News

Another week goes by (not that we are committing to a weekly schedule!), and another June illustration rises over the horizon. Like a moon. On planets that have one. Of which Sel is one.

Anyway, no one comes to these posts for the witty commentary, so as you’ve likely cleverly deduced, this piece is the Moon Scepter of the Rose Empire - a subject we absolutely had to give to Botanica (Twitter, Tumblr) whose iconic work has been in the fandom since its very early days, and you can most recently find in the Kaladin album (digital) art book. They are present on pretty much every art-related website, so go give them a thumbs up and a heart!

We are extremely fortunate to have the amazing booktuber Merphy Napier on the show today! She just finished The Bands of Mourning for the first time, and so we thought hey, let's talk about Mistborn Era 2! What book is everyone's favorite, favorite characters, and more! The rest of us reread Era 2 and we have thoughts (and many more podcasts on Era 2 are coming).

Hey all, Windrunner here with another news update post. Today we have the exciting announcement that Brandon has finished the first draft of The Lost Metal, the forthcoming final book in Era Two of Mistborn. Brandon's been at it for most of the summer and wrapped up the writing late last night, only a few days behind schedule for his target of the start of August (not that we're complaining).

I (Jessie) went to JordanCon 2021 this July, with a bunch of other Sharders! Join in on my adventures and experiences, such as talking to Brandon, getting people to try Vegemite, and some silliness too! There are some big Rhythm of War spoilers in here, just so you know!

Those June art pieces just keep on coming, don't they? Let us know if you'd like us to do more of these simpler but more numerous art commissions in the future - we were thinking we'd those maybe once or twice a year, but art reveal season is fun season!

And speaking of, this week we've got the King's Drop for you all! Paintweaver (Instagram, Tumblr) is another artist we've wanted to work with for a long time, and the relative simplicity of this illustration (plus scheduling luck) finally gave us this opportunity. The illustration is absolutely gorgeous, and the shifting smoky images inside it are an amazing representation of the captured Thrill. Fingers crossed that the Kholins keep this safe and don't go and, I don't know, throw it in the ocean or something!

In this episode of Shardcast, we go through the very light, chill topic of Shallan's past. Oh boy, there is so much to talk about, and so much more in Rhythm of War to ruminate on. Let's grind through and see if we can figure out what's going on here.

Hey, in case you missed our news post earlier this week, Brandon has released a new novel!

Lux: A Texas Reckoners Novel is out now, exclusively on Audible. Lux was co-written with Steven Michael Bohls and produced by Mainframe, Brandon’s audiobook company with Max Epstein. The first four chapters are up on Brandon's youtube channel, alongside a short "behind the scenes" video with Brandon, Steven, and Max where they discuss the making of this Audible Original. Steven also appeared as a guest on one of Brandon's livestreamed signing sessions.

Friends, this week we have a treat for you! Nozomi Matsuoka (Instagram, DeviantArt) might not have the largest of Cosmere fanart portfolios, but the quality of her work speaks for itself. You might have seen the commissions she’s done for Argent (Jasnah, because of course he is going to commission a Jasnah, but also this excellent Maya from a critical Rhythm of War scene), and this time we wanted to see what painterly wonders she will come up with if we gave her what was arguably the most challenging June commission - the gems and spheres from Roshar.

There’s been quite a bit of movement in Brandon’s upcoming works recently, so get ready for some new content.

First, Lux: A Texas Reckoners Novel, will be releasing this Thursday, July 22. The story was written with  Steven Michael Bohls and will be an Audible Original on Amazon upon release. Brandon has stated that Lux will eventually be released in print and ebook, but not for at least a year after release. The first four sample chapters have all been released to listen to on Brandon’s YouTube channel. Brandon will be doing a livestream with co-author Steven Bohls tomorrow at 6:00 PM MSThttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvfx65xsstU.

Two weeks ago, we started an anonymous poll where we asked you, the common users, to judge us, the mods! Now that two weeks have passed, we have pored over the results to discover the answers to what are clearly the most pressing questions we could have. Who's your favourite mod? Who's the scariest mod? Read on to find out!

It’s but a few days until JordanCon, and with a lot of the Staff going, we thought the time was right to treat you to another one of our June art commissions. We’ve been fans of Elisgardor’s art (Instagram, Twitter), and have wanted to commission her for an illustration (i.e. Argent has been itching to get his greedy grubby grabby hands on some of her art), but she’s been busy… until recently. When we approached her with the list of winners, she immediately gravitated towards the idea of painting Vindication on a backdrop that looks like her blueprints, and friends, she blew our socks off! Not only was her artwork incredible and timely, she was also a joy to work with, so make sure you press all the Internet buttons on her socials.

We're continuing on with Words of Brandon from the June spoiler stream, as well as the Dusty Wheel interview! There are some very interesting WoBs this time, one pretty crazy one involving TenSoon. We also talk about more Investiture time dilation and more! Rhythm of War spoilers on this one!

Eric and Jessie face off in an intense battle to be crowned King or Queen of cosmere knowledge! Who will win? Internet brownie points up for grabs, and bragging rights forever, for the champion!

Hello again everyone! It’s been a little while since we last showed you art, so let’s remedy that.

Tied for 5th place in our June poll, with 11% of all votes, was the [click on to the main article to see] from Rhythm of War. We chose a friend of our site (and a patron), Connor Chamberlain (Instagram), and he delivered - plus, he threw in a fancy soul-harvesting dagger in there as well. Go give him your love!

There's less signings these days, but there are still a few things that have happened, like an excellent Cosmere.es interview, as well as another spoileriffic Brandon stream! There's a ton here, with one of Brandon's best reactions ever regarding blowing up the Selish Cognitive Realm (actually, a ton of Cognitive mumbo jumbo this time), as well as a definition on avatars!

When we originally launched our Patreon, we designed it primarily as a tip jar. Well, after a lot of brainstorming, that is changing today, with new, actual tiers of rewards for you all. We also have some new patron goals, which we'll describe at the end of this post.

We reported on this last week, but now we have concrete details of Lux: A Texas Reckoners Novel. This is a project by Brandon's audiobook company, Mainframe, and is an Audible exclusive set in the Reckoners universe (which includes Steelheart, Firefight, and Calamity), coming out July 22nd. We also have a cover reveal, as well as the first chapter of it! There's also a sale on it on Audible for 49% off, if you are an Audible member already, which ends tomorrow, 6/25, at 11:59pm Pacific.

Happy Pride Month everyone! This episode of Shardcast, we get very gay. We're talking about Queerness in the Cosmere, so we're talking about queer representation, examples, how Brandon has evolved over time and is putting in more representation. We also have some critiques and hopes for the future. So if you want to see the cosmere from a queer lens, this episode is for you!

We've got a fun update on some upcoming books today from an unusual source: the latest annual rights catalog from JABberwocky, Brandon's agent. Most of Brandon's listings are nothing new to us, but page 57 has a few interesting tidbits...

Read along for everything we know about Evershore, the third Skyward novella, and Lux, a new Reckoners novel. We also get a few new crumbs about the upcoming Dark One and Stephen Leeds stories.

Lastly, a quick word on the poll question in Brandon's latest weekly update video.

Sure, we got this a few weeks ago, but we saved unboxing it for you all, so you can see ALL the swag in the Tier 6 Way of Kings Leatherbound swag pack. It has all the order swag, coasters, chicken scouts, and more! We also unpack the Dragon Wood Shop challenge coin case, which looks amazing.

It's news roundup time again, friends! Last we met, we talked about Fortnite Kelsier (who is out of the store now, actually), Cytonic's title reveal, and some Cytoverse novellas. Today's news haul is no less exciting:

• Tara Spruit's amazing Stormlight tarot deck is back in stock
• Brandon is launching a new podcast with his friend Dan Wells
• No announcements were made about future Dragonsteel products, especially not one about a Doomslug plushie

Follow us after the break for details!

Today on Shardcast, we talk about an extremely nice, totally sane character: Ishar! He definitely did not have his hand in a lot of stuff, or cause many problems. And he certainly did nothing disturbing in Rhythm of War! Also, news, and limmericks in Who's That Cosmere Character!

Hey, Eric here with an update. Yesterday, we told you that something was going on with Mistborn in Fortnite. Well it actually came out that same day, and it is indeed Kelsier in Fortnite. The Kelsier skin comes in two versions: the default, which shows off his face and his scarred arms, and the Undecover variant, which has a face mask and long sleeves. There are also Hemalurgic Spikes Back bling, Volcanic Glass Daggers Pickaxe, and a Kelsier themed loading screen. It is just a skin, with no Mistborn mechanics. Also, it might go away in a few hours. More on that below.

So, on Brandon's weekly update, he said Wednesday there would be an announcement we would expect, which turned out to be the title and cover reveal of Cytonic. Then he said Thursday there would be an announcement none of us would expect, and indeed, I am surprised! Apparently, there will be some sort of promotional event involving Mistborn in Fortnite? Okay, Brandon, you are right: we did not expect that.

This post will contain spoilers for both Skyward and Starsight, as the Book Formerly Known As Nowhere now has a real title, description, release date(s), and no less than two covers! 

Also featuring: the Skyward novellas; Wax & Wayne 4 progress; and the ongoing giveaway for Warbreaker Leatherbound that ends this Friday!