Found 125 entries in 0.157 seconds.
Out of all your series which is your favorite one to work on?
I don't generally pick favorites. I love them all. But each does give me a different feeling. Wax and Wayne is very fun, while Stormlight is very satisfying. Skyward was energizing.
And do you have a favorite book or author?
Right now, Pratchett is my favorite living author. Jordan was my favorite for a long, long time. I'd add the original three ladies—McCaffrey, Rawn, and Hambly—to that as well, as they were the ones to get me into this genre.
I was wondering what is your favorite book was to write?
...That's really hard to answer, I like different books for different reasons. The big ones are more satisfying, but a lot of the shorter ones can be funner. So, probably Bands of Mourning, from the Mistborn series is my favorite for the fun. But the Stormlight books are more satisfying.
Who's your favorite spren in The Stormlight Archive so far?
...Right now it's probably Pattern. But I don't know. I love them all. They are my children.
Your favorite character, and your least favorite character?
See, this is a hard one to answer. Robert Jordan would pull a complete cop-out when people would ask him this. He ways say, "My favorite is whoever I'm writing at the moment." This is because, as the author, you have to get into a wide variety of characters' heads and write them. But, since you didn't say in my works, I can just tell you my favorite character of all time is probably Jean Valjean. I'm a big fan of morality as it is portrayed in those books. What I love about Les Miserables in particular is this idea that different people can be moral in different ways. It's kind of the anti-Game-of-Thrones, which is about how you can sympathize with people who are basically immoral. That's kind of part of the series. And this is about how people who are basically moral can still not get along. Which is a cool idea, and I love that. My least favorite character? Who is the protagonist of The Dead? From James Joyce? I don't know. That'd probably be my least favorite. Yeah, I copped out, too.
Who's your favorite character to write?
Usually the characters I look more-- forward to the most are the ones that are goofy.
Wayne?
So like Wayne and Lift. Like, but not up to like-- Wit I-- is hard to write, right? It's the kind of wacky but don't have to be too clever characters that are most fun to write.
Just a sudden question that popped into my head: Do you like Joss Whedon's work, specifically Firefly and Dr. Horrible?
I enjoyed Firefly quite a bit; I was actually among the (apparently small) group of people who watched it during its original broadcast run. I'm impressed with Joss's writing, though I'm not an enormous fan of his on the level of many of my friends.
I missed Dr. Horrible. Been meaning to watch that, actually...
There. Just added it to my Netflix queue.
So, who's your favorite Planeswalker or like-- color of mana to play?
Can I say my own Planeswalker?
That's because you did write--
I did! If you throw my Davriel out, because obviously I'm gonna pick my own, let's see, who is my favorite? Ashiok is probably my favorite, just because they have such an interesting look to them and I like the powerset, that's the way I like to play, and there's so much mystery about Ashiok, so Ashiok. If we're talking about one that's actually had a story written about them, I really love how they handled Urza, just because you'd expect Urza to be very Gandalf-y and wise, and he was kind of, you know, that black side to Urza was really cool to me. And so-- yeah, there you go.
What was the first magic system that blew you away as a reader?
As a reader, the first magic system that blew me away would be Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner magic system, which I-- still to this day is one of my favorites. I think the pieces of it came together very well, and it has metaphors for art, and it was well worked in society. Anyway, it was really cool.
Which has been your favorite project?
I don't really have a favorite. It's whatever I'm working on at the moment. Every project, there are times where I am just so done with it. Every project, there are times where I'm super excited about it. And when I'm timing it right, the time I'm so done with it is the time where I can be done with it. And the time where I'm super excited about it is when I'm starting it and writing new material for it. I don't think that there is a single book that I haven't been, like, "I am so tired of this, I am so done," by the time I am at revision number five.
Do you have a favorite of the Mistborn books?
I don't really have a favorite, though I think Bands of Mourning is probably the strongest of those. Though, the first original Mistborn might be a contender, as well. It depends. See, my prose and storytelling ability has gotten better over the years, and Bands really had a bunch of things come together that I like to do and I think worked really well. The issue is that the story for Mistborn One is more epic and is, in a lot of ways, more novel. And because of that, it's the progenitor. So, I don't know. But I don't really pick favorites of my books, generally.
Who's your favorite character in SA?
I generally don't pick favorites, but Dalinar is the one I've been planning for the longest.
What's your favorite order of Surgebinders?
Probably the Bondsmiths.
So you've obviously done these talks before, what is your favorite question you've ever had and what was its answer?
What is my favorite question? See people ask me this one, so I have a glib response. My favorite question is "How can I buy more of your books?" *laughter* And my answer is "Talk to the wonderful booksellers." But no I always have trouble with those questions because I get, y'know, I don’t know if I have favorite questions? People also always ask what should I be asking you? and I'm like "I don’t know, that's your job. I wrote the books, come on. Give me a break."
What is your favorite of your own books?
I can never answer this. It's like trying to choose your favorite child. :)
What is your favorite thing about writing new characters?
I love seeing the world through the eyes of a new character, particularly when they describe something common in a very different way.
Out of all of the covers for any of your books, anywhere in the world, what was your favorite cover?
My favorite cover of all of my covers is the first cover of The Way of Kings by Michael Whelan. Because I have this, kind of, emotional connection to Michael's work. The first fantasy book I ever read was Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, with its gorgeous Michael Whelan cover, and I didn't even know the genre really existed, I just went to the bookstore and found the next book in the card catalogue, and it was Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, also with its gorgeous Whelan cover. And I read all of those. And so, it went hand-in-hand. The next one I started was Melanie Rawn, which was another Whelan cover. So, the first three series I ever read were all done by him, and were all done by these feminist fantasy writers. And those two things have kind of shaped how I see the fantasy genre. But I would recommend all three of those series, by the way, to you guys, they are fantastic. Dragonsbane, in particular, is still very close to my heart. The first one, in particular. Barbara was kind of depressed when she wrote the rest of them.
If you could have any power that's in your worlds?
Uh-huh.
What would you be taking?
Well, probably Allomancy because it's the only one that I could use in this world, right? Because most of them require the magic from the world, this one you can make it happen. So, eh, Allomancy.
What is your beverage of choice?
Uh, ice water. Yep, really is. I really just like me a good-- lots of ice. Like, a big cup filled to the top with ice, and then you fill up water in it. Best stuff.
So, is she [Rysn] going to get a novella maybe?
Rysn is probably not going to get a novella but Rysn is a character who's going to have a nice novelette in each story, in the interludes. Maybe not quite to novelette length on each of them but she, in each of the first five books you will get a scene from Rysn.
I think she's a very interesting character because in a way she epitomizes what you just said about being exposed to different cultures and--
Right, that's kind of her thing, is she goes and visits the different cultures of Roshar.
And then we get to visit them too.
Yeah. She's got a potted plant, she's got some grass actually, there's some grass that doesn't respond to the storm. So she's one of my favorites, I intend her to be in each of the interludes and have her own kind of little story running through the books.
So now we know, when you think about--
Absolutely, there is a Rysn point of view in Oathbringer.
They want to know who your favorite character of Brandon's is.
Oh, favorite character of Brandon's.
Stick. *laughter*
No, I really like Lift. I'm enjoying Jasnah quite a bit.
Yeah, you don't get a lot of Jasnah in these early books though, unfortunately. There's a couple Jasnah viewpoints in the new book [Stormlight 4], so that's good. You'll get a little Jasnah, but you really aren't going to get a lot of Jasnah for a while.
I kind of think... It's hard because it's like whichever one I happen to be reading at the time is my favorite.
That's what Robert Jordan said, when someone asked him who his favorite character was, is, "Whoever I'm writing right now."
It's kind of true though. Whoever I'm reading right now, I'm like, "Oh, I love this character." I read a Kaladin chapter and I'm like, "I love Kaladin." Then I read a Dalinar chapter.
Did you say who your least favorite character was?
My least favorite character? Can I choose Padan Fain?
Padan Fain, Padan Fain.
He's not technically one of your characters.
He's very hateable. He's pretty despicable.
Moash is pretty despicable, but I don't know that he's my least favorite.
Which is your favorite of the ten fools, and why?
Uh-- I don't know. I honestly don't know.
Can you give me a name of one of them, then?
That I haven't named yet? Those are in the notes, I have to look those things up. I don't know. We're gonna do a ten fools painting for the next one, maybe. We were gonna do it for this one. I'm not sure who my favorite is. I'd have to sit and think about it, perhaps more time than we have right now. It's going to depend on Isaac's sketches of them and things like that. Maybe, uh, Jezrien's fool. Probably Jezrien's fool.
What's the name of that one?
I can't remember. Like I said, I have 'em in a list. I have to go look at the notes and look them up every time. I don't use them, like, I just write--
Not like the Heralds, that you're using all the time. They're just the ten fools.
Right, I just use, even when I'm writing, I'm like "Jezrien's Fool," and then I go look up the name of it.
You've mentioned before Adamant as maybe a universe where you can invite people to work with you.
Yeah I've definitely considered that. Adamant is a science fiction novella I wrote, which I would love to do some continuing adventures of this starship and have some guest writers. It's difficult because, as a writer it's very hard to let go of anything, that's what I found. I did one story with a friend of mine, Ethan, who I did it with him because he's in the military and I've never been in the military, and I wanted to write a story that was kind of military science fiction-ish. And so we wrote a story together, and it's a great story, it's called HARRE, and you read it in English but-- It turned out really well but it was so hard to let go. Really hard to let go and let someone else do it, that's a flaw in me I think because the story turned out great, but I'm worried about doing that more in the future. Just if-- I'm worried whether or not I'll be able to let go of the story and let someone else put their stamp on it.
So how about the other way around though. Would you be interested in working in somebody else's, like for example Dragonlance. You did something like this in The Wheel of Time, working with a pretty fine set of constraints--
Yeah it was a little different in The Wheel of Time because I was given complete creative control. So I could do whatever I wanted as long as I could convince Robert Jordan's widow that it was the right thing for the story. If I convinced her then it worked. But I very much could create whatever-- craft whatever story I wanted. In a lot of shared universes the constraints are much more binding. I wouldn't be opposed to it. I've certainly done-- I worked with some friends who make video games and worked on some stories with them, so I've done it before. I wouldn't be opposed to it. It would have to be the right thing.
Or a Magic: The Gathering story?
Yeah a Magic: The Gathering story, I could totally see myself writing one of those one day.
Is there a particular Magic: The Gathering, I dunno, what are they called-- universe?
Yeah, yeah, they've got a Gothic core universe called Innistrad, with a-- It's just I love classic Gothic horror, and it would allow me to play with some of those tropes. You know, the zombies banging on the door and the werewolves howling in the night, and things like that, that I probably would never do in one of my stories.
Is there any connection or coincidence to the Krell in Skyward, versus the Krell from Forbidden Planet?
Yes... Forbidden Planet is one of my favorite movies. Perhaps my favorite classic science fiction movie. I really dig any sort of Shakespearean interpretation in another medium. So I named the Krell after the Krell from Forbidden Planet.
Of all the published shardworlds, which one is your favorite to write and which would you want to live on.
One he wants to live on would definitely be Scadrial, because they have running water and electricity. Favorite to write is Roshar. He would not want to live on any of them though because they don't have internet or delivery pizza. (He later stated that delivery pizza would likely be a thing Scadrial would get, but that it would not be delivered via Coinshots because they were too expensive)
