Elena she/her Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 So, it is truth universally acknowledged that Brandon has been planning for a while to split the SA into two major blocks of five books each -- with some time passing between them. I love the idea. WoR seems to pick up immediately after WoK ended, which is great, but I'm a big fan of character development and there's nothing better than time passing to see your favorite characters evolve. That said, many people here seem to assume that the time-gap is going to be a major one - I read posts saying that it will be decades or centuries between the end of Book Five and the beginning of the sixth. This... is less appealing to me. I love these character, I want to see them changed, not dead. But hey, at least I had time to prepare myself for the inevitable. Until Bradon said that Renarin will have a book. So, since the remaining three slots for the next books are all covered, I'm assuming Renaring will be still around in book 6 -- or he can be dead, but he has to be dead for a relatively short time; otherwise his flashbacks won't be relevant to the story anymore in the massively different reality that would ensue after decades/centuries. Basically, this thread is me asking - was the lenght of the time-skip ever actually addressed, or was the supposed 'incredibly long time gap' only a fan myth? What do you think it will happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandalhearts Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 The time skip is not centuries but years I think. Since Renarin and Lift have been confirmed as POV characters in the second set, centuries wouldn't make any sense. So we could potentially see our current favorites like Kaladin and Shallan serve roles like Dalinar and Navani. Not very in depth but still present and involved in the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkanimereal1 Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 At the Dayton signing, Brandon talked about this. I have it recorded, although I haven't been able to write up a transcript of it yet. Basically he said something like this: There WILL be a time gap between books, but not so long that the characters from the first arc will be gone. They WILL be in the second arc. Also, from a different WoB, we know that the Heralds will be more prominently featured in the second arc than the first. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena she/her Posted March 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 At the Dayton signing, Brandon talked about this. I have it recorded, although I haven't been able to write up a transcript of it yet. Basically he said something like this: There WILL be a time gap between books, but not so long that the characters from the first arc will be gone. They WILL be in the second arc. Also, from a different WoB, we know that the Heralds will be more prominently featured in the second arc than the first. This is excellent news, thank you. I really like the idea of a time gap (still mourning GRRM didn't write one back in 2005!) but I want to keep reading about these characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cracknut he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Centuries would make sense if they fail to save the world this Desolation but humanity somehow survives and new characters take up Oathpact go to Damnation and come back after 400-500 years. This is unlikely but considering how much we got in second book if Sanderson is going to keep this up nobody knows where we'll be after 5 books. Characters already found Urithiru, became KR and fought against Voidbringers. 8 more books without some major plot twist would be impossible at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griff he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) i seen an interview where he said there would be a big gap between books 5-6 which is disappointing in my opinion,was hopin for one story arc across all ten books like true epic fantasy,"there's nothing better than time passing to see your favorite characters evolve." you can do this with out a time gap and its far better without one,steven erikson showed every one how it should be done with the malazan book of the fallen series was hoping this was gonna be sandersons version/answer of/to that in a way so kinda disappointed its not,the two books so far have bin great,but just disappointed not one story arc,potential for it to be best epic fantasy ever was there but with a split time line its gone i think Edited March 23, 2014 by Griff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shale Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 At the DC signing he said it would be a ten-year break between books five and six. And then he had to quell a panic by clarifying that he meant ten in-story years. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levian Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 At the DC signing he said it would be a ten-year break between books five and six. And then he had to quell a panic by clarifying that he meant ten in-story years. Oh man that's hilarious! I can only imagine the look of horror on people's faces. Personally I'm not a huge fan of this, I was also hoping for one continuous story arc. I don't know how many people would agree with this, but I found in Wheel of Time there was some awesome character development throughout the books without any time lapse. You got to see how the events of the previous book slightly changed a character, and each book would have direct impacts on their personality. I have a feeling that it's more to skip past some possibly boring times - well maybe not quite boring, but parts that don't really need to be told over a whole book. Like _Elena said, I with GRRM would have done this. I did NOT need to read A Feast for Crows, it was terribly boring being in the POV of a lot of non main characters and it seemed like not much happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cracknut he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 i seen an interview where he said there would be a big gap between books 5-6 which is disappointing in my opinion,was hopin for one story arc across all ten books like true epic fantasy,"there's nothing better than time passing to see your favorite characters evolve." you can do this with out a time gap and its far better without one,steven erikson showed every one how it should be done with the malazan book of the fallen series was hoping this was gonna be sandersons version/answer of/to that in a way so kinda disappointed its not,the two books so far have bin great,but just disappointed not one story arc,potential for it to be best epic fantasy ever was there but with a split time line its gone i think It's impossible to have a single story arc with time-skip or something? I'm happy with time-skip simply because I can't see how these newbie Radiants would stand against Odium when old ones barely could even with Heralds, their knowledge and generations of KR. And as far as I know this series isn't about getting another Oathpact cycle going on, good guys have to stop Odium forever. I would be more disappointed if they accomplished it on their first try and it took them less than a decade while much more developed people of Roshar fought it for millenias and failed. Btw Malazan had a lot of time skips. Most likely you're just forgetting them because books were more episodic and there wasn't any major time-skips after GotM timeline. Remember Karsa and Trull Sengar. Whole Midnight Tides book was set 10(5? 20? not sure) years before main story, so you could say that every single book in series was set after time-skip between Midnight Tides and main story. Karsa has a same kind of time-skip. And I can't remember more but there are a lot of little things you could call time-skips but simply because Malzan got so much story going on at the same time and very untidy timeliness makes it look like it has none. If story was written in a chronological way it would've been more obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griff he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 the time skips in the main story of malazan was negliable tho, yes there was jumps back to flush out the story some characters like the ones u mentioned but it didnt jump years into the future and all the stories came together to form one time line den,think that is very different to where jumpin decade or 2 in to the future to where the protagonists we know are that much older and intoducing new ones awell, and if memory serves sanderson said they were two different story arcs, with sum cross over of characters from the first story arc,given the slow pace of the books(which I like ) and given the size of roshar and the different factions etc y jump 10 or 20 tears plus when so much can do without it? thats all im sayin and just my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awesomeness Summoned he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 I think @Levian had the right if it with the SoIaF reference. GRRM initially planned three books with some time jumps but then after the first two books decided to write what happened in the gaps. Ended up with books that, for the most part, could have been skipped. They are still interesting reads but not critical to telling the story. We don't know what happens at the end of stormlight 5 and the start of 6 but seeing how Brandon has had this planned out for a while, I'd imagine there is a good reason for the gap. I would rather he didn't write ten years worth of material if nothing significant happens. A small scale example is the Harry potter books. Would you have wanted Rowling to include everything that happened to Harry over the summer holidays? There were also months of time skipped even while they were at school because nothing important to the story was happening. True, they were the same main characters after the gaps but I don't think Brandon plans on dropping everyone we love from the first half. They will still be in the story, just won't be the main PoV's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aminar Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 I like the idea of a major 5 book arc, with the 10 book arc being set up within them, but the characters that handle it being less prominent.(Renarin and Lift for instance.) It makes sense that Renarin's flashbacks will be the gap between the two books(Possibly him dealing with Dalinar's death or the lilke during that timespan. There is nothing wrong with the epic fantasy having a split arc like that, and Stormlight books are so far, much more reader friendly and in depth than the confusing jumble of characters that makes up the Malazan books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armless writer he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Oh man that's hilarious! I can only imagine the look of horror on people's faces. Personally I'm not a huge fan of this, I was also hoping for one continuous story arc. I don't know how many people would agree with this, but I found in Wheel of Time there was some awesome character development throughout the books without any time lapse. You got to see how the events of the previous book slightly changed a character, and each book would have direct impacts on their personality. I have a feeling that it's more to skip past some possibly boring times - well maybe not quite boring, but parts that don't really need to be told over a whole book. Like _Elena said, I with GRRM would have done this. I did NOT need to read A Feast for Crows, it was terribly boring being in the POV of a lot of non main characters and it seemed like not much happened. Remember all the main characters for the books will have flashbacks from the last ten years like in the first arc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b4dave he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 So basically you want him to be like Robert Jordan, not skip a thing, and have huge unnecessary books put into the series, slowing it down, rather than just covering what happens during that gap in the flashbacks of the later books? I will state here that I am not ripping on Robert Jordan, but I felt in his later books (winters heart and beyond) that a lot could have been left offscreen and brought up later in conversations or something... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena she/her Posted March 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 I will state here that I am not ripping on Robert Jordan, but I felt in his later books (winters heart and beyond) that a lot could have been left offscreen and brought up later in conversations or something... This. RJ wrote himself into a corner and it took Brandon three books to get out of it - and the story still felt rushed IMO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorwinofAmber Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 The flashback structure helps facilitate the gap. I'm sure the gap will have a compelling narrative reason - Brandon's books are too well constructed not to - and the flashbacks (handily established at the very beginning of the series) can fill in all the important bits. It makes extra sense for Renarin. Why would you want a Renarin flashback without a gap? It would seem like there would be too much overlap with Dalinar's in book five; a time gap give him something to flashback about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zionite Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 So does that mean the True desolation will only begin at the end of book 5? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistdork she/her Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Personally I'm not a huge fan of this, I was also hoping for one continuous story arc. I don't know how many people would agree with this, but I found in Wheel of Time there was some awesome character development throughout the books without any time lapse. You got to see how the events of the previous book slightly changed a character, and each book would have direct impacts on their personality. ...there really needed to be some time-skips in Wheel. Winter's Heart is a dreadful read, and even in some of the books before it there wasn't much happening. Mind you, I love Wheel of Time, it got me into epic fantasy (while everyone else was reading Harry Potter), but sometimes certain authors feel like they can't skip ANYTHING. I've talk to some of my friends about time-skips too, and they think that time-skipping is bad story telling...It isn't! Time-skips tastefully done can add a lot to a novel... Also, the Mistborn Trilogy had some (small) time-skips, no, they weren't ten years, but I trust that the Stormlight books will be find even with such a 'big' gape. There's probably a really good reason for it, so, I'm really not that worried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadavidas Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 This only has some revalence to the discussion since someone said upthread that the time skip is about 10 years... But do we know they effect, if any bonding a spren has on aging? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyman he/him Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 ...there really needed to be some time-skips in Wheel. Winter's Heart is a dreadful read, and even in some of the books before it there wasn't much happening. Mind you, I love Wheel of Time, it got me into epic fantasy (while everyone else was reading Harry Potter), but sometimes certain authors feel like they can't skip ANYTHING. I've talk to some of my friends about time-skips too, and they think that time-skipping is bad story telling...It isn't! Time-skips tastefully done can add a lot to a novel... Also, the Mistborn Trilogy had some (small) time-skips, no, they weren't ten years, but I trust that the Stormlight books will be find even with such a 'big' gape. There's probably a really good reason for it, so, I'm really not that worried. Which is an odd statement, because the Wheel of Time is chock-full of time skips, most of them going unnoticed by the readers because nothing interesting happened in the meantime. The exceptions to that rule,on the other hand, produced all kinds of complaints. Rightfully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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