Recent entries

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
    #4352 Copy

    The Young Pyromancer

    If you built a computer and you programmed it to view the world in a certain way, would that affect the world, like, Cognitive aspect?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not unless the computer starts to become self-aware.

    Questioner

    What if it was an Awakened computer?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If the computer were becoming self-aware, then it would act like any other sapient entity.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
    #4354 Copy

    The Young Pyromancer

    Is Hoid's inability to hurt others due to an enhanced version of the effect that makes Szeth and Wayne hear voices?

    Brandon Sanderson

    RAFO.

    The Young Pyromancer

    Is that likely or unlikely?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm just going to RAFO that entirely because it plays into things from Dragonsteel.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
    #4355 Copy

    The Young Pyromancer

    Theoretically, if the Dor-- ifSel became a Shard, would-- The biggest limiter on Shards is the Vessel's mind, would that be more limiting or less limiting?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...If the Dor were itself to become a Shard combining Devotion and Dominion, and were to pick up a Vessel? Because they're still Shards, they just don't have a Vessel.

    The Young Pyromancer

    So the land couldn't be Vessel?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The land itself? Of Arelon or of--

    The Young Pyromancer

    Of Sel.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The land of Sel would not count as a Vessel. You would say in terminology right now that Dominion and Devotion do not have Vessels in the same way that other Shards do.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
    #4356 Copy

    Questioner

    If someone from, say, Roshar, traveled to the world of Warbreaker, do they have Breath?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, they do not. And if someone from the Warbreaker world leaves, they will still have their Breath... They would not register as being a Drab to people who are looking. They would register as Option C. Particularly someone from Roshar, who is from a primary Shardworld, is slightly Invested.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4358 Copy

    Questioner

    How did the Nahel bond manifest in Way of Kings Prime? What was missing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I had a little light-and-sound show. It never actually happened on-screen. I had it-- If you've read Snapshot, it was this sort of thing that I intended to be a thing that they would see and could not be replicated, and you just kind of knew when it happened. Like, you were glimpsing the Spiritual Realm, something like that. But it never actually happened.

    Questioner

    Was he actually a Herald, then?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He was actually a Herald. The book ends with him dying, and no one believing; except Jasnah, the atheist, believed he actually was a Herald, even though she didn't believe in God. And so it was like, "Well, we have to find out how to get him back. Because he can obviously be reborn." So that was one of the ends.

    Questioner

    Are we ever going to get to read that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, once it's no longer spoilery.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4359 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    I am currently submitting a story to major science fiction magazines under a pseudonym to see if I am good enough-- It's a flash fiction piece, which is the thing I'm worst at... I knew that, if I sent it as me, they would take it, because putting one pages in in order to be able to say "Brandon Sanderson" on the cover is just an enormously advantageous cost/benefit analysis for a magazine. I probably wouldn't submit a full-size story, because I I know I am good enough to get in magazines on those; but I don't know about flash fiction. So I've been submitting that under a pseudonym.

    Questioner

    Will you let us know eventually?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, if it gets rejected from all the major places, then I'll tell you and be like, "Well. This wasn't good enough to actually sell." We still have it out at a few various magazines.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4360 Copy

    Questioner

    You've mentioned that the Lord Ruler had children? Have we been introduced to any of them in the books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No.

    Questioner

    Interesting. But they're out there?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, they were. It's been a while... Descendants, potentially. You have not met any of the Lord Ruler's children.

    Skyward Atlanta signing ()
    #4364 Copy

    Questioner

    What does Doomslug eat?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Doomslug eats mushrooms, among other things... I don't want to say anything more.

    Questioner

    I know, I was trying to find something that wouldn't be RAFO'd

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah that's actually shockingly relevant of a question, so-- Hmm!

    Skyward Atlanta signing ()
    #4365 Copy

    Sciencetor2

    The gems on Roshar, are they the same as the gems you and me know, or are they a byproduct of Investiture?

    Brandon Sanderson

    For the most part they are the same as the gems we know, which will ask the question, "Since most of them are chemically identical, other than color, what differentiates them?" and in the cosmere, color is very important, so I'll just leave you at that, but most of them are going to be gems like we have. If you took a ruby from our world to Roshar, it could be Invested by the highstorm.

    Sciencetor2

    And spren?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We will RAFO that for now.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4366 Copy

    Kogiopsis

    I really loved both Ender's Game and Anne McCaffrey when I was in early high school, and I felt like this book was in conversation with both of them.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would say that that is a really, really accurate way of looking at it. Little Last Starfighter mixed in as well, a little Top Gun.

    Kogiopsis

    I just want to know how much were you thinking about Ender's Game in particular?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ender's Game, I was not thinking about a ton. More How to Train Your Dragon. Because it really parallels How to Train Your Dragon. I was trying to make sure it didn't hit those beats too closely. I wasn't thinking about Ender's Game specifically, but the underdog sports story part of Ender's Game worms its way into a lot of my different writing. I was thinking more about Ender's Game when  I was writing Bridge Four sequences.

    Kogiopsis

    I felt like Skyward was a really interesting philosophical refutation to Ender's Game. Because Skyward is fundamentally a book where nobody is actually wrong, Ender's Game everybody is wrong.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's a pretty interesting thing, yeah.

    Kogiopsis

    I really appreciate that. Also, the part at the end where Spensa did the navigation thing was so like Between, I almost threw my book at the wall in excitement.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wanted for years to do a "Monsters live in the Between" story, which is what this is going toward. 'Cause I always thought-- Like, there's this one episode of Star Trek where someone sees monsters as they are being beamed. And it's one of my favorite Next Generation episodes, there are monsters when you are teleporting. That one stuck with me forever, so you can blame that as part of the inspiration.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4367 Copy

    Kogiopsis

    Are the rats that Spensa eats actually rats, or is this a Rosharan chicken situation?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I made them actual rats.

    Kogiopsis

    Are they native to the planet?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They are not native to the planet... They predate her people crashing on-- There were humans on Detritus before, when it was not called Detritus.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4368 Copy

    LadyKnightRadiant

    Kaladin not ever feeling the Thrill. Is there a reason for that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There is a reason for that... What do you think?

    LadyKnightRadiant

    I think it's because he's too good and too pure for this world.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is, I would say-- Let's just say that there are points where Kaladin could have felt the Thrill. But once he had the attention of certain nebulous spren, somebody was watching out for him.

    LadyKnightRadiant

    That was gonna be my second. I thought "He's probably just too good for it," and then I was like, "It's probably Syl's fault."

    Brandon Sanderson

    There's a bit of a war inside of Kaladin.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4369 Copy

    Questioner

    Is Skyward in the same universe as Defending Elysium?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is.

    Questioner

    Are you planning on doing anything else in that universe other than sequels to Skyward?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We'll start with sequels to Skyward, and then we'll see. The idea of biological FTL is so interesting to me that there are a lot of things I can do with that.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4373 Copy

    Questioner

    Hemalurgic spikes degrade very quickly, but Feruchemical metals can hold on to their charge forever, apparently. Is that just because Hemalurgy is corruptive?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, though I may not say "forever."

    Questioner

    But it's much slower?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, way slower.

    Yes, it's the nature of Feruchemy and Hemalurgy.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4374 Copy

    Questioner

    I was at a book signing in Chicago a few years ago and you were giving out these little Szeth figurines with statistics on the back of them. What ever happened with them? What was that going to be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That was me trying to get [Crafty Games] to build a hybrid card game slash-- a deckbuilding/boardbuilding game that still I have hopes will someday happen. It was, you build the board as you build the characters, things like that. They were way more interested in the board game itself, which came out well. It's possible we'll still do the deckbuilding/boardbuilding game. Keep a hold of those Szeth figures.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4375 Copy

    Questioner

    You said some of those things [from Way of Kings Prime] are still canon. Is the fact that if you have one of the honorblades, you can find the other honorblade holders?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The 2002 version, he thought that's how it worked, but it actually just led him to the other honorblades, because he had never seen a Herald without their sword before. It doesn't even work in the 2002 version; he ends up finding the honorblades, but no Heralds. He finds the place that they abandoned them later on. So, no.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4378 Copy

    Questioner

    Can you turn a parshman into a Parshendi by giving them breath?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Parshendi is a nationality. So, no. No more than you could make someone an American by teaching them to speak with an American accent. But also, how do you define being a Parshendi when the culture is basically collapsed at this point? Basically, no.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4385 Copy

    Alpharho

    The metal of Shardblades. Cultivationspren versus honorspren, for example. Are they different metals?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, but good question.

    Alpharho

    Are all orders the same alloy, essentially?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. There's a little asterisk on there, but not in the way you're asking... You could call those all the same alloy. Because the mixture to different spren is different, I think that you could argue that each one is its own alloy.

    Alpharho

    So, different proportions of tanavastium?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, but it doesn't quite work that way with these magics, right? I'm going to say that's up to the individual cosmerologist who is in the world, the arcanist, defining it. You would be able to find enough differences to legitimately call them different alloys if you wanted to.

    Alpharho

    Would you say different ratios of the same two metals?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. They are not going to have a third one in them, if that's what you're asking. But it doesn't quite work that way. Like, if you were going to take brass, you could measure the exact percentage. In this case, it is a thing; it's not like you could divide it up and split them apart, because they are a thing. And that thing would be called one thing.

    Alpharho

    But you won't say what that thing is called?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, I won't say what that thing is called. But I think you and the 17th Sharders and folks that are dividing them would prefer to call them ten different things, and I think their nomenclature would be relevant.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4386 Copy

    Questioner

    The Necromancer's Pizza. How's that going?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's going really well. Though the pizza part is getting written out a little bit, because he's turning more into a necromancer heavy metal singer. And the pizza was so much fun, but it's not working as well as I wanted it to, but the book is working really well. So I would expect that one to come out sooner rather than later. It's turned into a really cool thing with a lot of interesting aspects to it.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4387 Copy

    Questioner

    Callsigns. Did you come up with those yourself?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I did. The callsigns in the back of all the beta readers, they came up with their own. But I came up with all the callsigns. One of the things I was trying to do, I tried to make the callsigns start with the same sound as their real names. And that was what be guidance was so that it would be easier to keep everyone straight.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4391 Copy

    Questioner

    We're doing a piece of art for a friend that's a crossover between The Stormlight Archive and Harry Potter. How would you sort Dalinar, Kaladin, Jasnah, and Shallan...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Jasnah's a Slytherin. Hands down, very easy.

    Dalinar's would depend on which Dalinar you're talking about. Dalinar is probably going to be Gryffindor either way, would be my guess.

    Shallan's a Ravenclaw, straight up.

    Kaladin's tough. You could Hufflepuff Kaladin. You could totally Hufflepuff Kaladin. I think that works.

    You got one of each in that case.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4392 Copy

    Questioner

    What would be your advice in turning a short story that works great into a longer--

    Brandon Sanderson

    I usually attack this from two different directions. One is, more viewpoints. If I add another perspective to this, will it make it work? And then the other thing is, more complications. And that doesn't always work. Sometimes the format is strong without it. But more subthemes. Like, if it's a heist, there's something else they need to do. If it's a romance, an old flame comes in. Adding a subplot that can further-- Make sure it's not just spinning its wheels, though; it adds something to the characters by that experience. But try that. More complications, or more viewpoints.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4393 Copy

    Questioner

    You were talking before about how, when a book's not working out, you moved on to something else, and then it started to come together in your mind. Was that something that you-- you were moving on to something else and all these other ideas started popping up? Or were you revisiting your other book every now and then?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Every now and then I'm revisiting it, and I spend a few days on the outline saying, "How is this going? Are things working?" With [Skyward], it was starting to click, so I went specifically back to this one as things were clicking. I keep a folder of these half-finished outlines that aren't working for some reason or the time isn't right yet. And every time it's time to start a new book, those are all in the consideration.

    Skyward Denver signing ()
    #4400 Copy

    Questioner

    [If someone were] born like Vin, could they bond a spren, before they're even cognizant? 'Cause it's about being broken, right? So, I don't know if it's the same brokenness that Vin had from just being born.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Different spren will view this differently, and different people view the way that the Nahel bond works differently. So, Vin would certainly have been of interest to a number of spren.