Educate the Man Who Has Read (Almost) Everything!

[OSJ]

Okay, rather than cluttering up the other threads, I'll start a new one... If Phil thinks I'm wasting space, he can always merge the threads... I will plead guilty to missing out on a good deal of modern epic fantasy... I read everything David Gemmell ever wrote, knew better than to start GRRM's series, because I know George and his work habits and after waiting 14 years for Jack Vance to finish the five-volume "Demon Princes" series am not going down that road anytime soon. I also missed Patrick Rothfuss, and hate to admit that the first editions of his books have already put themselves out of my price range. So, all this brings us to Brandon Sanderson...

 

Looks like I can snag 1sts of The Mistborn trilogy for under $300 (and may get lucky enough to get signed copies at that)*. As mentioned, I just got a royalty check from Germany, which is earmarked as "book money", so $300 ain't a big deal. My question is this, Sanderson's claim to fame seems to rest on finishing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time which I dropped like a bad habit after the second book. I should mention that Jordan's writing has always grated on me, even back when he was pasticihing REH's Conan. So, the question comes down to this... If I dislike Jordan, does Sanderson have enough of his own voice that I'll find a strong difference between the two. I don't mind paying stupid money for great books, but stupid money on bad books makes both Baby Jeebus and OSJ cry, so help me out folks, should I pay or should I go (for something else).

 

* The OSJ criteria for books. (1.) If worth reading, it's worth owning. (2.) If it's worth owning it's worth owning the best edition available. (3.) The qualifier is "follow the flag", if the author is a Yank, the US edition is to be preferred, if a Brit, then of course the UK edition and so on. More "Complete" or "Author's Preferred" text trumps all. This the Arkham House 3rd and 4th printings of Lovecraft with the corrected texts are to me far more desirable than The Outsider & Others which costs approx. $3500 to the $100-$120 for the four volume set. So, I'm already to jump on the Sanderson bandwagon before it becomes too late if the payoff is there...