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Cartoon Man
Jan 31, 2004


The Way of Kings will be out in paperback next Tuesday if you've been waiting for a cheaper price.

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Stormlight-Archive/dp/0765365278

Hopefully it won't have the same problems that the WOT paperbacks had.

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Mahlertov Cocktail
Mar 1, 2010

I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Cartoon Man posted:

Hopefully it won't have the same problems that the WOT paperbacks had.

What problems were those? (apart from the unbelievably lovely cover art)

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all
The binding always fell apart. Which was a bonus, in a way, because then you no longer had the lovely cover art. It's like the book wanted to be free....

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

WoT paperbacks should come with a roll of duct tape.

Cartoon Man
Jan 31, 2004


God help you if you creased the spine of a WOT paperback, then you were screwed.

Mahlertov Cocktail
Mar 1, 2010

I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!
Ah. I'm using my brother's copies of the books, most of which are hardbacks. Now I'm pretty glad for that.

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya
I finished the Mistborn books the other day, and I have one lingering question.

In one of Sazed's pre-chapter blurbs, he mentions that if Elend had waited around for a few minutes after the mist spirit dissipated, he would have seen a guy with black hair and a prominent nose collapse to the ground. Are we supposed to know who that was? It doesn't help that outside of Vin being slim with shoulder-length black hair, Allriande being blond, and Terrismen looking like people from Aeon Flux, Sanderson seems to be allergic to actually describing what characters look like, so I can't recall anyone who would fit such a description.

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all
That was Preservation's body.

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya

Haraksha posted:

That was Preservation's body.
Had he appeared anywhere else? By this point Sanderson has conditioned me to assume that if there is a detail, it's important.

Cartoon Man
Jan 31, 2004


Paracelsus posted:

Had he appeared anywhere else? By this point Sanderson has conditioned me to assume that if there is a detail, it's important.

Unless you really hated Mistborn, this is why re-reading any of Brandon's stuff is fun. I just read Elantris a second time and all kinds of little details popped out at me that I never noticed on the first read through.

I don't think he physically appeared anywhere in the books except during that scene. However Preservation had been helping Vin all throughout the three books, especially at the end of the first book when her ear ring was taken out. I just started in on Mistborn again and I can't wait to discover all the "hidden in plain sight" material you don't pay attention to during the first read.

Ika
Dec 30, 2004
Pure insanity

Haraksha posted:

The binding always fell apart. Which was a bonus, in a way, because then you no longer had the lovely cover art. It's like the book wanted to be free....

Ya but after the bindings fell apart, eventually all the pages fell apart. Gave me an excuse to pick up the first couple of books in hardcover to match the rest of my set tho.

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all

Paracelsus posted:

Had he appeared anywhere else? By this point Sanderson has conditioned me to assume that if there is a detail, it's important.

He doesn't, but at the very end, Ruin's body is sitting next to Vin and Elend's.

I was so sad they put Elend's head back on. :(

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya

Haraksha posted:

He doesn't, but at the very end, Ruin's body is sitting next to Vin and Elend's.

I missed that bit, probably because it was 2 in the morning and I'd been reading about 5 hours straight, as well as still being distracted by "lol gender-neutral pronoun."

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all
Yeah, that was kind of silly, but several languages have a gender neutral pronoun. English is actually developing one right now with the singular use of "they". Really, we have one already with "it", but that typically refers to something that isn't a person.

This is one of those areas where I feel like Sanderson's ability to plot outreaches his ability to write. I don't doubt that Sanderson was really careful when talking about the Hero of Ages throughout the series to make sure he never called it a man or woman, but the lynchpin was that the prophecies were written in old Terris, which we never see.

I don't think he actually needed to create a language, but he had a fairly important plot device that was never actually seen in the story. This doesn't seem fair to me.

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya

Haraksha posted:

Yeah, that was kind of silly, but several languages have a gender neutral pronoun. English is actually developing one right now with the singular use of "they". Really, we have one already with "it", but that typically refers to something that isn't a person.
Yeah, I took Latin, so I knew what he meant, and it was a bit of a nice setup to have it be "no, really, it actually meant neuter" instead of "I am no man." But it was kinda too clever by half.

A Nice Boy
Feb 13, 2007

First in, last out.
Just finished Mistborn myself, and I enjoyed it. Sanderson, so far for me, has been kind of an interesting middle ground author as far as fantasy authors go. On one hand, he's not even close to the standards set by the genre heavyweights, like Martin/Erikson/Abercrombie. On the other, he's light years ahead of boring, safe fantasy like Eddings/Feist. He has a lot of great ideas, and aside from the lack of sex, his books are dark enough to feel realistic.

I enjoyed is two WoT books more than Mistborn, but I'm not sure those are good judges of his writing style and skills, considering how much of it was already written/not his ideas.

I like him enough to read all his stuff, though! Not eight hours passed between finishing Mistborn 3 and buying Warbreaker. I'll probably wait until at least three of the Stormlight books are out, though...I hate having to wait to read the next book in a series. It's hard enough with something like the Malazans/WoT/Martin books, but at least I had two or three of them to plow through before the wait started.

As far as Mistborn went, as I said, I enjoyed it. It wasn't spectacular, and there were a lot of places that could have been tightened up, a lot of places where it seemed like he spent too much time on the characters sitting around talking needlessly. That said, I really liked a lot of the characters. I with TenSoon had had more to do at the end...Seemed like his story kind of petered out after lots of buildup. I love Sazed, Vin is fine, Elend was kind of blah. Breeze was one of my favorite characters, but he didn't do much in book 3.

There were a lot of things that could use more work in the series, but overall it was good with some great fights. That all said, the thing that kept me coming back was that Sanderson is really good at setting up mysteries that you don't even realize are mysteries, and then throwing ah-HA moments at you. The mist snapping people/her earring/etc...Lots of moments where the reveals make you go "nice!" His big reveals feel natural to the plot and actually add to the stories, and what's nice about them is how well thought out they are. In too many stories, there's some deus ex machina reveal toward the end that feels like the author just shoehorned in some magical fuckery or something to make everything better at the last minute. The BIG REVEALS in Mistborn were actually foreshadowed from the very beginning, so they didn't feel cheap when they came. I really enjoyed wondering what crazy thing he was going to throw at us next, and how it would effect stuff that we thought we already knew.

Overall, definitely worth reading. 7.5/10

subx
Jan 12, 2003

If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

A Nice Boy posted:

:words:

I feel the same way about TenSoon - cool character that seemed like he should have had a bigger role at the end.

Also Warbreaker has a lot of the foreshadowing stuff as well, so you should enjoy that. And since it's a single book, it doesn't have the drag feeling that Mistborne occasionally gets.

Democratic Pirate
Feb 17, 2010

I'm about to study abroad in Europe for a month, and the trip involves a bunch times where I'll be sitting around for a few hours, such as the plane ride over and bus rides between cities. Should I go ahead and download (kindle user) the Mistborn books? I already blew through WoK earlier in the year and really enjoyed it.

Cartoon Man
Jan 31, 2004


Democratic Pirate posted:

I'm about to study abroad in Europe for a month, and the trip involves a bunch times where I'll be sitting around for a few hours, such as the plane ride over and bus rides between cities. Should I go ahead and download (kindle user) the Mistborn books? I already blew through WoK earlier in the year and really enjoyed it.

Yes and Warbreaker and Elantris.

subx
Jan 12, 2003

If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

Cartoon Man posted:

Yes and Warbreaker and Elantris.

You might be able to get Warbreaker free from Sanderson's site still, you should check that first. Unless you just want to support Sanderson, in which case buying it probably takes a lot less effort than buying->converting.

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

Democratic Pirate posted:

I'm about to study abroad in Europe for a month, and the trip involves a bunch times where I'll be sitting around for a few hours, such as the plane ride over and bus rides between cities. Should I go ahead and download (kindle user) the Mistborn books? I already blew through WoK earlier in the year and really enjoyed it.

WoK was pretty weak (for Sanderson) standing on its own so yeah go ahead and get everything else.

wellwhoopdedooo
Nov 23, 2007

Pound Trooper!

IRQ posted:

WoK was pretty weak (for Sanderson) standing on its own so yeah go ahead and get everything else.

On the other hand, I thought WoK was fantastic, and if I was going to buy only one Brandon Sanderson book it'd be WoK.

404GoonNotFound
Aug 6, 2006

The McRib is back!?!?
Honestly, if I was gonna buy just one Sanderson book it'd be Warbreaker. Only it and Elantris are stand-alone (for now, I know he's gonna make a sequel for it eventually) and it's pretty much the better of the two.

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all

A Nice Boy posted:

Overall, definitely worth reading. 7.5/10

The only thing I kind of disagree with here is the earring. I saw that coming as soon as they started talking about spikes being linked to ruin. "Oh, Vin always has metal in her ear." I guess my problem is that I know Sanderson too well at this point. He doesn't really throw out any red herrings. Everything has some significance, so since the earring had been mentioned more than once, I was looking for what it could be connected to. Then he started talking about being pierced by metal and I rolled my eyes.

Eh! Frank
Mar 28, 2006

Doctor gave me these, I said what are these?
He said that they'll cure an existential type disease

Haraksha posted:

He doesn't really throw out any red herrings. Everything has some significance
I read Warbreaker after all the other books, and by that point I was able to predict a few of the twists (the statues being brought to life, that one god whose name I'm blanking on sacrificing himself by the end of the book, couple of other things). But I still really enjoyed the book because, while I was able to guess on a couple of things that were going to happen, there were so many plot twists that figuring out a couple things didn't ruin it for me at all. It was actually kinda fun trying to figure out how certain things were going to come into play.

A Nice Boy
Feb 13, 2007

First in, last out.

Haraksha posted:

The only thing I kind of disagree with here is the earring. I saw that coming as soon as they started talking about spikes being linked to ruin. "Oh, Vin always has metal in her ear." I guess my problem is that I know Sanderson too well at this point. He doesn't really throw out any red herrings. Everything has some significance, so since the earring had been mentioned more than once, I was looking for what it could be connected to. Then he started talking about being pierced by metal and I rolled my eyes.

Yeah, that was one where I figured I should have seen it coming. However, unlike you, aside from the WoT books this was my first Sanderson, so I didn't realize how laden with meaning and foreshadowing everything was going to be.

Poke
Mar 1, 2004

Haraksha posted:

He doesn't, but at the very end, Ruin's body is sitting next to Vin and Elend's.




Huh? I don't get it. Enlighten this fool, please.

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all
You have to read Sazed's passages before the chapters more closely. Ruin and Preservation had human bodies. How they came into godhood is never explored, but it's definitely hinted at that they may actually have once been human. After the chapter where Elend talks to the mist spirit, Sazed's intro talks about how the body of a person fell into the ash. That was Preservation.

At the end of the book, they find the bodies of Vin and Elend and there's a redheaded dude next to them. That's Ruin's body.

Cartoon Man
Jan 31, 2004


Here's a better explanation if your curious about the whole mythology that ties all the books together. You have to read The Way of Kings to get a snippet of who Ruin really was. (I've bolded that part below)

http://www.17thshard.com/wiki/Adonalsium

quote:

Adonalsium
Who or what Adonalsium is unknown but there is evidence that at one time it was the god of the Cosmere until it (Adonalsium) shattered. Hoid and possibly the original Shardholders were present at the shattering and may have influenced the events leading up to it. Its essence is currently in pieces known as (the?) Shards of Adonalsium. There is evidence that there are 16 shards but no concrete proof.

Shards of Adonalsium
After Adonalsium shattered into its present form the pieces were given to or taken by individuals that then had the powers of the aspect of the Shard of Adonalsium. The shard then shapes the person that held it to further embody the nature of that piece of Adonalsium. After the Shard shaped its holder they could only do that which was part of the aspect of that shard.

The existence of these shards have been hinted at in Sanderson's novels.

“I sense shards of something long ago, a fractured presence, something spanning the void. I have delved and searched, and have only been able to come up with a single name: Adonalsium. Who, or what, it was, I do not yet know.”
— Sazed, preface to Ch. 39 in The Hero of Ages, emphasis added
For example in The Way of Kings on page 275 U.S. Hardback it says "Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him." Ati was the name of the person who held the Ruin-Shard before being killed by Vin holding the Preservation-Shard at the end of The Hero of Ages. Intentionally killing Ati went against the nature of the Preservation-Shard but as Vin had not yet become attuned to it she was able to use its power to her own ends.

Trivia
The name Adonalsium appears to be derived from the Hebrew name for God, Adoni



EDIT: Here's more.
http://www.17thshard.com/wiki/Shard

quote:

Shard
The Shards of Adonalsium, or Shards for short, are aspects of the power of Adonalsium in the cosmere.

Adonalsium was at one point a single, unified power with unknown abilities (though based on what the Shards can do, they are assumed to be quite spectacular). However, in a manner that we do not yet understand, Adonalsium was shattered, and various people became somehow bonded to the various pieces of the whole.

Known shards
It is widely believed that there are sixteen Shards. Though this has not been confirmed, there are several passages in cosmere books that hint at there being sixteen Shards. Each Shard is associated with an emotion or idea, and over time the personality of the one bonded with it changes to more closely match the concept that it embodies. For example, in The Way of Kings, we are told that Ati, the holder of Ruin, was once a kind and gentle man. However, when we see him in the Mistborn trilogy, he is known only as Ruin, the essence of destruction, and is currently attempting to destroy the world.

Other known Shards include Preservation, Endowment, Honor, Cultivation, and Odium. Known holders include Rayse, Bavadin, Sazed, Aona, and Skai. Hoid also is confirmed to have knowledge of Adonalsium, though it seems unlikely that he is bonded with a Shard. His motivations and plans are not yet clear, but he was present at the Shattering of Adonalsium and it seems that his hidden agenda is likely related to the Shards in some way.

As of The Way of Kings, it has been confirmed that a Shard of Adonalsium can be further shattered, a process known as Splintering. The only known instance of this occurred with the Shards held by Aona and Skai after Rayse killed them during his visit to Sel.

Abilities
It is not entirely clear what abilities each of the Shards have. They seem to be limited in some ways by the idea their Shard embodies - for example, neither Ruin nor Preservation was able to create on their own (as creation was contrary to the nature of their Shards), but when they worked together, they were able to create life on Scadrial. Endowment is apparently able to bring certain individuals back from the dead on Nalthis. The capabilities of the Shards on Sel are unknown, as both Skai and Aona were dead by the time the events of Elantris took place. The only known Shards on Roshar are The Almighty and Cultivation. The Almighty is confirmed to be dead, and we have as of yet seen nothing of Cultivation, meaning we know very little of their influence on Roshar.

Relationship to magic systems
It also seems that the Shards are directly related to the magic systems on each world, though how and to what extent seems to vary from Shard to Shard and world to world. In Mistborn, Allomancy stems directly from Preservation, and Hemalurgy directly from Ruin. Feruchemy seems to be caused by the interaction of the two. Awakening from Warbreaker is also likely a result of the Shards there. Aon Dor is a little trickier to explain, as we know that the Shards present on Sel had been Splintered by the time Elantris takes place. Also unexplained are the strange magics used by the Dakhor monks. At this time, Shards remain the only known source of magic in the cosmere, though it has been speculated that the Old Magic in The Way of Kings could stem from a different source.


Honestly, all of this is why Brandon Sanderson kicks rear end. You can enjoy these books as seperate entities, or you can sperg out about how they all tie together. This is what Stephen King wishes he could have accomplished with his Dark Tower series.



Edit #3: This is the blog entry to read if you are curious what books are coming down the pipeline.
http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/925/Another-Long-and-Rambling-Post-on-Future-Books

Here are the Shardworld books that he plans to work on.

quote:

•The Silence Divine (Shardworld novel, standalone.)
•White Sand (Shardworld trilogy.)
•The Liar of Partinel (Shardworld novel, one of two.)
•Dragonsteel (Major Shardworld epic. Won't be written until Stormlight is done.)

Cartoon Man fucked around with this message at 14:50 on May 27, 2011

Clinton1011
Jul 11, 2007
I was looking at that blog you posted for up coming books and noticed this: Steelheart (Superhero apocalypse.)

Its under the might come out list, its only partially written but I really want to see this finished.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug
I'm almost done with the Mistborn series. It's funny, the first one didn't really grab me 'til I was about halfway through it, and then I read the 2nd half in one sitting. Actually, that's happened with all three so far. I feel a Hero Of Ages marathon coming on. I'm really liking the magic systems, since it gives him room to come up with all sorts of crazy new poo poo to add in, but since the rules are so defined it never turns into some sort of way for the heroes to always win. I did get the sense he thought Atium was too powerful for the protagnists to use and still have tension in the story, though, since I don't think I remember Vin burning it past the end of the first book.

I think I'm headed on to Warbreaker next. Is that one as good as Mistborn, or should I pick up a different one?

Cartoon Man
Jan 31, 2004


Read Warbreaker, Elantris, and Way of Kings in any order you choose. They all own.

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice

Ugly In The Morning posted:

I did get the sense he thought Atium was too powerful for the protagnists to use and still have tension in the story, though, since I don't think I remember Vin burning it past the end of the first book.

I believe in the annotations Brandon pretty much said he set up the 2nd book that way so that yeah there would be tension and then he could have Vin kick the asses of a bunch of sissy atium-burning Mistborn.

A Nice Boy
Feb 13, 2007

First in, last out.
It'll probably lower my chances of winning, but I can't not share this:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/05/alloy-of-law-arc-sweepstakes

ConfusedUs
Feb 24, 2004

Bees?
You want fucking bees?
Here you go!
ROLL INITIATIVE!!





A Nice Boy posted:

It'll probably lower my chances of winning, but I can't not share this:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/05/alloy-of-law-arc-sweepstakes

Thanks man

404GoonNotFound
Aug 6, 2006

The McRib is back!?!?
Quick question: Does this require signing up for anything, or is it just one quick comment and you're done?

A Nice Boy
Feb 13, 2007

First in, last out.
No signup required. Just a valid email address so they can mail you if you win. But yeah, on the Tor site you can comment...Enter whatever the hell name you want and throw your email addy on it.

Acidian
Nov 24, 2006

I had dinner with Brandon Sanderson yesterday, and he is a pretty awsome guy. We had a book signing with him earlier in the day, and had I known beforehand that I was going to be working yesterday, I would have asked here if anyone had any questions they wanted me to ask him.

I think he has been one of the best authors we've had come sign for us, he took time with every fan and answered their questions while signing, and he ended up being there for 4 hours signing when we had only asked him for 2. He also seemed like a very honest and humble person, in contrast with his success.

Not being a big wheel of time fan, I was most interested in what he had to say about his other books, but after a 4 hour signing I didn't want to pester him about it. You all probably know this, but he is making more books in the mistborn universe, but at later timelines. So the next book, alloy of law, will be a steampunk type book, and he will publish a science fiction book(s?) later on. Where the magic system is the same and they have developed new technologies to take better advantage of the magic they have. I think that sounds pretty awsome, and can't wait to pick them up.

Anyway, I told him to join SA, and he said he would consider it depending on how much time he has for forums in the future, as he is pretty active on other sites as well.

A Nice Boy
Feb 13, 2007

First in, last out.
Awesome. I thought, from interviews and such that I've read, that he seems like a really cool, humble guy.

Just finished Warbreaker, and I have to say that it's my favorite of his so far. I like how he was able to fit such a great, self contained world in about 650 pages, and I really liked the characters and plot. There were a few twists that suffered from not having much worldbuilding, like Denth/Vasher/etc turning out to be the really old guys from history. If he'd had more time to establish them in the minds of the everyday person, talk about them a bit more, it would have been way more a "whoa!" moment. As it was, it was merely "oh, that's pretty cool I guess." I really, really loved it...Something about it just flowed better than Mistborn in my opinion.

It ends on a cliffhanger. Has he stated anywhere that he's planning on writing more in that universe? Gotta know more about Nightblood! It does some crazy poo poo in those last scenes that's never really explained.

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Kalas
Jul 27, 2007

A Nice Boy posted:

It ends on a cliffhanger. Has he stated anywhere that he's planning on writing more in that universe? Gotta know more about Nightblood! It does some crazy poo poo in those last scenes that's never really explained.

His 'ANTICIPATED SEQUELS' list includes a book in fact called 'Nightblood'.

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/62/Another-Long-and-Rambling-Postandtrade-on-Future-Books

Don't expect it soon.

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