News

We haven't heard about The Original, an audio original story, since about State of the Sanderson. It involves clones and stuff, and was written with Mary Robinette Kowal. In State of the Sanderson, Brandon said it was "coming soon" but nothing has happened since. But recently, Brandon took to Reddit and commented on the status of the story. He said it would possibly come August instead.

On Thursday for TorCon, Christopher Paolini had a lovely chat with Brandon Sanderson about writing and their new books. If you're interested in watching it, do so soon as it will just be available this weekend. They had such nice synergy, so I'd recommend it! But, we wanted to give you a quick recap of some news from the event.

First up, news on Alcatraz 6: the writing on it is all finished! Now it's just being illustrated, which is what they are waiting on right now.

We are now teaming up with the Spanish fan site, cosmere.es, to translate articles from their site to English, and they can translate 17th Shard articles to Spanish! Cosmere.es does phenomenal work and we are so excited to share them with you. They have been killing it with interviews. Here's one of their recent ones! Thank you Ysondra and cosmere.es! You can read the original Spanish article here!

Today we have the immense pleasure of chatting with one of the illustrators who participated in this project and is delighting fans worldwide: Soph Peralta. Just so you all get an idea of the huge success this game had in its first few days, the preorder campaign for the deluxe edition (that includes the booklet The Worldhopper’s Guide to Roshar, combining the history of Roshar and the amazing illustrations) sold out in 36 hours the units they thought would last several weeks. This success is without a doubt due to the care that artists like Soph Peralta have shown as they’ve brought the characters we love to life. 

I wanted to make a statement on the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others because of undue force by the police. First and foremost I, and the staff of 17th Shard, stand behind Black Lives Matter, and we as a community do not stand for discrimination of any kind: by race, sex, gender identity, and many others not enumerated here. Check out our Code of Conduct on our expectations, and how to report issues.

I am disturbed by these deaths, as I imagine you are as well, and want things to change. But, talk is cheap, you know? I'm white. There's a lot of white people on this site and in the fandom. So that made me think, what can I do to deal with systemic racism? What can we all, together, do to combat this? If you'll excuse me, I'd like to opine about that.

Brandon's webstore has been receiving new items over the past couple of weeks, and with a few T-shirts showing up today, it's time we did a roundup! I myself have already placed an order for the RAFO shirt and can't wait to answer all of my friends' questions with meaningful glances down to my chest!

T-shirts

Tor, Brandon's publisher, is doing a sort of online convention, TorCon, starting Thursday and going through Saturday. The first event will be of some interest, as it is a conversation with Brandon and Christopher Paolini. You can register here to watch it and it will be tomorrow, June 11th, at 7pm Eastern and 4pm Pacific. The conversation is prerecorded but they will be talking about their upcoming projects, their writing process, and science fiction and fantasy. It appears to only be available "only during the weekend of TorCon".

Brandon and his team finally released the official Knights Radiant Order quiz, along with descriptions of all ten Orders. There were some really interesting tidbits to learn from the article and checking out the quiz to find out your Order or to confirm your tendencies is worth it. In other news, we can expect to learn dates for the Way of Kings Kickstarter campagin soon, there's a lovely Stormlight-themed wallpaper for your phone, and Brandon is putting the finishing touches on Rhythm of War.

As Brandon said on a recent livestream, the Dark One graphic novel is done, and now its preorders are open! It's also coming really soon. The ebook is out June 26th, and the hardcovers begin shipping August 17th! It costs $29.99 for the hardcover +eBook and $19.99 for the ebook alone. The book is 224 pages long and you can already read the first 29 on the preorder page, near the bottom! It looks pretty sweet, and I think I like it quite a bit better than the White Sand graphic novels. 

Ten years ago today, 17th Shard opened, with myself as its first account. I can't believe our tenth anniversary is right now; 2010 feels like ten thousand years ago.Think about how many books we've gotten since that June--The Way of Kings wasn't even out yet! Now we're three massive tomes through the Stormlight Archive with the next one coming so soon. This site and community has evolved so much over this decade. So many of us were brought together through Brandon's books. If you'll excuse me for getting sentimental, I'd like to take you down memory lane now, and celebrate all of us together. 

Gasp! Coppermind Objectives?! Your eyes do not deceive you! After a 6 month hiatus we're back! The Coppermind is more up-to-date than ever, but there's always more work to be done--especially as we prepare for Rhythm of War's release in 6 months' time. There's many ways that you can help, so we hope you'll join in!

As always, we're happy for any help we can get, so don't be shy. If you're new to editing the Coppermind, don't worry; we'll help you out with guides and plenty of assistance. You don't need experience or expertise, just the will to help out!

It’s drought season for cosmere content, and with six months to go until the release of Rhythm of War, waiting feels like a never ending Desolation. Never fear, good adventurers, Brotherwise Games has just announced that their upcoming board game, Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archive, will be available for pre-orders from Monday, May 26th, with full release on July 1st. The announcement was made by Daniel DeVita over at Winter is Coming and includes an exclusive first look at new card artwork, this time of Szeth, by Art Demura.

You know how we say on Shardcast that we don't need rails? Well turns out we rarely had rails to begin with. Today we are taking a look at our old cosmere theories. And when I say old I mean real old, like from 2008, pre-Hero of Ages. We'll talk about some fandom history on the forums, tell you how we got into the fandom, and mock old our old theories all around. Then at the end we'll give you some advice on how you can theorycraft better. Hopefully you'll enjoy this retrospective, and I imagine eventually we'll do another one of these!

The lovely Drew McCaffrey has interviewed the equally lovely Isaac Stewart, Art Director for Dragonsteel Entertainment, in a Tor.com article on the Art of the Cosmere. And if you've read a Stormlight book recently, you know there's a ton of art in it! In this interview, Drew asks about how Isaac got started with Dragonsteel, his maps, and Nazh. You should really go check it out, because it's very well done. 

I'm here to talk about a few tidbits at the end that might interest you about some upcoming cosmere things. 

The Brandon news train does not stop! We have a bunch of things this week, like this spiffy Bridge Four Poster, styled like a movie poster. There's some new jewelry by Badali. Brandon's YALLFEST keynote now has a VOD. And lastly, just a reminder since it is time-sensitive: the Tor.com free Way of Kings ebook ends today. They extended their giveaway due to some site difficulties on the 4th.

Tor.com's eBook Club is giving away The Way of Kings, the first Stormlight Archive book, on May 4th. It's super easy, all you need to do is sign up for Tor.com's eBook Club mailing list and you'll receive it on May 4th. Nice! (Turns out, this was a very popular event and Tor's site crashed for a bit, so they are extending the deal for another day through May 5th. The site seems to be doing better now.)

 

Have you missed PedantiCast? Well, then you're ready for this episode! Today we are talking in-depth about the magic in Warbreaker. We talk about Awakening and BioChromatic Breaths. We discuss the Heightenings and more. Also, surprisingly, lizards, and Ian returns with new pedantry.

In lieu of an in-person event, JordanCon is happening online this year and the folks at Dragonsteel have been kind enough to come onto a panel. Isaac and Kara Stewart, Brandon’s art director and event manager, respectively, gave us a rundown of what’s happening with the Kickstarter for the Way of Kings leatherbound edition and answered some of the most burning questions. Also, more of Isaac talking this Saturday!

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, it was pointed out on Shardcast that I am rather bothered by the mechanics of blood Soulcasting. Or more specifically, how it is used to save Shallan’s life during The Way of Kings. I have a background in molecular biology and have spent several years working with blood products, so to have some fun, I decided to put my nerd cap on and combine two of my passions.

News time! The UK cover for Rhythm of War, the fourth Stormlight Archive book, has been revealed. What do you think of it? I'm told by Ben (a fan of the UK covers) that generally UK covers don't depict any particular scene but more are trying to convey an idea. I'm not sure how much analysis we can get out of this one. What are your thoughts on the cover?