In the current fantasy narrative we find a generation of authors born in the 70s who set the pace and take over from the Tolkien , Pratchett or even the veteran and still current George RR Martin.
Internationally, I associate this generation of old people with guys like Patrick Rootfush or own Brandon Sanderson. Writers raised in the analog world of the XNUMXth century; in the times of comics; from the books; of television in its proper measure in the face of a smaller but perhaps more enjoyed offer. Undoubtedly one of the last generations that explored fantasies made at home, and that managed to enhance a much-needed imagination to end up writing their great novels and sagas.
In the case of Brandon SandersonWe are talking about an author who perfectly understands the fantasy genre as a wide range of possibilities. A true universe of arguments, worlds suspended on a tightrope, between good and evil, as an exuberant metaphor for our own world.
Discuss epic fantasy or heroic is to deal with the most widespread of the fantastic genre among readers from all over the world eager to recreate distant worlds from the inside out (let's say that multimedia recreates from the outside in, while reading exploits an imagination born from our own resources, ultimately much more enriching). And that is where Sanderson has been able to find his creative vein and, why not say it, also sales.
Sagas undertaken in an alternative way since 2006, a beginning of the XNUMXst century that supposed an absolute take-off of the total author who is Sanderson, capable of alternating fantastic volumes of different series, as if the creative universe of each story were arranged in archives of his profuse imagination. But also forays into more youthful fantasy and on many occasions with an opportune gift to complement the narratives with humor and new nuances for the glory of the genre.
Given the choice, for me this is the best of Brandon Sanderson's bibliography, within his metaphor of our world which is Cosmere or in any other universe expanded by ink stroke ...
Top 3 Recommended Books by Brandon Sanderson
The final empire
No better work for the start of the great saga Children of the mist. The image of authoritarian power, exercised without any mercy, always invites us to confront from the fantastic with any type of injustice that we want to project from our own environment.
The Lord Ruler is that emblem of punishment for its own sake, of power as an exercise of the most indolent evil. After a millennium of exploitation and slavery, perhaps the conditions are ripe for the Skaa to rise up.
Sometimes, in this type of novels it seems as if the evolution of a species ends up seeking its own salvation. In the missteps of the nobles who help the Lord Ruler, his mixing with the skaa ends up promoting the diffusion of powers and a turning point so that the new generations have an opportunity to rebel, led by Kelsier and Vin...
Elantris
For many, the essential work of the author for its purity, for its stream of fantasy and imagination achieved as that first film that ended up assaulting the libraries of the genre.
A great novel made from an imaginary that connects with the old Greek myths, with its Olympus renamed Elantris, always from a transposition adapted to a current narrative language and an epic set of new worlds far away in time or space.
Arelon is a region in decline from its old gleams of past glory. The transformation, like a cataclysm, assaulted the utopian capital "Elantris" and left it at the mercy of heartless like King Fjordell, ready to annex the region to his dominions.
The living dead left after the desolation of Elantris can do little now. But among them is also Prince Raoden, perhaps the only one who can seek a way out of the curse ...
King's road
The beginning of Sanderson's sagas has that point of initiatory journey. In this case we continue immersed in Cosmere, that galaxy already so close thanks to this author.
Even in the most inhospitable planets such as Roshar, the author is able to offer us a story of substance and significance. In a certain way, the intention of the writer can be considered to show that everything is linked in any world or universe, «eThe flapping of a butterfly's wings can be felt on the other side of the world. ”What happens in the windy and nondescript Roshar can mean a lot to a saga as extensive as“ The War of the Storms ”.
Roshar lives his particular war out of nowhere, a conflict over the trifles of a seemingly irrelevant world. Until we discover details that link to something much more relevant.
The most despised and remote place is the perfect hiding place for the greatest secret. The radiant Knights, the way of the kings ... much to discover in this story of nothing and everything ...
Other recommended books by Brandon Sanderson
Yumi and the nightmare painter
Sometimes the creator of such extensive narrative universes as Sanderson has temptations like this. A rarity if you want to see it that way. A novel that maintains settings but escapes the usual plots and expected dynamics. And yet a story that serves the cause of expanding the prodigious new worlds of this author. Because the intrahistorical, the detail, the anecdote that ends up transcending make up life almost to a greater extent than other deliveries that "simply" prop up the main trunk.
Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become strangely entwined, can they put their differences aside and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save their respective communities from certain disaster?
Brandon's note: “I had wanted to write a fantasy novel for years with people doing normal jobs for them, but great jobs for us as readers. Also, my wife encouraged me to add more romance to my stories. When I brought together two people whose work seems fantastic to the other, the story of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was born. This particular novel was a special gift to my wife, a gift that we are both delighted to now share with you."
Good review !!
Thanks, Ariel !!