Badger
(paraphrased)
How much say did you have in the narrators for your audiobooks?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
He talked about the process behind picking narrators in the sense of he's allowed to request people, but if they can't get them, the publisher will present him with other options he can pick from. Same went for book cover artists (he chose Michael Whelan). He requested Michael Kramer and Kate Reading for his books because he was impressed with how he did the Wheel of Time books. The only one he didn't have say in is the original Warbreaker narrator (surfer dude Lightsong, anyone?).
Badger
(paraphrased)
How do chasmfiends reproduce?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Pretty similarly to chulls. He says there's a hint on the chull reproduction page in [Words of Radiance]. The last step of the reproduction cycle, for chasmfiends, involves a spren.
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
The Movie Question
- A film adaptation is different than a graphic novel adaptation. A film brings in new fans who may not be avid readers, a completely different audience. A graphic novel will likely have a similar audience to his books.
- With book to film adaptations he says that there's only a one-in-three chance it will be a good adaptation of one of his books, and it's a risk he's willing to take.
- He quoted someone he couldn't remember saying basically that you can make a bad film, but that doesn't change the fact that the book is good. Someone once asked an author about a film ruining their book and they said "It's still there on the shelf, nothing's happened to the book."
- He sold the rights to people he feels he can trust to make good movies.
- Of all of them, Reckoners has the best chance at getting a movie but he made it clear that's just his hunch/estimate and we shouldn't run to Twitter getting excited about a movie that might not even happen.
Badger
(paraphrased)
Has Renarin been a Radiant since before we first met him in The Way of Kings?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
RAFO, saving it for the Renarin pov parts to explore.
Badger
(paraphrased)
What will be in Arcanum Unbound?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
- All of the things.
- All of the short stories and novellas that are part of the Cosmere by the release date will be included in it, as well as the Lift novella.
Badger
(paraphrased)
What was your motivation/inspiration behind the Alcatraz books?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
- They're weird and modernist.
- His goal was to do something so different from what he was working on.
- He uses different books like this as breaks in order to keep the momentum up for writing and yet let himself rest.
- Still has a wacky magic system, so it's still one of his books, still what he likes writing, but it's still different.
- Inspired by like, The Emperor's New Groove sort of off the wall storytelling (gave the example of the fact that the opening scene is cut by a flashback and then never addressed again anywhere in the books)
Badger
(paraphrased)
What's your favorite magic system you've written?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Compared picking a fave system to picking a fave child, it's easier to pick who is most obedient. He likes writing Allomancy/the metallic arts the most
Badger
(paraphrased)
What's the status of the video game (Birthright)?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
- It. Didn't work out.
- There was another author at the time trying to get something done with (if I recall correctly) the same company, and he didn't want to compete with them.
- They still have the game rights.
It's been delayed mostly until there's some sort of movie out because basically there's two ways they can do a video game. They can do a big AAA game that will be very very expensive and it could flop, or they could do a smaller indie game. Because there's not a huge established audience from a movie, they want to wait until then before producing a game.
- He wants the gameplay to be a bit like Infamous in design (if I recall correctly).
- Basically what's stopping them right now is it's just really really expensive.
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
White Sand Information
- His goal for it was a fantasy desert ecology that wasn't Dune.
- [White Sand] was his best unpublished book he wrote between Elantris and Mistborn.
- He didn't want a graphic novel to be a 1:1 adaptation of one of his existing books because it gives nothing to the old readers. He wanted to make sure it's something that new readers will like as well as his existing fans.
- [White Sand] needed a heavy edit and he worked with a script writer and talked a little bit about the process of that.
Badger
(paraphrased)
Can you tell us more about Khriss?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
- She has a cameo in Bands of Mourning
- She's the main character of White Sand, basically said just read White Sand to get more information since it comes out soon.
- Nahz is basically her grumpy secret agent she sends out to go retrieve artifacts for her.
Badger
(paraphrased)
What about The Apocalypse Guard?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
- It's set in the Reckoners era
- Basically the coffee girl intern of the Apocalypse Guard gets sucked into a different dimension or something and they have to go retrieve her.
- You can read more here: http://brandonsanderson.com/the-apocalypse-guard/
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
The reading:
- He read this reading again (I was hoping for something new but only like??? 5 people in the audience had read Words of Radiance and the other excerpt he had prepared had WoR spoilers in it). It's young Dalinar at the feast.
- The only thing of note is in our reading he originally called Sadeas's wife "Ialai Sadeas", then he stopped, cleared his throat and corrected to "Ialai Torol" which would be an interesting naming convention, or his name really is Sadeas Torol and we've all be wrong this whole time.
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
He also commented about how he wanted people to like Steris, and says people probably don't like her in [The Alloy of Law] because they don't see enough of her and don't get to know her.
Badger
(paraphrased)
Are there service animals on Roshar/Alethkar and if so what are they, out of the fauna we know?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Axehounds are very easily trained and domesticated and would make for great service animals. Minks, probably next but not nearly as good as axehounds. He also mentioned that we'll know more about them, and their name, later.
Badger
(paraphrased)
Who bonded with their spren first, out of the new Radiants?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Chronologically, and of the ones we know, Jasnah.
Badger
(paraphrased)
Does The Lost Metal takes place in Southern Scadrial?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
No, it's in the Basin. However it will have stuff about South Scadrial in it. His exact words were he doesn't want to write anything set in south Scadrial "yet".
Badger
(paraphrased)
What did you do while writing Wheel of Time?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Alternated between writing Wheel of Time books and Cosmere books.
Badger
(paraphrased)
Does Marsh like cats?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
He's more of a dog person (but fairly neutral towards cats). Kelsier is a cat person. Brandon himself is a cat person (he has a cat).
