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Friday Fun Thread for September 19, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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So I finally finished Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Not a bad book by any means, but I don't really get why people think this is one of the best things ever written. While I enjoyed the last 80% of the book, and the last 30% was really fantastic, I had to read almost an entire novel of confusing and soulless exposition in the first 20% of the book. Even in the "better" last 80%, Sanderson could really have used a more aggressive editor. The characters are interesting enough, although I found most of them to be two dimensional rather than three dimensional, although this may change in the later books. Prose seemed fine, although difficult to judge because I was reading in Spanish. Book also seems to lack any kind of nuanced themes, although there is some stuff about mental health, religion vs. atheism, and morality in general. All in all, fun if bloated, epic fantasy, that doesn't have anything particular to say about the human condition (other than being depressed doesn't relieve you of responsibility to other people).

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by Sanderson, and I probably will continue with the series. Friends have told me his writing improves over time, which bodes well for my future reading experience, and jives well with my veneration of consistent and patient work as the key to pretty much anything (Sanderson is a very reliable writer who is very transparent and consistent with his deadlines).

I don't really get why people think this is one of the best things ever written.

Because Reddit told them.

Are we talking about the Name of the Wind?

The Way of Kings, but the same can be said about Name of the Wind.

That is the joke

There is kind of annoying stuff in them, but I liked both books in the trilogy.

There is an internet theory that Patrick Rothfuss "father was his shadow writer. It’s Pats idea and world building, but his dad was the one who actually wrote it. After TNOTW and TWMF, Pat wanted to prove to himself that he could continue to write the books from now on. So he wrote TSROST all by himself. But he knew it wasn’t written the same and as the others. That’s why he says people won’t like the book because he knows it didn’t have the same feel as before."