Monday again, so it’s time for Fantasy with Friends! All the prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, if you’d like to join in. This week’s prompt is about the work of Brandon Sanderson:
Are you a Brandon Sanderson fan? Some readers online have called his books the “fast food of fantasy?” Do you think that’s a valid criticism?
I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Brandon Sanderson; I’ve only read a couple of his books, and broadly speaking I enjoyed them, but he’s not a must-read author for me and I haven’t even touched his most popular series. I did recently read The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, and didn’t like it much at all — Sanderson’s idea of humour doesn’t match well with mine, for sure.
I don’t know what I think of the epithet “the fast food of fantasy”, though. I remember finding the worldbuilding of Warbreaker really interesting, and was pretty interested in Elantris (though I stalled out on actually reading it for mood reasons and never came back to it)… it does seem to me like Sanderson is perfectly capable of coming up with his own ideas, even if his prose isn’t on the level of, say, Ursula Le Guin. I’d be more inclined to call the stuff churned out by the likes of David Eddings the fast food of fantasy, given that a couple of his series were essentially copy/pastes of one another.
(Obligatory note that I definitely don’t endorse Eddings’ work, given his conviction as a child abuser.)
Even so, I don’t like the term or any other (like “pap” or “trash” or “guilty pleasures”) that put value judgements on books other people enjoy and connect with, even though sometimes I think the substance and beauty comes from the reader of certain works, not the writer. I think valid criticisms of Sanderson’s work include the heavy influence of his Mormonism on his work, or critiques of how long and unnecessarily sprawling some of his works can be, or of his fairly plain writing — none of which necessarily preclude enjoyment — but calling it the “fast food of fantasy” seems like a way of dodging doing difficult work to actually write a decent critique.
That said, as a flippant one-off remark by a blogger or something, it just comes across as an unserious critique of a disliked book/series/author, which is fair enough.
Agree about the value judgement inherent in terms like ‘fast food fantasy’ – as my post for this topic indicated, I don’t especially think that term applies to Sanderson, but even if it did, so what? If that’s what people like to read, why is it anyone else’s problem?
It seems meant to be dismissive, which is just… rude, honestly! Whatever happened to “don’t like, don’t read”?!
While I personally don’t read the term ‘fast food fantasy’ negatively, I do agree that there’s a very negative connotation to it and that people do use it as a means of judging what others read. I feel very strongly about the term “guilty pleasure” because you shouldn’t feel guilty about the things you enjoy, especially if it’s harmless things like romances or manga, etc. It’s silly to me. Warbreaker has been on my ‘paused’ list for ages because I just lost the mood while reading and haven’t gone back to it since, but I do agree that the world-building was very fun and creative. I think aside from the general readability/accessibility with Sanderson’s writing, people have (positively) commented a lot on the creativity of his worlds.
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I think it could be used as a neutral term… but I think people mean it to be dismissive a lot of the time, and I always hate that!
I really want to get back to Elantris and give that another try; I got stuck on it a few years back for the same reason, just a mood thing.
I agree, people do use it dismissively, and I don’t particularly like it much either. As a mood reader, I commiserate. So many of the books on my “paused” list are due to mood fizzles halfway through a read I hope you find Elantris more enjoyable the second time around, if you do give it another go!
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It’s kinda why I avoid terms like that — what to me is a light read isn’t to someone else/sounds dismissive/etc.
Someday I’ll get round to Elantris again, ahaha. Someday.
Completely agree that terms like ‘guilty pleasure’ or ‘fast-food of fantasy’ almost lessen the books worth and impact in the broader reading world. People should read what they want to read, what makes them happy, without fearing judgement from others for not reading ‘proper’ books.
Yes, exactly! I get really sad when people think I’d judge the books they read. I’m just glad people enjoy reading!
I am a huge fan of Sanderson, though lately I’ve found it harder to get into his books because they’ve been more Cosmere heavy. I get that many readers like to connect the dots, hunting for connections, Easter eggs, references across all his Cosmere novels, but personally I’m just here for the stories. I don’t find the “fast food” description accurate though, as someone who has been trying to get through his latest Stormlight book for the better part of the last two years. He’s a very versatile writer and I suppose some of his works can be considered lighter reads, but generally his books actually feel quite substantial.
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I guess the “fast food” part is intended to be like… “filling but junky”, maybe? But yeah, I don’t think it really makes sense for Sanderson, he’s very inventive even if his writing isn’t, like, Ursula Le Guin level. (Whose is?!)