Recent entries

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7752 Copy

    Questioner

    ...At some point in the novel, there is a character who gets a certain, shall we say, powerup that falls in-line with many things that he, or she, already has. Is there, from an Investiture standpoint, is there a Compounding effect?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, there will be. *laughter* If we're talking about the same individual.

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7755 Copy

    Blightsong

    What did Ivory mean by the Skybreakers living in death? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ivory likes contradictions, they fascinate him. And he is saying that they live in death in that they kill a lot. It's a philosophical sort of thing. He's making an Ivory observation, it's not something you're supposed to take as a pronouncement of nature or reality. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7757 Copy

    Questioner

    So, what we see at the end, with the Unmade, and it seems like Jezrien, getting trapped in gems. Is that basically possible, because, they have been, particularly in the case of the Heralds, infused with so much Investiture that they're basically being trapped in the gems instead of Stormlight?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They're not human anymore, yeah. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7758 Copy

    Questioner

    So, Jasnah has the same shape appear around her as when she first appears out of Shadesmar at the end of that-- At the end of the second book, when she appears out of Shadesmar, she has the same shape appear around her as she does in the last battle, but we never see her do anything (this is about Transportation) And we saw people flying away beforehand. Can you-- Does Transportation allow you to push other people. Similar to Lashings, but kinda differently. I'm just wondering if you can use it on other people, basically? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    You can, but it's not what you’re thinking. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7764 Copy

    Argent

    Let's talk about Renarin, and Voidbinding. So, with that page we talked about, Renarin Voidbinds. I asked about visions, you pointed to Voidbinding chart, he Voidbinds. Is that using Stormlight to power abilities different from the Surgebindings we've seen?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. 

    Argent

    Is that what voidbinding is? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, but close. You're on the right track. We are gonna get into that, I'm not gonna tell you what the chart means, and things like that. But yeah, something really weird is happening there. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7766 Copy

    Questioner

    If you were to choose a magic system between personalized magic, where each person has their own custom ability, versus one which is an overall thing with branches, which one would you think better? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Uh, depends on the story you're trying to tell. They can both be really advantageous. They have their advantages and disadvantages. 

    Questioner

    But you personally, which one do you like better.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The branching. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7768 Copy

    Questioner

    So, if you could take, whether capture or talk into a Radiant spren from Roshar that was no longer bonded to a Radiant, from Roshar to Nalthis, could you bond that spren to an awakened object? Could you take a spren from Roshar and either force it to or talk it into bonding an awakened object on Nalthis? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh boy. That'd be really hard. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7771 Copy

    Questioner

    How does it feel being one of the primary fantasy authors with jealousy of your peers, even those who have written longer than you, because of your efficiency and your worldbuilding? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    It feels really weird. It feels really weird. It feels really great. We just got the sales numbers in for the third book, and they're pretty crazy. 

    Argent

    You doing OK? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm doing okay. We tripled the second book. *crowd woos* That was already #1 on the New York Times. Now that was #1 in, like, a January or a Febuary or something like that. We don't know if we'll even beat Lee Child or not tomorrow, but it's looking pretty good. It's pretty crazy. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7772 Copy

    Blightsong

    Are foci a cosmere-wide phenomenon, or are they kinda just a construction of people? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Elaborate. 

    Blightsong

    A lot of people think that every magic system has foci? Is that true? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. But, I think people are finding structure in-worlds that-- how should I say this. So, in some ways, some of these questions (this isn't just this one, but in general), you can ask something like "Do alien species fit into phylum and families and things like this." Well, yes, because we come up with the definitions. Right? So, a lot of these questions, like "Do they all have?" Well, yes, because human beings have come up with definitions to define these things and lump them together under definitions... There's a lot of things with the cosmere magic... is yes, because human beings have put that weight on it. It doesn't make it less true, but, at the same time it's not like, 1+1=2 is gonna exist whether or not humankind is there to define it, whether or not something fits into a genus or a species, whether these magic systems are related. Those are human constructions that are noticing real things. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7773 Copy

    Zmann966

    So, in Oathbringer, we see the Surge of Adhesion used in an interesting way, Spiritual Adhesion. Do all the Surges have non-Physical manifestations like that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    All the Surges do, slightly, in fact, but none of them, I would say, are as Spiritual as that. 

    Zmann966

    What about like, Shallan in Words of Radiance with her mercenaries? So, like, a Spiritual Transformation? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wouldn't say Transformation, she is seeing a little bit, glimpsing a little bit, does that make sense? 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7774 Copy

    Questioner

    From a certain series of books about a prison, by this one author, we learn that authors love to torture their audience. How many nights did you stay up giggling and cackling to yourself with glee over all of the things that happen in Oathbringer?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is why I'm an insomniac, right? You're all gonna be miserable. A little fun thing here, when the book was going along, I thought "Maybe I should cut it after Part 3." I gave it to Karen, who's my continuity editor, and she said "If you cut it here, I will strangle you. The fans will not get a chance to do it, because I will do it."

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #7776 Copy

    Questioner 1

    Can you tell us about Transportation? Is it like gates from Wheel of Time? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, Elsecalling? No. But-- but yes. 

    Questioner 1

    *laughter* I meant, like, the whole-- Just the Surge?

    Questioner 2

    Does it go to the Cognitive Realm, is that all it does? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is the power by which they created the Oathgates... So, there is a little more to it than that. But yes, it's basically-- yeah.

    TWG Posts ()
    #7778 Copy

    DavidB

    Also, it seems to me like it would be more internally consistent if Awakened objects consumed Breath, to make all of these Breath-consuming powers in the last few chapters fit in better. So for example, if Vasher Awakened a shirt and left it Awakened and doing stuff for a day, then he might be down one-seventh of a breath when he took it back at the end of the day. (Of course, that mechanic requires it to be possible to transfer or Awaken with portions of a Breath, and if you could do that, then using the "putting the Breaths you don't want to transfer into a cloth until after the transfer" thing, you could feed the Returned by taking a tiny fraction of all the Halladren's breaths, instead of taking some people's entire Breaths and turning them into Drabs.)

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hum. I like that suggestion, actually. I think I'll use it. Though, what I'll do is say that if you leave the breath in for too long, one of them vanishes. If you can get them back quickly enough, however, there is no loss. That gives a bit of a better explanation of why there aren't a lot of awakened objects doing things all over the place. True, using the breath to make them would be initially expensive--but if you got a magic object that never winds down, then that might be worth the expense.

    Oathbringer Houston signing ()
    #7784 Copy

    Questioner

    I was wondering if there was a connection between when we meet Preservation in Secret History, and the way he is, and the Stormfather. Like, is he dead yet, in Secret History?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There is a similarity, but-- Dying for a Shard takes a long time, in a lot of cases. So, it's similar. But the Stormfather is something different, *inaudible* remnants left over after the god died. 

    Questioner

    So is he dead?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Honor is dead, yes. But, at the same time, the Stormfather is kind of his Cognitive Shadow. So-- what does "dead" mean?

    Oathbringer Houston signing ()
    #7785 Copy

    Questioner

    I was actually going to ask where you came up with the idea of Hoid?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hoid is inspired by my desire to tell a story that spans other stories. I would say the origins of that are probably Asimov, when he made the Robots books and the Foundation books tie together. Something like that. Maybe Michael Moorcock, he had a similar sort of cross-world thing. I was reading both of them a lot right when I started coming up with that. So I would say, that's the origin of it. Stephen King has done it, but I didn't know he'd done it. I hadn't been reading him as much.

    Oathbringer San Diego signing ()
    #7790 Copy

    Questioner

    Someone told me that after the signing last night you said that Soulcast blood has DNA... The question is who?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's a good question. That's a RAFO. So, here's... the premises I'm working on. Soulcast blood can be used for transfusion, alright? I'm not saying much more than that. At least I'm not canonizing much more than that right now. And as my understanding, it has blood type, it has-- things. When someone asked me tonight "does that mean it's human blood?" Well, that depends on the definition.

    Oathbringer Houston signing ()
    #7793 Copy

    Questioner

    There's a lot of situations where people hear voices or see visions, stuff like that. What would be the effect, if somebody had something like mental condition like schizophrenia or multiple personality? Because you talk about-- Because a lot of the magic is about their will, you know?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Schizophrenia in the cosmere is going to-- So, anytime you're seeing the future, and things like that, you're kinda glimpsing into the Spiritual Realm. That's why it happens so often, because the magic systems are the way they work, are coming down from the Spiritual Realm. Schizophrenia will make you more open to that, so you are more likely to actually see the future. But you won't be able to tell it from the things your mind is making up, which is gonna be really dangerous.

    Questioner

    So, what if you had, like, one personality wanna do one thing, and another one trying to do something else, would it cancel each other out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not necessarily. I mean, we're going a little that direction with Shallan, anyway. You'll see.