Eagle Time Reading List

Brandon Sanderson is very good, although his plots tend to be a little formulaic, at least between Elantris, Mistborn, and Stormlight, the ones I've read most recently.

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plotMan of low or despised class with hard life but strong spirit discovers he has access to an ancient hereditary magic usually restricted to the upper class, and teams up with a politically savvy female struggling with her multiple identities and traumatic past, and a kindly royal figure (may be the same as one of the other characters) with unconventional interests, usually scholarship, history, and the lower class.

They work together to bring heart to the lower class and cause some kind of uprising, only to discover that their enemy was just a troubled individual/group of people doing their best to prevent the real Big Bad from uprising, but that guy's seeping influence was what made them succeed in the first place and now they have to beat the guy they helped set free. They do so by tapping into its ancient counterpart, and in the process a bunch of their peasant friends get the magic the main characters started with and one of the main characters becomes/approaches a god.

Seriously, this applies almost completely to all of them.

My favorite thing about Sanderson is the little short stories he includes in the chapter interludes, often containing secrets about the plot or even the wider universe. They're interesting on their own as well.

I'd love to write/read an entire book of short stories like those, which was my original intention for Songs of Sand, Sea, and Sky before I lost motivation, due to having my wisdom teeth removed right before I was going to write the second update.