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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Of the 7 remaining Stormlight Archive books (or 3 in the sub-series), which one are you most looking forward to writing? | Book ten. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Fair, and silly question. If you were a Magic card which one would you be? Why? All right, thank you! It was a pleasure chatting with you again. I hope you enjoy the rest of the convention. | If I were a Magic card which one would I be? Uhm...I don't know. I would be blue-white or mono white. The personality I have is probably blue-white. Meaning that I am pretty straight-arrow Mormon; it's going to be hard for anyone who is straight-arrow Mormon to be anything but white. You mix that with the fact that I'm a writer for my profession; the storyteller is very blue--it could be red or blue, but I'm not very impulsive. So I'm going to say something blue-white. I would have to look and decide what card I am blue-white, but I'm definitely blue-white. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If an Elantrian drew Aon Kii, what effect would it have? | In the presence of Aon Kii, the guilty feel pain. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was your inspiration for Kaladin? | Kaladin was inspired originally by reading about surgeons in the middle ages. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Atium was not a basic metal. Does the Era 2 table of 16 have a similar mistake? | RAFO |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can a person who dies but somehow hasn't passed Beyond the Three Realms (a la Kelsier) serve in place of a spren for Radiant purposes? We know that the Stormfather is a Cognitive Shadow and is also acting as a spren for Dalinar but is he able to do that because the "unusual sequence of events" took place or is there something else going on specific to the nature of the Stormfather? | This is theoretically possible, but it would require an unusual sequence of events. RAFO. :) RAFO. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Switching topics, your battle scenes are completely epic. Do you have to do a lot of research learning different battle stances and techniques? Not one where you have to read through the dry crusty pages. As well as the importance of stirrups, and how they can support the huge magical armor. Yeah, I feel like it might be a big more difficult with our gravity. So is that something we are going to be seeing? Because I was thinking when the Cosmere starts concluding, just multi-Cosmere world battles kind of things...or? No worming out information by coming up with theories on the spot? | I've done a lot of that in my life up to this point, so I draw on that. I write the scene and then I go to the experts. I read through sources and try to look for where I've done it wrong. I can usually do it right enough on the first write because of my experience, so that the first write is not fundamentally flawed, it's only flawed in little places. I do a lot of reading of tactics and things like The Art of War , which was a very big help. A great place to get this type of thing is from good historical novels, but there are some good pop culture books as well. There's one I'm going to look up and email you about because I always forget the author, that you can read to give you an idea how different cultures have approached war. It's sitting on my shelf--I can picture the cover, but now the name escapes me. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a famous one that is very good, but there is a better one on the history of warfare. I'll have to send the name of that to you later. [Confirmed later: it is A History of Warfare by John Keegan.] Anyway, the pop science, pop history books I look at are more accessible than straight history books. They're written to be readable, for a mass audience, and they give me just enough to write the basics, and then I can polish the edges by going to an expert. Yeah, and really what you are looking for is the concepts. How different cultures fund a war, how they treat a war, and then you really only need some basic tactics. What are the different types, why would people use cavalry and what was the importance of cavalry. You get that from reading the history of warfare. I remember when I read how important the stirrup was as an invention, being able to fire bows from horseback, and why that changed warfare. Suddenly I could construct a battlefield where I could say oh, okay, now that I understand why the stirrup is important, I see why this unit is important, why having a cavalry is important. I can now have them enter my battlefield in a way that undermines what someone else is trying to do, because I know the importance of the stirrup. Learning just a few fundamentals like that is essential. What the difference was between the way the Romans approached war and the way a medieval army approached war, and why the introduction of peasant warriors was so important, and things like that. I still needed magical horses for that armor, but it's nice that I can have magically enhanced armor and make it all work together. The other big thing people have to remember about Roshar is it's point-seven gee, which helps a lot with things like this. 70% Earth gravity. It would be definitely more difficult. In fact when they get off the planet it's going to be a different experience for them, going to something like Scadrial where they have Earth gravity. Eventually, but not for a while. These are in the works. You may come up with all the theories you want, but I'm not giving you any information. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | And my other question is about Taravangian. It becomes clear that when he's smart, he's less compassionate, and when he's dumb, he's more compassionate. Is that intentional, or is that just how you believe intelligence works? So when Taravangian is smart, his Cognitive aspect is stronger. So when he's dumb, is his Spiritual aspect stronger? | Yeah, he mentions that in his interlude. *With a sly grin, pulls out a RAFO* |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Hi! I just finished Warbreaker, and I caught my mind that they have animals that exists on Earth (at least by the name, like monkeys, panther, and so). Is this a common thing in the all the planets of the cosmere? | It is common on many of the planets, though it is more likely to happen on a planet (or an ecosystem on a planet) created by Shards, as they're often basing the animal life on creatures they've seen before. That said, some planets with life predating the splintering had Earth-like ecosystems too. The writing answer is that this was a way for me to control learning curve in my series, so that I could have some (like Roshar) that take a lot of effort to get into, and others that are a little more easy to get into. This lets me save the really crazy worldbuilding for a few specific series. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Which of your worlds, if any at all, have ice cream, or at least, the ability to make ice cream? | Scadrial probably has it already. Roshar is farthest, not having as much in the way of milk products. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the Cognitive Realm flat or spherical? Yeah, 'cause I was going to say, if you make a globe flat... | The Cognitive Realm is this weird thing, where it's flat, but it's distorted. You can walk from one planet to the next. So it's got really weird...the spatial reasoning doesn't work the same way. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was your premise behind the main character David [in The Reckoners ]? Why did you create him as he is, scared yet fearless at the same time, smart about specific things yet totally ignorant about others, etc.? | I built David around two pillars of personality. One is his interest in the Epics, which balances between hatred and fascination. The other one is his fierce determination, which leads him to be impulsive and bull-headed at times, but also pretty inspiring at others. I feel that as people, sometimes our greatest strengths are also our greatest liabilities. In this respect, every human being is a conundrum in at least one or two ways. With David, his fixation on the Epics is a huge strength but he's been so narrowly focused in his interests that he neglected many other areas of study. So he's both smart and stupid. At the same time, he's impulsive and determined, which leads to acts of great bravery, but he lives in a society that beats people down so if he stops and thinks too long, he can often psych himself out. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you store different types of Connection at different times? Like can you store Connection to people versus location? | That is possible. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When doing your worldbuilding and plotting work prior to writing do you ever work with maps and soldiers? Do you build out your fights with models etc? | I don't build any of my action sequences with models, though that's an excellent question. I have a vivid imagination, and generally don't need to place things on a map to create an action sequence. In fact, I think doing so might be dangerous, as I'd be tempted to describe things happening across the action sequence all over, rather than what is immediately happening to the viewpoint character—which is where my focus needs to be. Often, the only map-based worldbuilding I'll do is a general sketch of a continent or city so I know broadly how everything is related. But then I write the book, and let what has to happen in the book happen—good storytelling trumps cartography. I can always rebuild the map to be accurate once I write the book. The exception is large-scale battles, like some of those in The Wheel of Time , where I had to involve real warfare strategy and tactics. In those cases, I need to know enough that it's best to draw it out and have a full battle map. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Brandon, what has been the influence of your LDS religion on your writing? Have aspects of Mormon doctrine been incorporated into your worldbuilding? | I'm very interested in the concepts of religion and the ideas that surround it, and I often find myself writing books that deal with things I'm interested in myself. I allow the themes of books like these to grow naturally out of the world I've built and out of the stories that I want to tell. Specifically, I kind of let the characters decide what the themes of a book are going to be. I don't go into it saying, "I'm going to write about this," but the worlds that I create betray my own interests very strongly. What is it about faith and deity? This is something that is unique about us as human beings, something very interesting to me, and it felt like this area was an open space to explore in fantasy in ways that hadn't been done before. I always find myself gravitating toward things that I feel haven't been explored as much as they could have been. That interests me and fascinates me. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you store....like if there is a Twinborn, who is a gold Allomancer and a duralumin Ferring, would his goldshadow change based on what his Connection is? | I'm going to RAFO that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you store any sort of Temporal Connection? | Um, most. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Could someone who's never been to Scadrial be Connected to Ruin, Preservation, or Harmony? | Possibly. Depends on the strength of the Connection. But yeah, Connection's not an on/off switch. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If you tap Connection in one area, for location, would that remove your Connection to your original place, where you're actually from? | Um, RAFO. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So for big, big books like Stormlight , what is the ratio of time spent on the first draft versus on revisions, and has that changed over the course of your career? | Oh wow. They take more time in revision. They take more time at every step of the way than the shorter books. So a book like Calamity I can write pretty solidly, I can write 2 to 3 thousand words a day on that rough draft, and I spend two weeks on an outline and whatever that turns into it's only a couple months of writing. A Stormlight book, the plotting is so intricate it often takes me a year before I'm comfortable with the outline I'm working on-- so I will writing other stuff while working on this outline-- 'till I catch what the soul of that book is going to be, but then all of the interludes, and all of the things, and boy, every book we've had big portions we need to knock out and re-write. It just takes a long time. I would say 50% of the time I spend on-- You take the time I spend writing the first draft, cut it in half and that is the time I spend revising on your average book. But it really depends. Like Stormlight I started the outline last year, or a year ago in June, and started my first exploratory scenes--I posted a few of those online--then went back to the outline, and outlined for a year and then I felt good writing it. So I started that in June. I will write this all the way until March and then we will probably be revising it until six weeks before the book comes out, because that is the absolute deadline that Tor needs before they can print and distribute it *camera pans to Peter making a wryly amused expression* So that's about how long it will take to do this book. It's a lot of work. You know I like doing this because I like having multiple things going, right? Like I don't think I can write a Stormlight book every year, in fact I couldn't, that process I just outlined is a two and a half year process. So, it's just not something I could do. But during that two and a half years I can do some shorter books, some novellas, and just experimenting with different types of writing. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In Well of Ascension , it mentions that the language of Terris had a gender neutral pronoun. If you actually constructed the language, what was that pronoun? Or did you just leave it as its English translation of "it"? | I didn't spend a long time on the languages in Scadrial, since most people were speaking the same tongue. I just used "it" in my own writings. Roshar has a lot more detail on the languages, because culture-clash is a bigger part of the theme of the series. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the fact that The Way of Kings and rest of the books in the series are going to focus each one on a different character connected in any way to the fact that both The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight focused each one on a pair of characters? | No, not really. Most of my plans for The Stormlight Archive go back years and years to before I was working on The Wheel of Time . I would say that the The Gathering Storm/Towers of Midnight character split happened because of the book split, less than any real planning on my part. I had the character arcs and decided which ones would fit well together if I was only going to be releasing one batch of them at a time. So the answer is no, but with the caveat that with the way my mind works, it may have been working in the same way in both cases. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Brandon, your books are always seamless and so well put together. Do you use any specific software when compiling a story? | I'm afraid I don't. I use Microsoft Word. Compiling is all done the old-fashioned way with lots of editing. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Does a Shard's power being manifested either physically or not (through metals vs through light) have anything to do with its individual abilities/powers? | RAFO. :) |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can a person who dies but somehow hasn't passed Beyond the Three Realms (a la Kelsier) serve in place of a spren for Radiant purposes? We know that the Stormfather is a Cognitive Shadow and is also acting as a spren for Dalinar but is he able to do that because the "unusual sequence of events" took place or is there something else going on specific to the nature of the Stormfather? | This is theoretically possible, but it would require an unusual sequence of events. RAFO. :) RAFO. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Won't it be difficult to keep the storyline interesting for 10 books straight? | We'll have to see! I think the storyline for the series is quite captivating, but I've never done something this long before. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you mind if I ask one more Wheel of Time question? After A Memory of Light , Mat did he lose his luck, is he still ta'veren at all? I was curious about that. I remember in one of the books they said that they weren't always ta'veren for their whole life. | My perspective--now, I'm not speaking from a perspective of knowledge because Robert Jordan does not say in the notes, at least not that I saw. Speaking as Brandon the...very enfranchised fan and extra knowledgeable fan, but not as author of the series, I think he kept his luck but lost a portion of it. Meaning the luck is inherent to him, from the fact that the Heroes of the Horn know him as the Gambler. Luck and gambling are associated with him through all of his past lives, and I think that he naturally has some of that. When he was ta'veren it amplified and manifested, but he would still have it. And I don't even know if he's not ta'veren anymore. I think he expects that he's not anymore, but of the three he's the one that's still the center of global politics at the end of the books. If any of them was going to remain ta'veren , it would be him. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | As [Feruchemy] is the magic system combined from Ruin and Preservation's powers, and they created humankind on Scadrial, how is it that it only occurs in persons with Terrispeople in their ancestry? | RAFO :) |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is Raoden unable to use the Shardpool like Vin because Devotion is Splintered? | That is part of it, but not the main part. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Are the Sho Del hordlings and/or a hivemind? | The Sho Del are NOT a hivemind. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I want to know how Hoid travels between worlds. Or, if you're not going to tell me right now, will we ever find out? | Hoid has travelled between the worlds by getting in one Shardpool in Shadesmar and coming out a different one. *pause* Okay? So that is one method he has used to travel between the worlds. The worlds are connected through Shadesmar. Um, things that people don't think about as much reflect very minorly in Shadesmar, so when you-- all the-- most of the space between planets is cut out, and there's some weird, twisted geography going on there. So that's basically how he does it, Cognitive Realm. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Why do you so often include some sort of religious government in so many of your worlds? Is it something that comes from looking at how history developed on Earth, or do you think your religious faith influences the way you write/worldbuild? | There are a lot of reasons. One is because it happened that way so often in our world. Another is my fascination with religion, and wanting to explore what people do with it. The biggest one, however, is related to how I worldbuild. I like things to be very interconnected, as I think that's how real life is. So, when I build a religion, I ask myself what its political ties are, as well as its relationship with things like the magic, economics, and gender roles of the culture. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | The finale of Hero of Ages is incredibly ballsy. Were you at all concerned about backlash? | Yes, I was. As was my editor. We both agreed it was the right ending, though, and so I didn't have to do much convincing. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Fair, and silly question. If you were a Magic card which one would you be? Why? All right, thank you! It was a pleasure chatting with you again. I hope you enjoy the rest of the convention. | If I were a Magic card which one would I be? Uhm...I don't know. I would be blue-white or mono white. The personality I have is probably blue-white. Meaning that I am pretty straight-arrow Mormon; it's going to be hard for anyone who is straight-arrow Mormon to be anything but white. You mix that with the fact that I'm a writer for my profession; the storyteller is very blue--it could be red or blue, but I'm not very impulsive. So I'm going to say something blue-white. I would have to look and decide what card I am blue-white, but I'm definitely blue-white. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If a non-Windrunner Surgebinder (who had spoken all the Ideals of their Radiant Order) summoned Jezrien's Honorblade, what color eyes would they get? A blend? Different colors for each eye? | :) I'm going to RAFO eye color questions for the moment. We'll actually be dealing with some of these in the books. Maybe not the specific ones you ask, but the concepts in general. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Would you yourself be able to wield Nightblood? | Anybody can wield Nightblood for a short, short time. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | They haven't minded that so far. That's not an issue. I think they just want to make sure he doesn't end up leading the Voidbringers or something. | *discussion fades in* ...I doubt they would come to regret that. It depends on your threshold for characters with depression but-- Yeah I think you'll be okay. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If a Windrunner lashed Wax upwards, could he dump all of his weight into his metalminds and be unaffected or would the lashing affect his clothes and whatever else he had on him too? | Wax could mitigate the effect (unless he was in a vacuum) but not eliminate it completely. I was talking about a Vacuum, but it's good to clarify. What I'm saying is that without wind resistance, his mass doesn't matter--and the books have established that what Wax does is a freakish transformation of his mass, not just his weight. Kaladin changes how much gravity pulls on someone, and in what direction. Wax (basically, it's more complex than this) changes how much mass he has. The two, then, have some very distinctive effects. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Out of the Cosmere , you have your whole plan, I'm assuming you have in your brain or written down... When do you finalize, like, whenever you're writing. Is it all finalized then? | ...The books become the canon. Even the wiki is not canon. Until I write it into the books, it's not canon. For instance, you can go find Oaths of various orders of Knights Radiant in there, but I don't canonize those until I write the books, because I usually tweak some of the words. By the way, sometimes people ask me "Can you write an Oath of a Knights Radiant that we haven't seen yet?" in a book, and I always say no. Number one, like, if at the release party I got asked that, like, 8 times; we'd be out of Oaths by now. That's the same reason why I won't tell you the names of Shards that I haven't canonized, or their intents, or things like that. Until I get to it in the books, it's not canon. Because I need that flexibility going forward as I'm putting the whole thing together, to get all the puzzle pieces to fit. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Are the Ten Essences related to the Ten Shardworld's Form-of-Investiture | They are not as related as philosophers from ancient days, who created those tables, thought that they were. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If you drew a stick figure of a chalkling, would it be able to spike other chalklings and get their powers? | *laughter* No, because no one in this world knows what that is, because they're separate universes, but it is very clever. If you were doing it, I'd probably let you get away with it. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | The question is: Shallan from The Stormlight Archive being an illustrator herself, an artist, gave me an interesting opportunity to show the world through sketches and illustrations, is that something I thought about ahead of time? In fact that was one of my big goals with The Stormlight Archive , I wanted to-- So I have this feeling on epic fantasy, one of the cool things about it is this sense of immersion, and then the epic fantasies that I have loved the most, things like Dune , if you count that as fantasy it's one of those hybrids, or The Wheel of Time , what they do is they really make this world real to you and that helps these characters, you know I will say that characters are most important but if characters are caring about things you think are silly or interacting in a world you think is not real, you aren't going to believe those characters. And so for me I am always looking for how I can enhance that sense of immersion, and how can I do that without burdening the reader with huge long paragraphs of descriptions of the world around them. And very early in the process of doing The Stormlight Archive I decided I wanted to base a character on Pliny the Elder, which is one of the early scholars in Western thought who did all these sketches and writings-- Back in those days a scientist was everything, right? Darwin did sketches and things like this. You are going to be drawing and writing and approaching all of the sciences and arts as one. Instead of being a person who makes food or stabs other people you are going to do all the other stuff. And that was a really interesting character for me because I was able to develop this idea of "We are going to put sketches in the books". Now The Stormlight Archive , one of the rules with myself is that these all, all the art and there's some thirty pieces of art plus in each book, all have to be in-world artifacts. That's the sense of immersion, right? I don't think we've lost it but it's become a cliche that every fantasy novel has a map in front of it. And that stretches back to Tolkien, but Tolkien's map was the map they used in the book to travel, right? It's the actual map. And I like that, it says "Here's this artifact from the world" rather than "Here is an illustrator from our world giving you this extra information". And so I've taken great pains to say what kind of art they would have, how can I get this into the books, why is it relevant, and how does it help? I found that this helps, particularly with Shallan being a natural historian, sketching out creatures that I don't have to maybe spend quite as long describing-- I still have to because a lot of people listen to the audiobook and I still want them to get the picture, but it just helps cement those things. Anyway, that was one of my big excitements about the world for years and years and it's one of the things propelling me to write it. |
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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Who is the oldest character we know? | Frost is almost certainly the oldest by a small amount. After that, Hoid. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I asked for something about Adolin. | Adolin's entire plot in The Stormlight Archive has been rebuilt because he worked so well in book one. He has a bigger role now. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | POSTMODERNISM IN FANTASY The Way of Kings is out. I’ve been thinking a lot about the novel, what it has meant to me over the years, and why I decided to write it as I did. I’ve had a lot of trouble deciding how to pitch this novel to people. It’s a trouble I’ve never had before. I’m going to explain why this one doesn’t work as easily. But I’m going to start with a story. There’s a particular music video I saw quite often when working the graveyard shift at the local hotel. I worked that job primarily because it allowed me to write at work (I wrote some eight or so novels while sitting at that front desk, including both Elantris and the original draft of The Way of Kings ). However, part of my job there was the do the night audit of the cash drawer and occupancy, that sort of thing. As I worked, VH1/MTV would often become my radio for an hour or so, playing on the little television hidden behind the front desk. The video was by Jewel, and was for the song “ Intuition .” We’ll pretend, for the sake of defending my masculinity, that I paid special attention for the literary nature of the video, and not because I have a fondness for Jewel’s music. And there was something very curious about this video. In it, Jewel transitions back and forth between washed-out “normal world” shots of her walking on a street or interacting with people, and color-saturated “music video”-style shots of her engaging in product promotion while wearing revealing clothing. The tone of the video is a little heavy-handed in its message. Among other things, it is meant to parody rock star/music video culture. It shows Jewel in oversexualized situations, having sold herself out in an over-the-top way. It points a critical finger at sexual exploitation of the female form in advertising, and juxtaposes Jewel in a normal, everyday walk with a surreal, Hollywood version of herself promoting various products. Now, what is absolutely fascinating to me about this video is how perfectly it launches into an discussion of the literary concept of deconstructionism. You see, Jewel is able to come off looking self-aware—even down-to-earth—in this video, because of the focus she puts on how ridiculous and silly modern advertising is. The entire video is a condemnation of selling out, and a condemnation of using sexual exploitation in advertising. And yet, while making this condemnation, Jewel gets to reap the benefits of the very things she is denouncing. In the video, her “Hollywood self” wears a tight corset, gets soaked in water, and prances in a shimmering, low-cut gown while wind blows her hair in an alluring fashion. She points a critical finger at these things through hyperbole, and therefore gains the moral high ground—but the video depends on these very images to be successful. They’re going to draw every eye in the room, gaining her publicity in the same way the video implies is problematic. Deconstructionism is a cornerstone of postmodern literary criticism. Now, as I’m always careful to note, I’m not an expert in these concepts. A great deal of what I present here is an oversimplification, both of Jewel’s video and of postmodernism itself. But for the purposes of this essay, we don’t have time for pages of literary theory. The title itself is already pretentious enough. So, I’ll present to you the best explanation of deconstructionism I was given when working on my master’s degree: “It’s when you point out that a story is relyin’ on the same thing it’s denyin’.” That will work for now. |
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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Why are the Epics, the people with the power, all evil? | So the idea for this story came when I was driving along on the freeway and someone cut me off in traffic, and my immediate instinct was, "You're lucky I don't have any superpowers because I'd blow your car up right now." This is what happens when you're a fantasy writer, right? You have weird instinctual reactions like that. I was very frightened, though, because I'm like, "Wow, I can't believe that's inside of me." It's probably a good thing that I don't have superpowers because I don't know that I could be trusted not to blow people off of the road when they cut in front of me. And that led me down the natural progression to, "What would happen if people really have superpowers?" Would people be good with them, or would they not? And if my first instinct is to use them in this sort of awful way, what happens if everyone starts abusing these powers? And that led me down the road to the story of, the idea of, there being no heroes—there being a story about a common man with no powers, trying to assassinate a very powerful superpowered individual. It's weird talking about this in the terms of superheroes, though, because as I was writing the book, my focus was on sort of an action-adventure feel—definitely using some of the superhero tropes, and the comic book tropes. But I have found that in the fiction I've read, it's better to do kind of a strong adaptation–kind of like movies do. I like how movies have adapted comic books and kind of made them their own, and turned them into their own action-adventure genre. And that was what I was kind of using as a model for this. And so yeah, I wanted to tell the story of this kid—I say kid, he's eighteen—this young man, who wants to bring down the emperor of Chicago, and doesn't have any powers himself, but thinks he might know what Steelheart—that character's—the emperor's weakness is. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So, Vorinism and the safehand, it's obviously a modesty type thing kind of like the hijab. Where does the modesty stop? Or does it go up the whole arm? Okay, so if they had, like, a slitted sleeve? | It doesn't go up the whole arm, it actually ends at about the wrist. That would be fine. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What has been your favorite book to write so far? | I've liked them all for different reasons. Some are fun and fast, others are deep and challenging. My favorite would change day by day based on my mood. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the chain in Celebrant made of Dragonsteel? | RAFO! |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So have you decided who is going to be the focus character for Stormlight 3? | I have not. What I've decided is that I need to actually write out, rather than just having the outlines, write out the three backstories that are left of the first five, and then compare them to the story as I'm writing it, and see which one works. Because any one of them could work, but as I'm writing the book... yeah. It's one of those things that I know I need the flexibility on, as I write, to make it work. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What would Zane have been like without Ruin? Still has Straff. | Zane without Ruin would have been-- It's so hard to say, is it Zane without Ruin but still having the terrible family life that he has? Then still have Straff but he would probably be more of a Straff heir type thing. Like he would be less crazy, maybe more ruthless and... I mean he would still be his father's son. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Did you switch to the signature after you became an author to make it easier or did you-- | It evolved over time. It used to be a little more legible, but not a lot. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is something wrong with Roshar's afterlife? Because of the Tranquiline Halls stuff? Needing to reclaim them? | Uh, why do you ask? Um. So, I'm... not going to answer anything about Roshar's afterlife. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If Miles stored a very tiny bit of health into a gold bead and then burned it, what would happen? Would he see goldshadows for a time and then obtain Compounded health when reaching the charged part of the bead? Would the bead be evenly charged and deliver only health, no gold shadows, but at a very low rate since only little health was loaded in it? Would the bead be evenly charged and deliver only health, but at a standard rate the user would always get when compounding? | He'd hack the system to deliver health for a short time instead of doing what it was supposed to do, but only until the small portion of gold Invested with his Investiture ran out. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was your inspiration for Kaladin? | Kaladin was inspired originally by reading about surgeons in the middle ages. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Does a Shard's power being manifested either physically or not (through metals vs through light) have anything to do with its individual abilities/powers? | RAFO. :) |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What does "Aagal" mean and do Aagal Uch and Aagal Nod ever come in to the Mistborn plot? | RAFO! |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What are the basic requirements for a chalking to function in the Rithmatist world? | I'm going to RAFO that because I'm working on the second book right now and I don't want to-- Yeah. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How did koloss-blooded people happen? | Koloss-blooded people-- A koloss-blooded is the result of two koloss having a child. A full koloss is only made once you accept the spikes and are mutated into the final form. And so a koloss-blooded-- The koloss can breed true now but that's what you get. And so they actually have a ritual at coming-of-age where you can accept the spikes or you can leave. And so all koloss in the wastes-- in the Roughs that are in the koloss tribes are-- have chosen that and outsiders can choose it too. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Are the Ten Essences related to the Ten Shardworld's Form-of-Investiture | They are not as related as philosophers from ancient days, who created those tables, thought that they were. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Since Returned come back as kind of an idealized form of themselves, if somebody was transgender in their original life would they Return as the sex they had been assigned the first time or the gender they identified as? | I would think that a transgendered person could definitely come back as how they identify. Perception is very important in these sorts of things. It would really depend on the person, but yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | The updated Elantris map (from the anniversary edition) includes a city map, and the interior of Elantris looks awfully like Aon Ela. Was it indeed designed so the streets for Ela, and if so - does this merely augment/support the giant Aon Rao, or does it have a separate effect? But does it have an actual effect, or is it just aesthetic? | This was designed this way! It is separate from the shape of the city itself. It doesn't have an effect at the moment. It might once have. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Are spren bound to Roshar or can they travel to other worlds? Could they do so if they were bound to someone that traveled to other worlds? | RAFO. Excellent question, though. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do Rosharans just refer to all birds as chickens and is that a translation error from the Shin? Or do the Shin call them all chickens too? | No, the Shin do not call them all chickens but Rosharans, outside of Shinovar, call them all chickens. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | We were wondering whether you could tell us what Jasnah's sexuality is? The internet really wants to know. | Jasnah does not want to be defined by her sexuality. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What are David and Prof's ethnicities, from Steelheart ? | David and Prof... I have both of them being Caucasian. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If you had to pick any one of your characters to be your new best friend (besides your wife) for the rest of your life, who would would it be and what do you imagine would be your weekend "Let's hang out, but I don't want to plan anything, so let's do the 'usual'" ritual? | I think I'd dig hanging out with Sazed. The usual would be, "tell me about a religion you've studied." |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | You said that you liked video games. What would you say is one of your favorites? You said you played Infamous, have you played Prototype? Yeah... | One of my favorites, I like the Dark Souls games quite a bit. And I've been playing those since they were called King's Field, it's the same company. So I've played all of them since way back when. And I really like the Infamous games, and I really like Civilization, all of those, I've played every single one of those. Y'know I've been tempted a lot, but what I've read from Prototype is that-- Like I played Infamous because I knew you had the choice to not be the bad guy, and I've heard that Prototype you basically don't really have that choice. Yeah, my brother's been suggesting Dishonored, but I'm not-- When I play video games I like to play people that I would admire, you know what I mean? Like I am-- If I have a moral choice system my character is a boy scout. I don't... Yeah, those little walking pixels, I'm not going to, y'know I'm going to mourn if I accidentally run over one of them. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I've been trying to avoid Wheel of Time questions, but I've got one. We need to settle the score... who understood women better: Mat, Perrin, or Rand? It does. That's not just because he's your favorite? | Oh wow, who understood women better? So I'll say this: Perrin understood his woman better than Mat or Rand understood the women that they were interacting with. Does that make sense? I'm going to go with Perrin. Although by the end of the book Rand has recalled his past...no, Lews Therin was terrible with women, so I don't know. I'm still going to vote Perrin. No, I'm going to say it's because he understands human nature the best, despite having this whole wolf side. Or maybe it's because of this whole wolf side that he's able to look from an exterior perspective at the way humans are doing the things they are doing, and relating it. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How do you-- Like both Shallan and Kaladin obviously haven't had good lives, but like-- How do you write these really tragic backstories without them feeling kind of gratuitous or forced? | Good question... This is really about the whole idea of making sure you are avoiding melodrama ... And melodrama-- the defining aspect of a melodrama is a story in which each character only exhibits only one emotional state. A great example of this done poorly is--despite me liking a lot about it--there was a show called Lost ... So there's a character whose son gets kidnapped, and from that moment on the only thing he cares about or talks about is the loss of his son. And it's a very tragic thing for him. Losing your son, I can imagine how tragic that would be, and yet this character became so defined by that one attribute that it turned into melodrama for him. The rest of the characters will be standing around saying "Alright we need to do this thing, these guys are over there with guns, they are going to take us down. What do we do?" And they're like "We should do this." "We should do this." and this guy is like "My son!" They're like "We know you want your son back but--" "My son!" "What do you want for dinner?" "My son is gone! How can I eat dinner?!?". And so having a character exhibit only one emotional state is always going to feel like you just set-- It's going to ruin the character, whatever that is. So a tragic backstory-- People joke about Batman. When Batman is written poorly it's always about "My father's d-- My parents are dead" and when he's working well that's an aspect that influence things he does but it's not the only thing about him. And so that would be my warning to you. You can do all of these sorts of things but make the character's not about -- You know we are in part defined by things like this but as real people we are not about the bad things that have happened to us, we are about so much more. And make that the case, alright? |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you have any, or will you ever write a gay character into any of your books? | There are several. Drehy, in The Stormlight Archive , the bridgeman is gay, because he's based off a good friend of mine who's gay. Ranette in the Wax & Wayne books, the woman that Wayne's in love with, she's gay, and it's hinted at in the first book. By the second book, they're like "Dude, she's gay, just leave her alone." So yes, I have written gay characters. I've never written a gay main viewpoint character, maybe someday I will, it's not something I've done yet. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Shallan's Memory ability to capture an image doesn't seem to be working exactly like an eidetic memory... ...because she can erase it by drawing. Is that tied directly to the magic of Lightweaving? And if so would other creative Lightweavers have similar abilities. | Yes. If you look at the epigraphs there is a big hint on this, where it talks about it and yes... I have problems with eidetic memory, just because scientifically most scientists say this is not a real thing. So I would say that whenever-- Because of my knowledge of the science of it understand that you would need some sort of magical enhancement to be able to do what she does. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | We have a lot of Renarin questions just because he is a character we both care a lot about, just another what could you-- give us a tidbit about Renarin's relationship with Bridge Four? I can live with that. | I can tell you this, here's a good tidbit. You know the books are about ten characters. Renarin's one of them. But Renarin, you know the first five, he's not one of. So Renarin is one of the main characters for the back five, which are focused more on the Heralds, and he is one of the characters with the flashbacks there. So Renarin, you are not going to get everything you want about him until the back five books. So just keep that in mind. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | First of all, how confident are you in your race with [Patrick] Rothfuss for use of the word "Stone" in your title? | You know, it's looking more and more like this might not even be Szeth's book. And if it's not Szeth's book, I may not even name it Stones Unhallowed ; I might name it something else relating to another character, but then again, Kaladin's book was named after the book Dalinar was reading, so anyway. We'll see. I'm pretty sure I will... He has said his "isn't coming out next year," as in coming out this year, and so... I'll have mine done by the end of this year, and it will be coming out next year, so it'll just depend |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Could you spike Elantrian-ness? Like, could you Hemalurgically spike Elantrian-ness? Could you out of a Reod Elantrian? The zombie ones? You could? Okay. Yeah, so it's gonna take two spikes. Alright. | Theoretically, yes. Um, yes you could. So what you would be spiking there is their Connection to...to the planet, first. That's gonna be the big important thing. So you're going to overwrite your Connection. Um, and then you're going to....it's going to be a complicated process because you're going to have to spike the actual ability to have been transformed, that's gonna be harder. Does that make sense? It's gonna take two spikes. And you gonna have to get the right Connection to the right place. Let's say you spike somebody from MaiPon, and then you spike an Elantrian, you're not going to be able to use it, you're not connected to the right area. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What’s your favorite fantasy/scf characters that you haven’t written? | Excluding my books and the wheel of time, Sam Vimes from the Discworld books, I really, really like. I have a strong affection for Harry Dresden. I really am fond of Lesa from Dragon Riders. Dragon Riders was one of the early books that I really really liked. Let’s see, who else. That guy from Dragon Prince. Dragon Prince is one of my favorite all-time books. Who else? Who else is good characters? The Fool from the Assassin books by Robin Hobb that she wrote is really awesome. That’s a good place for you. I would like to say Kvothe, because I love those books, but I don’t think he and I wouldn’t get along. I love the books and think that Kvothe is a jerk, and that’s part of why I love Name of the Wind , because Kvothe is kind of a jerk. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What would a Shardblade do to [a "zombie" Elantrian]? It might cut the arm off... | Um, a Shardblade would...oh boy. A Shardblade...a Shardblade would still be dangerous to them, um, the trick is, um, the Shardblade's gonna treat them half alive, half dead. So, it probably would be kind of a flicker, so it depends on when you hit them. It might cut the arm off. And it might just leave it dead. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Second question, if completely hypothetically, and forbid! - somebody had to do for you what you did for Robert Jordan, who would your choice be? I read McClellan's book on your recommendation. Can you let him know that he needs to put women in his books? | I would probably either pick Brent Weeks, who has a very similar style to me, or Brian McClellan, who is one of my students who is now publishing books, and writing very good books. Those guys, either one, I think would do a fine job. Yeah, that's what I actually told him. My number one criticism when he called me and said, "What do you think of my book?" I said, "You only put one woman in your book, and she's a cliche." She's the friendly cliche, *audio obscured*. The first thing that happens is you get the cliched damsel in distress, then when people realize "Oh, that's being sexist," they then make the girl awesome, but have no personality. That's like step two. Then step three is real characters, and so I did let him know, and he promised he would do better with future books. I think it is the most legitimate criticism of that book, is that he's just bad with women. But you know, my first book I was terrible; I just didn't publish that one. He's unfortunate that he published it. But even in Mistborn , I only had Vin, so we all fall into this trap, and I've read many women who only put one guy in the book, and he's perfect. It's just something that new authors have a problem with very naturally, so hopefully he'll catch on the same way I caught on. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Shouldn't the rest of Roshar be more Earth-like, more Shinovar-like, kind of, with Cultivation on Roshar? | Um, you are mistakenly assuming that Cultivation means Earth-like flora and fauna. Roshar is very bountiful, and, um, like it's not a barren land. Um, Roshar is very, um... It's thriving. Yeah, it just has a different ecology. Um, you're mistakenly assuming that our ecology is the only sort that can be bountiful. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | There seem to be several black trinkets in your books (Vin's obsidian chunk, the polished-to-a-metallic-look pendant Roadan receives as a wedding present, & the sphere Gavilar gives to Szeth) My question is...are these things related? | No. Unfortunately, you've seen a coincidental connection. Several of these things are important, but for different reasons. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Does a more Investiture-poor world make it so its magics are easier to use off-world? Because, you said that Scadrial is really Investiture-poor, and it can be used easily off-world, but Roshar is very Investiture-rich, and how can you get Stormlight off of Roshar? There is a correlation? | Yeah. Um, I would say that there is a correlation. Mmhmm. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So do you ever put a page length limit on yourself? Does the publisher ever put any limits on you? So by the time we get to Stormlight 6 or 7, they'll have to go buy a new printer? | I don't, but I know by gut generally after I start writing how long a book feels. No, they actually haven't. They do ask me if I'll write them shorter, but it's always an ask, and I usually ignore them. In fact, Words of Radiance is the largest book they can physically print with their printer, but the font is not the smallest font they could do yet. So I could actually get about another 100,000 words longer before it gets unreadable. Yeah, I've warned them. I will write it at the length that feels right. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So can you affect [a "zombie" Elantrian] with Emotional Allomancy? | Yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What are ReLuur's spikes made of? Marasi thought they were pewter, but that doesn't make sense. | It doesn't. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | One thing I've noticed around the release of Words of Radiance was you pointing out that The Stormlight Archive is really two series of 5 books each. Was that something you wanted to make clear so as not to be daunting to perspective readers or just more about how the story has developed since you began? | It's a mixture of both, honestly. I do want to be wary of not being too daunting to readers who are jumping into this thing and have been reading The Wheel of Time. They might think, " The Wheel of Time was 'promised' to be six books and it ended up at fourteen. If you promise six, how long is this one going to be?" But it's also because I want to start preparing readers for the break that's going to happen at book five. I'm going to stop writing the series for a few years, and then the "back five" (as I'm calling it) will focus on some different characters than the front five. So I have a lot of good reasons to be preparing people for what's going to happen there. Our expectations are a very big part of our enjoyment of all different kinds of entertainment mediums. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When are you going to write the other Warbreaker book? Last time I came to hear you talk, you said you were going to, and now you have 3000 other projects! | I know, and the Warbreaker fans really get on my case about that. Well, I wrote Words of Radiance , and I got Vasher into it, so that would kindle interest, and make sure that you at least got to see your characters again. But did you hear the story about that? So, I wrote The Way of Kings in 2002, the first version, and in that version Kaladin trained with a swordmaster, and that swordmaster, a guy named Vasher, had a mysterious past. After I finished that book, later on I wrote Warbreaker as a prequel to Way of Kings , to show Vasher's backstory. But then Warbreaker came out before Way of Kings , which was a really kind of interesting thing. So in my head, Warbreaker is the prequel, but to everyone else... Yes, it is a totally different world, different planets, people get around... Well, a huge chunk of it…! If you were reading Way of Kings, you would know nothing, and then you’d read Warbreaker and you’d be like, “Oh, here’s a whole past that he had!” That doesn’t mean it’s all of his past. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you tell me something about how the people of MaiPon came to their knowledge of Realmatic Theory? | Through study + observation. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was your inspiration for coming up with Szeth? | So... I designed his culture first, one of the odd cases where I was working on the culture, and out of that grew his character, at odds with his culture. So I wanted somebody who was both the paragon of his culture and the person who was at odds with it. That concept just worked for me. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | You've said that there are three types of Blades in The Stormlight Archive . We've seen "dead" Shardblades, Honorblades - is the third type the "living spren" Shardblades, or is there another type we haven't seen? | Nightblood is a very unique kind of Shardblade, but IS a Shardblade. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is something wrong with Roshar's afterlife? Because of the Tranquiline Halls stuff? Needing to reclaim them? | Uh, why do you ask? Um. So, I'm... not going to answer anything about Roshar's afterlife. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When you're writing YA do you ever feel-- Because I was feeling this while reading the Alcatraz novels-- Do you ever feel like you're limited in what you can explore by not wanting to go too dark or too complex for a certain audience? Or when you are writing that sort of story does that not really... | Complexity does not enter into it, for me, except for the fact that I generally focus on one character. And so there is a complexity issue there, in that, you know, it's like I'm doing one, maybe two, viewpoints. And I think it's basically coming because when I'm choosing a story I'm matching a story to an age, I'm not matching an age to a story, does that make sense? So when I say "this is a YA story" that's because it exhibits the sorts of things I want to tell-- exhibits the sort of things that work for that market. I don't tend to write down but I do tend to keep the number of viewpoints more limited, just to keep the books a little less thick. So yeah, yes but not really. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So when Renarin was writing the countdown to the Everstorm, how conscious was he of what he was doing and how in control was he? | He was not terribly in control, he was somewhat conscious. But you will find out a lot more about this, that-- Yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was the book that was the hardest to write for you? Why? | It would definitely be A Memory of Light , the last Wheel of Time book. Well, number one, I had been following that series for 20 years, and I was finishing off the writing of an author I respected a lot, and trying to fill his shoes, and not being able to do it because no one could, and the end of a journey. Every other book I've finished, I know if I wanted to I could go back and write more about those characters. Wheel of Time , I can't. It's done. It's not mine; I can't go write another book about Mat or Perrin or anything like that. So there's a finality to finishing that book that I haven't had with any of my other books. And then in addition, logistically it was a very difficult book to write. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is neurodiversity a requirement to become a Radiant? Like do you have to be non-neurotypical? | Read the back of Words of Radiance for your answer, the back of the cover. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Both Parshendi and Horneaters are able to see spren, ordinary humans can't. Is there a connection between these abilities, or do they come from completely different sources? | Horneaters are human/Parshendi hybrids. (There are several Roshar races that have Parshendi blood in them.) |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the time between Desolations regular? | No. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I've gotten both Legion books from Subterranean Press, and I was wondering if you've planned on doing any more through them. | I would like to. The thing is, it is kind of a hassle, just because working out release dates and things like that, part of the reason to do - I think they do gorgeous editions - but part of the reason to do the e-book things is so that I can be a little bit more spontaneous in releasing them and things like that, and so I'm likely to continue, but it is a bit hard. This time, we were like, "Why don't you guys just release a limited edition, and we'll do a print edition," but then they were like, "No, please don't do one." So I think I'd go back to letting them do a cheap edition and a limited edition if I did another one with them, I don't know. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Finally, what point, usually, is society at when a Desolation comes? Because Taln was prepared to introduce them to bronze... ...and Alethi society is so far beyond that. | Yes. Yes. Historically a lot of the-- What would happen with the Desolations would destroy all civilization and then the Heralds would leave, and leave people basically in the Stone Age again. And they came back numerous times and found humankind still in the Stone Age, after having left. And so they are prepared-- Sometimes they would come back and they would already be in the Bronze Age or-- and things like that and get them beyond that but frequently they had to be ready, the Heralds learned they had to be ready to try and bring humankind forward several thousand years worth of technology in a year. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How much do you use science to influence/guide your world building in what most people would identify as a fantasy setting? | I use it quite a bit, but as I'm writing fantasy, I go by the rule "do what is awesome first, then explain it." Meaning, I am looking to tell a certain kind of story, and while science is often a springboard into a magic, I will sometimes chose to do what I think makes the story better as opposed to what is scientifically rational. The way the Metallic Arts work with mass is one example. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Could a sentient Invested object take up a Shard? | Highly unlikely, probably impossible--but impossibility is hard to judge. |
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