natalie.perkins

Hi! So, my friends and I just started a book club and I get to pick the next book! I really want to bring Brandon into the club, but we just read The Devil in the White City which is a little slow, and a little long, so I don't want to introduce any book that's longer than that right now. And most of Brandon's shorter works aren't best for introductory IMO. So I want to get their feet wet with fantasy so that I can suggest a Brandon book in the future. Unfortunately, I don't read a lot of shorter fantasy and the ones I've read, I just don't think would be right for this. With a little research I've narrowed it down to the following three: Tea With the Black Dragon, by R. A. MacAvoy Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I'm open to others as well! I haven't read any of these and I figured this would be the best community to lend advice! I want to stick to fantasy, so I ruled out A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Ender's Game, even though those are fantastic.

I wrote a whole response to this yesterday but then hit the backspace key on my browser and lost it all so I got very frustrated and had to walk away: I think this is super interesting. It got me thinking about just how common it is for this concept to be applied to many different stories. Off the top of my head I can think of at least one manga/anime and one just anime that borrows from this concept: InuYasha and Sailor Moon. In InuYasha, the priestess Midoriko (had to google this one, it's been some time since I watched or read InuYasha) created the Shikon Jewel which was then shattered into many shards which then the protagonists had to go collect. These shards contained the power to make someone a demon or demon-like and they were forced to battle many being with supernatural powers granted to them by the Shikon shards. In Sailor Moon (anime only), Princess Serenity created the Silver Crystal (pretty sure she created it) and then it was shattered into Rainbow crystals and bestowed upon certain mortals that turned them into demons as well. So, Adonalsium is obviously on a bit more macro scale, but it's interesting to see the parallels of a power source shattered into pieces and what those peices can do. Whether or not all these stories drew from Lurianic Kabbalah or, similar to Block Pyramids, just a common idea thought up individually and applied to different situations is interesting to consider.

I am jealous as all hell about everybody who lives in Phoenix right now (and its basically summer in Chicago right now, so it's not due to weather) and I'm just wondering how Brandon determines which comic cons he goes to? I'd love to see him at a Chicago one - Pat Rothfuss was at C2E2 2015, but Chicago conventions seem pretty void of fantasy authors which is disappointing because they are my JAM (more so than comics, and slightly more so than Anime). I was happy to find some signed Brandon books at C2E2 this year, but otherwise, no dice. Just wondering if there was a rhyme or reason to it and if I need to start emailing the various conventions and demanding that they book Brandon, haha.

You can pull up a July 12, 2011 version of the forum by going through timewastersguide.com on the Wayback Machine.

It's the forum that used to host Brandon's old forums. The forum shut down a long time ago.

I personally didn't have an issue with him coming back, in fact, I love it and not just because Secret Histories was basically all 16-year old me ever wanted. I think it's because his survival really plays into the dichotomy of his character of the Survivor. Honestly, it puts even MORE meaning into it. There's an entire religion based on Kelsier now because he survived - even though the survival they are basing it on was a trick with a Kandra. The religion is actually more accurate BECAUSE Kelsier continued to survive. Before he "came back" we knew of Kelsier the Survivor of Hathsin and didn't put much thought into it, I mean I didn't. But, seriously, has the survivor moniker ever been better bestowed on anyone but Kelsier? Now that I've used the phrase survive more frequently than I ever planned to: favorite death has gotta be Lightsong, as well.

Though I do quite enjoy the idea of boredom spren who sit and play cats cradle and if that's not a thing, it should be.

I've been having this issue for awhile. I have been able to use WayBackMachine.org to access.

I have serious plans that if I'm ever in Utah, I want to stop by BYU to try to audit his class for a day.

Haha, that's actually what made me stop lurking as well. Well, stop lurking again. I was a member of Time Wasters Guide but never transferred over once that shut down. Ironically, what made me stop lurking there was when I noticed that there was a character name that seemed to be repeated in Mistborn and Elantris (the only books out at the time), and the unpublished Liar of Partinel which I thought was odd, so I posted a topic about it...

I'm watching her reactions and I thought some may be as amusing to you guys as they are to me: Her: Here's what has happened so far: Siri got brave. pretended to have sex with the God King when she found out the high priests were listening in. Viv got all of Lemex's Breaths and now they've moved into a new house since raiding his place for plans and gold and are going to continue his plan to disrupt the food supply Me: What are your thoughts up to this point? Her: Ok in a nuteshell I love Denth and crew. I think they're more than just mercenaries obviously, they've got surprising character, more than usual mercenaries are given in a story. Can't wait to see what the hell Vasher has planned now knowing Denth's crew knows him. And I'm rooting for Lightsong to save Siri. Viv kind of annoys me but it's only in fleeting moments Me: Thoughts on the God King? Her: Not much yet, only, like I said before, he's not all that he seems. Oh, and just kind of a funny thought in my head: when Siri walked up to him and he tensed the idea floated in my head that it would be a great twist if this guy was gay. [break for discussion of homosexuals in literature and intimacy in Brandon's books] Me: thoughts on Treleedees and Bluefingers? (pats myself on the back for spelling Treleedees right without looking it up) Her: ooh yes. Treleedees I think he's a big bad. The real force to be afraid of - the one actually pulling strings on things and people. Bluefingers I like. Obviously shown independent thinking and could be an ally. Anyway, the summary of MY thoughts on this basically involve me twiddling my fingers, evil giggling, and thinking, "Yes, pawn, you have fallen right into Brandon's manipulative fingers. Enjoy your betrayals. Mwahahahahah"

In Mistborn Final Empire: Chapter 31, after a Kelsier viewpoint and a Vin viewpoint there's an Elend viewpoint where he appears. I have the trilogy kindle version and it's showing as location 8474 - not getting a page for whatever reason. In Words of Radiance: Chapter 81, in Shallan's viewpoint. Kindle Page 981

I was under the impression that Braize was actually "Hell" or "Damnation." But, perhaps they are both on the same planet?

Perhaps they could banish Odium after SA5 and the latter half will take place in the Tranquiline Halls defeating the creatures of Odium that were left behind? Worldhoppers are able to use the powers granted by other shards when not on the same planet as that shard, it would make sense that if not all of Odium's creatures were wiped out, they would still be able to be quite a bother for the Heralds.

Hey - just wanted to let you know that I asked Brandon about this at his Q&A at JordanCon and he confirmed that the two are the same person! He told me some other stuff about him too for speculation. I made a new post about it because I didn't want it to get buried: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/54145-news-on-felt-the-worldhopper/