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Oathbringer Cover Reveal and Release Date


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Today, we got the cover for the third Stormlight novel, Oathbringer. It's also by Michael Whelan, featuring Jasnah being totally awesome. This scene is quite evocative, so maybe you can glean some plot details from this. We also get the scheduled release date for the book, and an Oathbringer update on Reddit.

Here's the cover:

oathbringer_cover-final.jpg

Whelan describes the scene in the Tor.com article: "We’re centered on a scene where Jasnah confronts the invaders. A giant has smashed a breach in the city wall, and Jasnah is called upon to restore it. After dispatching several invaders with her Shardblade sword, she covers the gap with a brassy wall of magical metal. It’s a very visual scene, in which I saw a lot of possibilities for good images."

I will say that the expanded cover looks quite a bit cooler than the zoomed in part on the front cover:

oathbringer_cover-full_art_final.jpg

So we see Jasnah with her Shardblade (uh... spoilers if you haven't read Words of Radiance?). There's a city under attack, and in the background we see a number of cool things. First, we see a lot of red lightning, probably the Everstorm. I would rate the situation as being "quite bad" by the looks of it. Then there's a giant thing in the breach. People on forums suggest its a thunderclast, and that seems like a reasonable assumption. If you look closely, Jasnah isn't actually floating , but is on some stairs of glass, probably Soulcast.

On Tor.com you can see more of Whelan's sketches of this scene and how it proceeded. What do you think of the cover? What city do you think it is? Tell us all your thoughts.

We also get a release date: November 14th, 2017. Astute readers already knew this from Amazon, but we wanted to wait to a more official source. Tor says that is when it is scheduled, so that isn't definitive, but it seems quite likely. 

One more bit of Oathbringer news: Brandon posted another Stormlight update on Reddit. Oathbringer 3.0 was finished, incorporating feedback from Team Sanderson and Tor, and he recently wrote the epigraphs and epilogue. The length of the book is insane, at 514,000 words, which is 100,000 longer than Words of Radiance. (Hey, remember at Way of Kings' release when Brandon said the future books would be shorter? Hahahahaha.) I expect revisions might cut this down a bit, but it's still huge. Brandon says the US hardcover release will be in one single volume, but for the paperback, there may be two volumes released at the same time. That's about it, though Brandon does finish with: 

As always, thanks for your patience. Beta read responses to the book are strong, so I think you'll be pleased with the result come this fall.

Comment below on this exciting Oathbringer news, or discuss the cover on the forums, too!

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15 minutes ago, PallonianFire said:

Uhh, if you look closely, Jasnah is floating. Neither of her feet is on a step...

Ah, okay, fair enough! 

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Probably one of my favorite covers from Whelan. I really really love his portrayal of Jasnah here! Honestly my only quibbles are that his first black and white draft in this pose had lighting that made the brass look more metalic than it does in the final, and the thunderclast seems a bit wonky, but other than that? Spot on. Jasnah in particular looks amazing.

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Just now, FeatherWriter (Alyx) said:

Probably one of my favorite covers from Whelan. I really really love his portrayal of Jasnah here! Honestly my only quibbles are that his first black and white draft in this pose had lighting that made the brass look more metalic than it does in the final, and the thunderclast seems a bit wonky, but other than that? Spot on. Jasnah in particular looks amazing.

Yeah, I thought the metal was sand at first. Then I saw it was metal. 

The cover is still... whew. 

I literally teared up at this.

Someone send tissues.

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3 minutes ago, Lwarch said:

Shouldn't the cover be Dalinar... Still pumped though.

Nah. Dalinar was on the cover of Kaladin's book, and Kaladin was on the cover of Shallan's book. I'd say it makes plenty of sense.

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17 minutes ago, DSC01 said:

Nah. Dalinar was on the cover of Kaladin's book, and Kaladin was on the cover of Shallan's book. I'd say it makes plenty of sense.

Implying that the next book will be Jasnah's?

Also, I think it was Eshonai on the WoK cover. Could be wrong though.

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Well, the next book is almost definitely going to be Szeth's (maybe Eshonai), so I don't think the cover art really implies anything. As for the subject of TWoK's cover, Eshonai is there, but that's Dalinar in the foreground. The little figure off in the distance is Eshonai.

Image result for the way of kings

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Huh - never actually paid much attention before, but I don't think that's right.  Why would Dalinar be holding a Crab sigil pennant and wearing a crab cape?  I mean he is kind of crabby, but...

Edit: Is it that that sword matches Oathbringer's description?

And then the background figure is holding a spear, not a shardblade.

Edited by ArborealEtymologist

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18 minutes ago, ArborealEtymologist said:

Huh - never actually paid much attention before, but I don't think that's right.  Why would Dalinar be holding a Crab sigil pennant and wearing a crab cape?  I mean he is kind of crabby, but...

Edit: Is it that that sword matches Oathbringer's description?

And then the background figure is holding a spear, not a shardblade.

Yes, we know for sure it's Dalinar and Eshonai.

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I understand Brandon taking time to write novellas helps his sanity, but what about mine? I haven't read a full length Brandon Sanderson novel since yesterday (Reread Mistborn). This is why I try to stay off the shard in between books. It's so PAINFUL.

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Cover looks great. Can't wait.

I remembered reading a discussion ages ago on here that dealt with the cover of TWoK and also had some interesting designs of different symbols for Dalinar's cloak design.  Here's a link. Took a while to find.

 

 

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WoR spoiler:

Spoiler

Now literally everyone who has seen the Oathbringer cover will know that Jasnah's death was a fake. Kind of takes the suspense out of it for late readers.

 

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2 hours ago, Ecthelion III said:

WoR spoiler:

  Hide contents

Now literally everyone who has seen the Oathbringer cover will know that Jasnah's death was a fake. Kind of takes the suspense out of it for late readers.

 

Well that's the penalty for starting a series at the third book. Now starting at book 4, you sneaky time travelers. At least its not as bad as Alcatraz making fun of you with a extra magazine if you start the Alcatraz series at book 4.

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1 hour ago, Secrets said:

Well that's the penalty for starting a series at the third book. Now starting at book 4, you sneaky time travelers. At least its not as bad as Alcatraz making fun of you with a extra magazine if you start the Alcatraz series at book 4.

I meant just seeing the cover of the third book, like at the library or something.

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11 hours ago, PallonianFire said:

Uhh, if you look closely, Jasnah is floating. Neither of her feet is on a step...

I like to think she's simply jumping sideways down each step, mocking the Thunderclast with her Jasnah-don't-give-a-chull attitude. 

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It occurs to me looking at this, that for Roshar, those are really thin walls. Even Earth cities would often have thicker walls. If you have storms that throw boulders happen every week or two, then you really do need thicker walls, on the city exterior. 

If course, if this is a purely internal wall, then there is no problem at all. 

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