Found 14294 entries in 0.271 seconds.
I am a bit sad Lift didn’t tag along to Shadesmar.
I was actually going to send her on that mission, and wrote this chapter with that intent. Then I re-read what I'd written, and decided, "There's no way on Roshar Dalinar and Navani would send her on a delicate diplomatic mission." So I forced myself to revise the outline so Lift stayed in the tower.
There are some things that just stretch plausibility too much.
Straff Survives
Straff is, indeed, alive. A lot of alpha readers were surprised to read this scene because they figured he was dead after the last one. I, however, have a few more things for him to do–plus, you can't kill a villain in a fade out like that without some good confirmation. It's just not dignified.
Oh, and of course, he needs to be alive so that he can pull his armies back and let the koloss attack.
Would Spensa get along with Vin?
Yes, I think she would.
My other question is about Wheel of Time. At the end, Rand just kinda walks away in Moridin's body. Does he stop being a ta'veren? I can't imagine the pattern would just let him live a quiet normal life if he still was.
The ending portion of WoT that you reference was written by [Robert Jordan] himself, and he didn't leave a lot of explanations. Subtext and things Mr. Jordan said lead me to believe that the character you indicate is free, now. But we don't have a 100% for sure answer.
Looking toward book five; is the prologue with Gavilar going to be enormous at this point? Trying to wrap up all of the rest of the threads?
I do need to wrap up a lot of threads in that one.
20,000 word prologue?
We'll see. I haven't written it yet; we'll see how long it gets. I hope I'm not straying into Robert Jordan prologue territory. 90,000 word prologue? Oh really...
In the event that.. so, say if you've got someone who went through a certain event, and it would have Snapped them. Take that person away from Scadrial, and move them to a different world. Would that still Snap them?
Remember that the Shards are mostly Spiritual Realm things. Space and time do not matter to them. Time does, space does not.
You once said Nightblood can do some really freaky things when he is fully consuming Investiture, have we seen Nightblood do that yet?
That is a RAFO. But you will find out...
Did Sazed get memories as fast as Taravangian when he Ascended?
Yes he did… but getting memories and getting these things and knowing what to do with them and stuff are different things. But yeah, I would say the experience was somewhat similar.
Would you be willing to admit the name of the Vessel of the Shard on Obrodai.
*gives RAFO card*
TenSoon comments that when the unbirthed are given Blessings, they lose the mimickry instinct that mistwraiths have and have to be taught anew. If their only native senses are touch and taste, how exactly do you teach a blob of muscles how to form things like eyes and ears?
Basically, you feed it some partially digested eyes, then some more eyes, then eventually it starts making eyes on its own. It takes a while; Kandra 'children' grow more slowly than human ones.
I don't know if you've considered how mistwraiths would be taxonomically classified; have you decided whether or not mistwraiths would be considered 'mammals'?
They are not mammals. Since they were deliberately created, I'd place them in their own branch.
I asked for something about Kaladin.
Kaladin has known multiple Lightweavers.
Doesn't Zahel mention that he has 'Lost a Friend' maybe in a worldhop he dropped it, or nightblood has grown in power since landing on roshar and was able to move enough on his own that Zahel didn't notice til it was too late and he had already been identifed by Nalan.
RAFO.
How do you come up with your concepts on flying across all of your books? They're a little different from usual flying.
So, I look for something that just hasn't been done before. Almost all powers in fantasy books have been done. But can you put some interesting restriction on them that'll make it more actually interesting to write? A little different? I spend a lot of time just kinda brainstorming these sorts of things.
The other one is me trying to understand Bondsmiths a bit for their article. Dalinar uses his powers to heal the buildings in Thaylen City, and what he does does not seem to be a straightforward application of a Surge. Is he making use of Tension or Adhesion? Or some mix of them both? I realize that sometimes things may not fall easily into one category or another, so I'd accept any sort of clarification on this.
What Dalinar did is a mixture of abilities, and a spiritual connection, that is only possible to a Bondsmith.
I asked Brandon whether kandra could replicate Parshendi carapace.
He said they couldn't.
I asked whether or not it was to do with the same thing as hair and if that was the reason why.
He said sort of, yes.
Is Odium influencing Kaladin in a similar way as Ruin was influencing Vin?
No.
Is Shallan's illusions similar to Essence Marks from Emperor's Soul?
Not terribly.
Feruchemical aluminum stores and taps a marker that seems to suffuse all Investiture within a person, removing or strengthening Identity. Does Feruchemical duralumin work similarly? Does tapping connection while storing in a metalmind increase the connection of the Investiture stored?
RAFO. Mostly because I've got a main character who's going to be doing this, I'm not going to spoil the fun or lock myself down yet.
Breeze Viewpoint in the Warehouse with the Refugees.
Breeze didn't want to go with Elend to meet with Cett (for the dinner.) That isn't only because Breeze didn't want to see Cett, but because he wanted to go and help the refugees. (That chapter actually happens on a different day, so I brought him back to visit again so that I could show you him working with the people. In the Mistborn novels, unlike Elantris, I keep a strict chronological progression from chapter to chapter and scene to scene. So, if a chapter comes after another one, it's always later in time as well.)
I realize that I'm in danger of making all of my protagonists too good. Showing Breeze as being somewhat less cynical on the inside than he projects inches me toward this line. However, I LIKE people who are heroic. I try my best to make things rough on them, and to give them some quirks to keep them a little grey, but the honest truth is that I believe most people are good at heart. They WILL help others, if given the chance.
Plus, Breeze likes to study people, and this is a great place for him to do it. He can mix his focus in life with making other people feel better. Of course, there's also the fact that Kelsier himself manipulated Breeze and made a better man out of him. Put a person in charge of the weak and poor, give him the right motivation and direction, and I think that an many cases he'll come to love them. Even if that man is Breeze.
So the Reshi King canonically trans, right? I was hoping so when he was first mentioned, and I know it's been asked before if a trans Radiant would "heal" towards their true gender.
Yes. And this is what happened.
Are we ever going to know what caused the chasm line in Elantris?
You will, hopefully, learn a little bit more about that. Not huge amounts. What I’ve said before in the past is that the cause and effect is mixed up. And I can’t say more without giving away spoilers. But cause and effect is mixed up in that world in that event, specifically. We will learn a little bit more. There are some events surrounding it that are interesting. Hopefully, if I can ever get around to writing Elantris sequels. I can’t even 100% guarantee that that will go in there. But it is planned to go in there, now.
Main Book Projects
The Stormlight Archive
Stormlight is going very well. I'm working on Book Three, which I'm calling Oathbringer. (That is likely at this point to be the final title.) This is my main project, and I won't be writing any new prose on other stories until it is done. You can follow the progress bars!
Release dates for this book are still in flux. Even if I finish it early next year, it could be a year or more until you see the book. The amount of editing, continuity, and art that these books require creates a need for a long lead time. I've told people that Fall 2016 is the earliest they'd see it, but my team has been warning me that's not realistic. We'll see, but for now you should assume on a 2017 release.
What does this mean for my once optimistic "one Stormlight book every eighteen months" goal? The more I work on these books, the more uncertain I am about that. The outline for Oathbringer, for example, took about a year for me to nail down. Considering how many moving pieces there are in these books, it's tough to judge how long they will take to write. And while there are books I can force through if some things aren't right, I can't afford to do that on this series.
I'll continue to write Stormlight books at as quick a pace as is reasonable. I consider this my main project for the next decade or two, and am dedicated to it. But each book, as I've said before, is plotted as four books in one. So even if I release them once every three years, you're getting four "books" in three years.
We'll see. I'll try to pick up the pace. In the meantime, I'll try to get some short stories in the world out for you. (More on this later.)
Status: Book Three in Progress
RAFOed I'm sure, but you said you are planing 2 arcs of 5 books each in Stormlight Archive. Having read all of your published works (and some unpublished:)) I know your storytelling pace is astronomicaly quick. I'm positive you will end current desolation story in the first 5 books, since as I understod, other 5 books will be set in near future in SA universe. So I guess my question is; can you drop any hint will Odium survive to see 6th SA book:)?
Oh, Odium will survive. Now, whether the one HOLDING that power will survive...that's a different question. :) (Not quite a RAFO.)
Are we going to see Native Americans in the Rithmatist series?
Yes you will. The Native Americans have mostly moved to South America, but there's a Native American main character in the second book.
Yes!
What happened is the– a lot of them got pushed into South America, where the Aztec Empire is alive and well and strong. And so their perspective on what's going on is very different from the perspective happening in Joel's school, so you will see a different perspective on things.
Excellent.
It was already dangerous though, what I'm doing, and I realize this, for those very reasons. Very sensitive issues. Like when I used the Mary Rowlandson account, which is kind of a controversial account as it is, I understood that I was potentially opening a can of worms.
But I mean, I really– I just want to say this, that I really appreciate as a reader that you go into diversity because I know it is a risk, and it means so much to readers to have you writing a different set of characters and people people can relate to.
The lady-in-waiting [from Way of Kings Prime] was named Shinri Davar, but Brandon says that Shallan is an entirely different character. Unlike Kaladin who is the same character as Merin.
Is there any effect on a Shardblade if the deadeye is really far away from where the Blade is?
Define really.
The one that's trapped on the ship. Let's say they're taking him to the far side of Shadesmar, but the dude that owns that Blade lives in...
We will deal with that in the books. There is an effect, but that's not enough of an effect.
Considering no one says that their Shardblade is acting weird in two and a half thousand years.
That happens all the time in Shadesmar. If you were able to get it off the planet, it would have an effect.
If you as the owner of the Shardblade were offworld and you tried to summon it, that would be the effect?
Either way. But you can't take spren off-world. I mean, you can, but you can't really. Really all that I have in the notes for it to do right now, is to add slightly more time. So you're like, "That's weird that felt like not ten heartbeats, it felt like twelve." But it's like, you're on another planet, then it's suddenly speed of light type stuff. So suddenly it's like, "This is taking three years instead. That's a pretty big deal!"
...So I've got a few weird speed of light things mixed into the cosmere, and that's one of them.
One of my favorite aspects of your books is you always have this character that kind of has a submissive personality starting out and they evolve into a more dominant personality. Do you have an author for a series that kind of inspired this?
Inspires me? He says frequently I have a character who's in a submissive position that becomes dominant through the course of the series. Do I have an author that I'm relying on specifically. No more than the "Hero's Journey", the general idea of the person growing and becoming master of their domain where once they were not. I don't think I have a specific person I'm looking at for that. But it is a fun type of story to tell, just because of the way you can show progression with a character.
Was Allomancer Jak in the newspapers in The Alloy of Law just Hoid in disguise?
 No. I actually just published a short story with him in it.
(He also said that he came up with the idea for him in an RPG writing group, or something along those lines.)
I want to know if there is a toxic level for Stormlight? If you're in the storm, can you get to the point where you have too much?
No, it doesn't quite work that way. Good question, though.
You said there was one person, I guess it was the Soulcasters, who were starting to change because of that?
That's more the magic changing their soul over time. It's not necessarily a function of the storms.
So at this point we either know or can infer the opinions of most of the Radiants spren on bonding humans, but I was a little curious on the exact position of Lightspren. We know there's some who are against it, considering Ico's opinion, but is that representative of the entire people, or just a significant number? Is Timbre the only one willing to bond someone, or is she one of a group of rebels like Syl?
This is a RAFO for now.
Does Lift need to poop?
Lift's system is more efficient than that of a normal persons in this particular area. Less poop, almost none. (I imagine it being like that one guy who didn't eat for a year, surviving off of body fat.)
Why does Lift get hungry after converting food to Stormlight? If you don't need to breathe while holding Stormlight because it sustains your body, why would you need to eat?
Her body is a little confused at times. That's part of it. Also, she just has a psychological response to eating, like many of us do.
How many Truths has Wit currently spoken?
RAFO! That's definitely a RAFO.
Would a Shardblade hurt a Kandra?
A Shardblade would not kill a Kandra outright, but it would do significant damage.
Shallan's comment in Words of Radiance that she's "five foot six inches" jerks me out of the story every time, particularly because I'm used to the metric system. I understand in my head how Sanderson is translating for the readers whatever Rosharan measures she actually used...but it's still jarring whenever I actually come across it while reading.
Measuring by foot was extremely common in our world. Many European countries had their own standard foot. It just makes sense that humans would measure by feet.
The Vorin foot probably has 10 inches.
How significant will the White Sand be to the cosmere? Any hints on the Shard that resides there?
Moderately. (Its magic has some cool ramifications for off world use, and several characters factor prominently into the Cosmere.)
Is there more than one magic system in white sand?
Only one in the current outline.
Does the one magic have more than one variation? Because I got the impression that there was something going on on the Darkside? Though I guess the Sky Colors (I think that's what they're called, I read the draft you send out early 2014 so my recollection is a little fuzzy) don't have to be related to magic. Or you could have written them out if they were...
In intended the colors on Darkside to be more a matter of the ecology than the magic--though, on that planet, magic and ecology are very closely tied together. (Well, I guess most of the magics are.)
Could a Forger re-write their history to adjust the kind of metal they burn as an Allomancer?
They could, but it actually wouldn't do anything, because the magic would not be able to replicate the other magic.
So they would not be able to re-write history in the necessary way?
They would not be able to. I mean they could, but it wouldn’t have an effect, does that make sense? It would do nothing, it would be like you can create the stamp, the stamp would look like it was working but you just wouldn't end up with Allomancy.
Last I heard you planned one more Mistborn series set in a sorta sci-fi setting in the future. However, I've heard from a couple people that you might be writing a fourth trilogy? I'm curious if that is true and what setting that would take place in?
The fourth trilogy is the SF one. The Wax and Wayne books are confusing people. 1: Classic epic fantasy.
2: Wax and Wayne western eara.
3: 1980's Spy Thriller
4: Space Opera.
It's possible I'll slot something between Spy Thriller and Space Opera. I've started to think I should officially name Wax and Wayne "Era 1.5" to end this confusion.
Is Nightblood made of the same material as the sheath?
No. Good question.
Will we see any more of David and Megan in the future?
It is likely that you will. If I write another book directly following, it will be about Mizzy. So she would be the main viewpoint character, and you would see the others in relation but it would be her story.
What is Perfect State about?
Well, Perfect State, is about, the question I had was, what if the best way to make the most people happy in the univ- in the world was to create for every person their own individualized simulation, so they basically could live a fantasy novel. You, you’d take them when they were a baby, put them in this simulation, it’s kind of like, you know, The Truman Show, where something like this, except the whole world is designed to be awesome, so that they could have a wonderful, cool life, and, what would that be like? Less you know, like, manipulating them, or, ruining their life, or you know, putting them into a simulation to, to control them, and more, here’s you get to be the most important person in the world and grow up that way. So yeah, that, that’s kind of the premise.
Do you spend a lot of time on Google when you don’t know, like, distances?
Yes, I do. Or at least, I used to. Nowadays, I'll write into my manuscript, "Peter, find the answer to this", and then I’ll just let it go. He’s my assistant, and when he does his read-through afterward he’ll be like, "Oh great", and he’ll go do all the research for me. It's wonderful. For little things like that, I can get him to do it.
When time bubbles overlap, is it multiplicative or additive? *laughter*
...It should be a-- whew.
Should I ask Peter?
Yeah ask Peter. We talked it all over. I'm gonna get the wrong one. I think it's additive, in fact I'm pretty sure it's additive. But let's ask Peter.
How much have you thought about the evolution of the biology on Roshar? It seems like the creatures we saw in Dawnshard attacking the crew (Sleepless aside, they're a whole other can of cremlings) are basically amphibious chasmfiends? Or some descendent of larkin? Or even an offshoot of hordelings?
I imagine there's a lot of aquatic Rosharan megafauna, as many prey species on the planet have literal sources of energy inside of them that (with the right biological adaptations) can be turned into calories. Mix the low gravity, high oxygen, environment--and the possibility for bonding spren for other adaptations--and there's some real fun to be had.
Rosharan Sleepless, as a species who can self-evolve over internal generations, have managed to interbreed with some species of cremlings to come up with specialized hordelings to do some remarkable things.
Skyward Three Update Three
Hey, all! I'm here to bring you some good news. I managed to hit my deadlines for the first and second drafts of Skyward Three (tentatively titled NOWHERE) and submitted the book last week to my publisher. This is the third in a sequence of progress reports on the novel, the second of which can be found here.
Now that the 2.0 draft is done, I'm waiting on the editor to look through the novel and tell me what she thinks. The tight deadlines on this one are because of paper shortages and printing delays in the industry. (Many of my books are on backorder right now in hardcover, for example. We can't even get them.) I had to promise to get this book in under a pretty rigid set of deadlines to guarantee a November/December release.
I'm pleased with the revisions I did to make the 2.0 document, and once you've read the book, remember to ask me about them--I made some choices that I think will be interesting to writers who like watching how different authors do revisions. I am very pleased with the book, but I'm always pleased at the 2.0 stage. (If I'm not, I don't send the book in.)
I'm eager to see if the publisher is equally pleased, and then see if beta readers bring up any major issues I didn't notice. That will all happen over the next few months. If everything goes well, I should be giving you a final update for the book sometime late March, early April.
(At that point I'll do the hand-off to Peter, who will handle the copy editing and proofreading. I'll move on to the final Wax and Wayne book, which I know a lot of you have been waiting for.)
Thanks, as always, for your patience in putting up with me jumping projects as often as I do. I hope you're having a happy New Year! (Also, note, that I will not be having replies to this go to my inbox, so apologies in advance if I don't see your comment or question.)
EDIT: I forgot to mention the novellas. (The three tie-in novellas we're releasing to show what the rest of Skyward flight is up to during the events of Book Three.) The timing of these is going to depend on when Janci and I finish them, and I don't know when that will be yet, as they don't have to follow a traditional publishing schedule. (If there are print editions, they'll come along in a future year--this year we'll only be focusing on ebook and audio, which should be simultaneous.)
In a perfect world, I think I'd release these in the months leading up to Skyward Three--but they could be read after as well, so we'll see how the writing of them goes. I will have more for you by the final update post in March/April. For now, just know to expect them sometime around the book release.
Brandon
Will the Wheel of Time show be from the POV of the Aes Sedai or the ta'veren?
I can't spoil you on that as I'm under an NDA. They went with some unexpected decisions, which I really liked, though.
What is your philosophy on prologues? You do a lot of them.
I do a lot of them. I don't think they're necessary. I'm fond of them. Usually, if you can find a way to not do one, your story will probably be stronger. But they do let you do something like, for instance, if you know that the later tone of your story is not going to match the early tone of your story, you can hint what the tone is actually going to be in the prologue, which is really handy. And there are other things you can do. You can start with a bang with a prologue in a way that maybe sometimes you wouldn't be able to do if you were going right into the main story. There's things that I like about them. But I do think that they become a crutch to some writers, and that might include me.
Do you have a recommended length in terms of how long it should be? ...Or maybe how long it should not be? What would be the max for a prologue?
Well, Robert Jordan's kind of became books unto themselves, and that worked for him. But when you're getting that long, you might be-- Short and sweet is probably your best. One of the best prologues ever written is the prologue to Eye of the World, Robert Jordan. But there's no real-- Just try to avoid the classic '80s one where it's like, "Prologue is all the worldbuilding dump that I couldn't fit in to the first chapters."
When you were coming up with names for the Orders of the Knights Radiants, did you have any names that you liked but couldn't include?
Most of the names I liked but discard were tossed because they sound too much like other compound words I've used, or other terminology in the cosmere. Shardbearer is already troublesome enough; I want to avoid others like this. The toughest one to name was Renarin's order, because most of the ideas I came up with over the years ended up being repeats. Others, like Stoneward and Windrunner, were powerful enough in my mind that when I wrote later cosmere books, I intentionally stayed away from terms that would sound too similar.
First, just please tell me anything about Nightblood--the book or the Type IV Awakened object. Or Warbreaker--the book or the Type II...
All right. My current plot for the book Nightblood. It's really minor, but it involves Darro entering the cosmere officially. He is a character from Aether of Night... He's a side character in that that I've always wanted to work into this main continuity, the real continuity, so he's coming.
Is Spook still around as of Alloy of Law?
As of Alloy of Law-- Yeah I'm gonna have to RAFO you on that.
Does a Shardbearer [Vessel] who Ascended from the same world influenced by that Shard have less control over that Shard than a bearer from another world?
I do not... I'm gonna say no *pause* for now.
