How to Be an Ally: Lessons from Brandon Sanderson and his Cosmere
(Note: This is written from the point of view as being an ally to someone with autism or mental illness, because that's where my experience is. I believe that these lessons can be applied to different groups as well) Brandon Sanderson has a lot of fans in the ASD community. It’s not just that his books appeal to so many “autistic” qualities by creating an intricate Universe (the Cosmere) complete with consistent, well defined rules for his magic system, where multiple books/series are intertwined and “There’s always another secret,” which encourages re-reading and theorizing for fans. You see, Brandon (I know it’s generally respectful to refer to authors by their last name, but he has a warm relationship with his fans. Besides, when I asked Anne about it, she said, “Go with Brandon. He’s totally your bro; you’ve pre-ordered like 10 things of his.”) has written two excellent characters on the autism spectrum, Steris Harms and Renarin Kholin. Both o...