Cosmere picked up by Apple TV

[Ruin Explorer]

No, but I cling to whatever hope there is that companies will stop funding wearable AI listening devices and insisting we should be excited to pay $300 to join their corporate surveillance state.

Other than Sanderson, who's the best candidate to finish A Song of Ice & Fire (ignoring that GRRM is saying he doesn't want anyone else to do so)?

Daniel Abraham, I think. He's worked closely with GRRM before, I think GRRM is kind of his mentor, and he's written multiple epic series, especially with his collaborator as SA Corey (The Expanse). Tonally he works in a similar space to GRRM, even though I don't anything he's written that I've seen has had the sort of weird beauty/bittersweet charm that GRRM sometimes manages to pull out of the most unlikely places.

 

[Parmandur]

1) Sanderson has almost no experience in the industry and this is a huge role.

Yeah, honestly that is a pretty major concern. He is a film buff, but he has no production experience.

2) He's taking on a ton of work when he's already doing a ton of work.

This is what actually irritates me: I know that I would like more Sanderson novels, but these shows/films are an entire unknown.

Talk about sound and fury signifying nothing - it doesn't even have the courage of its own conviction, it's literally, literally too cowardly to say "actually enslaving people and putting them in horrific situations is purely evil and people who do it are evil", instead chickening out and going for "Well we should probably not really resist slavers and slavemasters, they're people too, you can't just kill them!" (counterpoint: YES YOU CAN. It is never not okay to kill slavers and slavemasters. That's like saying "Well death camp guards are people too!").

I...honestly have no idea how this was your takeaway from SA...? The main criticism the books have been getting on Goodreads has even been how "W-wprd" the series is, which is mostly a meditation on deconstructing and addressing social issues

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Daniel Abraham, I think. He's worked closely with GRRM before, I think GRRM is kind of his mentor, and he's written multiple epic series, especially with his collaborator as SA Corey (The Expanse). Tonally he works in a similar space to GRRM, even though I don't anything he's written that I've seen has had the sort of weird beauty/bittersweet charm that GRRM sometimes manages to pull out of the most unlikely places.

If he's actually worked closely with GRRM, he might even get the nod to not shred however many pages are done of the remaining books when Martin dies.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

who's the best candidate to finish A Song of Ice & Fire

R. Scott Bakker.

 

[Retros_x]

Is it though? Is blowing hundreds of millions (and likely high hundreds of millions at that) on adapting Stormlight - which is kind of a nothing story with nothing meaningful or terribly human to say, at least in the 3000+ pages of books 1-3, a good use of money for Apple? Talk about sound and fury signifying nothing - it doesn't even have the courage of its own conviction, it's literally, literally too cowardly to say "actually enslaving people and putting them in horrific situations is purely evil and people who do it are evil", instead chickening out and going for "Well we should probably not really resist slavers and slavemasters, they're people too, you can't just kill them!" (counterpoint: YES YOU CAN. It is never not okay to kill slavers and slavemasters. That's like saying "Well death camp guards are people too!").

I share a lot of your criticsm, but I think your projecting your own criticsm as it is general accepted fact and thus apple is doing a bad business decision. But what Apple sees is the current most popular epic fantasy author and the thousands of Sanderson fans who clearly don't share your criticsm. I don't think this show will fail because people will recognize the iffy implications about slavery. Stories with much worse content became popular money milk machines.

What the story has to say is debatable, but it has great setpieces and action sequences and at least in case of Kaladin an emotional character arc. I have only read the first book, but I definitely can see this made into a great TV spectacle. I think you need to decrease some of the bloat, especially from the non-Kalladin characters and unintuitelvy extend some scenes that expand on world, these small interludes.

But Sanderson claimed, and I believe him, that he got the red carpet treatment and had meetings with all big companies. They all want him. So I am pretty sure this is not some sort of nonsense business decision like you try to make it to be. Of course that doesn't mean a guaranteed success too, but its not a crazy idea.