Recent entries

wiresegal

Could someone burn an Allomantically inert metal that was Invested, like Invested silver or Invested lead?

Brandon Sanderson

...I'm gonna give you a no on this one. I rarely give straight up "no"s, but you've got to remember that the Allomantic metal is the key, and the power behind it is gonna be inaccessible without the key. Now, there are more things that are Allomantically viable than have been discovered or talked about. But that's the problem right there. If it's not the right metal, if it doesn't provide the right-- I'll just stop at key. If it isn't the right key. We'll get more into this as the cosmere progresses. That's a very rare no for me. Usually you're gonna get a "well, it depends."

Ravi

Your Shardworlds have a lot of societies of varying social development. So, apropos of this charity, what would be the penalties of hitting your wife in various worlds: Roshar, Scadrial, Nalthis?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, wow. The problem with this question is that no world is a monoculture. There are going to be a lot of different cultures on a lot of different planets, and a lot of different social mores, and a lot of different laws. I'm not sure that that's a question I really want to delve deeply into. 

CrazyRioter

Have you ever considered writing more female friendships?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, you know, that's something that I noticed, right? That's another one of these things we do a bad job of in fiction. Particularly female friendships. Like, you see the bromances happening a lot, particularly in fantasy, but we tend to see-- particularly written by men-- a lot of the "one woman among a large cast of men", and this sort of thing. And certainly that's not to say that there aren't women who have a lot of friends who are male. But it is certainly something I think we get wrong a lot in fantasy. And it's one of those kind of things you don't notice. But I have noticed it about my fiction, that I'm really good at guy friendships, and I have kind of ignored female friendships. I actually took a stab at doing a better job of this in Skyward. So you can tell me if I've done a better job of it or not with this book.

Brandon Sanderson

I had a lot of fun writing Spensa. She's a character I've been working on for many, many years. This very imaginative and passionate woman who wants to be a fighter pilot. And it was actually very tough to get right, it took me years to get right. And that first chapter is my fourth version of the first chapter. I should be-- I'll probably post the other versions on my website once the book's out. But it is one of the hardest books to start that I've ever written. Just getting that tone down and getting it right and making her feel right was very, very difficult.

TheMadLiteralist

Deep lore question: Why is the storm that goes backwards called the Everstorm and not the Reversestorm?

Brandon Sanderson

Heh heh heh. That is actually a RAFO, which stands for Read And Find Out. I can explain the terminology a lot better after upcoming books are out.

Anushia Kandasivam

Okay, cool, so you just have to wait.

Brandon Sanderson

You do have to wait on that one.

Reilly Russell

Are kandra/mistwraiths naturally immortal? If so, is it magically sustained, or natural, like the immortal jellyfish? If not, what is the natural lifespan of a kandra/mistwraith?

Brandon Sanderson

No, they are not immortal, but they are very, very long lived. If you look at the First Generation, you'll see an example of aging happening. They will eventually die of old age. They don't suffer from some of the ailments that, say, humans do, and it takes a bit longer, and there is some magical sustaining of them going on.

R'Shara

Brandon, you said we'd know by the end of Oathbringer what Gavilar's black spheres were, but we still don't know what they are. What are they?

Brandon Sanderson

People have guessed very correctly about this, so I think I am justified in saying that. Voidlight will become an increasingly important part of the story as things progress. I think there are two main theories on what Gavilar's spheres are, and I think they are both very valid theories supported by the books... I'm not pulling something very sneaky. It is along the lines that you are theorizing.

Oversleep (as Droga Królów)

Do the Heralds need to consume Investiture in order to stay in their body?

Brandon Sanderson

No. Good question. Excellent question. They're asking if they're like Returned and they need to consume a Breath each week.

Anushia Kandasivam

We've got three questions in one. Lots of people are asking, will you be visiting Brazil, or Southeast Asia, or Hungary, or anywhere in the EU in the near future?

Brandon Sanderson

Okay. Alright, so the upcoming trips that I have agreed to-- I agreed to Brazil, but we are deciding when the best time for me to visit. They are translating into Portuguese Way of Kings, right now and I think it will be-- I will go out to help when that comes out. I was going to do it this Christmas, but the publisher was like we need to wait till at least until Way of Kings is out. So it's going to get delayed a little bit, but I have said yes, just recently, to Argentina and Columbia, which have book fairs very close to one another in the spring of 2019, that should be my next international trip, is to Columbia and to the Buenos Aires book fair. I don't have the exact dates, but I think they're around April.

Oh, there's my wife, Emily, she has come.

Emily Sanderson

Hi!

Brandon Sanderson

She is the one who organizes all of these things and tells me when I'm going where. So, I think we said yes to Argentina and Columbia but we aren't 100% confirmed, correct?

Emily Sanderson

Correct.

Brandon Sanderson

We said yes to Israel's ICon Science Fiction Convention, which is probably next year but also not confirmed. There is a good chance I will be living in France for a month next summer, cause my dad is going out to visit and I'll come visit him. And I should be able to hop around and visit some of you in Poland, and in Spain, and in France, and, you know, the UK, which I make fairly regularly. 

2020, we have started exploring Scandinavia because I have a lot of invites from Sweden and from that region. So, theoretically I'll get back to Oslo, during that trip and that thing. So that's what I know for certain, internationally, that is at least on the table, that we're working on...

There's an okay chance I'll be at Worldcon next year in Ireland. Not guaranteed, it's gonna depend on when I'm in France and things like that, but yeah.

Anushia Kandasivam

Now, you have been so very incredibly supportive of our Read for Pixels campaign and of our anti-violence-against-women work as a whole. Could you tell us, why do you support the cause to end violence against women and what do you think authors can do to help with the cultural change needed to eradicate violence against women and girls?

Brandon Sanderson

I think that one of the main things we can do is something that I mentioned a little earlier. This is specifically to the other writers out there. Using violence against women, specifically because they are women, as a main plot point in your stories, is not just kind of creating bad stereotypes, it is often times lazy writing. We do it because it is the easiest answer, and because a lot of media takes it as the easy answer, because it elicits immediate visceral responses in an audience. Kind of in the same way that potato chips are bad for you, I think some of these things are bad for us as a society. They are unhealthy, but they are easy.

It is easy to beat up someone's mother, so that the male protagonist has a motivation to go about their life and their story. And this isn't to say we shouldn't ever have people in crisis and characters saving other characters. But what we need to do is we need to look at and say, "Am I taking the easy route? Am I doing this because I've been shown a lot of media, where the way to make a male character motivated is to kill his girlfriend and to give him a revenge plot? Am I doing this just because I've been told this is the way that media is? Or am I doing this because this is actually the story I want to tell?" I don't think any of us are saying that stories should not include women who are in violent situations.

We shouldn't stop writing female characters who get into violent conflicts who are not action stars and things like that. I think what we're all saying is, we should stop the lazy storytelling and we should stop using stories where violence against women because they are women is the way that we further our plots. And so I think as writers, we need to make better stories. We need to not reach for the easy answer, we-- your stories will have more depth, they will be more interesting and they will last longer if you will reach a little further and you will find motivations for your characters that are different. And, I do not uphold myself as the ultimate paragon in this regard. I have a lot of characters who part of their motivations is based off of loss that they have experienced in the past. And you're going to write characters like this too, and it's okay, but examine it, and ask yourself. And, you know, remember that even if you're not writing for your story to be a-- something that is upheld, as the way people should be, you are contributing to the climate of storytelling that people who read those stories will assume is the way that stories are to be told.

Why do I support this cause? Because I am-- I feel very passionately that this is something that we need to step up on, as a community, as entertainers. And that we should stop using sensationalized violence against people, not just women, but children and people who are in weakened social-economic situations as sensationalized ways to make our main characters look awesome. So that's my answer on that, and we can also, like I've said a lot in this particular broadcast, we can listen a little bit better. And I think it'll make us better writers. 

MiToRo94

Honor has Stormlight and Odium has Voidlight, is there a Cultivationlight? If so, can an Invested person use it as a third magic on Roshar or is a boon/curse the only magic of Cultivation/Nightwatcher?

Brandon Sanderson

There is more! I'll just say that, the rest is Read And Find Out. You are theorizing in an accurate direction.

Phantine

[Question unknown]

Brandon Sanderson

So, don't consider [harmonium] magically-enhanced cesium. Consider it a magically-created alkali metal. It's going to share attributes with the alkali metals, and generally follows the trends of the others, save for its melting point.

But in answer to your real question, atium would be a platinum group metal. (And platinum itself was my model.)

Questioner

Who are the back five characters...

Brandon Sanderson

Jasnah, Renarin, Lift, Taln, and Ash. Yeah, being able to flashback to Herald times is something I've been really looking forward to. There should be some new flashbacks *inaudible*.

Brandon Sanderson

That's actually a really good point because often times you can also get away with things in fiction by making main characters who don't know what they are doing. Obviously, I couldn't do this when my character was a trauma surgeon. But, for instance, I'm pretty bad with horses. If you haven't read my books, I've ridden horses a couple of times, enough to know that people who really like horses really like you to get your horse stuff right.

And so, when I was approaching this series, I'm like, my character is the proverbial cabbagehead when it come to horses. He gets things wrong; he doesn't know what he's doing, and a lot of times if you do that, you not only give yourself a reason for your early readers, your beta readers, who know something about it to point out, "Oh here, here is a great way, here's what I see someone who doesn't know about horses do wrong." It's really fun, put it in the book; but it also gives you a sort of plausible deniability, where you're like, "Yes, that was from Kaladin's viewpoint, he has no idea about horses, he's describing it wrong. He's scared of the things."

Mike W

how can you still be RAFO'ing stuff? What is left to read?

Brandon Sanderson

To RJ, RAFO sometimes meant "Read, think about it, and decide." It didn't always mean "I'll give an answer."

Peter Ahlstrom

Navani is 3 months older than Dalinar. Shallan is 17 at the end of the first book. Kaladin is actually 20 by the end of the the first book, but he forgot his birthday. A Roshar year is 1.1 Earth years.

Brandon Sanderson

Say I'm excited about this, but I'm going to stake a claim on the panel's official cabbagehead position. Every time I'm on a panel or doing a podcast it is good to have a cabbagehead. Which is, I'm the writer, right? My job is, I've found, to know enough about these things to be dangerous, so if there are writers out there and you're feeling a little overwhelmed by this, here's how I approach it. I, when I was first writing epic fantasy I found out a few of these things, and I'm like, "Oh no, this kind of destroy the types of stories I want to tell."

But the more I learned the more I realized, no, it can shape the types of stories I want to tell it doesn't have to destroy them at all. What I did was I used this kind of rule, that is it takes actually a fairly brief amount of time to become dangerously knowledgeable in a subject. Like say, if you can get yourself 20 or 30 percent of the way there, you know enough to know what you don't know. My goal is to always get myself there with research, usually on pop-history books or pop-medicine books or things like this. Write my stories, and then to find an expert, which I've used extensively, particularly in the Stormlight books, where one of my characters is a field surgeon, that's his training, and go and say "What am I doing wrong?"

Usually, the response I get from the medical professionals is "Wow, this isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, you're still wrong about a ton of things. But you don't have to rip apart your story, the fundamentals are there, you know that a gut wounds is really dangerous and often takes a long time to kill. You know about these things and you are trying to deal with them and approach them. I can give you some tips to make it more authentic." That balance has just worked wonderfully well for me. 

Questioner

You mentioned that Adolin was supposed to be killed in the... *inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, he was supposed to, I mean the original outline had, not the original... The outline for the 2002 version, he died in. He never died in the outline for the 2010 version. By then, I had reworked *inaudible*. But he did-- I'll eventually release The Way of Kings Prime, and you'll be able to see. Both Adolin and Elhokar died in that one. Yeah, the confrontation between Dalinar and Elhokar *inaudible*, Dalinar has to kill him to better the country. It's a really <unlikely thing> for Dalinar. I went a different direction in the published version. Those are two of the big things. Navani's not in the books at all. There are a whole bunch of things that I changed... Yeah, Dalinar killed Elhokar *inaudible*.

SparkleHearts

How did... Adolin die, then?

Brandon Sanderson

Adolin died in a highstorm, I'm pretty sure. He got caught in the wrong time. Like, Adolin was not as big a character. Renarin was always the big character. So, things went wrong, and Renarin's brother got... so.

Brandon Sanderson

The other thing that I might end up doing is, Dan and I are working on noodling on The Apocalypse Guard its possible that would be after Skyward, next YA thing. Because I've already written one book and the Dan can write the second book and then I write the third book. So taking a little pressure off, something like that. Dan has really good ideas on how to fix that book.

SparkleHearts

So is it gonna be kind of like a shared universe thing?

Brandon Sanderson

No, we would just co-author it, Brandon and Dan. What would happen is I've already him-- Like, the the first book. The idea is that he'll rip out the bad chunks and write newer things to go in there, and then he will write a second book, and then I write a third and together we have a trilogy. Which could work really well because Dan's strengths as an author really align well with my weaknesses, and my strengths align really well with his weaknesses.

Questioner

Will there be a Hero of Ages leatherbound edition?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it will be this Christmas. Isaac just turned in the Hemalurgic Table artwork. So we shipped it to the publisher last week, so we should have them in time for Christmas. And the Hemalurgic Table, he knocked that one out of the park. We've been waiting a long time to get that one.

Questioner

You were in Toronto, and you read something you'd written on a plane about a really young girl, and a coffee machine...

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, young girl with a coffee machine, yes, that was the Apocalypse Guard. The opening of it turned out really well, then I lost control of it, spiraled out of control. I haven't figured out how to fix it yet, but I actually pulled it from the publisher. And I will eventually release it, but I gotta fix it first. It was mostly worldbuilding issues. It just didn't come together at the end; too implausible, too many things to keep track of, too many infodumps.

Questioner

What are your favorite series?

Brandon Sanderson

For me it's Terry Pratchett. Discworld. I’m a very big fan. But, of course, there is also the Wheel of Time that I had a little... *crowd laughter*

Questioner

Is Skyward in the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

No, Skyward is not in the Cosmere. It started out there, and I pulled it out for continuity reasons. It is related to something else I’ve written in the past, though.

Wetlander

Please explain what you will about Shards and Splintering and Slivers.

Brandon Sanderson

An event happened long ago which destroyed something called Adonalsium into 16 pieces. And 16 people took up that power.

Questioner

People?

Brandon Sanderson

I call all intelligent species people. If someone takes up the power and lets go of it, it has the effect much like a balloon that's been stretched and then the air is let out. I call that a Sliver; based off of the Lord Ruler calling himself the "Sliver of Infinity". The Lord Ruler is someone who held the power and then released it. And so, current Slivers are the Lord Ruler, Kelsier, and there may be others around who at one point held the power and let go of it. A Splinter is a term used by certain people in the cosmere for power of Adonalsium which has no person caring for it, no... no person holding it, which has attained self-awareness.

Wetlander

So is that like the mists and the Well? Are they...

Brandon Sanderson

They are not, because they have not attained self-awareness. But, the Seons are self-aware. So, any piece, for instance there were some spren on Roshar before Honor and Cultivation got there. Those were already Splinters of Adonalsium where he had left power which attained sentience on its own. So, it can be intentional is what I am saying, does that make sense? You have seen other Splinters.

Wetlander

Are the highstorms related to the Splintering of Honor?

Brandon Sanderson

The highstorms are more related to the mist from Mistborn which terminology we have not discussed yet. You have seen Splinters quite a bit on various planets.

Questioner

Is the Palanaeum named for Palah?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. In fact, it was named based on—it was Greek in our world—the Athenaeum? It was based off of that.

Wetlander

Did we see Palah?

Brandon Sanderson

I believe every one of the Heralds is mentioned or shown somewhere in the first book.

Wetlander

Someone was wondering whether the old woman who was wandering around the Palanaeum was her.

Brandon Sanderson

That is a very good guess. I won't say specifically, because some of them are intended to be more obvious and some of them are intended to be red herrings. So, that was a very good guess.

Wetlander

Was Odium able to Splinter Honor because the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact?

Brandon Sanderson

Good question. Um, their abandonment of the Oathpact is related... but mostly tangentially. If I was pinned down on that, I would say no.

Wetlander

Is there any of the Oathpact still functioning because of Taln's continued participation?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, indeed.

Wetlander

Did the Splintering happen before the Recreance?

Brandon Sanderson

I will reveal this as we go. However, be aware that in the past, when a Shard was killed, the person holding it, it is a slow burn to actually kill someone; because power cannot be destroyed. So, what it means to be killed means something a little different in these cases.

Hoser

Did Tanavast survive Honor's splintering?

Brandon Sanderson

Tanavast is dead. Good question. However, that is as of the start of The Way of Kings.

Hoser

So he could have survived the Splintering...

Brandon Sanderson

He could have survived the Splintering.

Hoser

...as a mortal...

Brandon Sanderson

Well, he could have survived for a time, but then he could not have then...

Hoser

...passed away in his sleep...

Brandon Sanderson

Right.

Hoser

(Speaking of the division surge) Is that a re-framing of, at one point in time you were talking about weak/strong forces?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, weak/strong forces, yes, that's the one that sent me there partially. Like, I'm not actually... the idea of the fundamental forces is a cool thing to me so it's not like I'm actually trying to use the weak and strong forces, the idea of there being fundamental forces. I wanted to go off on it in a fancy way. Like this one right here I told them was surface tension. But it's not really surface tension. It's more like um, the people with this could take a piece of cloth and snap it out and it would become hard as if the cloth became steel. I'm trying to explain this scientifically, but it doesn't work scientifically. Imagine as if they could restructure the atoms so that they became a latticework like a crystal rather than being soft like...cloth. I'm calling it surface tension, but it's not really surface tension.

Hoser

Tensile strength?

Brandon Sanderson

It's kind of like tensile strength. I have to go through Peter and say "Alright Peter, come up with what we should really call this." He does the hard science a lot better than I do. I do the armchair theories and then he goes, "Ok, now this is the math if someone were to actually fall off of this and 0.7 gravity and the weight of the bridge...". (looking back at the chart) So what can I give you that I didn't give her? Um, one of the orders is called Bondsmiths.

Hoser

Can you tell me something about the larkin and their abilities?

Brandon Sanderson

You will see something about them in the second book. Their abilities are tied to stormlight.

Questioner

What was the inspiration for the necromancer pizza delivery story?

Brandon Sanderson

Death by Pizza. I came up with laws of necromancy that I thought would be super cool and I tried to find a book that would fit it. And, that book was fun, but bad. The rules were that necromancy is someone that has been killed and returned to life and each time they return they are more powerful. So a guy who has died five times and got more powerful throughout the course of a novel is a cool archetype that I thought would be a fun thing. So, it's like at the end of the novel, "I need more power, so do I die and get it? Or, not" and things like this. It was a cool concept and even with a mash-up with an urban fantasy world, the world was not built enough so that in the end it was like he was running around an empty city not one populated with as much mythology and wonder and storybook as I wanted an so I eventually said it isn't working and maybe I’ll pick it up again another time.

Questioner

Is he [Hoid] a Worldsinger?

Brandon Sanderson

He has a relationship with the Worldsingers.

Questioner

Is Hoid any of the Shards of Adonalsium?

Brandon Sanderson

Good question. He does not hold a Shard.

Questioner

Was the book Wax reading written by the guy who gave it to him?

Brandon Sanderson

No, it was not.

Questioner

Spook? Sounds like Spook's voice

Brandon Sanderson

It certainly doesn't sound like Marsh.

Questioner

Will The Alloy of Law be a trilogy of its own or is it just going to be the one book you read from tonight?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, the 1st one was The Alloy of Law, the one I read from tonight is the sequel, so there's at least two. I signed a contract with, well, I haven'’t signed anything yet. I offered Tor two more beyond The Alloy of Law; so, Shadows of Self and one more. So, I have promised Tor three of them.

Questioner

So, there could be more?

Brandon Sanderson

I have not plotted this one. It does not have the same sort of interconnected arc as the others. It could go further. I think I would cautiously most likely do three or four and stop and if I wanted more short books like that, I'd pick different characters in a different location.

Questioner

Do you plan on having, like, a final book for the cosmere? Like, the Shards are gone; Hoid is the king of the universe?

Brandon Sanderson

There will be an ending to the cosmere sequence that will involve a lot of these things going on.

Questioner

Do you have in your mind all, like, 150 different metallic effects?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but I haven't named them yet. I approached that and thought, "This is just mind-numbing". So, yes; one of the things I'd like to be doing and you may see more of this... each combination has a slightly different effect than what you'd anticipate.

Questioner

If you have a series of Inquisitors, like a family of Inquisitors having children for generations over...

Brandon Sanderson

Would the Hemalurgy influence the sDNA of the children? Is that what you are asking? That is a hypothesis that has merit in the way the magic system works (grin). It is not a supposition to be discarded out of hand.

Questioner

So there are two other planets in the Roshar system, are they the Tranquiline Halls and Damnation that you mentioned in The Way of Kings?

Brandon Sanderson

There has been in the past knowledge of other planets in the system and that has indeed influenced the mythology of the world.

Questioner

The change in how the magic (on Scadrial) interact with each other, was that done by Sazed?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes it was. You will find a theme. The snapping in Mistborn is actually a repeated theme through a lot of the different magics. Um, but what I felt at the end of the day Sazed would do something about it. So, even though that is part of the magic system, he changed that. The change to Feruchemy is more a matter of other factors such as the large amount of interbreeding that happened following...and things like that. And so a lot of people with Feruchemy sDNA mixing with people with people with Allomantic sDNA has affected the way the magics blend, so to speak. That's not done by Sazed. That's just kind of an effect.

Questioner

(Written in someone's book with an arrow pointing at the Shattered Plains)

Brandon Sanderson

Great magic unleashed here.

Questioner

Are there going to be other characters other than Hoid that will be crossing over between books?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, in fact there are characters in the way of kings... I told people that there is a Terriswoman in Warbreaker somewhere, I believe that would be somewhat hard to spot. That one, I don't think you will be able to pick out until you see her later on and then go back and say 'wait a minute'.

Shardlet

(During discussion on the Surges) It's properly transportation rather than travel?

Brandon Sanderson

Yyyes, that’s the general thing. This is the one that involves Shadesmar.

Questioner

(During discussion on the Surgebinding chart, found in the front endpages of The Way of Kings hardcovers)

Brandon Sanderson

I'm pretty sure the Herald faces all match up to their respective orders.

Questioner

Is Hoid in Shadows for Silence?

Brandon Sanderson

He is not. I intentionally didn't put him in... I wanted to indicate that he goes where there is an important reason for him to be there rather than just being a cameo in every story.

Questioner

Is Szeth's sword noticeably smaller than other Shardblades?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

What was your... like, with The Rithmatist, cause that's my favorite story, I love the plot. What inspired it?

Brandon Sanderson

Muggle at Hogwarts. Kid who goes to magic school who does not have any powers.

Questioner

Do you use Scrivener?

Brandon Sanderson

I do not use Scrivener. I know some people who swear by it. I just have never tried. I probably would like it if I try it.

Questioner

It's good.

Questioner

If you could do that, [write Kaladin's fourth Oath], I would very much appreciate it.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah I know, the whole internet would very much appreciate it. You're gonna get a RAFO. Or do you want me to write one of the other ideals instead? I gotta keep a few things close to my heart. Now, that can also be a RAFO that, when the appropriate book is out, and you know what it is, you could come and have me revise the book to put it in.

Questioner

What book are you currently working on?

Brandon Sanderson

The sequel to Skyward. Skyward is my Fall release this year. It is a YA fighter pilot book. Space opera. It's a lot of fun.

Thousandarms97

I know Allomancy is, like, "alloy" and "mancy." Were you inspired by "alomancy", which is the divination of salt?

Brandon Sanderson

I wanted to use "mancy" because in part I was working in a seeing-the-future with atium. And I thought: number one, it's resonant; and number two, it works because we are looking at the future. So that's where the name came from.

Thousandarms97

No future salt-based magic system, though?

Brandon Sanderson

No. I've toyed with it for a while, but I just have never come up with anything that I'm satisfied with.