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Oathbringer Cover Reveal and Release Date


Chaos
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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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anyone else think that looks like some dustbringer action raising that massive cloud? I know... I'm reading way too much into it lol

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I think that's the thunderclast's steps shaking the earth and knocking some dust free.

A lot of dust.

Dustbringers, to my knowledge, couldn't actually shape dust to their will.

They just destroyed stuff. A lot of stuff. Which is badchull :D

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23 minutes ago, bleeder said:

I think that's the thunderclast's steps shaking the earth and knocking some dust free.

A lot of dust.

Dustbringers, to my knowledge, couldn't actually shape dust to their will.

They just destroyed stuff. A lot of stuff. Which is badchull :D

Well... that Thunderclast is HUGE. I mean... In the books Dalinar tells that the Thunderclast is "5-6 times the size of a man". That thing on the cover... It's "Shadow of the Colosus" huge. 
They'll need a Dustbringer to kill that monster. I can't see how some (2-3) Shardblades could do it. 

(I'm guessing Soulcasting won't work on them as they are creatures invested with a spren/investiture. Am I right?)

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1 minute ago, Axies said:

 

Well... that Thunderclast is HUGE. I mean... In the books Dalinar tells that the Thunderclast is "5-6 times the size of a man". That thing on the cover... It's "Shadow of the Colosus" huge. 
They'll need a Dustbringer to kill that monster. I can't see how some (2-3) Shardblades could do it. 

(I'm guessing Soulcasting won't work on them as they are creatures invested with a spren/investiture. Am I right?)

I would say so. Well done, my observant friend!

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12 hours ago, Ecthelion III said:

WoR spoiler:

  Reveal hidden 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.

 

Not necessarily. It isn't obvious to a casual observer that the person on the front is Jasnah. It could easily be a new character, or a different artistic imagining of someone else we already know (e.g. Navani). Just looking at the cover shouldn't ruin anything.

Now, reading the cover copy or the dust jacket info would clear it right up, but looking at those out of order is just asking for spoilers.

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10 hours ago, Extesian said:

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

If you look very closely, it appears that all of the steps are actually floating. Which I... don't think is something Elsecallers do. My personal theory is that nothing's floating at all and Jasnah, in true anime fashion, is soulcasting stairs from the air and then running up them even as they fall to the ground. Sure, it's terribly inefficient, but it looks really cool, so, worth it.

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15 hours ago, Ecthelion III said:

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

I guess.  But as @ccstat mentioned, at least it shouldn't be to much of a problem.

3 hours ago, FeatherWriter (Alyx) said:

If you look very closely, it appears that all of the steps are actually floating. Which I... don't think is something Elsecallers do. My personal theory is that nothing's floating at all and Jasnah, in true anime fashion, is soulcasting stairs from the air and then running up them even as they fall to the ground. Sure, it's terribly inefficient, but it looks really cool, so, worth it.

Can this please be the reason? Inefficient, but indeed awesome. And like anything good for you, it's Awesome on multiple levels. (excuse all the puns in the last sentence).

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Oh my gosh, Jasnah is wearing a glove. And wielding a sword with her left hand. Better cover up before the ardents find out how naughty you've been, Jasnah!

In all seriousness, as much as I enjoy the stormlight covers, they aren't made to be perfectly accurate. I doubt we can glean information from Jasnah's 'floating'. Most likely, it's just exaggerated to make it look dramatic and awesome. Which it does.

But yeah, Jasnah fighting a Thunderclast?! If anything could make me more excited for Oathbringer, that would be it. 

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Maybe Jasnah is floating using an honour blade, or was infused by a windrunner

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Did anyone else notice that Jasnah isn't covering her safe hand? Isn't that like a taboo among the Alethi? I would really like to know how that came about. I bet it would be so interesting! I so can't wait for the book to be released! 

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1 hour ago, Zennix said:

Did anyone else notice that Jasnah isn't covering her safe hand? Isn't that like a taboo among the Alethi? I would really like to know how that came about. I bet it would be so interesting! I so can't wait for the book to be released! 

it's all good, she's wearing a glove, so not too scandalous :ph34r:

i'm super excited too! this book will be so awesome

 

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*Thunderclast breaks down wall and pokes its head in*

"Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour Odium?"

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Jasnah's blade seems to be distorting... Do you think that's what it would look like cutting through living matter?  That's what it reminds me of, but I don't know why it would be distorting here...

 

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Are...are those spears the same ones from the Kaladin chapter icons?

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5 hours ago, Ward said:

Are...are those spears the same ones from the Kaladin chapter icons?

I thought they were Listeners. They may be Kal's crew, though. Interesting.

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4 hours ago, bleeder said:

I thought they were Listeners. They may be Kal's crew, though. Interesting.

Parshendi (Listeners) usually use heavy weapons like axes. On the other hand, the spear is a usual weapon of war among the Alethi darkeyed soldiers. Therefore, it's difficult to prove that those are Kaladin's men. 

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It looks to me like there are two storms colliding since there are two colors - red and blue. Which would explain why she has enough stormlight to make her air stairs. =)

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On 3/18/2017 at 11:15 PM, CayJoBla said:

Jasnah's blade seems to be distorting... Do you think that's what it would look like cutting through living matter?  That's what it reminds me of, but I don't know why it would be distorting here...

 

I believe that the distortion is due to the fact that it is currently materializing. The reason that she didn't already have Ivory in Bladeform is that he was busy being those disappearing stairs. If the stairs were Soulcast, they would just look like rock and would not fade away. This assumes, of course, that we are to take the appearance of the stairs as canon-bound and not due to artistic license. 

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Quote

(Hey, remember at Way of Kings' release when Brandon said the future books would be shorter? Hahahahaha.)

Yeah, I burst out laughing when I read that. I didn't know he'd said that previously, but it does make it hilarious. :lol:

I've heard from the stabby AMA that they may have to adjust page margins and such to actually get it printed, since current printers printing presses mints publishing machines can't make books that big. :lol:

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DrakeMarshall

Posted (edited)

This is amazing.

I'm sure the cover takes artistic license so maybe don't read into it too much...

But it tells us a few things definitely. Jasnah is going to be a major character, for one (I know the character the book is centered on is Dalinar, but I'm guessing Jasnah takes a much more active role in this book than she did in WoR, or in WoK. I'm guessing there will be substantial parts of the book written from Jasnah's perspective). Also it tells us that the desolations are going to come in full force during the book (something that should be obvious giving the ending to WoR). The presence of stormclast knocking in walls, red and blue lightning in the back, and a wall of spears... This will be epic.

Also. With the wall of spears. It looks very much like the insignia on that flag is the same crab-like one we see on Dalinar's back in the WoK cover. So I'm guessing those spears are Alethi infantry in Dalinar's army. Possibly Kaladin's squires.

Edited by Drake Marshall

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I think this is my favourite cover so far. Anyone have any idea when the paperback will be released though? The hardcover will stick out like a sore thumb with the other two books.

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1 hour ago, jay792 said:

I think this is my favourite cover so far. Anyone have any idea when the paperback will be released though? The hardcover will stick out like a sore thumb with the other two books.

I assume you mean mass market paperback and not trade paperback? If that's the case its usually about 1 year after the hardcover release

 

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I'd like to mention that Jasnah is not emitting stormlight. Is this just a graphic effect, or does this mean something?

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Awesome cover! I don't mind the high page counts but these books are getting heavy! But at the same time having to buy two paperbacks stinks. 

Edited by Mollymortensen
Typo

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