Recent entries

    Oathbringer Portland signing ()
    #6803 Copy

    Hoiditthroughthegrapevine (paraphrased)

    If Nightblood were in the cognitive realm and was used to stab a bead that was the cognitive representation of a castle, would the castle be destroyed in the Physical Realm?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    If you could get Nightblood into the Cognitive Realm, then yes. 

    Hoiditthroughthegrapevine (paraphrased)

    What would happen to people who were in the castle at the time? 

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    They wouldn't be affected (other than possibly plummeting to their death).

    Hoiditthroughthegrapevine (paraphrased)

    How about a carpet that had been in the castle for 50 years? 

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    No, 50 years most likely wouldn't be enough time. 

    Hoiditthroughthegrapevine (paraphrased)

    Is this like the "Ship of Theseus?" 

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yes

    Miscellaneous 2014 ()
    #6806 Copy

    aeromancer (paraphrased)

    So would it be possible to use Steelrunning + compounding to travel FTL?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    No, it would not. You could get close, though.

    aeromancer (paraphrased)

    Kind of like Zemo's Paradox, than? You keep halving the distance, never quite making it?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    *gleam in his eye* Trying to crack Allomatic FTL?

    aeromancer (paraphrased)

    *guilty* Maybe.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    You can't.

    aeromancer (paraphrased)

    I don't know, there are alot of good theories out there.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    It involves Allomantic abilities which we don't know about yet.

    Miscellaneous 2014 ()
    #6809 Copy

    Peter Ahlstrom

    Come on, guys, there are major major reasons Roshar can't possibly be a moon and one of the moons a gas giant. Think about it.

    digitalbusker

    Nobody ever remarks on how one of the "moons" takes up a quarter of the visible sky?

    Peter Ahlstrom

    Each moon is in the sky only once per day and moves across the sky in a couple to a few hours. What does that tell us about their orbits?

    Could a gas giant be far enough away to look like a small moon, yet have this rapid of an apparent motion? (The answer is NO.)

    Kurkistan

    That they're really fast/close, I would think. Perhaps unusually so...  

    Peter Ahlstrom

    You may not be aware, but Mars's moon Phobos orbits in less than 8 hours, and gets less than 6,000 km from Mars's surface.

    Kurkistan

    Curses! Foiled again by SCIENCE!!!

    Okay, so the orbits aren't magically augmented.

    Still, that leaves us some information. The three moons are likely captured asteroids, then, rather than having split off from Roshar during its formation, Luna-style. Three captured asteroids at the same time in relatively stable, seemingly very close orbits... Anything significant in that, science people?

    Peter Ahlstrom

    I expect the moons were put in their current orbits artificially, but by whom or what I do not know. On astronomical terms, these are not stable orbits, but astronomical terms means millions of years. A few thousand or even a few hundred thousand years are no problem.

    By the way, I minored in astronomy while at the university, for expressly science fictional purposes.

    Leiyan

    Were the moons also artificially created, or were they originally formed naturally?

    Peter Ahlstrom

    I don't know.

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6812 Copy

    Questioner

    You were in Toronto, and you read something you'd written on a plane about a really young girl, and a coffee machine...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, young girl with a coffee machine, yes, that was the Apocalypse Guard. The opening of it turned out really well, then I lost control of it, spiraled out of control. I haven't figured out how to fix it yet, but I actually pulled it from the publisher. And I will eventually release it, but I gotta fix it first. It was mostly worldbuilding issues. It just didn't come together at the end; too implausible, too many things to keep track of, too many infodumps.

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6813 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    The other thing that I might end up doing is, Dan and I are working on noodling on The Apocalypse Guard its possible that would be after Skyward, next YA thing. Because I've already written one book and the Dan can write the second book and then I write the third book. So taking a little pressure off, something like that. Dan has really good ideas on how to fix that book.

    SparkleHearts

    So is it gonna be kind of like a shared universe thing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, we would just co-author it, Brandon and Dan. What would happen is I've already him-- Like, the the first book. The idea is that he'll rip out the bad chunks and write newer things to go in there, and then he will write a second book, and then I write a third and together we have a trilogy. Which could work really well because Dan's strengths as an author really align well with my weaknesses, and my strengths align really well with his weaknesses.

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6814 Copy

    Questioner

    Will there be a Hero of Ages leatherbound edition?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, it will be this Christmas. Isaac just turned in the Hemalurgic Table artwork. So we shipped it to the publisher last week, so we should have them in time for Christmas. And the Hemalurgic Table, he knocked that one out of the park. We've been waiting a long time to get that one.

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6816 Copy

    Questioner

    Is Skyward in the Cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, Skyward is not in the Cosmere. It started out there, and I pulled it out for continuity reasons. It is related to something else I’ve written in the past, though.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #6817 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, that's called The Apocalypse Guard. I'm not exactly sure when it's gonna get published, because I had some real troubles with the plot near the end of the book that kind of broke down. And I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them. I gave it to a friend of mine who's a really good writer, Dan Wells. And he's been working on the book and coming up with suggestions and things like that. Sometimes that happens with books. The Way of Kings, if you've read that one, I originally wrote the first draft of that in 2002. It wasn't until 2010 that the book finally came out. Sometimes you just need to let a book sit for a little while. So this one will sit for a little while. It might be a year or two before I figure out what I want to do with it. But eventually that will come out. My father is planning already for me to have the launch party up here. He is very, very proud of having influenced the Iona part of this book.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #6818 Copy

    Questioner

    How do I decide whether to do first person, or third person?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Good question! If you're a writer, one thing I'll mention to you if you haven't watched them, I recorded my BYU university lectures, which are on writing science fiction fantasy, and put them on Youtube. So if you just Google "Sanderson lectures," you'll find my whole class there, and I do a whole section on first and third person.

    It breaks down to a couple of decisions. Third person tends to be really good with a large cast. Because you can take this large cast and you are constantly mentioning their name. It's actually a pretty big deal. First person... How often do you guys finish a first person book and you can't remember what the character's name was? You've read a whole book about them. And if you have three or four characters, jumping between, it gets real easy to lose perspective. And first person also, depending on how you do it, can sometimes lack a little bit of immediacy. Because the person themselves is telling the story, there's a part of your brain that says, "Well, they obviously survived long enough to tell me their story." Even if they're telling it in present tense, or even if you know that occasionally you'll read a first person book where it turns out they were a ghost all along or something like that. Like, that happens. But there's just this sort of thing in our brain that says, first person tends to work really well for a single narrator, maybe two, in a story that they are telling yourself that they can infuse with their voice. Third person tends to work very well for longer epics, and tends to work with multiple viewpoints a little bit better. It's just easier for readers to track and things like that. Partially it's just kind of a gut instinct, what feels right for the book.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #6819 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    The other thing that was working for this character, that really made me interested in writing her story, was that she had a really failed Instagram. Not very good at it, thought she was better than she was. And I started putting little... she'll write out (you'll see one of them, when I get to it), she writes out what she calls Emma's Instructions. And these are just lists of things on how to live your life, that she writes out. The theory is, she's gonna post them on her blog.

    So this character was really, really interesting to me. Particularly when I matched her up with the story I was working on, which is: the secretary to the Justice League has to save the world. So what it is is, Emma (I'm gonna read from the middle of the book, so I'll catch you up), she is an intern to a group called The Apocalypse Guard, which is basically a super hero team. They are not in the book. She is in the book, because they end up getting called away to do something, and through a kind of weird set of circumstances, she ends up on a planet that is doomed to be destroyed in a couple of weeks that they were planning to save. But they all have been called away to something else, and she's the only person from the Apocalypse Guard on the planet. She's the intern. And she's not very prepared for this, she does not speak the local language, it's kind of an apocalyptic wasteland that she's landed in. She's found a couple of people to be her guide, at this point, you'll see. But she has no idea what she's doing. And all she knows is that the planet's going to be destroyed in three weeks.

    I actually did the worldbuilding on this based on some of the old-school concepts of the Flood. Where some of the old writer's believed, before Noah's Flood, all the water was in the sky, and you could see it up there, in the firmaments they called it, and then it came crashing down. And before that, some of the medieval theologians thought that there were no oceans until the water came crashing down. So I've always found that a really interesting image, so that's what's happening on this planet. She'll look up, and there's water in the sky. Big ocean in the sky... that is going to come crashing down in three weeks.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6821 Copy

    Wetlander

    Please explain what you will about Shards and Splintering and Slivers.

    Brandon Sanderson

    An event happened long ago which destroyed something called Adonalsium into 16 pieces. And 16 people took up that power.

    Questioner

    People?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I call all intelligent species people. If someone takes up the power and lets go of it, it has the effect much like a balloon that's been stretched and then the air is let out. I call that a Sliver; based off of the Lord Ruler calling himself the "Sliver of Infinity". The Lord Ruler is someone who held the power and then released it. And so, current Slivers are the Lord Ruler, Kelsier, and there may be others around who at one point held the power and let go of it. A Splinter is a term used by certain people in the cosmere for power of Adonalsium which has no person caring for it, no... no person holding it, which has attained self-awareness.

    Wetlander

    So is that like the mists and the Well? Are they...

    Brandon Sanderson

    They are not, because they have not attained self-awareness. But, the Seons are self-aware. So, any piece, for instance there were some spren on Roshar before Honor and Cultivation got there. Those were already Splinters of Adonalsium where he had left power which attained sentience on its own. So, it can be intentional is what I am saying, does that make sense? You have seen other Splinters.

    Wetlander

    Are the highstorms related to the Splintering of Honor?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The highstorms are more related to the mist from Mistborn which terminology we have not discussed yet. You have seen Splinters quite a bit on various planets.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6822 Copy

    Questioner

    Is the Palanaeum named for Palah?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. In fact, it was named based on—it was Greek in our world—the Athenaeum? It was based off of that.

    Wetlander

    Did we see Palah?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I believe every one of the Heralds is mentioned or shown somewhere in the first book.

    Wetlander

    Someone was wondering whether the old woman who was wandering around the Palanaeum was her.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is a very good guess. I won't say specifically, because some of them are intended to be more obvious and some of them are intended to be red herrings. So, that was a very good guess.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6823 Copy

    Wetlander

    Was Odium able to Splinter Honor because the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Good question. Um, their abandonment of the Oathpact is related... but mostly tangentially. If I was pinned down on that, I would say no.

    Wetlander

    Is there any of the Oathpact still functioning because of Taln's continued participation?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, indeed.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6824 Copy

    Wetlander

    Did the Splintering happen before the Recreance?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will reveal this as we go. However, be aware that in the past, when a Shard was killed, the person holding it, it is a slow burn to actually kill someone; because power cannot be destroyed. So, what it means to be killed means something a little different in these cases.

    Hoser

    Did Tanavast survive Honor's splintering?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Tanavast is dead. Good question. However, that is as of the start of The Way of Kings.

    Hoser

    So he could have survived the Splintering...

    Brandon Sanderson

    He could have survived the Splintering.

    Hoser

    ...as a mortal...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, he could have survived for a time, but then he could not have then...

    Hoser

    ...passed away in his sleep...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6825 Copy

    Hoser

    (Speaking of the division surge) Is that a re-framing of, at one point in time you were talking about weak/strong forces?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um, weak/strong forces, yes, that's the one that sent me there partially. Like, I'm not actually... the idea of the fundamental forces is a cool thing to me so it's not like I'm actually trying to use the weak and strong forces, the idea of there being fundamental forces. I wanted to go off on it in a fancy way. Like this one right here I told them was surface tension. But it's not really surface tension. It's more like um, the people with this could take a piece of cloth and snap it out and it would become hard as if the cloth became steel. I'm trying to explain this scientifically, but it doesn't work scientifically. Imagine as if they could restructure the atoms so that they became a latticework like a crystal rather than being soft like...cloth. I'm calling it surface tension, but it's not really surface tension.

    Hoser

    Tensile strength?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's kind of like tensile strength. I have to go through Peter and say "Alright Peter, come up with what we should really call this." He does the hard science a lot better than I do. I do the armchair theories and then he goes, "Ok, now this is the math if someone were to actually fall off of this and 0.7 gravity and the weight of the bridge...". (looking back at the chart) So what can I give you that I didn't give her? Um, one of the orders is called Bondsmiths.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6827 Copy

    Questioner

    What was the inspiration for the necromancer pizza delivery story?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Death by Pizza. I came up with laws of necromancy that I thought would be super cool and I tried to find a book that would fit it. And, that book was fun, but bad. The rules were that necromancy is someone that has been killed and returned to life and each time they return they are more powerful. So a guy who has died five times and got more powerful throughout the course of a novel is a cool archetype that I thought would be a fun thing. So, it's like at the end of the novel, "I need more power, so do I die and get it? Or, not" and things like this. It was a cool concept and even with a mash-up with an urban fantasy world, the world was not built enough so that in the end it was like he was running around an empty city not one populated with as much mythology and wonder and storybook as I wanted an so I eventually said it isn't working and maybe I’ll pick it up again another time.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6831 Copy

    Questioner

    Will The Alloy of Law be a trilogy of its own or is it just going to be the one book you read from tonight?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, the 1st one was The Alloy of Law, the one I read from tonight is the sequel, so there's at least two. I signed a contract with, well, I haven'’t signed anything yet. I offered Tor two more beyond The Alloy of Law; so, Shadows of Self and one more. So, I have promised Tor three of them.

    Questioner

    So, there could be more?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have not plotted this one. It does not have the same sort of interconnected arc as the others. It could go further. I think I would cautiously most likely do three or four and stop and if I wanted more short books like that, I'd pick different characters in a different location.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6835 Copy

    Questioner

    The change in how the magic (on Scadrial) interact with each other, was that done by Sazed?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes it was. You will find a theme. The snapping in Mistborn is actually a repeated theme through a lot of the different magics. Um, but what I felt at the end of the day Sazed would do something about it. So, even though that is part of the magic system, he changed that. The change to Feruchemy is more a matter of other factors such as the large amount of interbreeding that happened following...and things like that. And so a lot of people with Feruchemy sDNA mixing with people with people with Allomantic sDNA has affected the way the magics blend, so to speak. That's not done by Sazed. That's just kind of an effect.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6837 Copy

    Questioner

    Are there going to be other characters other than Hoid that will be crossing over between books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, in fact there are characters in the way of kings... I told people that there is a Terriswoman in Warbreaker somewhere, I believe that would be somewhat hard to spot. That one, I don't think you will be able to pick out until you see her later on and then go back and say 'wait a minute'.

    Steelheart Seattle signing ()
    #6841 Copy

    Questioner

    As far as I can tell, in The Stormlight Archive, we have seen three different lights: the stormlight, the amberlight in the flashbacks, and the dark light in the stone. Do those correspond to the three Shards?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, the amberlight is more a function of...it's no different than the stormlight.

    Questioner

    So, you see that in a storm? Like when gems gather that in the storm?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That amberlight is more related to... so, no... you are not seeing something other than stormlight. That is like saying that stormlight in a topaz is a different color than stormlight in a sapphire. It's not different colors; you're just seeing it filtered through something. The dark light of the, um, the gemstone that Szeth was given is indeed something different and distinct.

    Questioner

    Voidlight?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, it is related to a different shard. How about that?

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #6842 Copy

    Questioner

    What was your... like, with The Rithmatist, cause that's my favorite story, I love the plot. What inspired it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Muggle at Hogwarts. Kid who goes to magic school who does not have any powers.

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6845 Copy

    Thousandarms97

    I know Allomancy is, like, "alloy" and "mancy." Were you inspired by "alomancy", which is the divination of salt?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wanted to use "mancy" because in part I was working in a seeing-the-future with atium. And I thought: number one, it's resonant; and number two, it works because we are looking at the future. So that's where the name came from.

    Thousandarms97

    No future salt-based magic system, though?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No. I've toyed with it for a while, but I just have never come up with anything that I'm satisfied with.

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6847 Copy

    Questioner

    In the '80s arc of Mistborn, is there going to be a lot of traffic in Elendel? Because I worked for Google Maps for two years mapping Paris and London, downtown, and I take one look at that map, and I'm like, "Oh, they're gonna have traffic problems."

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. We anticipate really tough traffic. And they thought they laid it out well, but...

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6848 Copy

    Questioner

    The Letters in Stormlight Archive. Wit and Sazed; are those the two people that are talking to each other?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Wit and Sazed are both involved in the Letters. Sazed is in there, and there are others, as well.

    WorldCon 76 ()
    #6849 Copy

    Questioner

    Rithmatist? Is there...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Someday, there will be a sequel. I sat down and tried to write it. And I ran into some things that were just kind of problems, both in the worldbuilding and in the story I was gonna write, and it just didn't work. So I put it aside, and I've been working on the outline, and when I feel comfortable that I can do a sequel that's as good as the first one, I will write it, but it was not going well enough, that I felt it was... something was missing. So, I will take another stab at it before too much longer...

    I now wish that I had not left that little teaser at the end of the first one. If I would have wrapped that up a little tighter, then you wouldn't have... I mean, I would still write it, but I feel bad about that teaser that there's more when it has been hard to get that sequel done.