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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   30631 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025

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I didn’t feel like I was particularly sneery in my review, but YMMV. To address your points

  1. My Spanish is good, and I don’t think this affected my read of the book other than some confusion as to proper nouns.
  2. The flora and fauna of Roshar was one of the things I enjoyed about the world building. However, like the rest of this stuff, most of it is cosmetic. The chasmfiends of course are quite important to the plot (although WTF do they eat usually when there’s not a war going on), and the chulls and axehounds are used in interesting ways. But the food that the Aleshi eat is almost exactly the same as in our world and they still have horse that are nearly identical to our own. As for the high storm damage, again what I criticized was not the fact that the Aleshi armies are safe, but that the stragglers who are hanging on to the armies don’t experience more damage. The ability of soulcasters to make such strong structures also undermines how important a city like Karbranth actually is. The point about agriculture still stands.
  3. I’m not sure that’s my interpretation of Jasnah’s assassination attempt. Officially the guy who did it is not claimed by the faith, which maybe stretches credibility, but also suggests at least that atheism is tolerated at a level where the church can’t act with impunity. It’s also not clear to me that such an assignation attempt would have even occurred if they didn’t want to steal Jasnah’s soulcaster (which, jokes on them, wouldn’t have worked). All we have from backstory so far are Dalinar’s visions about the Knights Radiant, the last of which contained the almighty himself. No religious wars, at least yet.
  4. I don’t mind the safe hand as an arbitrary cultural practice/fashion choice. Reading (and to a lesser extent the spice level differences) were what bothered me. You can have arbitrary cultural traits, but once they start affecting the “fitness” of your society, they don’t last.
  5. I’m sorry don’t do this. This book is extremely highly praised. It won the Goodreads choice award in 2011, has tons of fawning 5 star reviews, and is compared regularly to LOTR. I’m happy that you recognize that it’s not “great literature”, but there are many people who do not share your moderation. I also share your opinion of Rothfuss BTW.

The horses are meant to be identical to our own. Humans on Roshar are refugees from what is implied to be basically fantasy earth, horses are one of the species they managed to bring breeding populations of over. I don't remember if the first book talks about this much (possibly in the context of axehounds being called that despite no other hounds existing).

Spoilers! Is not in the first book, but I had been told as much by friends.

The point about agriculture still stands.

TBH I'm probably just forgetting how much of the worldbuilding is in the first book, but I know plenty about the agriculture from the rest of the series. Their food, like their plants and animals, is pretty different from ours; it's heavy in grains (harvested from hard-shelled plants) with spices for flavour, and their wine is also distilled from grains. Hoid, acting as an author surrogate, comments on this a few times.

I’m not sure that’s my interpretation of Jasnah’s assassination attempt.

To be fair, you might be right about this one. I forget exactly what her assassin's motives were, but it wasn't an official act.

Officially the guy who did it is not claimed by the faith, which maybe stretches credibility, but also suggests at least that atheism is tolerated at a level where the church can’t act with impunity.

Well, Jasnah gets away with it because she's a very powerful noble, but I'm pretty sure the book goes into how it damages a lot of her relationships (even aside from attacks on her life). Anyway, I think you're reading too much into Sanderson's personal views. Vorinism in the book is a bit eclectic like our modern Christianity (for some historical reasons); I don't find it out of place at all. Other religions on Roshar have different levels of adherence.

You can have arbitrary cultural traits, but once they start affecting the “fitness” of your society, they don’t last.

I feel like this must be wrong, archaeologically speaking, but my history is terrible and I can't counter you with a good example.

This book is extremely highly praised.

I mean, so is Infinity War, but nobody's going around comparing it to Schindler's List...? All the high ratings are because people really enjoy it. If somebody's saying it's the next LotR, fine, you can laugh at them. I really don't think that's the modal Sanderson fan.

I feel like this must be wrong, archaeologically speaking, but my history is terrible and I can't counter you with a good example.

I agree and here's a good example. Prior to 1066, (it started to get better after) Norman male nobles were basically illiterate. Reading was unessential to their role in society and was confined to administrators and clergy. Much like Alethi society, Norman noble's role was primarily martial; hunting, fighting, and warfare. Norman women were expected to manage the estate and were consequently more literate. This is in contrast to Anglo-Saxon nobles who had a much high expectation and tradition of literacy. History clearly demonstrates who won that "fitness" contest. Literacy doesn't affect fitness in a highly martial medieval warrior society.

Thanks for this example! I stand corrected.

I feel like this must be wrong, archaeologically speaking, but my history is terrible and I can't counter you with a good example.

As I recall, Sanderson mentioned his time on Mormon mission in Korea as an inspiration of some of the cultural world building in Stormlight, specifically. Which makes sense. The culture can stay irrational longer than most of its members can stay alive.

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