Brandon Sanderson has certainly turned some heads with his latest book, Wind and Truth, but it’s probably not the kind of attention he wanted.

Sanderson’s latest fantasy epic marks the fifth entry in his market-defining series The Stormlight Archive. And though fans were abuzz with anticipation earlier this year, this debut has resulted in an awkward, uncomfortable silence. Why? It’s likely because Wind and Truth dips deeply into romance in a way that Sanderson rarely tries, and this romance is between two men.¹

This new literary storm reminds me of another show in September 2016. That’s when Marvel’s Luke Cage debuted on Netflix. It was a fun, innovative romp through the pages of the eponymous comic book character. But like all streaming shows, it sagged in places, filling out runtime with endless, directionless dialogue. I was a die-hard Marvel Cinematic Universe fan. But during a long, grating exposition of the villain’s backstory, I suddenly thought, Why am I still sitting through this? I came here to see a cool hero bust some heads, not to hear a perverse, overwrought dirge.

I think Brandon Sanderson fans are starting to feel the same way.

“I don’t mind Sanderson depicting that LGBTQ+ people exist,” Lorehaven’s Josiah DeGraaf told me after reading Wind and Truth.² “But when more page time is given to the emotional journey of a gay relationship between two minor characters than the romantic relationships of main characters in previous books, one begins to wonder how much this decision was influenced by realism vs. politics. That is particularly the case when this one relationship is portrayed as proof that two species really can get along with each other, a conclusion that feels rather simplistic for a serious work of adult fantasy.”

Sanderson is member of the Latter-Day Saints organization, rather than a biblical Christian denomination. Yet his clean, virtuous stories have traditionally drawn a massive faith-centric and conservative crowd, and his theological themes reveal a mind more than ready to ponder the realities of God. Christians everywhere have turned pages late into the night as Sanderson’s heroes conquer fear, stand against evil, and defend the defenseless. I am no exception.

Still, his recent attempts to fold postmodern sexualism into his otherwise well-crafted books have come across as crude and artless, alienating his audience in order to make a statement. (Wind and Truth also features a “trans” character.)

“It’s a bigger statement not to include queer characters than to include them,” Sanderson told Esquire last month. On his own website, however, he says putting queer characters in his books is a “good and important thing for me to be doing.”

Yet it’s precisely Sanderson’s refusal to preach that we always loved. He focused on the characters. The story came first. In his earlier work, none of his characters ever cracked open the golden plates of Moroni or told us to wear ephods. Now we’re expected to abandon truth to champion the movement?

What’s most puzzling about this sudden shift is its timing. Sanderson is so late to the party that it’s already over. Culture’s torrid (and horrid) affair with sexual deviance in mainstream fiction is coming to an end. There are no more “firsts” to conquer, no more fetishes to spotlight. It’s all played out. The Redditors grew up. Even Disney reversed a decision to inject a “trans” character into their newest Pixar show, Win or Lose.

With the population trending more culturally conservative, fewer readers will put up with the old trope of waiting until season five to reveal that Character X was gay all along. The Redditors who still want deviant romance will expect it in book one, and the rest of us will just feel like we’ve wasted our time.

“I’m worried,” Sanderson told Esquire. “If my career is going to crash and burn, this is the book that will do it.”

He might think he sounds noble and selfless in this. But all we’re hearing is that he’s abandoned the fanbase that made him the most successful fantasy author of his generation. Sex-worship rings untrue to us, and it always will. Now that Sanderson has dedicated nigh-100 pages of Wind and Truth to a romantic relationship between two male heroes, many of us are asking, Why are we still sitting through this?