Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Mistborn series was the best fantastic literature of the last twenty years . . . Maybe. By the end of the last book, one imagined Tolkien if Tolkien\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Mistborn series was the best fantastic literature of the last twenty years . . . Maybe. By the end of the last book, one imagined Tolkien if Tolkien\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eidos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-25T02:33:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-25T03:12:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/169\/2019\/06\/9FBD3517-A7E3-4AE4-973B-2BE889AA6B11.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"249\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Mark N. Reynolds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jmnr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Mark N. Reynolds\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/\",\"name\":\"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-25T02:33:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-25T03:12:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc\"},\"description\":\"The Mistborn series was the best fantastic literature of the last twenty years . . . Maybe. By the end of the last book, one imagined Tolkien if Tolkien\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/\",\"name\":\"Eidos\",\"description\":\"John Mark Reynolds on Faith and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc\",\"name\":\"John Mark N. Reynolds\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Mark N. Reynolds\"},\"description\":\"John Mark Reynolds is the president of The Saint Constantine Schools and College, a school that aspires to preschool through college education. He is also a philosopher, administrator, and joyous curmudgeon. Reynolds is a follower of Jesus and a student of Socrates. His PhD in philosophy is from the University of Rochester and he is author or editor of numerous books. He is an owner of the Green Bay Packers. Opinions here are his own ... even Hope doesn't agree with him always.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/Www.johnmarkreynolds.com\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jmnr\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/author\/jmreynolds\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?","description":"The Mistborn series was the best fantastic literature of the last twenty years . . . Maybe. By the end of the last book, one imagined Tolkien if Tolkien","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?","og_description":"The Mistborn series was the best fantastic literature of the last twenty years . . . Maybe. By the end of the last book, one imagined Tolkien if Tolkien","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/","og_site_name":"Eidos","article_published_time":"2019-06-25T02:33:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-25T03:12:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":249,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/169\/2019\/06\/9FBD3517-A7E3-4AE4-973B-2BE889AA6B11.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"John Mark N. Reynolds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jmnr","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Mark N. Reynolds","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/","name":"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-06-25T02:33:13+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-25T03:12:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc"},"description":"The Mistborn series was the best fantastic literature of the last twenty years . . . Maybe. By the end of the last book, one imagined Tolkien if Tolkien","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/","name":"Eidos","description":"John Mark Reynolds on Faith and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc","name":"John Mark N. Reynolds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Mark N. Reynolds"},"description":"John Mark Reynolds is the president of The Saint Constantine Schools and College, a school that aspires to preschool through college education. He is also a philosopher, administrator, and joyous curmudgeon. Reynolds is a follower of Jesus and a student of Socrates. His PhD in philosophy is from the University of Rochester and he is author or editor of numerous books. He is an owner of the Green Bay Packers. Opinions here are his own ... even Hope doesn't agree with him always.","sameAs":["http:\/\/Www.johnmarkreynolds.com","https:\/\/twitter.com\/jmnr"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/author\/jmreynolds\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":31350,"date":"2019-06-24T22:33:13","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T02:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?p=31350"},"modified":"2019-06-24T23:12:17","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T03:12:17","slug":"wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2019\/06\/wax-and-wane-just-what-happened-to-brandon-sanderson\/","title":{"rendered":"Wax and Wane: Just What Happened to Brandon Sanderson?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ The Mistborn <\/i>series was the best fantastic literature<\/a> of the last twenty years . . . Maybe. By the end of the last book, one imagined Tolkien if Tolkien had published as a young man and then kept growing. The first three Mistborn <\/i>books were marked by creative plotting and the creation of a clever alternative magical system.<\/p>\n

Brandon Sanderson wrote a novel rooted in Latter Day Saint theology as firmly as Tolkien\u2019s Lord of the Rings<\/i>\u00a0was rooted in Catholicism.<\/p>\n

It was with great hope and eager expectation that I turned to the next trilogy. The books had a brilliant idea: let the world of Mistborn develop. Imagine Gondor gone into the Industrial Age with Aragorn a distant memory. Sanderson had started with clumsier characters, to end his first trilogy with more developed leads.<\/p>\n

Would the growth continue?<\/p>\n

Sadly, the series that had waxed, waned by the start of the second book. The writing is better in the sense that the craft improves. He is telling us stories, but it is like the third season of the original Star Trek<\/i>\u00a0where the creativity was gone, but Spock was used and reused to give the fans what we wanted. Fans often know what they want, but not what will make good story telling.<\/p>\n

Did Brandon Sanderson in this interconnected world start listening to those who could not imagine a rich, theologically complex world that he knew?<\/p>\n

It feels like it, the world becomes false<\/i>\u00a0with boxes checked. Relationships that were set up in book one of this steampunk series are abandoned with a few lines in book three. The moral compass of traditional LDS theology is hidden behind \u201copenness.\u201d<\/p>\n

I get it. You can sell millions of copies and have fans defend you or you can be Orson Scott Card<\/a>. Sanderson chose the dullard\u2019s way. Or so it seems to me.<\/p>\n

I am no Latter Day Saint, but the genius of the Book of Mormon<\/i>\u00a0created a vibrant American sub-culture. Those of us who dissent from the doctrine of the LDS church<\/a> at least honor the vigor. Sanderson had that vigor, an almost Tolkien innocence before Wax and Wane. These three books were great fun, but harmless to the spirit of the age. <\/i>The first three made you think and were entertaining, the next three were entertainment.<\/p>\n

We can all be thankful for the entertainment, but I miss the intellectual and moral challenge that Sanderson presented in the first three novels. The first three books did what few fun reads have done for me: I was shocked by the ending. I like<\/i>\u00a0the characters in Wax and Wane and this is the most PG grownup fantasy you will find.<\/p>\n

Nothing offended me, but the ending bored me. You can guess it all. America changed from the first trilogy to Wax and Wane. The earlier books become potentially offensive. \u00a0<\/i>Sanderson had a choice in the Babylonian Captivity of the creative: give us Ezekiel or give us the \u201cbest we can do given the culture.\u201d Ezekiel defied the culture by giving the world endless creative imagery that defined Babylon. <\/i>Sanderson did what he had to do.<\/p>\n

Or so it seems to me.<\/p>\n

Wax and Wane? Fun read stripped clean of meaning by the wrath of the Con complaints.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"