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10 June 2007

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E_I

Wait, this was written by the same guy who wrote Elantris and Mistborn? That ups my curiosity for this book.

Brandon Sanderson

Yup, I'm the same guy.

To be honest, I'm not usually one for the overly-silly books either. I do, however, like good humor--particularly when it's pointed at me. I wrote this book because I wanted to do something different from my epic fantasy novels. My Tor books are very, well, ponderous. The characters can crack jokes, but the world itself needs to take itself very seriously, otherwise the whole thing falls apart.

So, this book is partially doing a lighthearted, farcical version of one of my style of books. Essentially, it's me making fun of myself. And so, I figured I might as well make fun of Plato and Michael Crichton as well. (And yeah, that bringing a character back to life TOTALLY bugged me. Glad somebody noticed that joke.)

The problem I see with a lot of silly books and movies is that they don't take time to do the characters and setting right. The Toy Story movies were comedies, but unlike other animated farces, they took time to build characters and give us a world as well as making us laugh. I think that's why Pixar does so well, while some imitators fall apart and become forgettable.

Regardless, I’m glad you liked the book! As far as I’m aware, this is the first review of it on the net!

Leila

"So, this book is partially doing a lighthearted, farcical version of one of my style of books. Essentially, it's me making fun of myself."

That really, really came through -- and I think that's a big reason that it worked for me.

The 'silly' fantasy books that don't work for me are the ones that feel like the authors are very serious about being funny. Or something. It's a gut thing, so I'm pretty sure I won't be able to put it into words.

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GA

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