Recent entries

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2803 Copy

    DeJeR

    Did this [Joseon Dynasty's Way of Kings] influence you writing and the information for Way of Kings? If so, neat! What did you like about it that stuck in your brain?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Do, the Chinese character use here, did stick with me. It's not just used in Wangdo, as mentioned above, but Kumdo (the Way of the Sword) and in other similar applications. That did strike with me; I liked the flow of that on the page, and in my mind. Something like "The Way of the Sword" or "The way of the Kings" felt like it would make a great title. (And indeed, Sejong the great is one of the inspirations for Nohadon, author of The Way of Kings in the books. I did a big talk about Sejong on my book tour a few years ago.)

    I was reminded of this idea as a title in 2002 while reading "The Fall of the Kings" by Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner at a world fantasy convention. By then, I was working on Stormlight full time, and the title was just perfect--that's when I started inserting Nohadon into the history of the world.

    So yes, this is a direct inspiration. I probably wouldn't have been able to pull it off the top of my head now, almost twenty years after working on the initial outline, if someone hadn't posted this though--the memories didn't really spark until I saw the plate posted above. So I enjoyed seeing this posted.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2806 Copy

    italia06823834

    I'm really rather curious about your ideas on [Cosmere reading order]. I know you are a proponent of not needing a "reading order" but I mean specifically about the different reading order changing your perspective. Being more Cosmere-aware at some parts vs not having that awareness.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Don't have a lot of time to dig into this thread right now, I'm afraid. But in general, I like when people slowly discover the cosmere, as I think it adds more for people on subsequent reads. I like the idea that there are things you won't get the first time through, as sometimes (like when a new book in a series comes out) you may want to re-read to get up to speed. (I often did this with the WoT.) I like that if you've been reading further in the cosmere, it makes this re-read into a different experience.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2807 Copy

    matgopack

    Looks like he is going for that mirroring of titles after all! Very Vorin of him if he can get the last one of the 5 to fit.

    (If you take the initials of the books so far, you'd get (t)WoK WoR O RoW, so he's on track for KoW(t) to make the last one fit!)

    Brandon Sanderson

    I've spoken about it. It's something I wanted to do originally for the series, decided against--then decided to go in for again after I changed the second book's title and picked a one-word title for the third book.

    partwalk

    That's really cool! So assuming Rhythm of War is the Eshonai/Venli book, the fifth book will be the Szeth book which was tentatively titled Stones Unhallowed. You'll be changing that to something that initializes to KoW?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The title of the final book will change. I was already uncertain about Stones Unhallowed.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2808 Copy

    atrossin

    Are dark blue eyes considered dark eyes or light eyes? Are dark eyes just brown or are they any colour but shades different?

    Brandon Sanderson

    A darkeyed person can have many shades of dark eyes. (I believe we've mentioned some few in the books.) So someone with dark blue eyes is a darkeyes.

    YouTube Livestream 4 ()
    #2810 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Recently, I have been working on Stormlight, and video game time is much smaller than it was last year, because I just need to be sure that I am getting that book done by July 1st. The fifth draft needs to be done by July 1st. So, pretty tight scheduling, making this happen. Particularly if I want to have time to do the Wandersail novella that I would really like to do and have out before Book Four is, because there are certain things in Book Four that reference stuff in the Wandersail novella that isn't written yet.

    YouTube Livestream 2 ()
    #2811 Copy

    Sapoy

    Is there anyone in the cosmere capable of winning a fight against Lan Mandragoran without Investiture?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No. I would not say that there is. Lan is the best swordsman I have ever written. Adolin, of the people I have written about, would be the closest, but Lan would win.

    YouTube Livestream 2 ()
    #2812 Copy

    CH Braun

    Can you lock a Shardbearer in a suspended cage, so they can't break out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You would have to do one of several things. 1) Put them in a material that cannot be cut by their Shardblade. So that is going to come down to highly Invested materials, most of the time, or aluminum. So, put them in there. Or, you can... it depends on of they've got a living Blade or not. If they don't have a living Blade, you can theoretically (actually, it wouldn't be too hard) bind them in such a way that they just can't move the sword. If you can tie them against the wall, and you make the ceiling really high, so if they summon their Shardblade, what can they do? They can't get it around. You'd have to get it so the chain wouldn't be swipable up above, somehow. I can imagine that you could get them. I mean, classic ways to deal with Shardbearers is just to tie them up in a net and put them in a place where if they summon their Blade, it just is not leveragable to get them out. That would work.

    Those are your two best bets, other than taking the Blade away and unbonding it from them, which is not too hard to do, depending on the situation.

    YouTube Livestream 2 ()
    #2813 Copy

    Zin the Poet

    Will we ever see Sixth as a main character again?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have written the opening to a sequel to Sixth of the Dusk (which I will not call Seventh of the Dusk, though people like to joke about that). The problem is, Sixth of the Dusk takes place far enough forward in the future of the cosmere that writing stories about him is really tough without giving major spoilers to other cosmere series. In fact, I wrote this opening, and it has huge spoilers for other cosmere series. And so the question for myself is: do I try to write around the spoilers? Or do I release it with the spoilers? Or do I just wait until it's no longer spoilers to release it? I really like the story, the outline for it is sharp. I know where Sixth fits into all of this, even though he was a discovery-written character.

    So yes, most likely you will, but I can't say when exactly.

    YouTube Livestream 2 ()
    #2814 Copy

    Ethan

    Is Lift a translation of a Rosharan word for lift, or is "Lift" the actual sound people make when they say her name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is in translation. Most of the time you will be able to assume that a name like that is in translation. Wax and Wayne probably isn't, it's probably just their names. That one's the hard one to decide on, because I like the pun, but they don't have a moon on Scadrial so waxing and waning is not part of the conversation as much. But I always imagine that the languages on Scadrial kind of sound Earth-y, even though they have no relation to Earth whatsoever, because that's just how I built Scadrial, as kind of an Earth analogue. But most of the time, if you run into a name like Lift, it is in translation.

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2817 Copy

    Questioner

    Calamity from the Reckoners series–is there any connection between him and the delvers from Starsight?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. Very, very loose connection, but there is a connection. 

    Questioner

    Okay, because I was like, "They both come from the dark nowhere, quiet, they hate people and everything. There is a connection."

    Brandon Sanderson

    There is a connection. And Apocalypse Guard was kind of supposed to bridge between these things, but it didn't end up coming out, and it may not even be a bridge when we finally revise it because we have to make the book good, rather than worrying about that. But it was supposed to kind of do that. It's gonna work well if I can fix the ending. I've just gotta fix the ending.

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2818 Copy

    Questioner

    I loved Warbreaker so much. It was one of my favorites. The only problem I had was the end was a little abrupt, with Siri and Susebron. Do you know, will we have a novella, or understand more what happens after that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So when I write the sequel, I will make sure that I include some stuff. The sequel isn't about them. It's about Vivenna, but I will at least indicate what's going on with them. The whole ending was just a little bit abrupt on that one. It was more of a discovery-written book than my others. But yeah, that is one of its kind of drawbacks is that ending.

    Questioner

    Will we see them for like a little scene at all?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You might get a letter from them, is what I'm planning. It's possible I'll sneak into an interlude or something like that with them, but we'll have to see when I actually write it.

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2820 Copy

    Questioner

    Are we ever going to know what happened to Kaladin's flute that he lost in [Stormlight] book <two>?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, I just did a reading that mentions the flute.

    Questioner

    I know. I heard that and I was wondering, "Is that?..."

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah that is the flute.

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2821 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a specific Shard that most of the spren come from?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Most of the spren are going to be related to a combination of Honor and Cultivation, weighted certain directions for certain types of spren. But the spren are mostly both of them. 

    Questioner

    Are they considered Splinters?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, you could call spren Splinters if you wanted to. They work in the same way as a Splinter, so yeah.

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2822 Copy

    Questioner

    On the reading–just yes or no–is the flute that Lift has related to Hoid's flute?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. I wouldn't mention the flute without it being relevant.

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2825 Copy

    Questioner

    In the first book, when does Kaladin actually say the first ideal?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is not supposed to be sneaky. But I'd have to look at the book and point at it. There shouldn't be anything sneaky there.

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2826 Copy

    Questioner 1

    Does aluminum actually make the metals disappear, like, be metabolized? Or does it just cut the Spiritual connection?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So... I haven't actually canonized that... I've gone back and forth. For a while, I said it got rid of them. And there may even be... But the more I thought about that, the more it doesn't make much sense.

    Questioner 1

    It doesn't. Especially the way that duralumin works, it doesn't really make sense.

    Brandon Sanderson

    And so, I've been kind of pushing the other way. Since I haven't said it in-world, it's not truly canon, but I believe I've answered other fans saying that it burns them all away in a flash, and we might need it to do that, for future things. So, I'm undecided.

    Questioner 2

    It needs to get rid of them, but a path to sever the connection at the same time.

    Brandon Sanderson

    One of the big problems is, if it only severs the connection and leaves the metals, than you have heavy metal poisoning from some of the metals.

    Questioner 1

    But if it makes them burn away, that doesn't work the same way as duralumin. Duralumin only burns the ones you're burning.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. I kinda have to err back on the side of "it gets rid of them," just we don't have to deal with metal poisoning, but I've kind of been wavering a little bit, thinking, "Is there a better way to explain this."

    LTUE 2020 ()
    #2828 Copy

    Questioner

    Did whoever wrote the The Way of Kings, have access or exposure to BioChromatic Breath? There was a scene in Chapter 26, it could just be speaking of candles and breath. But the way you wrote it made me think that there was some connection.

    Brandon Sanderson

    There has been longstanding travel between those two planets.

    YouTube Livestream 2 ()
    #2834 Copy

    Coachdorax

    Did you write Amaram as an opposite of Dalinar or was he simply a bad guy meant to spur Kaladin?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I meant Amaram to be the representation of the corrupt side of the Alethi. Meaning they are all talk and very little heart. Very little of what they say, to the worst of the Alethi, gets to who they really are. They would rather be known as someone honorable than be actually honorable. And this I consider a major problem with their society, and I needed somebody to represent this. Part of it is, to represent a contrast to Kaladin’s ideals. This belief that lighteyes were these paragons of virtue. But I also needed somebody, you may say an opposite to Dalinar. In a way, he is an opposite to Dalinar, but more he just represents Alethi society. And I did want it to be that he wasn’t just all the way corrupt. When he makes his decision in Book One in the flashbacks, he is making a decision. There is a moment where he is considering. By the time you are seeing him in later books, that decision has taken him down a path that leaves him very far from any sort of redemption. But it was a choice. And he wasn’t just corrupt from the get go. But yeah, he represents what I feel would be bad about Alethi society. A kind of honor society that is more about looking honorable than being.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2835 Copy

    _Hoid_

    Sidenote, but I believe BDSM would have been quite big on this planet [Sel], as control and trust are both so central to that community/ fetish. Not that Brandon would necessarily want to get into that stuff. Any quick thoughts, /u/mistborn?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ha, you know, I'd never made that connection? It would be completely in line with the worldbuilding, so I think you have a very valid line of reasoning here.

    YouTube Livestream 3 ()
    #2837 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    If you guys don't know who Nazh is, Nazh is the person who annotates all the maps and pieces of art in the Stormlight books. The affectation is that the Ars Arcanum for the books and a lot of the illustrations are things that have been collected or put together by Khriss and [Nazh]. You describe Nazh as "grumpy James Bond," who is sent into the world to grab artifacts for Khriss when she's putting together kind of her guide to a world in the cosmere.

    Isaac Stewart

    I've discovered a lot more about Nazh in the last year, just because we're getting closer to including him in more things. Right now, his personality is "grumpy James Bond" because he goes on missions, he's kind of a grump... but he kinda likes that sort of thing - he likes going off on his own, figuring out ways to do things. He has a specific skill set that works really well for this sort of thing.

    Brandon Sanderson

    But things kinda go poorly for him most of the time.

    Isaac Stewart

    Yeah. I wouldn't say he's a Mr. Bean type character, but if you imagine the situations that he gets into, they're those sorts of things - but usually not funny, though he may tell them in a grumpy, funny way later on.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Basically, as Hoid is to me, Nazh is to Isaac. This is very fun because he can write all these annotations on the artwork, and you'll see Nazh popping up in the books now and then, just as cameo references to this guy. The affectation is the text of the book like The Way of Kings is not something that they have in-world, but all of the art in the Ars Arcanum they do, and those are produced by Khriss and Nazh.

    YouTube Livestream 3 ()
    #2839 Copy

    Star Share Gaming

    Would you ever consider writing a cyberpunk Era 4 for Mistborn? Or are you gonna be doing just the four Eras?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would consider, and I've talked about before liking that idea. Once I did the Wax and Wayne novels, it became a natural thing to ask if there is a step between the 1980s and the science fiction era. And a cyberpunk-type era would make a lot of sense. The caveat to that is I have a lot on my plate in finishing the Cosmere already, and so I can't make any promises. But it does seem like it would be a natural fit to do.

    Original Mistborn series was each between 200,000 and 250,000 words. For a frame of reference, Way of Kings books tend to be between 400,000 and 450,000. And the Wax and Wayne books tend to be between 100,000 and 110,000. So, having another 100,000 to 110,000 word, faster-paced shorter series (shorter in total word count) would make a lot of sense. Because Era 3, the 1980s era, is going to go back to the 250,000 to 250,000 word sized books.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2842 Copy

    simon_thekillerewok

    If you ever get around to writing The Silence Divine, do you think it should be included as a "From The Stormlight Archive" novella as those other three? I know you mentioned it would be set around the same time as book 8.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It probably wouldn't be a Stormlight Archive book, since though the planet is in the system and the same Shards influence it, it doesn't include Stormlight or Radiants or anything.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2843 Copy

    Secondskrull

    Who are the main 'focus' characters for book 4? Venli and Eshonai have flashbacks but what about everyone else?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would say Venli, though the truth is that though she's got a lot of viewpoints, it's really more of an ensemble than the other books. I don't want to say too much, as its spoilers. Expect a decent amount of Venli, but an equal amount of several other characters.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2844 Copy

    morganlandt

    Wandersail too?!? Can't wait!!

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's the Rysn novella. Though I might not call it Wandersail, as even though that's the name of her ship, it might imply too much about the story which has only passing resemblance to Wit's tale.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2845 Copy

    AbrahamSTINKIN

    Has he hinted at how long of a time gap it's going to be [between the two Stormlight arcs]? Are there going to be the same characters in each sequence?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Time gap is around ten years, and the back five will largely include the same characters, but the focus will be more on the Heralds.

    CenturionRower

    Is this a minor spoiler? I was under the impression Moash was going to attempt and kill them all. Or if only the king of the Heralds needed to die. Its possible I misunderstood that part.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Dead people can still be main focuses of books in Stormlight because of the way I do the flashbacks.

    This isn't a promise that they do die, or that they live. Only a note that me announcing someone gets a flashback book isn't an indication they live to that book. Only that they have some interesting events in their past that I intend to delve into.

    General Reddit 2020 ()
    #2846 Copy

    jmcgit

    I wonder if Rock's story made it into an interlude (or primary narrative) [in Stormlight Four], or if it still needs to be written?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would still need to be written. There wasn't room for it in book four, and it wouldn't really fit thematically anyway. If I don't manage to do it as a novella between four and five, I think I can make it fit in five thematically, so we'll put it there.

    Aradanftw

    I love Rysn's interludes in every book; especially her adventure with Chiri-Chiri in Oathbringer. That being said if you end up doing a novella for her does that mean she'd be out of the interludes in future books? Also if you don't mind answering, does she have an interlude in Book 4?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I haven't written it yet, but I do plan for her to have one. I can't really do it until I've written the novella, if indeed I find the time for that.

    YouTube Livestream 2 ()
    #2848 Copy

    Pagerunner

    Let's use a time machine and change the past. Let's say you aren't asked to finish the Wheel of Time, and instead fix Liar of Partinel. How do you think the Cosmere fan experience would have been different if mysteries like Hoid and the Shattering had been explored earlier?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Boy, this is an excellent question, and it's hypothetical enough that I can ignore my cheeky answer to time machine questions, [which] is always, "Don't go back in the past. I've seen that story too much."

    In this case... Liar of Partinel. Liar of Partinel did not work. I had already abandoned it and started working on The Rithmatist. So, if I had not been asked to finish The Wheel of Time, most likely I would have thrown myself into The Rithmatist more. And then, the question becomes, would have I decided to do Way of Kings? Or would I have gone and taken another stab at Liar of Partinel? And for your hypothesis, I will say that I did that. I don't think I actually would have. I think that I was disappointed enough in Liar of Partinel and realizing that this wasn't the right time, that I would have gone a different direction.

    But, for the hypothetical, let's say I did. What would it have changed? Certainly, I don't know that I would have gotten all the way through the Hoid series before starting Way of Kings. More likely, I would have done Liar of Partinel as a standalone, then done something else, and eventually released Book Two of that. Because, remember, back then, I had envisioned this as a seven-book series. I was looking for a big epic to do, and I thought, "Let's do the Dragonsteel series. And I'll do several books about Hoid. And then I'll do the full story of Bridge Four," which was then on Yolen, not on Roshar. So, you would have gotten that story on Yolen instead, and then, who knows where that would have gone. When I release Dragonsteel itself (which won't be too much longer), you guys will be able to read the earliest version of Bridge Four, back before Kaladin was involved, and it was on Yolen. So, I think, at that point, we would have learned more about Hoid, but we probably wouldn't have pushed all the way to the Shattering, I don't think.

    But, hypothetically, let's say I do. I don't know how much of a change that makes, honestly, over Stormlight. Knowing the personalities of the three Shards involved and a little bit more on Hoid certainly would change your perspective on them, but Stormlight, assuming... I mean, it's so hard to go into these hypotheticals, because if I write Dragonsteel with Bridge Four, then Bridge Four isn't in Stormlight. It's very hard to imagine where Stormlight goes. It's possible that I make it completely Taln's story, and Stormlight becomes a five-book series, which focuses on what's going to be the back five. That would be my best guess of where that would go. So, instead of ten books, you get five books, and we focus on Taln as a main character. And Kaladin just vanishes. We don't have Kaladin as a character. He's replaced by whoever takes the lead in Dragonsteel. But, of course, the flip-flopping, what actually happened is, Dragonsteel shrunk to three books that focus on Hoid, 'cause I realized I was doing in Stormlight all the things that I intended to do in Dragonsteel, and they were working better in Stormlight, and I no longer needed that Bridge Four sequence in Dragonsteel because it worked so well in Stormlight.

    So, it is hard to say what exactly would go on. You would know the personalities of the Shards, how about that? You would definitely know who they are. You would know a lot more about Hoid.

    General Twitter 2012 ()
    #2850 Copy

    Jennifer Graham

    I was re-reading Alloy of Law and wondering...was naming them Wax and Wayne by accident, or is there a higher purpose?

    Peter Ahlstrom

    It was an accident, and Brandon almost changed their names when he realized it, but they were too solid in his head by then.