If I remember right he was also chosen to finish the Wheel of Time because when Jordan died, Sanderson wrote an article on his website about how the first book in the Wheel (and Jordan himself) was a huge inspiration to him, so Jordan's wife knew he was someone who genuinely cared about the series. Here is the article from his blog:
http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog...bye-Mr.-Jordan
As for Sanderson's books, here are my take on the ones I have read:
Elantris - good, rather simplistic story
Warbreaker - really liked this one, interesting world, neat magic system
Mistborn trilogy - over 3 books, the word is the most developed, magic system is really interesting and its the most "epic" of his books so far that I have read. Honestly, Mistborn seems like book 1 could stand on its own and then 2 and 3 were "the sequels that were filmed back to back".
I have yet to read Alloy of Law or The Way of Kings but I like Sanderson and will get to them eventually.