Ripheus23 Posted February 20, 2019 Posted February 20, 2019 Wild phlebotinum-foil hat theory: the entire Stormlight Archives is equivalent to The Shadow Rising in being the section of the overarching saga in which the main antagonist is shown being set free. A tragic ending? Possibly! 1
Use the Falchion Posted February 20, 2019 Posted February 20, 2019 I'd argue that this might be true for the first half of Stormlight. I could see Book 5 ending as a tragedy. But I think second half will have a bittersweet/resounding ending.
Inky Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 (edited) 15 hours ago, Use the Falchion said: I'd argue that this might be true for the first half of Stormlight. I could see Book 5 ending as a tragedy. But I think second half will have a bittersweet/resounding ending. I don't think so. Brandon has said that Book 5 will have a satisfying ending, and Books 6-10 are a new story rather than a continuation Edited February 21, 2019 by Inky
Alderant she/her Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 18 hours ago, Ripheus23 said: Wild phlebotinum-foil hat theory: the entire Stormlight Archives is equivalent to The Shadow Rising in being the section of the overarching saga in which the main antagonist is shown being set free. A tragic ending? Possibly! Um, I wouldn't call The Shadow Rising as the section where the main antagonist is set free, having read the series twice--it doesn't even have a tragic ending, especially not in comparison to later books like The Fires of Heaven. You might have a case for Lord of Chaos, or even better Knife of Dreams. 1 hour ago, Inky said: I don't think so. Brandon has said that Book 5 will have a satisfying ending, and Books 6-10 are a new story rather than a continuation That's not entirely accurate. Brandon has said that books 6-10 will be a continuation of the same story and same characters, but that book five will be the end of the first major arc. Quote Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] How long do you think the Stormlight Archive is going to go on for? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] The Stormlight Archive is two sets of five. Built around the idea of ten Orders of Knights Radiant. And each book will kind of focus on one order a little bit, gives me some structure to it. You can see how I'm doing that already. And then each book gets a different flashback character, who gets their flashback sequence. Book 4 is Eshonai, book 5 is Szeth. Then in-world, that's going to bring us to an ending. We're going to break for a little while, like ten years in-world. Probably not ten years in our world. Then we'll come back and the characters for those will be Lift, and Renarin, and Ash, and Taln, and Jasnah. Probably not in that order though, well maybe that order. And we'll do five more, focusing on five different Orders of Radiant. Though characters from the first five will of course be in the back five. Questioner 2 [PENDING REVIEW] So this is going to take twenty years to finish? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] It's going to take about twenty years, yep. But you can at least know that book 5 will bring you to one ending. Questioner 2 [PENDING REVIEW] Things will kind of resolve a little? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Yeah. We'll have some good resolutions there. It's an interesting structure for me, as an author. Part of what I love about these books is how, when I write each given book, I plot the novel itself as a trilogy. So you can see three books compressed into one, with a short story collection for the interludes. So there's really four novels, is how I plot them. But I write them in a way that they're all meant to be read as one. Normally, you can't count on someone reading a trilogy all together as one, which lets me do cool things. But then I have the five book arc and then the ten book mega-arc. It's structurally really cool to write, but man, it makes it kind of hard. I've signed myself up for something pretty difficult with these. Idaho Falls signing (Dec. 29, 2018) Quote Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] So... you've mentioned... you have an idea of how the Cosmere's going to go. The ending of the Cosmere... considering you have seven more Stormlight books to write and years to go, does the ending of the Cosmere hang over your head...? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Does the ending of the Cosmere hang over my head 'cause I've got a ways to go-- yeah, it's starting to loom a bit! You know, when I was in my twenties and thirties doing this, "Ah! I can write every story, I've got plenty of time!", but now that I'm in my forties I'm-- let's make sure we focus and keep going on this. So one of my goals has been to learn to write novellas so that the random ideas that pop in my head became novellas and not novels, because the way I work, I can't stay on one thing between books, um -- I find that it burns me out really fast if I don't have something new to work on, but if that new thing to work on can be a novella like one of the Legion books, or like Perfect State, or Snapshot or something like that and then I can jump back on the kind of mainline book and reset myself quickly. And that why you see me practise that and things like that. My goal is kind of closing things off faster than I open them - this is why Legion got finished this year, why Alcatraz will probably get finished next year. Those of you waiting for a Rithmatist sequel - *sighs* - eventually. Umm... for those of you waiting for Reckoners, I consider Reckoners to be done. If I eventually fix and release Apocalypse Guard, that might answer some of the questions you have about the end of that series. Elantris and Warbreaker are both part of the Cosmere arc, what I'll probably do is I'll write Stormlight 4 and 5 and the last Wax & Wayne book over the next few years -- five years, next five years probably. *laughter* And then I'll probably stop and do Mistborn Era 3, which is the 1980s Mistborn, and maybe some Elantris sequels. And then I'll come back and do Stormlight 6-10 which take place about 10 years in-world after Stormlight 5. Same characters, at least the ones that survive *eruption of laughter*. That might be all of them! No spoilers there. Um... but Stormlight is ten books. The way Stormlight will go is Book 4 is Eshonai, Book 5 is Szeth, 6 is Lift, 7 is Renarin, 8 is Ash, 9 is Taln and 10 is Jasnah. That doesn't mean that the person survives, it means that it's a flashback sequence. *nervous laughter* Just keep that in mind. So if your sequel wasn't on that list, um, then don't hold your breath. Skyward Houston signing (Nov. 19, 2018) 3
Use the Falchion Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 3 hours ago, Inky said: I don't think so. Brandon has said that Book 5 will have a satisfying ending, and Books 6-10 are a new story rather than a continuation Bittersweet and/or tragic can still be satisfying. I think of it like Avengers: Infinity War. The ending was a both tragic and satisfying, with the movie telling a complete story. The big thing is payoff. If Sanderson raises some questions/expectations and solves them with the necessary payoff, how tragic or happy the ending will still be satisfying.
Ripheus23 Posted February 21, 2019 Author Posted February 21, 2019 4 hours ago, Alderant said: Um, I wouldn't call The Shadow Rising as the section where the main antagonist is set free, having read the series twice--it doesn't even have a tragic ending, especially not in comparison to later books like The Fires of Heaven. I'm literally claiming that the entire SA would be synchronous with the scene in The Shadow Rising in which the Bore is shown being used.
Alderant she/her Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Ripheus23 said: I'm literally claiming that the entire SA would be synchronous with the scene in The Shadow Rising in which the Bore is shown being used. That's a very, very small segment within The Shadow Rising. I think the matter of scale is part of the problem, but also I'd equate the situation of which you're speaking to the Shattering of Adonasium--a historic event that had catastrophic consequences across the respective "world" (planet in the case of Randland, universe in the case of the Cosmere). Odium's a very small big bad in retrospect (I don't actually think Odium's going to be our major contender for the final Cosmere story), not to mention the fact that you're equating ten huge books in the middle of the Cosmere narrative to a pretty short flashback in a fourteen-book series. I also don't think the Dark One and Odium are on the same respective par. There is nothing greater than the Dark One within The Wheel of Time, but Odium has several other entities of equal magnitude within the Cosmere, any of which could end up being the big bad for the series, so no, I don't think the entirety of SA would be analogous to the single instance of the Bore being opened. Edited February 21, 2019 by Alderant 1
Ripheus23 Posted February 21, 2019 Author Posted February 21, 2019 1 hour ago, Alderant said: not to mention the fact that you're equating ten huge books in the middle of the Cosmere narrative to a pretty short flashback in a fourteen-book series I did admit my theory was made from 100% grade-A phlebotinum. 1
Alderant she/her Posted February 22, 2019 Posted February 22, 2019 3 hours ago, Ripheus23 said: I did admit my theory was made from 100% grade-A phlebotinum. True. And I was just adding my thoughts.
Sedside she/her Posted February 22, 2019 Posted February 22, 2019 (edited) 14 hours ago, Alderant said: That's not entirely accurate. Brandon has said that books 6-10 will be a continuation of the same story and same characters, but that book five will be the end of the first major arc. I would like to add another WoB here, I'm not sure it contradicts what you say, but just for the information: Quote Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] How many books are going to be in The Stormlight Archive? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Two five book arcs. Five will be an ending, and then six through ten will kind of be another story. Orem signing (Dec. 21, 2017) Edited February 22, 2019 by Sedside
Alderant she/her Posted February 22, 2019 Posted February 22, 2019 5 hours ago, Sedside said: I would like to add another WoB here, I'm not sure it contradicts what you say, but just for the information: This is actually one of the problems with using WoBs for clarification--at a glance it does appear to contradict what I said, but if you look at respective dates on the WoBs, you'll notice both of mine were from near the end of 2018 (a few months ago), whereas yours is from Dec. 2017 (over a year ago). That said, "kind of another story" within a ten book series, with it being the second of two five book arcs, doesnt mean the same thing as "a different story set in the same world". Its vague enough to be interpreted as a different story, but added to later clarification I believe it still means what I said.
Inky Posted February 22, 2019 Posted February 22, 2019 I think it just means like - the Desolation will be dealt with by Book 5, but Odium is still kicking and the Singers are still angry so we have a bunch of other problems. Like Front Half is stopping the Desolation and back half is dealing with the aftermath and finishing off Rayse once and for all (plus Herald backstory thrown in there for good measure)
Alderant she/her Posted February 22, 2019 Posted February 22, 2019 1 hour ago, Inky said: I think it just means like - the Desolation will be dealt with by Book 5, but Odium is still kicking and the Singers are still angry so we have a bunch of other problems. Like Front Half is stopping the Desolation and back half is dealing with the aftermath and finishing off Rayse once and for all (plus Herald backstory thrown in there for good measure) I think that is a distinct possibility. I was just trying to curb the idea that it'll be an entirely new story--it'll be a new overarcing plotline in the same story, rather than a new cast of characters or situations or whatever. A Part 2, if you will.
Sedside she/her Posted February 22, 2019 Posted February 22, 2019 21 minutes ago, Alderant said: I think that is a distinct possibility. I was just trying to curb the idea that it'll be an entirely new story--it'll be a new overarcing plotline in the same story, rather than a new cast of characters or situations or whatever. A Part 2, if you will. As I understand it, it will be like another story with the same characters.
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