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treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Neep posted:

Brandon Sanderson interview with some notes about book 2:


http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/09/brandon-sanderson-interview-stompingmad.html

That's a lot longer than I'd like to wait. Oh well.

Yeah I was at a signing for TWoK here in Virginia. Someone asked if Stormlight 2 would be coming out soon and he stated he wanted to finish Wheel of Time before returning to his own work. The only way he would write Stormlight 2 before finishing WoT would be "if my publisher, editor, wife, *and* Harriet all begged me to do it and finish Memory later"

That being said Brandon is awesome and a total nerd. He brought his cards and played Magic with fans after the signing.

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treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Argas posted:

More or less my thoughts exactly. It wouldn't be Sanderson if there wasn't more to an early plot point.

Brandon usually has at least two twists per book, one of which you don't typically see coming. With something like a 10 book series he could very well be setting up huge twists 5 years down the road.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Dramatika posted:

Yes, apparently they all take place in the same universe, and there may be something tying them all together at some point down the road. But I believe Brandon's gone on record as saying they are all the same Hoid, though I don't have a source right now and may be mistaken.

basically this. Sandersons entire metaverse revolves around the concept of one all-powerful/all-knowing deity (mentioned by the name of Adonalsium in passing in an epigraph of The Hero of Ages) that shattered into many different 'shards' and were then scattered across the cosmos. These shards seem to group in pairs of opposites (always a 'good' and a 'bad' to balance one another) but they are closer in power and ability to greek deities rather than judeo-christian (unlike Adonalsium). Supposedly we've either directly met or encountered the effects/influence of something like six or seven shards if you read all his books.

Hoid is indeed the same character appearing in all the books and is supposed to get his own story at some point which should illuminate more of his backstory. The Way of Kings is the biggest presence he's had in any of the books that I can remember, in most of them he's either a storyteller or beggar, but he's always some kind of information broker (and he always seems to know more than anyone else about the big picture).

Theres a ton of discussion and intrigue surrounding the metaverse and how the characters all relate, a lot of it surrounding Hoid and his exact nature since there's suggestion in The Well of Ascension that he might not be entirely 'good'

edit: sorry ton of small edits

treeboy fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Oct 28, 2010

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.
There's also suggestion that even though we haven't encountered it directly, the deity of the faction of priests that rebels in warbreaker is the other shard of that world.

sorry about lack of names, its been awhile since i read the book and don't have it with me

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

fordan posted:

I think he's said that he's expecting to do a much bigger book tour come A Memory of Light, the end of the WoT series. I may head up to the NYC signing in a couple days. I had a friend who decided to head down to VA for a signing this weekend from the Philly area. If she'd have told me before leaving, I might have joined her.

I was at that one, Harriet did a reading from the prologue. It was most excellent. Brandon is also an incredibly chill guy. He actually recognized me from the signing a little while back for TWoK

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

L-O-N posted:

I'm guessing they were the Heralds. Dying and being reborn each time the voidbringers threaten until they gave up.

yeah the one guy that died and didn't 'give up' was the same character that showed up at the very end. His shardblade wasn't a shard, but rather a dawnblade. The differences haven't been described, but in the prologue it's compared that as shardblades are different than normal swords so are dawnblades greater than shards.

I've really been digging the world and history that Sanderson has created, not just with all his books (and the metaverse in general) but specifically the SLA.

The thing I'm really dying to know is the specifics surrounding honorspren, the abilities/enhancements they can endow upon the men/women they've attached themselves too, and why exactly Syl doesn't like shardblades since the Radiants very obviously used them (and its intimated many had honorspren bound to them, though other spren could also give abilities)

and also what happened to the other Heralds. Are they immortal? did they go somewhere?

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

i never understood how that artist decides which scenes from the books to draw, because he invariably picks the dumbest ones. The final scene on dragonmount would've been way better. (from very far away so you can't see his horrific humans)

treeboy fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Dec 5, 2010

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.
you know thinking about it, I'm guessing that in the end it's going to be revealed the highstorms are not a "bad thing", but are really some sort of preventative measure put in place by the Creator. Kind of like the reveal about the mists and why the planet is the way it is in Mistborn

Also curious what happened to the Almighty's shard power, in Mistborn we know that (ending spoiler, don't read unless you've finished the trilogy) Vin inherits Preservation's power, and then Sazed inherits the power of both Preservation (from Vin) and Ruin

I think it'd be safe to say that Odium doesn't possess it as otherwise the world would likely be a much shittier place. Maybe the highstorms are the Creators power running rampant? Or the result thereof?

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

ConfusedUs posted:

I just finished the commentary for the Hero of Ages, something I hadn't done before. It felt like the right time to do it, having just completed my third re-read of the series, the first after reading the other two books' commentary.

Even knowing the series as well as I do, and having read the commentary on the previous two books, there's still a handful of things I hadn't caught and a couple of things I'd suspected but now have confirmed.

Things I hadn't caught:
Kelsier's spirit was the one talking to Spook and Vin after their spikes were removed. I thought it was just Ruin pretending to be Kelsier. Both happen in key, climactic moments and I really hadn't made the connection between 'mysterious words' and 'no more spikes mean no more Ruin'. On all three reads I've been too caught up in the story to match that up. In retrospect it's pretty obvious.

Luthandel is at the magnetic north pole, meaning all compasses point towards the capitol, and the Final Empire is actually quite small. While this is really kind of incidental and not explained well (it's hinted at only vaguely), and so is the fact that the ash is somewhat ferromagnetic and would thus gather at the poles, it does beg the question: who lived at the other probable habitable zone at the south pole?


Things I suspected and were confirmed by the commentary:
The kandra people survived the Resolution. Sazed was simply too nice to not use his new powers as God to use all those leftover spikes to bring the kandra back to sentience.

Marsh probably survived. Remember, he was both an Allomancer and a Feruchemist and undoubtedly had some health stored up somewhere on his person, especially considering all the time Ruin just had him standing around doing nothing. Perfect time to store up whatever attribute he wanted.

Plus, Brandon said that if Marsh survived, since there was atium around, he has the potential to live forever using the same trick as the Lord Ruler, meaning he could be back for future Mistborn books.


Marsh is a favorite of mine, so this is good news. He was every bit as instrumental in the downfall of the Final Empire and the defeat of Ruin as Vin. She was all brute force. Marsh was essentially a sleeper agent the entire time. First he infiltrates the Ministry, then ends up as an Inquisitor and takes out his brethren to give Vin a chance to beat the Lord Ruler. He shows Sazed the writing at the Conventical while under the early influences of Ruin. Then he finally rips the earring from Vin's ear and allows her to ascend.

I can see him taking a similar, behind-the-scenes role in the future.


I thought Marsh was just a misting though, a seeker right? How would he pull the same trick the Lord ruler did?

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.
i remember the theory behind hemalurgy, I just couldn't remember if the powers lined up appropriately to allow Marsh to perform the Age trick. I can't find my book to double check, but as I recall certain hemalurgic transfers don't result in the exact same power granted that was stolen. According to Mistborn Wiki, Pewter spikes steal feruchemical physical powers, which I would assume covers Aging. Atium is the metal that stores age. An Atium spike steals an Allomancers Temporal powers.

So: As Sazed explained the Feruchemy/Allomancy loophole, the Lord Ruler would Feruchemically store an ability (like Age) in a metalmind, and then rather than retrieve the Age through Feruchemy he would essentially create a new type of allomantic ability by burning the metalmind providing more bang for his buck (since Feruchemy has diminishing returns while Allomancy enjoys an increase in potential) In order for Marsh to pull off the same trick as the Lord Ruler he would need a pewter spike from a Feruchemist, and an Atium spike from an allomancer/atium misting (so that he could burn the atium metalminds the store Age)

i think that's how it'd work anyway. depends on how Age storing is classified (as temporal/physical) for Feruchemy. The spike required might be a different variety than Pewter. Malatium perhaps.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.
Based on what Brandon has said about the next few books and their titles, it seems that each will focus on a certain character. For instance: If the next book is Dalinar's (Brandon hasn't decided if it'll be his or Shallan's) it'll be called The High-Prince of War

Obviously there will be other POV's but I'm looking forward to each book having a particular focus in addition to the other arcs.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Dramatika posted:

That is pretty much the perfect cover for this series.

they really need to do an animated adaptation of the whole trilogy.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

DonkleyPunch posted:

Great now that's stuck in my head and it won't ever happen.

I haven't done any 2d in awhile an I'm tempted to pick a scene and give it a whirl as an exercise. Any ideas? I was thinking part of Vin's first training session.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Ika posted:

AMoL, because then you'll finally know how it ends after waiting 20 years.

some of us only started 10 years ago :smug:

The more brandon the better, I feel like there's a ton of really great fantasy out right now from several different authors.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.
I was rereading through parts of WoK and Elantris and remembered a suggestion somebody made (I can't remember if it was here or on another forum somewhere) that the men chasing Hoid in WoK are in fact Roaden and his cadre. The physical descriptions seem to fit, personalities too.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Skapegoat posted:

Didn't Raoden and most of his gang become shiny haired, shiny skinned gods towards the end of Elantris? I don't doubt that the people looking for Hoid are from the Elantris world (forgot the name), but they probably wern't Raoden or any of the main characters from Elantris.

they can disguise themselves no? The suggestion being the closer the disguise to 'normal' the less likely anyone would discover it?

treeboy fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Apr 19, 2011

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

senae posted:

Even if they figured out how to tap AonDor from other countries, it straight up wouldn't work outside of their world. Even if they found a way to travel from world to world (and I'm sure they're be able to, given how malleable Aons are) it would be a one way trip, and it would probably kill them to be cut off from AonDor.

I just finished re-reading Elantris, and I don't see any reason why the elantrians would be going after Hoid anyway. He was acting as a beggar in that book too, unless I missed something.

Regarding the one way trip theory, we know that the Hoid we keep seeing is the same character, so obviously he has some ability that is independent of location. Possibly they 'leapt' after him and are in fact stuck and therefore looking for him to figure out how to get back?

We also don't know the exact timeline. If it were Raoden (and i'm not convinced, I just thought it was an interesting theory) it could be Raoden twenty years after the events of Elantris. Also i can't find a source but I want to say that Brandon said we'd met some of the other characters in TWoK before. I'll see if i can confirm that or I'm just imagining it.

treeboy fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Apr 26, 2011

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

IRQ posted:

I know BYU is mormon and therefore backwards as all gently caress but how on earth did they not have an electronic copy? Sanderson isn't that old, he would have graduated in like the mid-late 90s.

Uhh, might surprise you to learn that the LDS church, and by extension BYU, actually has extensive records of almost everything that goes on in a public sphere, not always things directly related to the school/church either. Genealogical records are just an example of this. Just look up Granite Mountain Vault to see what I mean.

There's a good chance there is a digital copy of one type or another, but I doubt they send that out for various reasons. I wouldn't. Besides don't be angry at BYU, be angry at the idiot who decided to keep the book.


edit: in regards to Hoid, the suggestion is all the Hoid's encountered so far are the same man, but he is the second man to bear the name. Possibly the previous Hoid was a mentor/friend/family member. I'd missed the epigraph references to the other planets though. That's pretty nifty.

treeboy fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Apr 30, 2011

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.
still not surprised they can't/don't/won't. Extend a habit of reprinting lost works across possibly hundreds or thousands of theses and it quickly becomes an unnecessary cost for zero benefit. Likewise it may require some kind of author approval to reprint, and if I were the author and found someone had essentially stolen an early thesis draft of a work I planned on fleshing out fully later...well I'd be kind of pissed.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

IRQ posted:

That's probably true but they were a hell of a slog. WoK is almost all setup and worldbuilding and while I'm down with that I can see it turning a lot of people off.


Thoroughly enjoyed the whole book and thought the flashbacks were fascinating insights into a character that otherwise would've been something of a bore. The prodigy warrior is done again and again but how many times were they once surgeons terrified by blood?

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Rootbeer Baron posted:

Just my opinion though, I'm sure there's lots of people who his humor works for.

I enjoy it, but it may be a cultural thing.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

IRQ posted:

It would make a pretty badass animated mini-series I have to agree, along with every other Brandon Sanderson series to date.

I think that's what you meant to say, the correct opinion...

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

IRQ posted:

No because anime is the worst form of media ever, including minstrel shows, nazi propaganda, and snuff films.

it's hard to believe, i know, but there are other styles of animation other than "anime" :rolleyes:

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

pakman posted:

I also hope that the characters don't become a mouthpiece for his personal beliefs like Terry Goodkind did with the Sword of Truth series.

They haven't so far in any of his books, I'd be surprised if they suddenly started now. The lack of sex and swearing is about the only tell for that.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

IRQ posted:

I don't think basically raping the Skaa counts as vilifying sex so much as it does vilifying the nobility.

i would have to agree. I think in this instance you're using the absence of evidence as evidence of absence. You've taken "The only sex he mentions is rape with a side of murder" and turned that into essentially "all the sex in his books is rape and murder" and then further into "he wants us to think that sex is evil like rape and murder"

Never once did i think "drat sex is evil" i did however comment more than once on how hosed up the society was.


edit: i should probably take this random opportunity to point out that mormons actually love sex, it's just the unmarried kind they have a 'problem' with, so he doesn't really have much of an agenda anyway...

treeboy fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jun 27, 2011

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Cartoon Man posted:

So who would do this justice and who would screw it up? (Activision)

Ubisoft could probably rock out a Mistborn game pretty well, it'd be like Assassin's Creed with magic

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Odette posted:

I just finished the Mistborn trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed it. Currently reading Elantris, then will move onto the Stormlight Archives. :D

I would recommend Warbreaker as well, people tend to feel it's one of his weaker stories but I thoroughly enjoyed it

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

404GoonNotFound posted:

On the other hand, it's almost undeniably his lightest story, making it the perfect palate cleanser after Mistborn and before the sheer :smithicide: that are the Kaladin chapters in WoK.

The Kaladin chapters were my favorite... :smith:

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

So in other news I found out the other day that I work with the artist who drew the cover for the RPG (as well as several of Shallans illustrations in Way of Kings). He mentioned that Brandon had him do a ton of concept art for various as-yet-unseen creatures he described from WoK and other stories. He won't show me though :smith:

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

omnibobb posted:

I got Hoid.

Szeth here, pretty surprised really

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Maytag posted:

I snagged Ruim.

Just kidding I managed to get Maytag.

Ruin is still available as is Ruim. Although I think going with a name from one of his series is pretty dumb. Also the admin for the forums seems like a huge spazz.

Ahaha people wearing loving mistcloaks.

i don't really care about the name, but i just know that there's someone out there fuming that he can't be szeth anymore.

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.


just gonna leave this right here...

(it's quite good so far, had it for about a week and only getting around to reading it now)

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

404GoonNotFound posted:

Please, spoil me: Does TenSoon actually show up, or are the "Faceless Immortals" just mentioned offhand a couple times?

Yes or no will be fine, I don't want to be spoiled THAT much.

I haven't read the whole thing yet... but from (very) quickly thumbing through I would have to say no, not that I can see

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.
finished Alloy of Law last night after a four hour marathon to get it done (i hit the avalanche at midnight and couldn't put it down)

my feelings on the book today: :aaaaa:

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

404GoonNotFound posted:

Once again, drat yous :doom:

Also, now that you're done, still no sign of TenSoon? (Once again, yes or no only please. Don't want to be TOO spoiled.)

Not that I could spot other than that passing reference to the Kandra in general. But that being said I have a feeling there's a ton going on that might not be explicit, so...no...but maybe?

multiple read-through's required for this book in my opinion

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Wolpertinger posted:

Agggh, I read too quickly - I've just finished it. Curse you, Brandon Sanderson, for ending it in such a way that (deliberately vague minor ending spoilers) leaves it on a note revealing that you only just scratched the surface of what was REALLY happening, and all-but-guarantees another big epic trilogy in this world

my favorite moment (towards the end, don't click if you don't want to spoil a cool character moment)

Wax is talking to harmony after he's been beat up and whipped around and it looks like he's done for, and says to Harmony "why won't you help us?" to which Harmony responds "I sent you didn't I?" then Wax's big chest of guns is right in front of him "You're welcome"

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Wolpertinger posted:

How would that really work, though - metalminds store something already inside you, leaving you without it, and then allows you to draw upon an excess of it later - To become one of those people that can use the Aon Dor (I forget the name of that transformation, haven't read Elantris in ages) you need to be born somewhere nearby - it's genetic, like Allomancy.

Or, actually, in light of a couple tidbits he's revealed in interviews and sneaked into books, it's actually in their 'spirit web' essentially a combination of 'spiritual dna' and your actual soul - a hemalurgist tears off the piece that governs whatever power or attribute is desired from whoever you stab and staples it onto whoever receives the spike.

Which does bring an idea to mind - what if a nicrosil feruchemist could use Hemalurgy? Then he might be able to gain or use powers he shouldn't from other worlds. The little codex at the end DOES have the mysterious writer considering the possible potential uses of Hemalurgy in other worlds.



my guess is that it has something to do with storing 'magical energy' not unlike the well of ascension did. a Nicrosil ferring could store native cosmic energy and unleash it at a later time. the question is whether that would be 'well of ascension' power on Scadriel and Stormlight on Roshar, or abilities being used on/around the nicrosil user

of course my theory would be Aon Dor and Stormlight and Allomancy are all the same 'magic' just different expressions of it

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Cartoon Man posted:

Inkwing is having a contest where you can vote for which version of their Bridge 4 shirt will get printed.
http://inkwing.blogspot.com/2012/02/which-design-do-you-love-contest.html

I know its kind of silly, but I like number 3.

i'm lucky enough to work with one of the artists who designed a couple of the tshirts. I gotta go with #2 "I'm wearing your mom"

treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Macdeo Lurjtux posted:

So I'm finally sitting down with Way of Kings (reading Mistborn, Elantris, Warbreaker and White Sand in quick succession kinda burned me out on his stock characters) and I'm just wondering, this is his Exalted campaign isn't it.

Is White Sand available somewhere? I can't find any information about it other than it was something he wrote early on that was incomplete

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treeboy
Nov 13, 2004

James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

bowmore posted:

I've started skimming until I get to that part.

Elantris, in my opinion, has a great climax and resolution, but the trip there is a bit dull. I read it after the Mistborn trilogy so I knew I liked Sanderson but had heard that as a first publish it had its issues. I was working at Barnes and Noble at the time and those of us who liked fantasy would fight over which was superior: Mistborn/Elantris (generally whichever someone had read first they preferred)

Slow down and start reading once Raoden and Sarene meet. From there big things start happening quickly and you're on the culmination and downward slope of the avalanche. Brandon's learned a lot and his newer books are better paced and not as harsh with the climax/resolution containing 80% of the books interest.

edit: anecdotal aside, I just got my wife started on Sanderson and she's absolutely devouring his stuff. She's finished Mistborn trilogy, Warbreaker, and Elantris. She loved Elantris and just started reading it again. Gotta get her onto WoK and Alloy

treeboy fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jun 14, 2012

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