https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/05/17/why-are-there-so-...
On the other hand I've been put off by the pacing of the last three books. It feels like the basic structure is that there's a build up to a huge conflict at the end of the book, and the vast majority of the pages are spent waiting for it to arrive. In my opinion, the second book, Words of Radiance, was the best so far in terms of balancing character, plot and action.
On the other hand, the Stormlight magic system involves "grain" and "blood" being fundamental elemental substances.
I've been enjoying a story that manages to have 22 elements - including Healing, Blood, Sound, Force, Destruction, Illusion and Fae - integral to its system of magic in a way that feels consistent while being varied and interesting, despite how odd some of those seem at first. Grain does seem a pretty strange element I agree, but so did Wood when I started reading stories using the Chinese five element scheme until I became accustomed to it.
But I came years later and found the series quite good and very enjoyable.
He teaches at BYU as well (still).
I think Elantris is his best. It's just that there's less of it (one book) than there is of the big series.
You're free to dislike the books, but this is an extremely unfair characterization. Sanderson's books bear very little resemblance to Tolkien's beyond the genre and the elaborate nature of the worldbuilding.
Sanderson's refusal to have characters ever actually curse is just infuriating.
Most all profanity in our language can in some way be traced back to a religious context. It would the make sense that on other worlds with totally different religious backgrounds they would use different cursing.
In fact his usage of this concept is so subtle that you can detect what characters are from the world and which ones aren't by whether they use damnation as a noun or an adjective.