The Brandon Sanderson Thread

[theMountainGoat]

I think its just a symptom of this modern world.

I quite admire how open Brandon is with keeping his readers up to date on what he is doing, the progress bars on his website, blog entries, tweeting, etc.

Speaking of:

Scene #19 is done. Deep breath. I'm beginning the last scene I will write in the Wheel of Time, then will add RJ's ending.

[theMountainGoat]

Ladies and gentlemen, A Memory of Light--the final book in The Wheel of Time--has been finished.

Of course he means just the first draft is finished, I'm sure there will be many months of editing, revision and rewrites before it is finished finished and then another couple of months before we get our hands on the finished book. But still it is good to know that this stage has finally been realised. I was 13 when I started reading Wheel of Time and while it had a few wobbles in the third quarter of the series I still have a lot of fondness for it over 20 years later. I'm looking forward to the end.

[jdiddyesquire]

He just announce the completion of A Memory of Light on Twitter. Live tweeted finishing the last few chapters all night.

[Werthead]

I was doing some checking to see if Hoid showed up in Alloy of Law beyond writing the appendix (and namechecking Sel, the name of the Mistborn planet) and was surprised to see a lot more developments in the Cosmere 'shared world' stuff, a lot of it emerging from detailed re-readings of The Way of Kings. Most surprising was that minor characters from both Mistborn and Elantris actually show up in Way of Kings as Hoid-like world travellers, apparently looking for him:

There are three world-travellers, named Temoo (or Grump), Thinker or Blunt (aka Vao). These are minor characters present during Hoid's visits to other worlds in other books in the Cosmere setting, and have been recruited by an organisation known as the Seventeenth Shard to find Hoid. Blunt/Vao actually appears in a book written (in early draft) but not published yet, so he'll actually 'first' appear in a book yet to be published. However, Thinker is Demoux, a captain in Kelsier (and later Elend's) army in Mistbornand Temoo is Galladon, a reasonably major character in Elantris (he helps Raoden acclimatise to life in Elantris). The Seventeenth Shard appears to be an organisation which disagrees with Hoid's approach to combatting the evil forces of the Cosmere, but is not evil or antagonistic itself (so far).

Also interesting is a letter which Hoid writes and appears in the book.

This letter identifies Rayse, the holder of the Shard Odium, as the principal foe and antagonist of the Stormlight Archive series and possibly the entire Cosmere multiverse. Odium - the Shard representing evil and antagonism for lack of a better term - is apparently the most powerful and evil of the Shards, even worse than Ruin (the letter identifies Ruin - who left behind a human corpse at the end of Mistborn - as Ati, apparently a good and virtuous man utterly corrupted and destroyed by the Shard). Rayse previously visited Sel, the Elantris planet, and killed two rival Shardholders there, Aona and Skai, and splintering their Shards into lesser powers. Rayse is apparently now on Roshar and may have been the founder of the Voidbringers.

Oh yeah, and Hoid is in Alloy of Law:

He's the old beggar at the wedding who is speaking to several people.

Some other interesting tidbits from sifting through various Sanderson wikis and forums:

The current plan (subject to change) is for Sanderson to write Stormlight #2-5 sequentially, interspersed with several Wax/Wayne Mistborn side-novels. He'll then write the Mistborn II trilogy, followed by Stormlight #6-10 (possibly interspersed with Warbreaker II) and then the Mistborn III trilogy. After that, we might get the seven-volume Dragonsteel series (which is apparently a duology followed by a five-volume 'main' series). Dragonsteel sounds like it goes right back to the start of the Cosmere mythology and will explain Adonalsium and the Shards. Apparently Sanderson was working on a draft of the first Dragonsteel book, The Liar of Partinel, when the WoT gig came up but chose to delay it as it explains way too much about the setting, so it's been put way back. Assuming Sanderson keeps to one book a year and can put out a Wax/Wayne novel in addition to the 'main' novel of any given year, that means we have 16 books (9 Stormlight + 6 Mistborn + Warbreaker II) and potentially 16 years before we get to Dragonsteel :o And that's not counting Elantris II which is apparently still planned for some point (possibly after the third Stormlight book).

Impressive, though I think waiting until 2027 (at least) until we get the full story of the Shards seems hardcore. Though Sanderson will only be 52 at that point, so it should be doable.

EDIT: Whilst looking through the wikis and forums there is an interesting reference to there being a bright star cluster in Scadrial's sky (Scadrial being the Mistborn planet). That might be important for the Mistborn III trilogy (which will apparently involve magic-powered FTL travel to other star systems), or alternately some of the other Cosmere star systems may lie in that cluster.

EDIT2: Apparently Sanderson originally envisaged 36 books in total for the Cosmere setting (not counting the Wax/Wayne novels, which are additions). We are currently only six books into that with a lot more to go :)

[Grack21]

O.o

[Tammy]

Of course he means just the first draft is finished, I'm sure there will be many months of editing, revision and rewrites before it is finished finished and then another couple of months before we get our hands on the finished book. But still it is good to know that this stage has finally been realised. I was 13 when I started reading Wheel of Time and while it had a few wobbles in the third quarter of the series I still have a lot of fondness for it over 20 years later. I'm looking forward to the end.

Is he putting chapters of the Wheel of Time books online like he does his other books. I suppose I could look but I'm being lazy.

[Aximand]

At the Alloy of Law release party Brandon said that he wasn't planning on pre-releasing any Memory of Light chapters if I remember correctly. The Great Hunt this time was just for revealing some of Robert Jordan's notes I think.

[nickg]

Hmmm, I guess I need to read Mistborn. I like the whole Cosmere idea. 36 books is a freaking ton of writing ( and reading ) but if they can all entertain me as much as Warbreaker and Way of Kings, I'd be more than happy to read it all.

[Gormenghast]

I usually love these Grand Plans but there's an aspect of it about Sanderson that just doesn't convince me.

What he seems doing on this upper level doesn't seem to have any more novelty or relevancy than what he does on the level of a single book. Doing a metaverse is fine, but beside it looking cute the overarching plot needs to rise the stakes higher, to step up a level also in significance. Instead it seems being mostly about a powerplay of an handful of godlike characters. So what happens on this macro level isn't any different than what happens in the micro: so why bother?

A thing made of parts, but the "whole" of it doesn't seem to add anything more to it. He should put some kind of motivation into this beside just the desire to link the books and settings.

[Werthead]

What we've seen so far (in the trilogy and the first two stand-alones) has been fairly incidental. The Stormlight Archive will bring the matter into sharper relief (and already has done), so I think we'll see the relevance more in this series. To what degree the Cosmere stuff 'breaks cover' and more casual readers will become aware of the situation remains to be seen. It may be contextualised as a struggle on Roshar just by itself and Rayse will merely be the 'big bad' of the world (as Ruin was for Mistborn) with references to the rest of the Cosmere continuing to be easter eggs. Either that or we will see the bigger picture start to emerge.

From the sound of it, Dragonsteel will takes us right back to the Shattering and reveal exactly what the heck is going on. It may play a role similar to the Dark Tower series in King's work (taking the side-references and combining them into a coherent narrative), which is what makes the long wait for it somewhat disappointing.

[peterbound]

I wish his writing was as good as his ideas/plans. If he could somehow make the two match up, i'd actually give a shit.

[Mack Kilimaro]

Any time I hear about Brandon Sanderson's ambitious book plans, I can only think he's nuts. I mean, think about this: what is the hallmark of the epic fantasy series in modern times? Starts out as a trilogy or five books or whatever and keeps expanding, expanding... and here comes Sanderson with his planned ten-book Stormlight Archive and now he's talking about a plan for a 36-book master universe overstory or whatever. That's some mad genius level stuff right there.

On the other hand, he doesn't show any signs of slowing down yet. I think he may actually be a robot.

[Samalander]

From the sound of it, Dragonsteel will takes us right back to the Shattering and reveal exactly what the heck is going on. It may play a role similar to the Dark Tower series in King's work (taking the side-references and combining them into a coherent narrative), which is what makes the long wait for it somewhat disappointing.

1) King didn't really manage the side references very well, contradicting himself at times, and rewriting stuff at other times. Brandon, presumably having a master plan from the very beginning, should fare better.

2) In your list you neglected to mention Warbreaker and the one day to be written sequel Nightblood.

[Migey]

Is it confirmed that the Warbreaker sequel will be called Nightblood? And is there any other info on it? I enjoyed Warbreaker a great deal and would be interested in a sequel.

Also, did Brandon have plans for the cosmere setting or the way the future books would tie into an overarching story when he wrote Elantris and the first Mistborn books?

Two more things - one thing i have been wondering about for awhile but havn't found any discussion about - all of his stories feature different magic systems, which is indeed one of the most interesting bits about his books. What is the explanation for the fact that all these different worlds in the same universe have completely different magic systems?

And last, just how big are the planets his stories are set on? I am not a scientist but i was under the impression that a planet had to be a certain size for it to support life, but the worlds we see in some of his books seem way too small to be even a sizeable fraction of an entire planet - are the rest of these planets just irrelevant, or will we see more of the world in say Mistborn, in the future?

[aidan]

Is it confirmed that the Warbreaker sequel will be called Nightblood? And is there any other info on it? I enjoyed Warbreaker a great deal and would be interested in a sequel.

Yes. At least that's what Brandon refers to it as. Who knows what Tor will decide to call it, though Brandon's name likely allows him to title his books however he wants.

[Werthead]

Also, did Brandon have plans for the cosmere setting or the way the future books would tie into an overarching story when he wrote Elantris and the first Mistborn books?

My understanding is that the Cosmere setting/story was created by Sanderson when he was 17 (so twenty years ago now). How that setting and story percolates out through his book has change a lot in that time, but the idea of a cosmological masterplan has been there all along

Two more things - one thing i have been wondering about for awhile but havn't found any discussion about - all of his stories feature different magic systems, which is indeed one of the most interesting bits about his books. What is the explanation for the fact that all these different worlds in the same universe have completely different magic systems?

The magic systems are linked and are essentially the same thing - the ability to manipulate energy - that manifests through different concepts (so the symbols on Elantris, the metal-based magic of Mistborn and the numerous magic systems of Way of Kings are all the same thing channelled through different methods).

There is also the shared mythology:

Sixteen normal humans have come into possession of the Shards, fragments of a powerful, godlike entity or force. Each Shardholder gains superhuman, godlike powers but also risks being corrupted by it. Two, Ati and Leras, took the Shards of Ruin and Preservation, and became the Ruin and Preservation of Mistborn. Another, Rayse, took the Shard of Odium and is now the big bad of Stormlight Archive. Shardholders are present, but much less active, on the Elantris and Warbreaker planets.

And last, just how big are the planets his stories are set on? I am not a scientist but i was under the impression that a planet had to be a certain size for it to support life, but the worlds we see in some of his books seem way too small to be even a sizeable fraction of an entire planet - are the rest of these planets just irrelevant, or will we see more of the world in say Mistborn, in the future?

Sanderson's planets are much bigger than what we see in the maps:

Everything in Mistborn happens at the north pole, as only the polar regions are habitable at the start of the series. By Alloy of Law the planet is still a lot warmer than Earth - the polar regions are clearly free of ice - but more habitable overall. Sanderson has said that there are also civilisations at the south pole and we will meet them in later Mistborn books/trilogies.

[Migey]

Thanks for the clarification Wert! Much appreciated.

I do think the explanation for the different magic systems in the same universe seems a little hollow, but the books are fun enough to read that i don't mind.

But if an Allomancer hopped over to the world of Warbreaker, or Kaladin ends up on the Mistborn planet, would he keep his powers?

[Kosciuszko]

Generally, no, powers don't work that way I don't think. I've read some theories that investiture, which hasn't been mentioned that much in the books (only mention I can think of has been in Alloy of Law, actually) could remedy this.

[Maltaran]

Wert, where did you get the info on the shared mythology?

[Werthead]

Brandon's talked about it on his forum for years, ever since Elantris first came out. There's a dedicated fan community at 17th Shard who also keep track on the situation (try looking for things like 'Hoid' on their wiki).