I can’t leave the topic of Sanderson, I’m afraid, without musing on one of the facts I’ve noticed about him, which is that his fans seem to run to type: almost all men, almost all straight. (I’m sure there’s a contingent of queer, female Sanderson fans, but I have yet to encounter any.) Reading big, chunky fantasy books just seems to be something that a certain kind of male in our society… inclines to? I don’t mean to disparage the fans, among whose ranks (I’ve discovered) many of my friends and relatives are numbered. What’s interesting is that many of these (increasingly middle aged) men seem to be… nice? Earnest? Thoughtful and conscientious, often?
There’s a certain kind of man who consistently reads the paper and is well informed about public events; and I’m pretty sure that almost all of the Sanderson fans fall into that category as well. (Though I know many male, earnest keepers up with the news who would never dream of picking up a Sanderson tome.)
What I can’t figure out is why. Who figured out this segment of the reading public? Was it a conscious market-driven move, or did the readers of large fantasy books self-organize, coalesced in some primordial broth? Who has modeled this reading behavior? Was the ur-text of this kind the Silmarillion? Those Thomas Covenant books? (Which, coincidentally, I was introduced to by a female friend.) Robert Jordan? Terry Goodkind?
I can describe the constellation of traits that often seem to characterize this kind of reader, but I’m still far less certain why this class of books would be irresistible to that particular kind of person.