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Turanga Leela

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Hey there. As you can see from my name, I'm a Futurama fan, but I'm also a new Mistborn fan. A few weeks ago, I was aimlessly clicking around on a Sci-fi/Fantasy forum, and came to a thread about Brandon Sanderson's books. My "well-tuned reading instincts" told me that Mistborn might be a good book, so I reserved it from the library and read the whole original trilogy. Well, I loved it. As soon as I finished them, I thought I would look into other books of his online, and found this forum. I'm not new to foruming, so I look forward to joining another community and discussing his stuff. :D

 

I have a question, though... What is the significance of the "17th Shard"? Something that pops up in another series of his?

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Welcome!

 

Hehe. Hehe. Indeed.

You see, you know how when you read Mistborn 1 you had no idea about Ruin and Preservation and big picture stuff? It gets bigger, and that's where the 17th Shard comes in. But I'll leave it to you to read some more and discover it for yourself because  I'm evil it's more fun that way. :D

 

I'd highly recommend reading Alloy of Law next, which is set on the same world as Mistborn, approximately 300 years later. Then I'd try Warbreaker, or The Stormlight Archive for more awesomeness.

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You see, you know how when you read Mistborn 1 you had no idea about Ruin and Preservation and big picture stuff? It gets bigger, and that's where the 17th Shard comes in. But I'll leave it to you to read some more and discover it for yourself because  I'm evil it's more fun that way. :D

 

I'd highly recommend reading Alloy of Law next, which is set on the same world as Mistborn, approximately 300 years later. Then I'd try Warbreaker, or The Stormlight Archive for more awesomeness.

 

So, Ruin and Preservation aren't even the big picture, huh? XD He has so many books; which ones are directly related to the Mistborn world? (Besides the Alloy of Law)

 

Right now, I'm reading Elantris. I have Warbreaker as well, and after I read that, I'll have to go buy Alloy of Law... (When I went to the bookstore last week, I had finite money, so I had to make a choice... -_-)

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So, Ruin and Preservation aren't even the big picture, huh? XD He has so many books; which ones are directly related to the Mistborn world? (Besides the Alloy of Law)

 

Right now, I'm reading Elantris. I have Warbreaker as well, and after I read that, I'll have to go buy Alloy of Law... (When I went to the bookstore last week, I had finite money, so I had to make a choice... -_-)

 

Welcome to 17th shard!

 

Big spoilers for the cosmere in general below, not directed at any one particular book. Read at your own risk.

 

Elantris and warbreaker are both 'related' to mistborn as well, though not so directly as allow of law which is set on the same world.

 

17th shard is a reference to a group of people who don't make any DIRECT appearances in books yet.

 

Essentially, big picture stuff:

 

Long ago there was a creator/god/thing called 'Adonalsium', which eventually split/broke up into multiple (16) shards. Ruin and Preservation are two of these shards. All of Brandon's Cosmere novels focus on a shardworld, that will have one or more of these shards. The plots of the books themselves don't generally have much to do with these shards, but the 17th shard is a group of people who are looking for all of the shards. Not terribly much is known about them.

 

These shards are generally taken up by a mortal that transforms them into some form of 'god'-like creature embodying whatever aspect their shard is attuned to. These shards are generally the source of the magic in a particular shardworld.

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Oh dang, Survival is that you? o:

 

While ah, 'direct connection' is something of a tricky question here, there is a bigger picture! It's not quite so overt, but you can catch hints here and there in Brandon's related books if you keep an eye out for 'em. Usually I like to let people read a bunch of his books before introducing them to the big picture, but it seems you stumbled across 17S quickly, so it might be hard to avoid! xD 

 

Hope you enjoy the forums, at any rate!

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Whoa! :o Shroom?! It's a small World Wide Web after all. ._____________________________. I didn't even read the post before I saw your avatar and was like "?!?!??!"

 

Not so small, I suppose, given that this is, along with IF/LF, a fantasy fan forum. But still.

 

I'm glad for Eerongal's summary. I like having a big picture to compare the plots to, and things. XD I saw one of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive books in the library, and dang, was it big. <_< Don't know when I'll get around to reading that.

 

But thanks!

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Always great to see a new acolyte minion member!  :D

 

If you ever have questions about Sanderson books, try going onto the Coppermind Wiki, which is the official Brandon Sanderson wikipedia. One page - linked here - will be of great use for you in understanding the Cosmere. Be careful, since it's got spoilers! I recommend finishing the books you have before reading the page. It's also a bit mind-blowing.  :P

 

Oh, and while Stormlight Archive books are MASSIVE, they are truly worth the read. They're Brandon's best books, in my opinion.

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So, Ruin and Preservation aren't even the big picture, huh? XD He has so many books; which ones are directly related to the Mistborn world? (Besides the Alloy of Law)

 

Right now, I'm reading Elantris. I have Warbreaker as well, and after I read that, I'll have to go buy Alloy of Law... (When I went to the bookstore last week, I had finite money, so I had to make a choice... -_-)

All of those are related, plus The Emperor's Soul and a handful of other short stories in anthologies.

I will absolutely agree with the Panda that Stormlight Archive are Brandon's best books so far. But no harm leaving the best for last, right? :P

Enjoy!

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So, Ruin and Preservation aren't even the big picture, huh? XD He has so many books; which ones are directly related to the Mistborn world? (Besides the Alloy of Law)

Right now, I'm reading Elantris. I have Warbreaker as well, and after I read that, I'll have to go buy Alloy of Law... (When I went to the bookstore last week, I had finite money, so I had to make a choice... -_-)

Welcome to 17th Shard! :)

How far are you into Elantris?

I'm in the middle of it as well. :)

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Yup. And now with

Szeth holding on to Nightblood

, it's getting curiouser and curiouser!

I'm still in shock about that. I cannot see how it will turn out well at all.

Although I was referring to him in term of storytelling :P

 

 

And there we go off topic again!

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It's the first time two worlds are really overlapping and I'm SOOOOOOOO dang hyped for Stones Hallowed.

Also, derailing first threads seems to be a skill we all have in common :D

To be fair, it's a fairly common skill 'round this place :).

 

Way too much hype for a book that won't be out for around another year and a half....and no more mistborn in between either. I mean, I can't really complain, but gosh does Brandon know how to keep you waiting!

 

It's like that old joke, how do you make a fool wait in suspense? I'll tell you tomorrow.

How do you make Sanderfans wait in suspense? Give them a book and wait a week.

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Way too much hype for a book that won't be out for around another year and a half....and no more mistborn in between either. I mean, I can't really complain, but gosh does Brandon know how to keep you waiting!

According to Wiki, the sequels to Allow of Law are coming in 2014 and 2015. So that's should tide us over for a while. Hopefully. Brandon is an extremely fast writer considering the scope of his works.
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According to Wiki, the sequels to Allow of Law are coming in 2014 and 2015. So that's should tide us over for a while. Hopefully. Brandon is an extremely fast writer considering the scope of his works.

Last I heard, Shadows of Self (AoL sequel ) was pushed off till after Stones Unhallowed, mainly because after a 4 year gap between WoK and WoR, Team Sanderson didn't want to set a precedent of massively long waits between Stormlight books.
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Lol, I told that to a friend of mine and the next day she asked me, "how?" Classic Audrey.

If it makes you feel any better (why am I admitting this?), the first time I heard the old 'Gullible has been taken out the dictionary", I was young and stupid enough to believe it. For years. And I didn't know what it meant because I couldn't look it up.  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:.

 

To be fair, I'm not entirely sure if I could read yet at that stage......what a horrible state of life, not being able to read :o

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If it makes you feel any better (why am I admitting this?), the first time I heard the old 'Gullible has been taken out the dictionary", I was young and stupid enough to believe it. For years. And I didn't know what it meant because I couldn't look it up. :lol::lol::lol:.

To be fair, I'm not entirely sure if I could read yet at that stage......what a horrible state of life, not being able to read :o.

That happened to me too. I don't think I could read either. :D

You're not alone on that one, Delightful :D

Edited by Queen Elsa Steelheart
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So, I finished Elantris. Not as happy with it as I was with Mistborn. It was less absorbing, the characters were a little less dynamic, and I kind of felt like he crammed too much world-building into one novel. It felt more like typical fantasy to me. But still, it wasn't a bad book. It was, after all, his debut. So much was left unanswered, though. D: So very much. Do they answer much in the Emperor's Soul?

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