Recent entries

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4102 Copy

    Questioner

    I wanted to ask have you ever considered making any of your books into an animated series?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would! If the right people approached me, I would certainly not turn that away. I think there are more people wanting to get series made than there are people making good ones, but I would jump on it if the right people came along.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4104 Copy

    Questioner

    How close is the enslavement of the parshmen to the Recreance, timeline-wise? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um, fairly close, as timeline issues go, but still many decades.

    Questioner

    Did it play any kind of factor in the decision?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Absolutely. But we're not talking about it happening next year. But it was a factor, how about that?

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4105 Copy

    Questioner

    Do you have a favorite Smedry Talent?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. I took a lot of these from things my mom does. Which are things that maybe I do also, like being late to everything, and being bad at dancing. Probably mine is being bad at dancing. But probably my true talent is the ability to use a lot of words to say nothing. *laughter*

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4106 Copy

    Questioner 1

    Are we gonna see more of the girl from The Emperor's Soul? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will probably see at least a cameo from Shai. But I do have a second story outlined now, but I don't know when I have time or would have time to write it, so we will see if I can make that happen or not.

    Questioner 2

    Will we have a full-fledged story on the other part of Elantris, that Shai is on?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think it's likely, but I can't promise it. But it's equally likely right now that we will-- I will outline a new graphic novel series, as to I will just do a story, but I can't one hundred percent promise.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4109 Copy

    Questioner

    I know FOX bought the rights to Steelheart. Do you know if there is anything coming out of that? An update?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Alright. Big update on media properties based on Sanderson things. We'll start with Reckoners since you started there.

    FOX owns the rights to the Reckoners, they have been bought by Disney. We don't know what that's going to do to it, but FOX has always been very excited about Steelheart so we will see what happens. We do have the Reckoners board game that came out and is shipping to backers. It's not for sale yet to people who haven't been backing it but it will be eventually. Let's see-- let's go down some of the smaller projects.

    Legion is owned by a company out of Canada called Cineflix, and they are working very hard to make a television show out of that. They just bought the rights last summer, but last I heard they had a showrunner interested, so maybe some announcements about that.

    The closest to being published-- the closest to being a movie is probably Snapshot. You probably don't know what that is. It's one of my novellas, it's like a mix between The Matrix and the movie SE7EN, so it's very different from a lot of my stuff. It's very close, they have a script and the screenplay's really good, they have someone attached to direct but they haven't announced it yet so I can't announce it. That one is probably the most close, which is going to be weird when my first movie is a serial killer thriller, but y'know, whatever.

    The Cosmere books are owned by DMG Entertainment. They are a Chinese company that funded some of the Marvel films. They've moved into making their own films. They have been a wonderful partner. They are trying very hard to make Stormlight a television show and Mistborn as a movie. It's very hard to get epic fantasy things off the ground but they're making good progress, but there's nothing to announce yet. I think that is everything.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4110 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Darksiders have almost as advanced technology as second Era Scadrians.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    But then we see Darksiders in The Secret-- in Mistborn: The Secret History. So are they gonna be the first spacefarers, are they gonna get there before Scadrians?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, where it is right now is that certain things have happened to Taldain that have isolated it and cut it off.

    Questioner

    Yeah, a little bit in Arcanum Unbounded talked about that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    And some-- they're under-- going through some difficult times, let's say... So, I will RAFO whether or not they're going to make it first to make it to space, but let's just say they were well on target to making it first before certain events happened.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4111 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Are you ever gonna make an official quiz that sorts people into Knights-- Knights Radiant? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    You know, I'm less likely to do a quiz and more likely to do a list of-- kind of attributes and traits and requirements. I feel that some people are more likely to be able to sort themselves than a quiz sorting them. Granted, it does depend on the spren also, so there are two parties in this. And so, you don't have absolute influence over which order you might end up in. But it is possible to be viable as a candidate for multiple orders and it also is going to depend on the spren.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4115 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Are we ever gonna see a Twinborn who has Feruchemical iron and Allomantic pewter, and he's pretty much-- sort of like how Ham was training Vin about how to use her body, and we just gonna see this amazing martial artist on a massive scale?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is totally possible. I'm not gonna promise any given combination, 'cause the-- I've changed several times the powersets of characters while I'm planning, so.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4116 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Are we ever gonna see more names for specific types of Twinborns?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, I intend to do more of those as the Eras progress. There are so many to name that I don't know that I'll ever release a chart of all of them, and partially I don't want to canonize names because I might decide something sounds cooler for when I actually use that person's powers in a book.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4117 Copy

    Questioner

    I read Skyward, like, two weeks ago, I finished it in two nights. It was honestly one of my favorite books I've ever read, and I can't wait to see where it goes. 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Thank you! Book two is done. 

    Questioner

    I'm excited to see what-- I need to read, uh, about the "Defense of Elysium"?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, yeah, Defending Elysium, it's free on my website. It'll tie-in in ways that you'll find interesting. One of my very first short stories.

    Questioner

    I'm super, super excited to see it. I loved the whole idea of when they're peering into the stars, it's like they're looking back with hatred. It's awesome.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4118 Copy

    Questioner

    Are birds native to Roshar?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Birds are not native to Roshar.

    Questioner

    ...Did they come over with the initial humans?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They did. The humans brought them over, along with a lot of other beasts. Like, horses aren't native to Roshar either. You can tell pretty easily the non-native things. Like, Roshar doesn't have any grapes. So the word wine got genericized in the same the way that the word chicken did. You'll see bunches of that. Like the way the weather works. Roshar does not have weather patterns like Ashyn did. They're used to seasons. Suddenly, the words for the seasons, all these weird things that you may have been wondering through the first couple of books, you're like, "Oh I see why they just call hard alcohol a wine," or, "I see why they call everything a chicken." It's kind of related to this.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4119 Copy

    Questioner

    Trell, who is he? Or if you're not going to reveal that, when will you...

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's going to take a little while to dig into that. It's going to need Mistborn Era 3, is all the Trell stuff.

    Questioner

    But I want more Wayne! Wayne is amazing!

    Brandon Sanderson

    I know! We've got one more book of Wayne. Wax and Wayne 4, we still got a book of Wayne. And then in Era 3, you'll be able to read the comic books in-world based on Wayne. So that'll be a part of it as well. You'll get a little touch of Wayne in there as well.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4120 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a combination of two Surges that you wouldn't normally see, that'd be fun to write about.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh yeah. It was actually a tough decision to let myself-- make myself put them in the groupings that I did. Because my brain naturally wants to say, "What about this, what about this?"

    What would be really interesting, you could do really cool things as a Stoneward with manipulating matter and changing it and stuff, and then burning things into it with-- whichever power that is-- [Division]... I should know. Well, I should know. But I always go look at the list. The Dustbringer power. But I think you could do really interesting sculpture type stuff with that. With the burning, you could add color to the things, to an extent. Like grayscale? But it's not really something that's built into the magic.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4121 Copy

    Questioner

    If an Inquisitor went to Roshar, would they be a lighteyes or darkeyes?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If an Inquisitor went to Roshar, they would probably be like someone who has heterochromia, one eye of each, meaning people don't know what to do with them and they are very awkward with trying to figure out how to treat them. The society breaks down a little bit when you run into anything that ruins their perfect system. Which is not so perfect, obviously.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4125 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Besides Hoid, are we ever going to see people with powers from multiple worlds? Like, a Pewterarm Stoneward?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is inevitable, but I don't think you should be expecting it soon. But it is absolutely an inevitability that this will become part of the story.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4127 Copy

    Questioner

    Sadeas' murder. Do you consider that arc pretty much wrapped?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is not wrapped, but there are lots of--

    Questioner

    Okay. Because I was writing-- I want more of that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    There is a-- Let's just say that there is a convergence of moral philosophies happening in the Kholin household and that it is not done by far.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4128 Copy

    Questioner

    So in one of your State of the Sanderson posts you said that the "Wax and Wayne" series was going to come out in late 2019, but then you decided to write another trilogy that lasted two years, so--

    Brandon Sanderson

    So Wax & Wayne 4. Abandoning Apocalypse Guard has put me a little on the rocks for when I'm going to do that. Right now I'm planning Wax & Wayne 4 to be a book I use as a break from doing revisions on Stormlight 4. Stormlight 4 I have to start in January if I'm going to meet my stated goal of having them come out every three years, which I realize is a long time between books, but remember that they're four times longer than a normal book! *laughter*. You're laughing, but Oathbringer was 450,000 words, Skyward is 110,000. So Oathbringer is longer than four Skywards. I do have Skyward 2 done, and am going through the editing process right now. *applause* So Wax & Wayne 4 is very much on my radar-- I wrote the first one taking a break from Towers of Midnight, so the chances are good I'll need a break from Stormlight 4 and write it there. I don't know if it'll be out next year or the following summer. Stormlight 4 we're shooting for the fall of 2020, and I should be able to get it right around that time if I start in January, so that's the plan.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4129 Copy

    Questioner

    Which of your characters are most like you and which would you most aspire to be like?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You know, this is a really interesting question. All of my characters are part me and part-not me, so you can point at every character and say, "Oh, that's Brandon!" Alcatraz, my mother says is most like me. *laughter* I don't know what that's saying, but those are really goofy middle-grade books about a character who can't take anything seriously. I aspire to be a little more like Sazed I think, is where I'd put that. But every character is a bit like me, and every character is something different than me that I want to explore.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4131 Copy

    Questioner

    So, you've mentioned-- you have an idea of how the Cosmere's going to go. The ending of the Cosmere, considering you have seven more Stormlight books to write and years to go, does the ending of the Cosmere hang over your head?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Does the ending of the Cosmere hang over my head 'cause I've got a ways to go-- Yeah, it's starting to loom a bit! You know, when I was in my twenties and thirties doing this, "Ah! I can write every story, I've got plenty of time!", but now that I'm in my forties I'm-- let's make sure we focus and keep going on this. So one of my goals has been to try to learn to write novellas so that the random ideas that pop in my head became novellas and not novels, because the way I work, I can't stay on one thing between books I find that it burns me out really fast if I don't have something new to work on, but if that new thing to work on can be a novella like one of the Legion books, or like Perfect State, or Snapshot or something like that and then I can jump back on the kind of mainline book I can reset myself quickly. And that why you see me practice that and things like that.

    My goal is kind of closing things off faster than I open them. This is why Legion got finished this year, why Alcatraz will probably get finished next year. Those of you waiting for a Rithmatist sequel *sighs* eventually. I need to get those other two closed off first. For those of you waiting for Reckoners, I consider Reckoners to be done. If I eventually fix and release Apocalypse Guard, that might answer some of the questions you have about the end of that series. Elantris and Warbreaker are both part of the Cosmere arc, what I'll probably do is I'll write Stormlight 4 and 5 and the last Wax & Wayne book over the next few years-- five years, next five years probably. *laughter* And then I'll probably stop and do Mistborn Era 3, which is the 1980s Mistborn, and maybe some Elantris sequels. And then I'll come back and do Stormlight 6-10 which take place about 10 years in-world after Stormlight 5. Same characters, at least the ones that survive. *eruption of laughter* That might be all of them! No spoilers there. But Stormlight is ten books. The way Stormlight will go is Book 4 is Eshonai, Book 5 is Szeth, 6 is Lift, 7 is Renarin, 8 is Ash, 9 is Taln and 10 is Jasnah. That doesn't mean that the person survives, it means that it's a flashback sequence. *nervous laughter* Just keep that in mind. So if your sequel wasn't on that list then don't hold your breath.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
    #4132 Copy

    Questioner

    You said thirteen failures, right, with The Way of Kings being the thirteenth?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. My thirteenth.

    Questioner

    Are there any other [unpublished books] that you had-- that turned into published books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Any others that ended up being published? Yes. White Sand, which was my first book, I rewrote as book number seven or eight and I eventually  turned it into a graphic novel. Big chunks of book nine turned into Warbreaker, and books eleven and twelve - one was called The Final Empire and one was called Mistborn. Remember how I told you about two ideas mashing together and what made the story finally work? The best parts of those books turned into a new book, the magic system of one merging with the lore of the other is how it worked out. So, um, I did not publish any of those books as they were written except for Elantris. The Way of Kings I started from scratch when I rewrote it, and Mistborn I started from scratch when I rewrote it. But certainly ideas that were part of that ended up in those books.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4135 Copy

    Questioner

    I was intrigued ever since I saw your State of the Sanderson about Death Without Pizza.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's good. I'm one chapter, or no I guess it's like three chapters. I'm one day's work away from finishing my revision, to then kick it back to Peter [Orullian]. I'm really, really excited how it's turning out. He knows his metal culture really well, and one of the tricks has been integrating that without making it feel jokey and things like that. I'm very pleased with how it's going.

    Questioner

    What kind of metal influences were you going for?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...Peter really likes the lyrical metal like that, like Dreamtheater. I don't know my subgenres very well, but Apocalyptica gets a mention, that's one I knew, Dragonforce gets a mention, I knew them. But I guess Dragonforce is the same subgenre. My job is worldbuilding and plot, and his job is character voice and making sure all of that works. I'm fascinated by it all.

    Questioner

    So is he more in the editing process, or is he an official co-writer?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He's a co-writer! I came up with the plot and the worldbuilding, I sent it to him, he wrote the whole first draft. Now I'm doing the next draft and then I'm kicking it back to him to do another pass and make sure the voice still matches, and then we'll take it out to publishers.

    Questioner

    What's the character's name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The main character's name is Jack Solomon.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4136 Copy

    Questioner

    I was wondering about the pictures in the cover of this [Oathbringer]. Are they specific characters in the book, or just art?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They are the Heralds. I went to some artists and said, "Do me your rendition of something that would be on the Sistine Chapel in-world for the Heralds," so that's four of the ten. So that is what we ended up with.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #4137 Copy

    MiToRo94

    When Dalinar first goes to meet the Nightwatcher and he sees Cultivation as well, presumably.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He does.

    MiToRo94

    They are surrounded by a green mist. So is that mist comparable to Preservation's mist on Scadrial? Would that be like "Cultivationlight?"

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that is in the same sort of vein. 

    Skyward Atlanta signing ()
    #4138 Copy

    Questioner

    Reen and Ruin, how much of the personalty that we saw in the books was Ruin, her actual memories, and how much of it was actually Reen?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Most of what you saw was this kind of weird amalgamation, because it's getting filtered through her memories and things like this. You can see mostly Ruin at that point, but there is some actual Reen in there mixed in. Maybe twenty-eighty. Eh, twenty five-seventy five.

    Skyward Atlanta signing ()
    #4139 Copy

    KalynaAnne

    Lift has lots of pancakes and you only describe six of them. I was wondering if you could tell me of any of the other three?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay, sure... One is a terrible, awful, seafood one that Rosharans would eat and I would hate, and people that I know would love. Not sure what the other two would be. Probably a very spicy one, a savory spicy one. Probably a vegetable greenish one, something that over here would look like it has spinach in it.

    KalynaAnne

    Is that different form the one-- she mentions one that has chopped vegetables in it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that would be different. It would be a pure green one as opposed to one more like--

    KalynaAnne

    Like a fritter?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. Yeah.

    General Reddit 2018 ()
    #4141 Copy

    mikkomikk

    Seeing that Vin and Kelsier was able to absorb Preservation's power due to Connection, is it theoretically possible for a duralumin Compounder to compound Connection so much to the point where they could draw in the mists and 'absorb' some of Harmony's power?

    Brandon Sanderson

    RAFO

    General Reddit 2018 ()
    #4146 Copy

    simon_thekillerewok

    I just finished my copy of Skyward (I got it at launch, but I've been finishing up your other books) - did the story of The Eyes (Fermi's Paradox space opera novella) end up being rolled into Skyward?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yup, it did. I actually still imagine The Eyes mostly being in continuity, with tweaks.

    simon_thekillerewok

    Is this to say we should expect a tweaked The Eyes novella to come out in the Skyward universe sometime in the future? Or were you just saying that The Eyes was basically the first draft of Skyward?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I imagine the characters from The Eyes are still around. (You'll see the alien race from the story in the second Skyward book.) It requires a few tweaks because of how humans are regarded, but otherwise, the story could have happened--so maybe I'll eventually finish it and release it.

    General Reddit 2018 ()
    #4147 Copy

    simon_thekillerewok

    Without a commitment, how many books long are you guessing the Death (Without Pizza) series will be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    3+ if it turns out well. Depends. Once the first book is done and looks good, that's when I look at the series and make some calls on how it feels like it will go.

    Children of the Nameless Reddit AMA ()
    #4148 Copy

    chaoticdust75

    I have a couple questions about when Tacenda sang and played her song for the demons while Davriel Slept.

    From the description it seemed like she was evoking her own story of loss and in so doing the demons saw visions. Miss Highwater was flying while Crunchgnar seemed to be seeing the fires of his home go out.

    What was the magical song doing to the characters?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Part of Tacenda's power is to use music to enhance people's experiences, memories, and emotions. This song was exploring that power--and looking specifically at things they had lost.

    chaoticdust75

    Why did Miss Highwater see herself flying? Did she used to be able to or envy angels?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm afraid I'll RAFO this for now. But you are asking the right sorts of questions.

    chaoticdust75

    What did Davriel see?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Another RAFO. He was very disturbed by it, though.

    chaoticdust75

    I'm also just curious about the soul of the Nameless Angel. Do you have an in universe explanation for why Tacenda could see it yet no one else could? Or is it just a powerful moment that had something to do with the Bog being afraid of faith?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You're theorizing along the right lines, but I wanted to leave this one ambiguous. Suffice it to say that odd things were happening.

    Children of the Nameless Reddit AMA ()
    #4150 Copy

    Jay13x

    Are Vex and Cabralin meant to be the names of planes?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I didn't get specific permission to name any planes--so while I intend them to be planes, for actual MTG canon I believe they have to be taken as regions inside of planes (that haven't been named yet.) You'll be safer assuming that unless Wizards decides otherwise. I don't think we should go around adding them to lists of planes on MTG wikis, for example.