It is a difficult thing to get "just right." Most of the masters I'd cite wouldn't be considered to be even remotely related to secondary world/epic fantasies.




By the way, tomorrow is the Blog's 6th anniversary, so it'd be great timing, to say the least. As for the other authors you cite, I tend to apply this simple, if sometimes prone to distortion, rule: If I can remember anything of note "said" within the novel a week after finishing it, something was done right. With Martin, I can remember some of the conversations between the characters (then again, I've read the first three books three times each, the fourth only once). With Bakker, I remember the ideas behind the conversations best - it isn't dialogue in a pure form that I remember. With Sanderson, I remember cringing with the first, not cringing with the next three, thinking a few things were off in his last two original novels.

But I usually think the best at dialogue tend to be those who started out writing short fiction and learned to master the skills necessary in those. I think that's why several of my favorite writers have made a mark writing short fiction as well as novels, such as Caitlín Kiernan, Catherynne Valente, Jeff Ford, and Jeff VanderMeer. The dialogue in their fictions tends to be much stronger than what I've encountered in epic fantasies on the whole. I just don't think Sanderson is anywhere near that level of proficiency. His dialogue, along with several other issues I'll address next week, are distinctly MOR, which for this subgenre is a desirable trait, after all.