Malazan Empire: Side Stories in Literary Worlds - Malazan Empire

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Side Stories in Literary Worlds

#21 User is offline   acesn8s 

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Posted 11 January 2018 - 03:05 PM

View PostAbyss, on 07 January 2018 - 04:54 AM, said:

View PostRACHEL, on 07 January 2018 - 02:11 AM, said:

I haven't read Oathbringer so correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't realize that the story Edgedancer was vital to understanding it. I thought Oathbringer started with a certain character already "leveled up" magic wise. Edgedancer is just the story of when the character "leveled up". Other characters in the books have upgraded magically and it follows a formula so it's hardly vital to the understanding of the books if a character gets to the next stage in their magic offscreen. I thought Edgedancer was mostly just a fun story for people that had to know the exact story of this one character. I was unaware that Sanderson had side stories with info vital to the understanding of Oathbringer.


From the foreword to OATHBRINGER:
“If you haven’t had the chance to read Edgedancer—a separate Stormlight novella taking place between books two and three—I’d recommend it to you now. Find it sold on its own, or in the story collection Arcanum Unbounded, which has novellas and novelettes from all across the Cosmere. (The universe in which this series, Mistborn, Elantris, Warbreaker, and others take place.)That said, as always, every series is written so it can be read and enjoyed on its own, without knowledge of these other series or books.”


I'm glad this was pointed out, I had no idea. Oathbringer drops further down in my TBR queue.
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#22 User is offline   Abyss 

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Posted 11 January 2018 - 03:37 PM

View Postacesn8s, on 11 January 2018 - 03:05 PM, said:

View PostAbyss, on 07 January 2018 - 04:54 AM, said:

View PostRACHEL, on 07 January 2018 - 02:11 AM, said:

I haven't read Oathbringer so correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't realize that the story Edgedancer was vital to understanding it. I thought Oathbringer started with a certain character already "leveled up" magic wise. Edgedancer is just the story of when the character "leveled up". Other characters in the books have upgraded magically and it follows a formula so it's hardly vital to the understanding of the books if a character gets to the next stage in their magic offscreen. I thought Edgedancer was mostly just a fun story for people that had to know the exact story of this one character. I was unaware that Sanderson had side stories with info vital to the understanding of Oathbringer.


From the foreword to OATHBRINGER:
"If you haven't had the chance to read Edgedancer—a separate Stormlight novella taking place between books two and three—I'd recommend it to you now. Find it sold on its own, or in the story collection Arcanum Unbounded, which has novellas and novelettes from all across the Cosmere. (The universe in which this series, Mistborn, Elantris, Warbreaker, and others take place.)That said, as always, every series is written so it can be read and enjoyed on its own, without knowledge of these other series or books."


I'm glad this was pointed out, I had no idea. Oathbringer drops further down in my TBR queue.


It's worth noting EDGEDANCER is actually a fun story.
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#23 User is offline   RACHEL 

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Posted 12 January 2018 - 03:23 AM

@acesn8s I think I'm misunderstanding your post. The quoted posts made you want to put Oathbringer further down on your reading list? The posts made it clear that the novella Edgedancer is NOT in any way vital or necessary to understanding Oathbringer. It is merely a fun side story for a person who wants to know every little bit about the character Lift. I'm just curious why pointing out that the novella was NOT vital would make you less excited to read Oathbringer.
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Posted 12 January 2018 - 04:33 AM

I mean, it is weird that BS's note is basically, "Before you read this book, let me tell you about this other story you might want to read first. But you don't have to. But maybe you want to." On the one hand, it's cool that he's letting his readers know it exists (which they might not otherwise) but at the same time it just feels odd being so upfront like that.
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Posted 12 January 2018 - 02:17 PM

View PostRACHEL, on 12 January 2018 - 03:23 AM, said:

@acesn8s I think I'm misunderstanding your post. The quoted posts made you want to put Oathbringer further down on your reading list? The posts made it clear that the novella Edgedancer is NOT in any way vital or necessary to understanding Oathbringer. It is merely a fun side story for a person who wants to know every little bit about the character Lift. I'm just curious why pointing out that the novella was NOT vital would make you less excited to read Oathbringer.


I think what he got out of it is that it IS important to read Edgedancer first. I'd agree, and it's not just a side story.

But everyone has different standards for this sort of thing. Some people are okay with skipping episodes in a serialized TV series (doesn't happen as often anymore with streaming and DVR). I personally would never do something like this. But some people would be fine with skipping Edgedancer since you can still understand 99% of Oathbringer without it.
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#26 User is offline   Mentalist 

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Posted 12 January 2018 - 05:20 PM

My copy of "Arcanum Unbounded" arrived this week. So reading "Edtedancer" should not be an issue (esp given that I have no plans of grabbing "Oathbringer" until it's out in mmpb)

But Arcanum has at least 5 planet systems mentioned (I think? Don't remember now I just skimmed the table of contents a few days ago). And I'm kinda annoyed that there's one Cosmere series that's not books.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 12 January 2018 - 05:20 PM

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#27 User is offline   RACHEL 

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Posted 12 January 2018 - 07:47 PM

Oh I get what he meant now. It's the whole thing about not needing to read the novella but feeling like you should and then having to spend more money.
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#28 User is offline   acesn8s 

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Posted 15 January 2018 - 04:28 PM

View PostRACHEL, on 12 January 2018 - 07:47 PM, said:

Oh I get what he meant now. It's the whole thing about not needing to read the novella but feeling like you should and then having to spend more money.


Based on what I've seen, I feel I do need to read Edgedancer before starting Oathbringer. I'm a little miffed and there's enough cool stuff in my queue that doesn't have a prerequisite, so I'm choosing to drop Oathbringer in priority beyond just reading Edgedancer.
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#29 User is offline   Abyss 

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Posted 15 January 2018 - 07:00 PM

View PostRACHEL, on 12 January 2018 - 07:47 PM, said:

Oh I get what he meant now. It's the whole thing about not needing to read the novella but feeling like you should and then having to spend more money.



Yep.


The 'cheat', and Sanderson is far from the only person doing this, is hooking people on a series and then putting out smaller stories in various forms, and making them 'essential', then qualifying it as `you don`t really really have to read this other stuff (but you really really really should and everyone else will and you won`t feel as special as they are and will miss the jokes and references and feel shame and exclusion from the internut discussions between the real fans and scum like you...).

I cannot and do not fault any author working a successful property for all its worth... almost every author on my `pre-order/buy immediately/at all costs' list does this, but I totally understand the irritation. I think it crosses a line tho', when the contents of some short story in an otherwise bad anthology is critical (using the word loosely) to the main story. Which happens a lot... even with fairly fan-friendly authors... Jim Butcher and 'the authors known as Ilona Andrews' come to mind.

Only about 1/3rd thru OATHBRINGER so I can't say yet if this is the case here imnsho.
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