Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

FewtureMD posted:

Holy crap, someone else who's read Walter Moers!

For content: I recently purchased the Mistborn RPG. Would anyone like to see a review or tour through even more worldbuilding/magic explanations?

I would love to see a review!

# ¿ May 30, 2012 22:09

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:09

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Fearian posted:

Also, something else that isn't a gripe so much as something I find a bit funny. If you listen to the audiobook, number one - you get to hear the drawled rhyme "The Inquisitoors, did not want Visitoors." and number two - you notice how often Sanderson has his characters exclaim "She's so strong!!!" in their minds (or some variant, "She's so quick!" "He's so tall!" "She's so light!" etc. etc.)

What bothered me is how often characters "snort". Seriously, it's like every other sentence.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2012 00:25

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

IRQ posted:

Yeah it's 10 books, but Sanderson is such a planner that, unlike Gurm, he knows exactly where he's going and what happens.

As far as Mistborn, I've often said it's better if you approach it as YA. But if you're really not into the characters but do like the magic system and the world building you could pick up Alloy of Law. All of his improvement as a writer thus far is there, and it's the Mistborn setting. You'll kind of spoil some stuff from Mistborn for yourself, but only with regard to the magic system and some references you probably won't get.

I thought that in Mistborn, BranSan was really good at creating and planning overarching plot and backstory. Some of the "reveals" in Mistborn were really, really cool. He loads you up with clues, but it still kind of blew my mind when I realized how everything fit together. The characters are all cliche but in that way they're all enjoyable to read and not frustrating.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2012 22:36

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

I do the same kind of thing sometimes where I make an incredibly dumb joke and deliver it with a poo poo-eating grin and my friend usually punches me, so Lightsong was really funny to me because he basically did that constantly.

This is my humor too. It's the silly, 'not actually funny but the delivery is what makes it comedic in its own ridiculousness' kind of thing. I like Sanderson because his humor is cheesy and safe. There were a few times where I actually laughed in Alloy of Law.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2012 18:40

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

navyjack posted:

Well, say he treats it like a full-time 9-5 job and he produces, while he's working, 500 words an hour. That would be 3500 words in a 7 hour work day (give the dude an hour for lunch), 17,500 words a week, 70,000 words a month, and 910,000 words a year. Let's give him 13 days off for national holidays, so take off 45,500 for that. Two weeks vacation takes off another 35,000.

So, assuming he doesn't have to take time off his writing job other than what is listed (of course he's got to do publicity tours and cons and take meetings and all that crap, but let's pretend he doesn't. Also pretend he doesn't have to edit and re-write and blah, blah, blah.), then he should produce about 830K words a year, which works out to about 6 140K fantasy epics every year.

Sounds to me like he's slacking off.

What about his college professor position at BYU?

# ¿ Aug 30, 2012 20:48

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Cartoon Man posted:

Yeah, I know. But I stalled long enough.

Here it is.

http://www.amazon.com/Legion-ebook/dp/B0099D4KEG

Gonna have to suspend my WoT series readthrough for this one!

# ¿ Sep 12, 2012 16:51

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

404GoonNotFound posted:

Dammit, you guys are really making me want to stop my Dresden re-read halfway through Proven Guilty to read this

Do it. It only takes 1-2 hours to read. It's very entertaining. Also, $2.99.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2012 23:40

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

toanoradian posted:

1) The word 'kandra' appeared on Chapter 19, few chapters before the term is properly introduced and explained. Is this an error? If it's a hint to the true nature of Renoux, it's kind of a weird hint.

I don't remember the context in chapter 19, and I also don't remember when you find this out, but Renoux was killed and replaced by a Kandra before you meet him

toanoradian posted:

3) Kelsier is like the most fun character in the book. He's just the right combination of dick and nice and he makes the other characters better. Nobody in the crew is like him. All the crew is too rational, too realistic. How depressing is the next two books? Or is there any Kelsier-like characters worth a drat in it?

I thought Kelsier as a character really only existed to introduce the conflict to Vin. If she's stuck following him around the whole time, she ceases to be the main character and we no longer care. For the growth of Vin and the rest of the story, I thought it was fitting that he died.

Elend takes his place as main male protagonist and I honestly preferred him as a character. He has an actual growth arc that I don't think Kelsier would have been able to have (as Kelsier was at the end of his character/growth arc when we met him). Really, I can't imagine not getting sick of Kelsier had he survived all three books.

Book two stuff (kind of spoilers) Plus, there's the whole "Chuch of the Survivor" thing that is a really big plot point, and the fact that Kelsier as a martyr is way more powerful to the movement than Kelsier as a roguish rebel.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2012 16:33

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

I don't know if any of you watched Brandon's livesteam last night on The Story Board, but it was really good. My girlfriend and I love him and his ideas on "form and function" are just so... correct. Really inspiring little webchat. Also he has a cute cat.

Oh yes, and he talked about the Legion audiobook being free thing, too. So it's not a glitch.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2012 17:19

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Ulio posted:

Been reading The Final Empire, I haven't finished without spoiling anything can anyone answer... Does it ever make sense why Vin who doesn't trust anyone falls in love with a noble at first sight? or is that part of her change? also is it explained in the first book the lord ruler becoming god and why the Final Empire is the way it is, socially and environmentally(all dat ash)?

1st answer: Teenager + hormones + rebellious rich boy?

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 02:38

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Antti posted:

who picks up a Sanderson book and skips out on the Avalanche?

Yeah don't ever, ever, ever, ever do this. Always read to the end of a Sanderson book.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2013 17:55

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Adar posted:

3)Despite that, anyone who put this series down in the middle out of braid tug frustration should go back and read it now, because at the start of 12, this happens:

Give the man credit.

That is the best thing I'eve ever seen. I'm just going through WOT right now for the first time (only on book 3), solely because I want to read the Brandon Sanderson Avalanche. Can't wait to get to his books!

# ¿ Feb 16, 2013 23:50

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Obviously Marsh is the best character and who I wanted to take over the world and rule.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2013 01:09

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

NinjaDebugger posted:

If for some reason you're reading this thread and don't have Steelheart yet, the ebook is 50% off for the rest of today on B&N.

Looks like the same price ($4.99) on Amazon, too

# ¿ Sep 30, 2013 01:22

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

i wonder if we are actually going to get two more mistborn trilogies, or if bransan will get tired of the universe by then

# ¿ Oct 29, 2013 17:04

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

BananaNutkins posted:

He's posted a breakdown on his website before. I think he usually goes through about 6 drafts total. The Warbreaker series of drafts he had on his website was a really cool way to see his process.

I was lucky enough to attend a retreat with Brandon earlier this year, and some of his talks helped me adjust my writing style for swiftness of completion. He's a cool guy, less artistic and more pragmatic about writing.

A few nights I decided to stay up and get some extra writing done, and Brandon was on the couch next to me finishing up draft 1 of WoR. Pretty humbling.

I'm seriously considering this retreat for next year. It sounds so amazing, since I love BrandSand and the WE group and who knows how long this opportunity will last

# ¿ Dec 13, 2013 19:10

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

The writing contest is for people who need financial assistance though.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2013 18:06

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Hey, just putting it out there: I really really really want a spot. I'm going to do my darndest to get one. And I hope some of you goons get in, too.

But if any of you do get a spot and decide to back out, I'd like to put my name in first on the transfer list :unsmith:

# ¿ Dec 19, 2013 02:57

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Eric the Mauve posted:

I'd assume the seats are nontransferrable except in extremely unusual circumstances. Otherwise I'd try to buy all 24 seats and sell them off at like a 400% profit.

They are transferable. From the bottom of the registration site:

quote:

REFUND POLICY
We will offer a full refund if there is someone to take your slot. (You may also transfer it to someone else if you wish.)
If not then:
Full refund until April 1st
75% refund until June 1st
50% refund until August 1st
No refunds after September 1st

But you can't resell them, A) because I really doubt demand is as high as you think it is, and B) because they would obviously see you doing it (since there are only 24 spots) and they would notice.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2013 06:57

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

That's where I will be :f5:

even though it's 6:00 AM for me...

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 04:30

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Didn't get in

Actually my two alarms didn't go off, so that sucked.

Congrats to you Mortanis!

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 21:42

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Speaking of which, does BranSan ever do the thing where you get a free copy of the eBook if you buy the hardcover? Because I want the physical thing, but I want to read the eBook on the bus.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2014 18:29

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

ConfusedUs posted:

Yes, that's the term. He's very well known for it.

He's getting better about putting minor climaxes here and there. Way of Kings was one of his best in that regard.

BranSan has even commented that he knows it's a thing he does and he's trying to fix it. He laughed at the term.

Also, read all of Mistborn. All four books - though the fourth book has completely different characters. You get some amazing background characters rise to awesomeness in book three :swoon:

Spook

# ¿ Feb 27, 2014 06:19

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Karnegal posted:

No, the post suggests that the genre as a whole (not just Sanderson specifically) have issue representing characters who are non-white and straight. And this parallels how Sanderson specifically lacks prominent non-straight characters. I'm not accusing him of having no representation of any sort of minorities. He's not exemplary in that regard, but he's a bit better than average. As to whether you'd call Sanderson a bigot, I suppose that depends on your usage of the term. In regard to sexuality. I can point you to a quote where he says that gay people shouldn't act on sexual attraction because his religious officials say so. But he also says they should have the same legal rights. He seems to have a "hate the sin not the sinner" attitude, which is condescending, but not openly hostile.

The critique itself doesn't mean that books can't be good without diverse representations, just like how there are plenty of "legitimate" movies even though main stream cinema has a serious problem with giving women, non-straight people, and people of color prominent roles beyond token character, love interest (in the case of women), or passive object. It doesn't make every film bad, but it does illustrate a problem in the media as a whole. And, on the whole, SF/Fantasy (particularly popular SF/Fantasy) does have a problem with representing people other than straight white males.

The all-white people thing, is being used as an analogy to explain the lack of representation. The critique of having all-white or all white with token ethnic character casts was leveled at the genre generally not at Sanderson specifically. As an aside, I'll admit that, I didn't catch that the Alethi are supposed to be Indian. I know they eat curry, but "tanned" in fantasy usually reads as slightly exotic white people. Admittedly, my assumptions of what Alethi look like are probably being heavily influenced by the image of Kaladin on the cover of WOR, who appears to be a white dude. Remarks on Shallan as pale skinned didn't seem like a solid indicator to me because red-haired pale girls are usually described as exceedingly pale in novels - even in a cast of other white people.

The reason I made the initial remarks about religion are due to the posts I've quoted from his blog along with other posts where he talks about privilege. It seems he's aware of his privilege as a straight white guy in a way that other popular genre authors (like Rothfus) are totally oblivious to, which makes the lack of significant gay characters a bit striking by contrast. The guy has written a poo poo load of books, so I have a hard time buying into "the story [...] that he wishes to tell just doesn't have gay folks in leading roles" (why not, if it has straight folks in leading roles?) . If he hasn't done it at this point, it seems unlikely he will unless he has a serious change of beliefs. Again, I'm not saying that he is universally bad at representation. His best work has a single main character who is an Asian woman. In act, it's that sort of awareness that makes the lack of gay characters so seemingly out of place.

It's because of his awareness and his representation of minority groups elsewhere that I have a hard time seeing the omission of prominent gay characters as due to something other than his religion. My initial post was probably extra bitter about it because when I made it, we were in the immediate aftermath of some regressive national policy my country made that was catering to sexist religious extremism. So, I was likely pre-disposed to being mad about extremist religion more so than usual.

Your frustrations and confusion are valid, but I think you're a bit off base about the underlying reasons for his lack of LGBTQ characters. Have you listened to his Writing Excuses podcast? He has had gay and trans* people on before, and Brandon is polite and just as friendly as he would be with any guest. They talk a lot about including diversity in their writing; in fact, creating novels that appeal to large audiences is a major theme in the podcast. Incidentally, that's also why his writing is somewhat "cleaner" than certain other modern fantasy authors.

I would bet good money that the reason that BranSan hasn't had a major LGBTQ character is because he is afraid of not writing them well and realistically. His religion plays a bit into that fear, in that he had likely very limited exposure to LGBTQ people while growing up. Thus, he does not feel comfortable writing about someone who may take great offense at his ignorance. He is a very thoughtful and kind dude, though, and I bet if you outright asked him he would say that he would love to include a major LGBTQ character some day, when he knows he can do it in a skillful way that doesn't make them a "token" character. Hell, knowing him he probably already has a trilogy with such a character in the preplanning stages.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2014 05:48

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Karnegal posted:

I mean, it sort of sounds like a, "but I have black friends" excuse. I don't think the guy hates gay people. I think he's conflicted because he personally might be fine with people being gay, but he does explicitly defer to his church elders on the issue. A lot of what I'm drawing on are his blog posts, I haven't listened to his podcasts.

I'll readily admit that I'm anti-religion, but the reason I think his religion in particular is an issue here is because the LDS church is not like a Protestant church. You can't just go to a more liberal denomination it's a top down structure that doesn't really have wiggle-room in it's doctrines. It has discrete stances on issues, and it's pretty clearly anti-gay even if it couches the language it uses. If you're a Mormon, you don't have a lot of choices in how you take that. Other religions have more denominations or branches that give you a little more range to identify with. Like if you're a Jew who thinks keeping Kosher is dumb, you can join a reform synagogue. So, if you don't think being gay is an issue, but you also thinks that the church and it's doctrines come from god, you're dealing with some cognitive dissonance.

The LDS church is weird on gay rights because you can support legal unions, and the church isn't going to do anything about it, but it's a bit murkier if you disagree with doctrine on whether actually acting on your attractions is wrong.

In terms of writing someone realistically, that's what writing fiction is all about. I mean, I'm pretty sure he's never been a poor woman who grew up on the streets, but he went for that and it turned out fine. At least if there was a big outcry from women on how they were being represented, I didn't see it.

I've only read Mistborn, Stormlight, Emperor's Soul, and Steelheart (felt a bit lukewarm on that - didn't realize it was YA and it seems fine for that audience. I picked it up on Audible for a 12 hour each way road trip). I haven't been really struck by summaries of anything else. Are there other series worth reading?

He follows the Mormon church, yes, but the Mormon Church doesn't ban you for life and drat you to hell if you write gay people or swears. I don't think it really matters what his personal beliefs about homosexuality are; considering that he has written atheistic characters, he's obviously well capable of writing good characters who live lives that he disagrees with. He still needs to have a personal baseline for how different people in the real world actually are, and because of his Mormon faith he has not interacted enough with LGBTQ people. Surely his missionary work has had him meet many disenfranchised people, so writing about a poor girl isn't that much of a stretch. I would rather he take his time to understand LGBTQ people than to just insert a token, rainbow flag-waving sassy man with a lisp and tight pants.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2014 09:07

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Tell me the truth; am i dumb for wanting to buy this?

http://www.michaelwhelan.com/shop/reproductions/all-reproductions/kings/

# ¿ Jul 25, 2014 06:24

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Xtanstic posted:

So in the past month I've gone through the entire Mistborn series and just finished Alloy of Law today. I really enjoyed the series. Does anyone know what his publication plan is right now? In the foreword to Alloy of Law, he mentioned that he envisioned a present and future set trilogy in the same universe and that the Alloy of Law series is a side bar to this plan, but it seems like he's setting up for a trilogy here first. Is he still planning on 8 more books? Also, is this his main focus right now or is he working on Stormlight Archives now?

BranSan is very open about his writing process. his website has a counter on the top-right that tells you his current progress. And yes, SA is supposed to be 10 books long, and there are meant to be a trilogy of trilogy set in the Mistborn universe (not including Alloy of Law, which is a separate thing from the main story and will possibly also be a trilogy)

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 05:37

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Mortanis posted:

They announced it to us at the retreat last week, and it sounds pretty stellar. Normally alumni are barred from returning, but it's fairly open this time. If you're a fan of writing, it's crazy worth it (same price as the retreat I just got back from, so it's basically like a free cruise). If you're going just to geek on Sanderson, don't bother. The man is aloof as hell until he breaks out his Magic: the Gathering cards.

Ugh. I'm considering this but SEA -> FL tickets add an extra $500 bucks or so.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 05:41

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

thespaceinvader posted:

Which is weird, because it's not stealth anyfuckingthing, it's actually intended to be a YA series as far as I'm aware.

It wasn't originally, but it is currently being remarketed as YA where I expect it will get an even bigger following.

I mean Brandon just writes clean books, it doesn't mean they're only for children if there's not vicious incestuous gang rapes or something. The complaint that something is "stealth YA" is dumb and points to the sort of person who watches movies for boobs and blood instead of story and character.

Mistborn is somewhat simpler because Brandon wrote it as a young author. That's all.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2014 23:08

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Holy_Zarquon posted:

It definitely was originally released as a YA book. I'll try to find a source, but that was his next book when I first started reading Sanderson so that really sticks out for me.

Edit:

Aren't we talking about Mistborn, not Steelheart? The latter was definitely released as YA

# ¿ Oct 18, 2014 00:51

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Not a lot of Sixth of the Dusk talk here, but I just finished it and thought it was excellent. I loved the Polynesian theme, and the parallels to Hawaiian history. Good job BranSan, I hope he uses this world for more!

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 20:50

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Evil Fluffy posted:

The dumb thing with her chapter is that it was pretty clear she came and healed the other kid but everyone watching decided the other kid was the miracle and seemed to ignore her, or the constable guy who nobody ever seemed to question ever.

But that's the point of the chapter, that everyone ignored her and only saw what they wanted to see...

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 21:13

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

Finally got to see BranSan tonight at a signing. God, he's a good motivational speaker for writers. Definitely the best author tour I've been to yet.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2015 07:46

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:09

Drunk Tomato: Apr 23, 2010; If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over.

lolasaurusrex posted:

Just finished the Well of Ascension. Can definitely see what you guys mean. Aside from some terrible dialogue early in the novel it's noticeably better.

I can't read through 200 pages of forum, and I assume it's in there somewhere, but did anyone else get really annoyed with Vin halfway through the novel?

Like, if Elend was actually shades of grey in terms of morality, or hid his emotions at all I could definitely get behind her indecisiveness, but as it stands he's practically the most upfront and morally straight character ever. In my opinion, the whole "Zane or Elend" arc could be removed completely and the narrative would be stronger for it.

I had a friend who did not understand why Vin would not choose Zane. She thought he was way better than Elend, who she considered boring and whiny. Still baffles me to this day... :stare:

# ¿ Jul 29, 2016 06:39

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