Chaos

Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection is finally here. This is a big, 670+ page book, with a ton of stuff. This has every single cosmere story that has been published outside of the main novels in one convenient collection. It has: The Hope of Elantris, The Emperor's Soul (which is incredible), The Eleventh Metal, "Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes 28 and 30", an excerpt from White Sand (both graphic novel and from prose), Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, The Sixth of Dusk, and, for the first time in physical print, Mistborn: Secret History. That's a ton of value, just considering Secret History and Emperor's Soul. But that is not all. Its main headline feature is a large, 40,000 word long Stormlight Archive novella: Edgedancer. It's a novella about Lift, of course, and covers her story after we saw her interlude up until the end of Words of Radiance. Not only that, but Arcanum Unbounded has some crazy cosmere information--essays from the author of the Ars Arcanum, Khriss, on each of the star systems--and star charts. So how is it? I'd say its a resounding success. The original content is enough for me to be thrilled about this release, and if you haven't read any of the older content, the value keeps piling up. Khriss Essays and Artwork First, let's talk about the cosmere goodies. Each of the stories is separated per star system, and at the beginning, we have a gorgeous drawing of each solar system, followed by a short two page essay written by Khriss. Since she writes the Ars Arcana in each book, that gives you a certain level of expectation on awesomeness. And, well, get excited. Khriss talks about more than a planet's magic system. She talks about the sizes of planets, the Shards of the planets, and overall covers the basic history. I know that sounds boring, and maybe if you aren't into the cosmere, some of this will be boring. But each star system has crazy, unique things. Here's the thing: Khriss delivers lore bombs casually, if they were nothing. Things that I have wondered for years are answered in a sentence. There's a thing that I never even considered could be possible that is discussed, and it is insane. And, like always, there are new mysteries for us to ponder. (If Khriss can't figure them out... well, we will have on the forums theorizing about it for years to come.) There are essays on every planet, save for Nalthis. It's probably because there was no Nalthis content in this rather than any other deeper reason. While I'm sure much of this essay info you'll find on the internet (like on the forums, or on the Coppermind soon), but it really does add to this idea that these worldhoppers collected and catalogued this information. It's awesome. Each story has original artwork preceding it, and every star system gets a neat icon. Oh, and on the endpages of the book, there's also a completely awesome star chart of the cosmere. It's an artistic thing, with drawings that represent constellations on it. It's gorgeous, and terrifying, for a reason that you'll see as soon as you lay your eyes upon it. The entire product is far more than an anthology. Edgedancer But, of course, you want to know about new Stormlight content. It feels like an eternity since Words of Radiance, so it is amazing to finally advance the story. Edgedancer is about Lift, featured in one of the interludes of Words of Radiance. She'll actually be a main viewpoint character in the back five Stormlight books. So, if you love Lift, you'll love Edgedancer. It is that simple. It's funny. It's dramatic. It's emotional. It's everything you wanted out of a Lift story and more. It's hard for me to imagine going into Oathbringer without having read this. Significant stuff happens. There was actually some mindblowing events here. (And it also has something I did not expect, which answered a huge, huge question in the series. It totally blindsided me that this was the story that this happened in, and I did actually scream.) I suppose it isn't strictly necessary, because the characters here are separated from the main characters of the Stormlight Archive, but you'll be really glad you read this. I will say, though, that Edgedancer was so sweet that it made me desperate for Oathbringer. It made me realize how much I love Roshar. So, in a way, this piece which Brandon wrote to tide us over until Book 3 as an apology for it taking so long ends up being a novella which makes me need Oathbringer, immediately. I'm basically Gollum, and I wantses it now. I think any way you slice it Arcanum Unbounded is worth the full price release. The original stuff is great, and the value that the art and the essays bring to the old work is fantastic. Sure, some of the older works in this collection are not my favorite, but come on, with Emperor's Soul, Secret History, and Edgedancer, you get a lot here, and that isn't everything. It's a great anthology.

What! A podcast that isn't Splintercast Reads A Book? I know, it does seem crazy, but it's true. Welcome to the Shardkeepers Podcast, our theory podcast where we discuss all sorts of minutiae of the cosmere. As I learned when recording, this usually results in headaches, but we make that sacrifice for you. Today, we're going to talk about an amazing quote that we got earlier this year about Nightblood that blew our minds. There's so much to unpack from this. Let's get started. On Shardkeepers you should expect massive spoilers from cosmere books. Beware! Here there are big spoilers for Warbreaker and Stormlight Archive. Joining me is Kerry (KChan), David (Windrunner), and Ian (WeiryWriter) who should better be known as the quote master, because I don't know how he finds those so fast. We're all thrilled to have awaken (get it? Ha. Hilarious) this podcast again. Again, you ask? Well there maybe was a Shardkeepers Podcast in May. Of 2013. But shhh, we do not speak of such evils. In seriousness, this is a real thing and we're excited to get this truly off the ground. The plan currently is to not bite off more than we can chew, so expect monthly episodes. Next episode will absolutely be about us unpacking stuff from Arcanum Unbounded, so stay tuned in December for that! If you'd like to discuss this, we thought we would post a theory topic so you too can dig into what we discuss. Check it out here, or leave a comment below. iTunes and other podcast support coming sooner than soon(™) but not this week.

Today on Tor.com, Brandon has posted a preview of Edgedancer, the new Stormlight novella that comes in Arcanum Unbounded. It includes Chapters 1-3 of the novella, featuring Lift being, well, awesome. (That's not a spoiler.) This snippet is the same as from the newsletter Brandon sent off earlier this year. Edgedancer is brand-new, and only found in Arcanum Unbounded, but it is quite a long novella, so there's a lot of value there. Plus, as Lift would say, it is awesome. If this makes you desperate for more Stormlight, as it does for me, fear not, for the rest of Arcanum Unbounded is tomorrow! Discuss Edgedancer and this preview in our Edgedancer Spoiler Board. This preview will be the only content we can discuss on Edgedancer right now (some booksellers have broken street date), but we won't have to wait much longer to discuss all the goodies here.

There's just a few days until the Arcanum Unbounded release on Tuesday, but there's plenty of news to discuss! Oathbringer Update #5 This week, Oathbringer--Stormlight 3--passed 93% on the progress bar on Brandon's site. As is customary, Brandon posted another Oathbringer Update on Reddit, with this one being his fifth. He thinks there will be one or two more to discuss the editing process, but this will be the last one for the writing portion. I'll do my best to sum it up! Brandon finished Part Four of the book, which puts the book at a colossal 420,000 words. He expects the book to be 450,000 words, which is quite a bit longer than Words of Radiance. It should be cut down in revision, but it's still going to be huge. (Duh.) His current plan is to finish Part Five, then immediately revise Parts Four and Five. Next up will be to write the prologue, interludes, and the epigraphs. (I find it interesting that he writes those at the end, but I suppose the rest of the book is quite a bit more important to get down first.) His editor has already made comments on Parts One and Two, which were minor, so things are going well on that front. He doesn't expect major problems with the novels structure that will really slow the revision process down, which is really good news, in my opinion. He does intend to finish the first draft this month, which is quite exciting. Lastly, he apologized things are taking so long with the book. They take a ton out of Brandon. (So do try and be nice? At least we have a novella coming in just about a day!) Brandon Comments on the Movie Deal Late October, we talked about how DMG Entertainment had optioned the cosmere for film adaptations. It's a bit past its prime, but I thought I'd bring to your attention some comments Brandon made after our first news post went up. Some comments are extremely promising and quell some concerns I had after that initial announcement. People on the DMG team really like Stormlight, so that's why there's a lot of stuff on Stormlight. Brandon thinks it is likely that Mistborn will be done first though. One thing on their mind is that Hoid be people's entry character to the cosmere, and since there is a lot of screentime of Hoid in Way of Kings, that is a consideration as well. Brandon says he has reason to be optimistic about the writers' involvement. Now, a lot of people in the community have been worried about Stormlight being a film, preferring it to be a TV show styled like Game of Thrones. Here's what's going on. Both film and television options have been raised for Stormlight and Mistborn. DMG has started work on making a film and attached screenwriters, and a film is more likely. But, if the screenwriters say that it wouldn't work or cuts too much, then it could be proof that a film wouldn't work. If they come out with a great script, then that'd be proof a film would work. They can't know until they try. It is "very possible" for Stormlight to be made into a TV series instead of a movie. Everything is exploratory right now, and don't count anything out yet.. TV and animations are options that have been explored. One thing Brandon has been firm on is that Wax and Wayne should be TV, which I definitely agree is ideal. Many in the community have discussed the ethnicities of Rosharan characters, and Brandon has talked "a lot" with DMG to make sure to not whitewash Stormlight. (In case you did not realize, those characters are not white, despite some covers.) DMG is a Chinese company, after all, and the ease of casting Asian actors in Stormlight and Emperor's Soul drew DMG to the cosmere in the first place. They aren't sure how they want to express Alethi characters, though. They could just use Asian actors or something else. Needless to say, I'm sure many fans are relieved to hear this, myself included. There are a few other things Brandon said. A Warbreaker film is "very likely" if the others do well. To no one's surprise, they bought the whole cosmere because crossover films and connected universes are all the rage. Brandon is pushing to have the crossover stuff subtle so that it still works on their own. It's likely that Mistborn: Birthright could get a new developer if the movie takes off (RIP Birthright for now). Lastly, Brandon isn't big enough to have creative control over the films. He said people much bigger than him get that ability. He hopes to be involved, though. (On that last link, there's an interesting discussion about relative sizes of author popularity, if you are interested.) All in all, I think that this makes me relieved about this whole process. Here's to hoping this will turn out awesome. Other Cool Comments There's also been some neat Reddit comments on deep cosmere stuff. All of the first five Stormlight books will have letters like in Way of Kings and Words of Radiance. People asked that because The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance were in-world books, how did the title Oathbringer make sense? Brandon said the title will make sense at some point. Seons and Skaze were created when a Shard Splintered. It's a thing we long suspected but cool to get confirmed. He continues there to discuss end positive and end neutral magics. He discusses that there's some disagreement with scholars as to whether Surgebinding is end positive or end neutral. Some picky scholars argue it is end neutral. Brandon says Investiture isn't leaving the system in Surgebinding, but it is doing work. On deep Realmatic Theory, Brandon said that things in the Spiritual Realm do change, just subtly. Someone's Spiritual aspect knows their age. Some in the Reddit thread implied that maybe Hoid is changing his Spiritual's aspects age, but Brandon demurred, instead saying (Mistborn 1 spoilers:) Neat! Lastly, and a bit older, is a comment where Brandon confirms Kwaan may have understood Realmatic Theory. It's a little vague what exactly Brandon is confirming, since he does some confirming and RAFOing all at the same time, but he said that this Reddit thread had a correct premise, so that's what I'm going with. This had been noted for a long time so good to see some confirmation (if vague confirmation at best.) Arcanum Unbounded Spoiler Policy and Events Policy A few other things! We posted our Arcanum Unbounded Spoiler Policy. Long story short, Edgedancer stuff will have its own spoiler board, but content on the essays can be talked about in Cosmere Theories as long as topics are tagged to mark that they have Arcanum Unbounded spoilers. Note: some bookstores have broken street date on Arcanum Unbounded, but we won't allow spoiler discussion on it until Tuesday. So obviously if you read Edgedancer, no spoiler discussion quite yet! Lastly, we codified some policies about events and signings. Generally if you receive some cool fact at an event that you wish to share, put it first into the signing's event topic before making a second discussion topic. If you have comments, please let us know! We want these policies to be useful and reflect what the community wants, so feedback is appreciated.