Recent entries

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5603 Copy

    Megasif

    In London I wanted to ask about Nightblood. The way he is Invested, is that a one-off-case kind of thing, or is it possible to do another of that level?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It was really bizarre, and I will explain it eventually and that will let you know why. It's theoretically possible to do almost anything so it's theoretically possible to do what he did but it'd be very hard.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5604 Copy

    Questioner

    [My son] would like to know when you're planning to write Bastille?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ..We're close. The fact that I ditched Apocalypse Guard has slow me down a bit. I was planning to write Bastille very soon. But it's gonna depend on how soon I finish [Skyward], when I need to go into Wax & Wayne. I need to go into Wax & Wayne, like, July at the latest. So, it's gonna depend on how long Skyward takes. But I'm gonna try to slip it in there.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5606 Copy

    Joe ST

    Is Urithiru a spaceship?

    Brandon Sanderson

     It is not, no, good question. I've never been asked that before. It's very Sim City, though.

    Joe ST

    It's a new theory, they're thinking, is it one of the floating cities from--

    Brandon Sanderson

    From Ashyn, yeah. Boy, that would be hard, it is so big. But, I suppose, magic, you know. But no, it is not...

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5607 Copy

    Questioner

    Have you thought about doing a continuation of Dreamer?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Occasionally. I haven't found the right thing to do with it yet, though. Dreamer is weird, because it starts off feeling like a Brandon Sanderson story, and a lot of people are like "Woah, I can see a whole world based on this!" And then it goes the horror route, you know, with the kids.

    Questioner

    I really liked that. I thought it was a nice twist.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The most horrific thing I could think of was giving the kids who play X-Box too much power over peoples' lives.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5609 Copy

    Questioner

    So, Kaladin met Hoid a long long time ago, and Hoid gave him a very important flute that he has not learned how to play. Is he ever going to put the time in to get good at that? Or is that just something we're going to have to wait for?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You'll have to wait for. Kaladin has a lot of things on his mind. He sure could use something to keep him from stressing out, but you're just gonna have to wait and see if Kaladin understands the reason he was given a flute, or not.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5610 Copy

    Questioner

    Will we ever see protagonists ever come back? ...Once they're, like, dead and stuff?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, there's a couple rules for people coming back in the cosmere. If you could be revived by CPR, you could be saved. If you can't be revived by CPR, only a direct infusion of Investiture immediately to the soul will turn you into a Cognitive Shadow. Those are your two kind of outs. I'll leave it at that for you, and you can see where it goes from there.

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5611 Copy

    Questioner

    Do Splinters require proximity to their Shards?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Do they require it for what?

    Questioner

    Function--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Function. It's very hard for most Splinters to leave the realm where they were Splintered, but this gets into tricky stuff because the Shard mostly occupies the Spiritual Realm, but what do you mean by the Shard? Because the essence of the Shard is in the Physical Realm, it's all across the cosmere, and things like this. Usually once something is Splintered it is difficult for them to leave that area, so yes.

    Questioner

    And in the system--

    Brandon Sanderson

    You see it with the-- I would call most Cognitive Shadows a Splinter in some ways. And you see it when Kelsier tries to leave, right. And spren would have the same trouble, and seons would have the same trouble. But at the same time is that a proximity to the Shard? Kind of. Things get very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey when you start dealing with the nature of the Spiritual Realm in the cosmere. 

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5613 Copy

    Questioner

    Will there be more Cosmere stories set on Threnody?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, Threnody is the setting of Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, which is my longest title ever. Yeah, one of the outlines I've noodled with is a Threnody novel. We'll see. I'm in a stage where I feel like I can start very few novel-length projects, until I've wrapped up Rithmatist, specifically Rithmatist. Once I've wrapped up Rithmatist, I'll feel pretty good-- Rithmatist and Alcatraz. We'll see, but I do have a pretty decent outline that I'm quite pleased with for a Threnody novel.

    Questioner

    Do you think that Silence might reappear?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Silence will not reappear. I'm sorry. Maybe a cameo, I don't know. The Threnody novel I'm planning, though, is going back to reclaim the continent from the Evil. And the opening scene is ships arriving. There's not a lot of room for a Silence cameo in that.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5614 Copy

    Questioner

    I was just wondering, in terms of the White Sand graphic novels, are you gonna keep those as graphic novels throughout? Or are you gonna jump into some more novellas and short stories that coincide with those?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right now, we're just trying to finish the... graphic novels. Next one's out in February, I think is the date they finally picked...

    ...So, right now, I'm gonna finish the graphic novels. I'm not gonna do other graphic novels until that one's done. I have a few cool things that I would like to do with graphic novels. I wanna make sure that we get the one done that we're doing, which will be three parts, White Sand. And then, when that's done, then we'll look at doing other stuff. I don't know, I probably will do some novellas set on Taldain eventually. But for right now, it is just the graphic novel.

    But if you want to read the original novel of mine that I'm adapting with Rik Hoskin to become the graphic novel, we send that out to people. We used to just send it when you asked us, but that got to the point that my assistant was getting a hundred emails a day. So now, you just sign up for the mailing list, and it will all get sent to you. And if you don't want to be in the mailing list, you can just unsubscribe then, right? But that way, you can just get the novel. It's okay. If you're curious about early Sanderson, it was book number... eight... But if you want to read early Sanderson, it's good, but it needed editing. It needs to be, like, 50-75,000 words shorter than it is. Which is what we're doing to make it a graphic novel, we're just kind of slimming it down.

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5615 Copy

    Questioner

    What was Szeth's reasoning for following Dalinar? From what saw he's only met Dalinar once or twice and wasn't aware he is a Bondsmith.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It wasn't about being a Bondsmith. It was partially about how everyone reacted to Dalinar and partially... Let's see if I can explain this. 

    Questioner

    Was it, like, 'cause in--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, part of it was that. Definitely part of it was what he had seen and things like this. Part of it was how everyone, like-- he knew about Dalinar, right? He had fought Kaladin a couple of times. My own justification for it when I was writing this, 'cause I actually did think about this one, like, Dalinar has a magnetism to him. And Dalinar has a reputation. And Dalinar lived up to the reputation, and Szeth was just looking for something-- The reputation was in some ways more important than the man. For instance, there's a chance in that same situation that Szeth would have followed Amaram. Right? Fortunately he made a better choice than that but-- Anyway.

    Questioner

    You're thinking about a similar feeling of the honor because obviously Dalinar is really honorable toward the end and then he's got the same, Szeth's got the same--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. Yes, but at the same time that gives a little bit too much credit to Szeth, to be perfectly honest.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5616 Copy

    Questioner

    Do you have any magic systems outside of your own books that you particularly like, or were inspired by?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ooh, good question! One of the ones when I was young that really inspired me was Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner. I love her magic system even still, and I would recommend that to you. But I like all kinds of magic systems, I don't like just the scientific ones. I like all different types. I think Guy Gavriel Kay does a great job with magic, even though they're often low-magic systems. David Farland's Runelords--he's a friend of mine, so I'm biased--but his is one of the best magic systems around. Pat Rothfuss does a very good mix of a hard magic system and a soft magic system in the same system. Which really lets him play off of the concepts of, you know, you've got this magic where it's like, "We discover the names of things, we don't even know what that means!" Versus, "Hey, we build mechanical, magepunk artifacts using the rules." And the play off of each other is very fun. N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms had a brilliant magic system that really walked the line between hard and softball. So, that's just a few of them.

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5617 Copy

    Questioner

    This might be nothing, but the costumes they are wearing in Kholinar, they are a lot like mistcloaks. Is that a coincidence?

    Brandon Sanderson

    More a coincidence. Those aren't mistcloaks. If I can ever get them drawn out you'll see the difference between them.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5618 Copy

    Questioner

    Is Obrodai going to be the setting of Dark One?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Excellent question. That is also a RAFO. Sorry, sorry! This is partially because Dark One pops in and out of the cosmere a lot, depending on which version I'm doing. It's been the hardest book. For those who don't know anything about, this is a book I talk about in my blog once in a while... It's like the Harry Potter story, except you get told "By the way, you're the Dark One who's gonna destroy the world, so we're gonna assassinate you while you're a teenager, so that never happens." It's a really cool story that I have never been able to get to work.

    Questioner

    *inaudible*

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, and Obrodai is one of the Shardworlds, but I keep popping Dark One in and out of the cosmere. Sometimes it feels too self-referential to the fantasy genre to actually be in the cosmere. Because I don't want the cosmere to be self-referential, right? Whenever something gets even a little too silly, I'm like, "Nah, this can't be in the cosmere anymore." So, we'll see what happens.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5619 Copy

    Questioner

    So, I was wondering, as a dyslexic, when you were designing Thaylen names, was that intentionally a massive practical joke on your part?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No. Though I will admit, when I was designing Thaylen names, I had a little bit of Welsh going on, and things like that. Now, one of my good friends, actually, the person this book is dedicated to, Alan Layton, is dyslexic. He was one of the people I brainstormed Stormlight with, but he listens to them all on audio. It's more a practical joke on the people who read the audiobooks, because I don't know how they read those names sometimes. But they also have to do Rock's name, right? Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor. I make them do stuff like that.

    Oathbringer Newcastle signing ()
    #5621 Copy

    Questioner

    Time-wise, where do the events of Bands of Mourning happen with respect to Words of Radiance?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...So, Bands of Mourning, all the Wax & Wayne books take place after Stormlight 5, but I'm not sure if it happens after or before Stormlight 6, It'll have to wait, because there's a time jump between Stormlight 5 and 6 that I haven't exactly defined in the timeline yet.

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5622 Copy

    Questioner

    Could an Elantrian just write an Aon above Nightblood and then use it forever?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Use it forever? No. 

    Questioner

    Forever is pushing it.

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, no, I mean, Nightblood would destroy an Aon pretty quickly. It would pull power through it--

    Questioner

    It would be like trying to put too much power through a small--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, it would just rip it up to shreds. You'd get a little use out of it. He would eat the very structure of it, if that makes any sense.

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5623 Copy

    Questioner

    Why did they get a better copy of all the artwork?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We're going to talk about this with my publisher on Monday... The endpages... Let's just point out that the American print run is 300,000 copies--

    Publicist?

    The UK print run is originally 16,000 copies.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. And so print run drives price down. The US we sold, across all formats, we sold about 250,000 copies opening week. And in the UK, across all formats, I think they sold nine... thousand. And so it's just a difference in population and economy of scale. I'm going to try to convince the publisher to do some special editions of Stormlight that have the endpages. But I can't blame them if it's just not cost-effective...

    The UK covers all matching is really a nice thing...

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5624 Copy

    Questioner

    In Words of Radiance I think it was Nazh who was collecting the artwork for Khriss, is that the same person who... did the writeup of the glyphs and--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Who annotates. So, Nazh annotates almost all the stuff. That's almost always Nazh. Khriss almost always writes the Ars Arcanums.

    Questioner

    So there's not a new person also?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If you think it's Nazh, it's Nazh.

    Questioner

    So, specifically the one that talks about the glyphs and [how] he infiltrated--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that is Nazh. 

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5626 Copy

    Questioner 1

    Do all Soulcasters risk turning into the element or is it only those using the device?

    Brandon Sanderson

    All Soulcasters have an affinity but the ones using the device are locked down much more than the Soulcasters who are Knights Radiant.

    Questioner 1

    So they are protected from being turned into--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh no they-- I wouldn't say protected... *clarificaiton* Protected is the wrong term but that event, the savanthood and how it affects them and things like that is much less pronounced if you are a [Knight].

    Questioner 1

    Or is that counteracted by the healing as well?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Healing doesn't have to do with it because-- in cosmere terms there's nothing wrong with your body, your spirit is actually drifting, and so it's not hurting you physically by what's happening with the magics. So it's not the healing but if you have an active bond with a spren it takes a little different path. Let's just say, in simple terms--

    Questioner 1

    You are not losing body parts to smoke.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, you are not using body parts to smoke. 

    Questioner 1

    What timeframe does it happen for the normal Soulcasters then?

    Brandon Sanderson

    For normal Soulcasters? It takes-- I mean, you've seen it happening in the books. We are talking [about] a process of years even decades, depending on the person. It happens to some--

    Questioner 2

    Depending on how often they Soulcast?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It depends on how often they Soulcast, and it depends on the person. 

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5628 Copy

    Questioner

    What's the character on [the UK Oathbringer cover]?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is Jasnah. I think. I am almost 100% sure.

    Questioner

    I wasn't sure. There's a bunch, there's a few different characters that could all fit, so I wasn't certain.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I sent the same description of the scene near the end with the wall to both artists and that's basically what they came up with.

    Oathbringer Leeds signing ()
    #5632 Copy

    Questioner

    What's the concept of the safehand?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. There's a writerly answer and an in-world answer. Which do you want to know?

    Questioner

    Let's do the writer answer.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Writer answer, so. I am fascinated by taboo. I am fascinated by the fact that in Asia you don't show your, the bottom of your foot to people. It's terribly offensive. I am fascinated that in some cultures some parts of the body are shown and others aren't. Things that we would consider vulgar, to other people are not, and vice versa. It just fascinates me as a writer and when I approached the books I was looking for a ways that I could give a feel for a human culture but not one that we have seen before and the safehand grew out of that.

    Oathbringer London signing ()
    #5640 Copy

    Questioner

    Now that jet lag is a thing in Roshar, what is the time difference between Shinovar and the Shattered Plains.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm gonna do what I call a PAFO, which is: my assistant Peter is the one who tracks all of that. I have offloaded that to him. I used to keep all that stuff in my brain, but I just don't have space. Ask Peter.

    Oathbringer London signing ()
    #5647 Copy

    Questioner

    When Kaladin runs out of Stormlight, is that something you've worked out, how much Stormlight should have, and how much each move takes?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, what I do is, I actually write the thing first, and then I tell my assistant, "Work out how much he needs," and then I give him that much. I work backward. Yeah, I do that a lot in books, but that's a little bit seeing how the sausage is made, there.