is, in my opinion, an overstatement. And that makes him, yes, overrated.

Mistborn better than Stormlight is a good one. Veeeeeery interesting 🤔

Wow! So there is someone else out in the bookiverse that does not rate the Wheel of Time highly. I am not alone, hurrah.

I loved Tom bombdil I was walking around my house talking about how great he was lol

Two great channels!

Nah, Sanderson is not overrated. He is well loved by his fans (as he should) due to his enormous dedication and engagement. If he were overrated he would be constantly nominated to things like Hugos and Nebulas and appearing in lists of the best fantasy writers ever. He won a Hugo for The Emperor’s Soul (totally deserved) but I don’t think the rest of his oeuvre is at a technical level to be earning prizes like that

lol... Tom Bombadil is the best.

I don't think there is a current author that could finish asoiaf

If someone has to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, I nominate Daniel Abraham.

These videos are so fun! Also gives us a chance to discover new booktubers! And I absolutely agree with an early comment in the video - I can't stand dream sequences. I skip over them immediately if I'm reading something that I know won't integrate them into the plot. They're fine in most Harry Potter cases, where he's witnessing actual events, or in a film like Inception, which wouldn't exist without them. Otherwise, no thanks, don't care, move on, please.

Of course he is overrated. How can anyone say "he may not be on the same level of Robin Hobb" and then continue arguing he's not overrated? Sanderson in literature is the same what MCU is in cinema. Popular amusement park in which all rides have the same formula. Sure, you change costumes and environment, pretend you're here and there, music is loud, effects are expensive and shiny, but in the end, program is the same. In 10 books I have read from him, there was little to no substance to his allegory, he never changes his prose (in which he is at best at an entry level), he copy/pastes all his female characters (Jasnah, Shallan, Vivenna, Siri, Sarene), as well as henchmen characters (Teft, Galadon, Lopen), as well as world building for which he is often praised (he squeezes worldbuilding from Elantris all over his Cosmere Universe (goodnes gracious even that is copied from MCU)). Magic system is interesting. But for a child so is any "make belief" game he comes up on the spot while playing.

Who needs farm boys when you can grow potatoes on Mars?

Have not yet watched the vid so i am just comenting based on the title Brandon sanderson is overrated in my opinion Does not mean i dont like the guy i think he is a good writer and also a very good person but nothing speaciale When i got back into reading i started reading brandpn because everyone was talking about him So i started with mistobr Loved the forst book still to this day zhe second was me and stopped 50 pages in the thrid ( need to finish it because i dont dnf books ) but i did not enjoy it Now i have over 600 books in my library and have read many writers i found out i dont really like sanderson like others do. I find his work ho estly boring compared to others authors i read I love grim dark now so he is not my main taste but i read everything and books similare to his i think are better His magic systems are amazing and he does write fast but in my mind he is overrated because everyone keeps talking about him and praising him Brandon is like the godfather movies to me I hated the godfather movies but people keep praising the movies and i know many who secretly hate the movies or thought they were boring but because everyone praises them so should they because of fear of rejection from their group In short brandon good writer great human being but after reading many books i do t think he should be getting this amount of praise Alot yes but this muvh Also to the commentore that said the cosmere is like the mcu Well the mcu now sucks and also the mcu had bad movies in the begining like iron man 2 thor 2 ant man guatdins of the galaxy 2 ( baby grout was the only good thing) only the captain america franchise was amazing from start to finish

Red Rising is the single most disappointing book I've ever read. Truly awful prose.

I honestly dont think Sanderson gets enough credit for his imagination. Or how valuable it is. Obviously he's popular, but I genuinely don't see anyone with the same amount of creative ideas.

When I read Sanderson books I feel like I’m reading the same thing over and over without ever getting anywhere.

My take on the wheel of time, and i hope it offends no one, is that it could be finished by another author BECAUSE of how generic and poorly made it was. Same for Sanderson as a whole. It supports the first hot take on fantasy being for entertainment without brains.

I don't mind slow burn if it builds out the ideas and themes of the book. If building out the ideas and themes means world building and character development, that sounds good. If it's just getting to know the characters "as people" and traveling around the world like tourists, I don't need that.

Brandon Sanderson is the Taylor Swift of fantasy.

😂

Dreams suckssss😅

i feel that a book series being written by a different author or approved by somebody other than the original author. is fanfiction. incredibly well done fan fiction mind you. but robert jordans wife approved Sanderson to finish the books based off his notes. its not Jordans vision but a fanfiction as cloae as you can get. like Berserk is my favorite manga. and the passing of Kentaru miura was a tragedy. and even though Koji Mori is doing a great job so far. i read it as a best friend who inspired the main villian. honors his childhood friend

Sanderson being considered one of the goats bodes horribly for the perception of the fantasy genre. Dude is mid at best

I too hate most dream sequences

If you're gonna have a mistmatched bookshelf just get a kindle, please.

The only thing good about Sanderson is stormlight. Ensuring else is terrible or mid

Short answer: no. Long answer: no, absolutely not

Not me here crying about Sword of Kaigen’s main relationship hot take 🥲! Absolutely the whole point of the story!!