News

Ladies and gentlemen my name is Eric and we're here to ask and answer one simple question: WTF is Unity?  What is Dalinar? Honor's Perpendicularity and why it has to move, and also, for good measure, Odium's Perpendicularity. Spren genocide, strange warmths, all manner of weirdness is discussed here. Obviously, Oathbringer spoilers, and some Mistborn Era 1 spoilers too.

 “Beautiful destroyer. Blunt and effective. Of all those I've claimed over this brief thousand years, you are the only one I think just might be able to understand me.”

-Ruin, Hero of Ages, ch. 57.

Brandon's characterization of Vin and Dalinar, arguably the two most violent figures in the cosmere, displays a sensitive and nuanced approach to depicting violence, thrilling readers with incredible fights scenes, without glorifying killing and death.  Awe and disgust may be opposites, but they are brought together in Vin and Dalinar: the beautiful destroyers.

Just a bit ago, we had a big news announcement about Dark One, a project Brandon has talked about numerous times, is finally getting off the ground as a grand multimedia project which includes graphics novels, a TV show, a podcast, and prequel novels. We record Shardcasts in advance so we wanted to get you the news and our thoughts on the matter in this bonus podcast! 

This week on Shardcast, we discuss Words of Brandon from last month (and early this month) from MisCon and BookCon, and oh boy there's some exciting stuff. Do we have a new Shard? Is Ingenuity a Shard? Oh, we discuss it immensely, but do feel free to put your comments below. . We also talk about cuddling seons, Gavilar's spheres, spheres in general, and, despite not actually having a question prompting it, we discuss the mists on Scadrial a lot. Oh, and lastly, we make of Jebus for not having videos. 

This week on Shardcast, we discuss the singers. Who are the singers (also called the parsh), their background, and their forms. We talk about Rlain's absence, and, of course, the constant discussion of the Everstorm.

Hot off the heels of yesterday's monumental announcement about Brandon's multimedia plans for Dark One, Publisher's Weekly has revealed more information about the graphic novel slice of the pie. The graphic novel will consist of two volumes, the first of which is due out in Spring 2019, less than a year away! The also revealed the creative team that will be co-writing it with Brandon, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly. On a personal note, I found this news incredibly exciting as Lanzing and Kelly have worked on some of my favorite comic series in recent years. Yesterday I felt cautiously optimistic, today I am full steam ahead on the hype train, because I know these guys can write a good story. The two of them plus Brandon? Now that is going to be something awesome.

They also revealed what seems to be the cover art which looks pretty storming cool.

Jackson Lanzing, on his twitter, has also confirmed that the artist for the project is Nathan Gooden, and posted line art for part of the cover.

Deadline has announced some pretty exciting news today about a story Brandon has been wanting to write for years, Dark One. This story, which has slipped in and out of the Cosmere over the years, is about a young man who instead being the hero prophesied to save the world, is the one destined to destroy it.

In their announcement Deadline reveals that not only is there a television series and graphic novel in the works, but there is also a multi-volume book series and a podcast are as well. The tv series is being developed by FreemantleMedia North America with Random House Studio and the graphic novel will be published by Vault Comics. Where the tv series and graphic novel appear to be planned to tell the same story, the book series will expand on it while focusing on secondary characters and the podcast will explore the events leading up to the tv series.

Some things are just inherent rivalries. Batman v Superman. Captain America v Iron Man. And now, we're picking up right from last week, and we are talking about super Oathbringer spoilers. It's Shardcast: Civil War, Odium v Passion. We're discussing what this force is, and we're coming to blows! One that won't simply be solved by saying that both their moms are named Martha.

So it looks like Brandon's store is getting a summer sale! Here there are a variety of hardcovers going on deep discounts, as well as other merchandise too! (Note, this does not apply to the new Brandon shirts on Amazon that we reported on before.) Note that ALL of these hardcovers are signed, too, and you can get them personalized, too, if you want to wait longer.

This week on Shardcast we are talking about Odium. Oathbringer spoilers abound here, of course! We introduce Rayse and Odium, discuss how splintering works, intent vs. Intent (hey, that capitalization matters), and how did Honor trap Odium

Do you like mysteries? If so, great, because we're going to be talking about Aimia, Akinah, and the Scouring of Aimia this week. There's so many mysteries here, it's almost as if we don't have anything to talk about. But joke's on you, we have plenty. Oddly enough, we very easily could have called this "Dawnshardcast." You'll see why.

We're at last done with JordanCon today with yet more Words of Brandon, and some are spicy. We discuss aluminum, the Iriali, dragons, how visions work, Odium's inexperience with Devotion and Dominion, the Nightwatcher, and of course, Eric rants about Shard's intents. We also finally learn more about THE BOOMBOX, so basically this is the best episode ever.

Today on Shardcast, we are talking about all of the stuff from JordanCon. This will be a twofer episode, which will be continued next week. Here we discussed Shardblades in the Cognitive Realm, answering a question we brought up last week. We also decide we are going to do an Odium podcast, and you'll see that later. We also talk about urges and demiurges. Yup.

Those of you who been following Brandon's projects over the years will know that for a long time the next YA book was going to be Apocalypse Guard. And although AG had to go to the backburner for some time, Brandon was quick in putting together a replacement for it - Skyward, the first book in a trilogy for Random House.  Today it has a cover, illustrated by Charlie Bowater and designed by Regina Flath.  Take a look!

Today, the first three Stormlight Archive books, The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer are available in an ebook bundle for about $30 (specifically, I'm seeing $29.58 today) on many different ebook platforms. If you haven't gotten all three of these ebooks, this is an obscene value. It's 1.2 million words and many hours of entertainment, and all for $30? Yeah, I would say that is a good deal.

Late April, there was JordanCon, and today on Shardcast, we have brought two cast members, Evgeni and Rosemary, to give us their thoughts on the convention. We also talk about the craziest thing from there, which was the reading of The Traveler, which you should definitely read immediately. It's some of the spiciest cosmere stuff we've gotten in a while. 

It is May 3rd. A day otherwise mostly unremarkable, except for a few things. One, it happens to be the National Wordsmith Day. But, coincidentally, it is also the day we are getting official Brandon Sanderson apparel on Amazon! And while that alone might be exciting to some, what's more important is that many of the designs are brand new! Check out this amazing First of the Sun/Sixth of the Dusk Symbol t-shirt, for example!

This time on Shardcast, we are going to discuss one of the mysterious aspects of Oathbringer: the Sibling, and its relationship to Urithiru. We're also talking about the Dawncities and more--surprisingly, the Horneater Peaks too. And, as Ian says: "Caves? Kind of a bummer."

Yesterday, the first part of the Oathbringer Graphic Audio came out. Its regular price for a digital version is $16.99, and you can also get it on CD as well. Graphic Audio has done many of Brandon's books and are highly regarded. It isn't just a usual audiobook. It has a full cast of readers acting out the dialogue, with music as well. You can listen to a sample to see if it's your sort of thing on the Graphic Audio page. 

Yesterday, at a signing at JordanCon, Brandon read out something that was very old, which he said we had been waiting for "for a long time". He thought it was about eight or nine years old. It is crazy, and very exciting. It's a piece called The Traveler which is quite cosmere-aware, which Brandon thought he could now reveal. We recommend you just read it with no further introduction, but if you want some analysis, scroll on down. Get hyped.

All of this is transcribed on Arcanum, and you can listen to the audio from the man himself at the links below.

Long ago, in the ancient days of 2016, we did a podcast back when we called this Shardkeepers, about Nightblood and Corrupted Investiture. With the advent of Oathbringer (Oathbringer spoilers in this podcast, by the way), we have not only seen more Nightblood, but we've also had a lot more Words of Brandon about it. Oh, and we're going to talk about Azure's Shardblade, too, because that's a pretty big deal.

This week we are diving back into a controversial character from Oathbringer: Venli! And of course, as is obvious if you've read Oathbringer, we have to talk about Eshonai too. Behold as we have an epic war between Ben (Overlord Jebus), Ian (WeiryWriter), and I on these characters.

You've asked for an introduction and analysis of the Secret Societies of Roshar, and so here we are. There are Oathbringer spoilers, but we'll talk about the Ghostbloods, the Sons of Honor, the Diagram, the Skybreakers, and several worldhopping organizations too. We also discuss how dumb some of their plans are. And we also talk about Tezim a lot. Hilariously, Ian's power went out as we first tried recording this podcast. These secret societies don't want this information out! Or something. 

We're back to discuss White Sand Vol. 2. There's a lot to discuss, not to mention the ceiling fan and a horse. There's also apparently a person named Trell in this, which is pretty crazy. But listen to us discuss White Sand, its art change, and everything else. As you can expect, it's... uh, a very positive podcast!

Earlier this week Tor.com announced that the third and final installment of the Legion series will be coming as both a standalone novel (Legion: Lies of the Beholder) and as a part of Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, a single volume that delivers all three Legion books under one gorgeous cover. 

In preparation for this, Dragonsteel Entertainment has slashed the prices of the first two Legion books significantly.