Yamato

I can read really fast. I finished Way of Kings in 2.5 hours, Harry potter 5 in a little less than 1 hour 45 min. I can skim read a Harry potter book in about 50 min. I can skim read TWOK in about 1 hour 20 min. I tested my best speed a while ago, it was around 4300 words a minuite. I was actually scared that I was a freak when I was little, until my dad said he could do it too.

YAH-MUH- TOH. Or. YAH-MAH-TOH. Technically, the second is correct when speaking in Japanese, but even I use the first sometimes. Pronounced with a Japanese accent when I say second one, pronounced with an American accent when I say the first.

I would like to announce that I NEED THE EMPERORS SOUL!!!! and Stormlight 2, and all future Mistborn books, and Liar of Partinel, and Kingkiller 3, and Gentlemen Bastards 3, and Song of Ice and Fire 6, and Memory of Light. Wow. I am going to explode of impatience. Or perhaps implode.

You make a very good point KChan. Man, am I accidentally making people angry again? I seem to have a real talent for that. Sigh... That said, the concept, of humanity being all sinners, is why I am not a member of an Abraharamic (wow I fail at spelling) religion. It's why I love Japanese culture and religion, because Shinto and Buddhism, teach about the inherent goodness of mankind. It makes me upset to hear about something that immediately makes everyone out to be inherently sinful UNLESS they believe in a certain thing. That said, Jesus is one of the people I admire most (along with the Buddha and others). I do indeed believe in "Loving thy neighbor as thyself" but I don't believe it as a divine ordination , I believe it because Humanity should always seek to better itself. I'm very very very very very very very very very very very sorry if it seems like I'm saying "grrr all religious christians are bigots" because i'm not, or at least i'm not meaning to. Some of the people I love most in the world are deeply, devoutly Christian (My grandparents, 6 of my aunts and uncles, 7 of my cousins) and all of them are HIGHLY pro gay. Like reeeeeeeeaaallly pro gay. Religion is like all human institutions. It has it's good times and it's bad times. However, since religion is so huge, it's good times are extraordinary, and it's bad times are hellish. It's what makes religion so frustrating for people like me, who just can't forget the bad stuff. My frustration sometimes comes out when discussing issues that I perceive as being hampered by religion, because I know of the great things that It can do, and it makes me angry that it squanders it's time and resources on something like this, when it could be doing a whole world of good by leaving it alone, or even promoting it. I am in no way meaning to diss religion. Please tell me if you think i'me being an as*, because a lot of the time I have no idea about it when discussing topics like this. Dammit.... I just wrote another thing about how frustrated I am with religion. And I wonder why I piss people off... I really do want people to understand tho. Double dammit. I just turned zas's goodbye thread into a rant. I'm so sorry zas, have a great trip, try and see some inca ruins. Peru is supposed to be unbelievably beautiful. Edit: Thanks for clarification Zenith. That makes me feel a lot better. Still want gay marriage tho. Chaos you are so right, Im gonna shut up now.

Im very sorry if I seemed to be generalizing in any way. It's all too easy to do that, and I don't mean to be doing it in any way. I meant to say angry liberal in a self deprecating way, to say, even though im a little crazy, i want to have a reasonable discussion. Again, sorry if I offended in any way. I know TONS of religious people who support gay rights (including most of my extended family), so I didn't mean to sound that way. Whoops, forgot something. The thing about sex outside of marriage considered morally wrong, I don't really care. I just don't want people to think that they are screwed after death just because of a mistake they made. I personally think that sex without commitment is not advisable, but I just don't want to enforce any of my opinions, or any of someone else's.

Hi zas, thank you for answering in an open and honest way. Polite discourse between groups that differ is a far more healthy way to resolve differences than the "I am more moral than you!" bullcrap that keeps cropping up. Here is my response. I've heard these arguments before, so I know exactly how I feel about them. I am perfectly ok with gay people that feel like their feelings are a sin. That is their choice, and I wont insult hem and you by saying that they should all the sudden act on their instincts. I hear your argument that marriage between a man and a woman is the only way to grow the population, but aren't we suffering from a population overburdening crisis in the world right now anyway? It seems to me that this argument can only refer to increasing the number of Mormon people, in which case it does not apply since the church does not accept gay marriage. I have a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, I want to promote polite discourse between those who disagree. On the other hand, if I accept your arguments as having merit, then I have to give up having a chance to exercise mine. This may sound stupid, but keep reading, I have an example. A good instance of a situation like this is slavery in the U.S in antebellum times. The North accepted southern sentiments about slavery, which prevented it from being abolished, because by accepting their stance as having merit, it meant that they could not free the slaves, since southerners unequivocally did not accept freeing the slaves. They could not free the slaves until they completely disregarded the opinions of the southerners, because accepting southerners opinions made it so that slaves could not be freed. Maybe you understand my position better now. How would you feel If a large group, let's say, atheists of america. suddenly said "we think Mormons are great people and all, but we believe that allowing Mormon marriage is not moral, since we need a separation of church and state" then contributed huge amounts of money to pass legislation against mormon marriage and then succeeded in enacting highly discriminatory measures against mormon marriage, making it so mormon marriage was not recognized by law. How would you feel? Probably similar to how the gays feel now, suffering under a bunch of discriminatory legislature that they see as being enacted with a huge amount of mormon money. There. Thats my position. What I still don't get, is why the church just does not accept that Mormon marriage and marriage between people outside of the church are 2 different things. Marriage is by definition in our society a state undertaking. Furthermore, I don't get why Mormons think that civil unions will be enough for gays. You should be the ones that understand the fact that marriage has a connotation of permeance, of respectability, of love. You don't say to people "Oh, im in civil union with..." that just sounds silly. Saying you are married is a powerful indicator of a couple's love and respect for each other. To the arguments that having sex outside of marriage is a sin... this is one of the biggest reason I am an atheist. There are going to be about 5 or 6 billion sinners if you believe in this. Ok, maybe not that much, but a HELL of a lot. I just cannot accept an institution that condemns a large group for such silly reasons. In my opinion, morality should not be dependent on something g that, many times, does not change the moral fiber of a person. Sure, if they become a womanizer or a rampant sex fiend, I have no problem with a sentence in hell. But many people re pulled into stuff like that because of their socio-economic class. It seems to me that by this argument you are consigning gays to hell, because they sure aren't going to give up having sex no matter what, and you aren't allowing them to embark on this sacred contract. Thats it for this post. I may be an angry Liberal who believes in a morality that makes me opposed to this stance, but I also believe that I have much to gain from being open. Too many on both sides make the mistake of being stupid about their beliefs. I sure as hell respect your right to have that stance. However, there is no way I will ever respect your right to enforce your opinions on others. Just like you would not respect someone who opposed the legality of Mormon marriage, I do not respect anyones's right to impose on the sacred rights of humanity, no matter how earnest they are in doing it. My position is in no way an angry crusade against religion. I would fight just as hard for you and your church if anyone decided to take their prejudice against mormons into the realm of legislative action. Before anyone asks, I am not gay. However, I live next to gay people, I have gay friends, and i live in a community that has been perhaps the most tolerant in the U.S. Please, everyone who may happen to not want to allow gay marriage, ask yourself how you would feel if someone was prejudiced against you for something that you cannot change about yourself. The answer is: confused, angry, upset, afraid, indignant, and pissed off. Thank you zas, for doing this. Many would not be as accommodating. This post probably sounds a little more accusatory that the other, so sorry about that.

Hee hee I can do one better. I read TWOK in about 2 and a half hours, so if I rush I could finish all of Stormlight in 2 days. Imaginary challenge accepted

Wow thats really cool. Its always great to go new places and meet new people. Kudos for doing something you believe in! I may be an atheist, but I appreciate sincerity beyond any other trait, and it seems like you have that in spades. I think it's cool you're answering questions about the LDS church, because I have a few that always felt uncomfortable about asking. Brandon's openness on the subject finally reassured me that it was safe to ask. I will only ask a question if I want an answer. I am very sorry If it sounds accusatory. 1. Why does the LDS church have the stance it does on gays? I know the stance, but I'm a little bit confused as to where it comes from. The LDs people I have met have been very kind, compassionate, and understanding people, so it seems ... shocking to me that this kind of discrimination exists in an organization that encourages understanding. 2. How do you feel about gays? I know some LDS people, and while the vast majority take the church's stance, some have repudiated the church's position on moral grounds, saying that it's not moral to discriminate. I'm curious to know how you feel, because it seems to me that promoting equality and discrimination at the same time is a contradiction. (again, not meant to be accusatory, so sorry if this is.) Before I close, let me just say that I have found something to admire in all world religions, and don't mean to discriminate against religion in any way shape or form. It's just distressing to me that religion is promoting anti-gay legislation. I know tons of gays, and they are people just like us. They love, and so they want to marry. Dosent the bible promote all forms of love? I really want to hear your response. I'll be frank, the Mormon position is profoundly upsetting to me, and many that I know and love. I want to have another perspective on this, so I don't develop opinions about people without hearing their point of view. I understand if you're too busy to respond.

I just finished a re read of all my favorite fantasy books, because for some reason I cant find any new good books. Over the course of a week I read, All of Martin's SOIAF books, both Gentlemen Bastard books, all of Mistborn, The Way of Kings, Elantris, Warbreaker, both Kingkiller books, all of Hitchhikers guide, Black Prism/Blinding Knife, all of Harry Potter, and books 11,12, and 13 of WOT. I tried to break my previous speed reading record of TWOK, but failed miserably. Had a lot of fun, but I'm out of books AGAIN.

Wow, lots of Pokemon people here. I just read all 18 pages of this thread... If only I hadn't sold my DS. damnation. Water under the bridge I guess. Well, lately I've been trying to convince myself that Skyrim is still fun after sinking in 165 hours, trolling my friend on his Minecraft server, playing Halo Reach solo legendary campaign and multiplayer to prep for Halo 4, and replaying Okami for the 15th or 20th time. Btw, everyone with a Wii/PS2/PS3 GO PLAY OKAMI! Such an amazing game. Truly a piece of art. If you've already played it, play it again. And again. And again. And then worship it.

Ha, I remember i like yesterday... One day, I was browsing the kindle store, and I found Elantris. I read it, liked it, and started looking at reviews. Everyone was recommending a book called "Mistborn". Unfortunately, buying Elantris was the only thing I had money for. About a month later, I happened upon all 3 books of Mistborn at my library. I almost didn't check them out, but I hadn't found anything else, so I thought, might as well. I read them all in about 6 hours. Straight. No breaks. I was so blown away. Before this, I had read some fantasy, but it all had seemed derivative of Tolkien and Jordan, so I had almost given up on it it. Discovering Mistborn and all the other books by Mr. Sanderson gave me enough faith in fantasy to keep going, and to become the rabid fantasy reader that I am today. I owe Brandon Sanderson for helping me avoid a horrifying future without fantasy books. Mistborn still holds a special place in my heart.

Hmmmmm.... Mistborn has the most for me. Vin, Kelsier and Sazed are probably my 3 favorite. Dalinar really grew on me, so he goes in the second tier. The Lord Ruler is fascinating to me as a concept rather than a character, but i'll put him in anyway. Out of all those, I'm going to have to go with Vin. I really enjoy rooting for characters with psychological damage, and Vin was the exact right combination of vulnerable and badass.

Hello everyone Sooooo, it seems like no one replied to my previous post about this. damnation. Well, I've had some new ideas about the world I am creating, and have had more time to develop it, so here is a much better version of what I was trying to do before.PLEASE give me some feeback. I really want to know if people think this is worthwhile. Sorry its so essay like, but I have a lot of ideas. The root of this world is an idea I had when I was 9. It involved people sucking out heat with magical orange crystals, and shooting huge fireballs at people with it. When I was going through all of my old written ideas I started to wonder "Huh, what would happen in a world like pluto? Is there any way it coud ever support life?" I took this idea and ran with it, and used the idea of a orange stone that absorbed heat as a large part of it. The world I ended up creating is called Hyou, and it is really really cold. Without this stone, it would be like Pluto. There are aboveground deposits that people use, and underground deposite that heat the world enough to make it inhabitable. People survive by using the aforemetioned stone, which I am calling Calorite. Calorite absorbs all heat near it when unrefined, but when refined by volcanic ash, it only absorbs more heat when it is subjected to extreme temperatures. The money in this owrld is refined rings of calorite, which makes heat distribution in the body easier, and makes it easier for commoners to warm themselves. Farming on this world requires rings of calorite on the fround to warm the soil up sufficiently. Calorite was placed on Hyou by a mysterious being (Invented a mythos for this universe, not gonna get into it here). Civilization basically began when Humanity learned about calorite. After many civilizations began to develop, there was a huge war between 3 huge nations, Rikka, Bhapre, and Sineilao, called the Triwar, over Calorite deposits and volcanoes (volcanoes are resources because they have lots of heat, so you need them for large calorite infusions, plus volcanic ash refines calorite.) During this war, people learned how to use calorite to create weapons, and Rikkan priests learned how to implant it into peoples nerves, to make them able to control heat flow. There people are called Heatmeshers, and they can control calorite by using the ambient electricity in their nervous system to take in and let out heat. However, this uses up the electricity, so if they use too much too fast they die, since the brain wont be able to carry signals to their bodies. Also, if they take in more heat than the calorite and their bodies can absorb, the heat starts to calcify their bodies, turning them into calorite. They cant use the parts of their bodies turned to calorite. This is a dilemma, since the more of their bodies that are calorite, the more heat they can control, and the more powerful they are. The powers of this magic system include, creating Gas, Liquid, and Solid forms of calorite, speeding up nervous system reactions with heat, shooting projectiles of heat energy and of course, spontaneously creating fire. (takes a little less heat than the amount needed to make liquid calorite). Rikkans are the only ones who can use magic, because of the surgical skills of the priests of the Creed, so they ruthlessly guard their surgical skills to give the Rikkan priesthood exclusive access to the worlds magic. The novel I am writing takes place around 870 years after the Triwar. The main character of this book is a former priest who kills some members of the priesthood to escape after figuring out the corrupt schemes of the Creed. He becomes a thief, and so, when he gets a chance to try and destroy the Creed, he eagerly agrees. However, not everything is as straightforward as that... I spent a lot of time making this up, plus I have 30 pages of the novel written, so I would really like know what you guys think. If you are confused at all, Im checking this topic every day, so I'll answer pretty promptly. Thank you, anyone who takes the time to give me some feedback. -Yamato

Hello Mr Sanderson and thank you so much for coming!!! Mistborn was the book that made me start to love fantasy, and TWOK is one of my absolute favorites, so I'm incredibly honored to have this chance to ask my favorite author some questions. faves 1. Where did you get the idea for your Adonalsium mythos? Did it develop in your head for a while, or did you have a sudden flash of inspiration. 2. How did you portray Jasnah's aitheism so well? As a staunch aitheist myself, I think you did an absolutely brilliant job. Honestly, It made me happy that a religious person was trying to understand my mindset. Anyway, who did you ask to get such accurate ideas of aitheist thought? 3. What is your favorite of your own books? 4. Any advice for an aspiring fantasy writer? Besides the obligatory "Read a lot and write a a lot!!!" Characterization advice is especially appreciated. 5. What has turned out better for you, starting with the characters, the plot, or the world when you are beginning the writing process for a book? 6. Out of all your magic systems, which one would you choose to be a user of? 7. Will you ever go into more detail about the dead original shardholders? I'd love to know what kind of people Tanavast, Ati, and Leras were. 8. I am currently trying to write a book in which the world is drastically different from earth. Do you think it is too ambitious to start out with such a complex setting? 9. Please bring back Kelsier!!!!! Wow. 9? That's waaaaay more than I planned... Thanks!!! I really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to do this. -Yamato

Yamato is the name of Japan before the year 672. The emperor in 672 changed the name of the country from Yamato to Nippon or Nihon, which means sun-origin, or Land of the rising sun. Brendan, you're also right. It was a ship in WW2 that was the largest battleship ever. Momo, I am a huge manga obsessive, I used to read Shonen mostly, but after discovering Osamu Tezuka's non Astro boy works, it's hard for me to go back to Naruto and Bleach and whatnot. I recommend Phoenix, Buddha, Black Jack, Adolf, and Barefoot gen. All amazing works of art. Thanks for the info about the writing jamesW. IMO the cosmere is pretty much the coolest thing ever, so I was really excited to discover this place.

Thanks! Is there a place where I can post work I want people to take a look at? I've been writing something I want feedback on and it would be great to have some input.

Greetings fellow peoples! I only recently discovered 17th shard, though I've been a Sanderson fan since Mistborn:TFE. I'm 16, and am a passionate reader, writer, and lover of history. I have an obsession with Japanese history and culture, as well as an appreciation for a good videogame. I've always admired Brandon Sanderson as someone who was willing to challenge established fantasy norms, and was pleasantly surprised that he was chosen to work on WOT. I live in CA and am taking Japanese (Language) and Aikido ( a Japanese martial art.). I hope I can both have some great discussions, and satisfy my inherent itch to read and talk about Brandon Sanderson and other author's rich worlds. I am trying my best to write an Epic Fantasy, so I hope I can get an insight on that here. Oh, and I'm a Sandertard. HEEEE HEEEE -YamatoMan