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Question about unreleased works


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Hopefully this is the right section to ask this...

Anyway, new member (but a Brandon Sanderson fan of several years) with a question; I recently re-read Way of Kings, and it got me thinking about the Cosmere and Brandon's longterm plans for books set in it. I've run across the names "White Sand", "Silence Divine", and "Dragonsteel" for projected Cosmere books, and I was wondering what all we know (if anything) about them beyond the names? I get the impression that these are far enough into the future that we can't even really speculate about release date (and I certainly don't expect any information about involved Shards until the books themselves come out), but is there any info out there on setting/world names/magic systems/rough ideas about plot for any of these, and are there any other hopefully-forthcoming Cosmere books that I've missed (I know about the projected sequels to Elantris and Warbreaker, further plans for Mistborn trilogies, and of course, Stormlight)?

Thanks for the assist!

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I've been thinking how I want to go about this post. Sometimes it is hard to distill the essence of a book down.

White Sand was the first book Brandon ever wrote. He rewrote it later, and the book essentially got him his agent, though they decided to do a different book instead. It is a Shardworld trilogy, and the planet it is set on is called Taldain.

The Silence Divine is a standalone cosmere book. Its planet is set in the same solar system as Roshar. I vaguely recall its magic system being about you getting magic, but it also gives you some sickness or impairment, but don't quote me on that.

Dragonsteel was Brandon's master's thesis when he got his Master's in Creative Writing at BYU. There is a single copy in existence at the BYU library which you may be able to get via Inter-Library Loan, but a lot of people want to read it, too. Dragonsteel is a five book series, set on Yolen. There are two novels set on that world which happen before the main Dragonsteel arc. The first of those books is called The Liar of Partinel. Liar was the book Brandon wrote before the Wheel of Time hit him, but he only got a very rough draft of it done.

Some minor cosmere stuff in the spoiler tag.

The novel Dragonsteel has been implied to have some cosmere clues. In addition, in the Liar of Partinel sample chapters (which you can find here), a person named Hoid dies, and his apprentice, Midius, takes up the mantle of "Hoid".

This suggests that Yolen is the origin world for Hoid. Plus, since Hoid was there when Adonalsium was Shattered, it's entirely possible that Liar is in fact the book where Adonalsium is Shattered. The book's ending is supposed to "reveal too much," so Brandon does not distribute it. Very few people in the world have read Liar.

Does that help? :)

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Um... I can clarify on Silence Divine. What happens is when you get sick you gain powers. So for example, you get the common cold, and while you have it you can fly; or if you have a tickle in your throat, you might just breath fire. I believe (though, this is just my guess, and if someone demands I can give explanation) that the main character is going to go deaf, and from it gain some sort of power.

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Thanks a lot! I'd seen some of this info before (at least in part because I googled it around the same time that I made the post :P ) but it's nice to see it all laid out. Now, on a semi-related note, the post-Alloy of Law Cosmere books that we know to expect are Stormlight 2 (late 2012-early 2013) Stormlight 3 (a yeard or so after 2) and Elantris 2 (aiming for 2015), correct? Thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is Brandon still sending out drafts of White Sand and Aether of Night if people ask him nicely? I did that and was very pleasantly surprised he responded with the word docs attached.

I've asked twice with no response.... so no idea what the parameters are...

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Silence Divine hasn't been written.

Best way to get White Sand or Aether of Night is to email Brandon through the web interface and ask.

Thanks Peter. I tried that, but didn't get a response. It's obviously not a big deal and totally up to Brandon, who as Chaos stated is probably just busy! Can only imagine how much email he gets.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the info! I figured it was Cosmere (considering the wiki didn't mention it being YA or something that was attached to another property, like WOT or the recent novella) but I've been trying to put together a general outline of planned Cosmere stuff, so I really appreciate knowing for sure.

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I know Brandon hasn't stated how many Shardworlds there are, probably for this very reason. I was under the assumption a good deal of Aether was cannibalized, so I personally would not be surprised if we don't see it. That's okay.

Then again, what do I know?

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Brandon cannibalized the magic system and at least one character from Aether of Night into Liar of Partinel. But that book didn't work and he hasn't decided if it will stay cannibalized into the Dragonsteel series or if he will separate it out again (when he gets around to rewriting Liar of Partinel from scratch).

Some aspects of Aether of Night were also put into the Mistborn series. Decay in that book is Ruin. Obviously Ruin would not show up in a different Shard book now. Aether is the trunk novel with the most overt Shard presence. Also, it was never intended to be a standalone, especially with the blatant sequel setup at the end. None of Brandon's trunk Shard novels were meant as standalones, unless you count Elantris with its non-immediate sequel.

Edited by PeterAhlstrom
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I wanted to ask a clarifying question. All of these non-published books, including his master's thesis -- none of them are canon, right? I can totally see people wanting to read them, but you can't utilize stuff from them to try to modify existing, or create new theories... Is that correct?

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I wanted to ask a clarifying question. All of these non-published books, including his master's thesis -- none of them are canon, right? I can totally see people wanting to read them, but you can't utilize stuff from them to try to modify existing, or create new theories... Is that correct?

That is correct. Brandon can change and alter stuff at will. It isn't canon until it is published. If someone posts theories based on Aether or Dragonsteel stuff, I wouldn't allow that.

But. The cosmere has rules. Reading the unpublished works can shift your knowledge on its rules. If that adapts your knowledge and helps you generate theories, well, we can't stop anyone from doing that.

Of course, publicly known unpublished materials, like the Liar of Partinel sample chapters, can be talked about, but that stuff is decidedly non-canon.

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Brandon cannibalized the magic system and at least one character from Aether of Night into Liar of Partinel. But that book didn't work and he hasn't decided if it will stay cannibalized into the Dragonsteel series or if he will separate it out again (when he gets around to rewriting Liar of Partinel from scratch).

Some aspects of Aether of Night were also put into the Mistborn series. Decay in that book is Ruin. Obviously Ruin would not show up in a different Shard book now. Aether is the trunk novel with the most overt Shard presence. Also, it was never intended to be a standalone, especially with the blatant sequel setup at the end. None of Brandon's trunk Shard novels were meant as standalones, unless you count Elantris with its non-immediate sequel.

Out of curiosity (and I've probably missed something along the line) what is the meaning of a "trunk" Shard novel? I saw on the Reddit Q&A that Mistborn, Stormlight, and Dragonsteel kind of formed the "core" Cosmere arc; would I be right in guessing that the "trunk" novels are Elantris, Warbreaker, and others that aren't part of those three? Or does it mean something else? Sorry if this has been answered before :)

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