yahas

So this is something that's just bothered me - I saw a comment on reddit recently that essentially said that reading Brandon's other novels is not really that essential for someone who wishes to enjoy the Stormlight Archive. This bothered me primarily because my own opinion was quite different - the Easter Eggs to the other Shardworlds were as interesting to me as the worldbuilding for Roshar itself - I think I may not have enjoyed the books as much if there weren't Elantris references in tWoK and Warbreaker references in WoR. Another aspect of this is Hoid/Wit. I think Wit would not have the depth of characterization that he has for me presently if I didn't know who/what he was - if I was Cosmere unaware, I'd just be confused and think he's a Herald of some sort. With the knowledge of the Cosmere, Wit really becomes a much much more interesting character, at least imo. Furthermore, it's interesting to note that I enjoy and wait for Cosmere novels far far more - with the exception of the Rithmatist, I don't enjoy Brandon's non-cosmere (Steelheart, Alcatraz and Legion) anywhere near as much as I enjoy the Cosmere novels, and even Rithmatist I didn't like enough to reread more than once (in contrast to, say Cosmere stories, most of which I've read upwards of five times). If Brandon decided, for example, that he wasn't going to get Alcatraz 5 published, I really wouldn't care all that much - if he decided not to publish the Mistborn modern/sci-fi trilogies instead? I would freak. So essentially, my question is where do you guys fall in the spectrum? Are you closer to me (wherein Cosmere is integral to your enjoyment of Brandon's work) or are you closer to the random reddit commenter (wherein you don't think the Cosmere references are worth enough to read books you may not be interested in), or are you somewhere in between?

This seems like a decent enough place to ask this: is Brandon still handing out copies of White Sand? I got a copy of Aether off of him, recently, but now I figure I'd really like to read White Sand too, now that it's definitely not going to be a novel.

I have a request: Could someone please post an audio of, or transcribe the parts of the Shadow of Self reading that are new? I'd really love to see what more he revealed, if anything.

I'd settle for learning more about surgebinding, frankly. Voidbinding and Old Magic are a long ways off, it seems to me.

I must say though, the addition of another Herald to the focus characters really removes the specialty of Taln's character (that is, a solitary historical/legendary hero with the weight of the entire world on his shoulders).

Ah, interesting. So Navani got pushed back... While we're on the topic of focus characters: will focus characters only be about the flashback sequence, or will they have an enlarged role in the narrative (similar to how Kaladin is the centre of the Way of Kings story)? I've always assumed the latter, but recent comments by Brandon about how the focus characters may die are confusing me.

I remember a few months ago, someone had posted the list of the focus characters for each of the books (a list which included a herald other than Taln). However, I recently read somewhere that Brandon is planning to make a Parshendi character one of the focus characters. Has the plan changed? Or was the list earlier preliminary? I remember that Brandon was confused about perhaps doing another Kaladin book, or perhaps a Bridge Four book.

I don't think we'll learn much about Atium alloys in Shadows of Self. I've always felt that Brandon is keeping these things under wraps for the modern/future Mistborn trilogies. After all, if he told us everything right now (and he's told us quite a bit even, since HoA came out), how would he use his twists in the new books?

As you may recall, as part of his plan to defeat Ati, Leras put a little more of Preservation in the humans. Now that Sazed holds both shards, it means that unless he has been siphoning off the extra Ruin somewhere, Harmony is slightly imbalanced. I've seen Brandon tease a bit about this, but I can't find the source right now. In any case, it seems like Sazed is not doing this by producing more Atium or anything of the sort, going by the lack of Atium in Alloy (although, there's no reason for there to be Atium in Alloy, or even for the main characters to know what Atium is, so maybe this is just wrong). In any case, I have a theory about what he's doing with the extra Ruin: he put it in the Koloss, just like the extra Preservation is in humans. I'm mostly basing this theory off a hunch. We know that Koloss have now become a race that 'breeds true', and the fact that they were originally made from Hemalurgy suggests that they have a little more of Ruin in them anyway. Add to this the fact that Sazed/Harmony seems to have started using the concept of Balance in his worldview, and I find the symmetry of humans having more Preservation in them while Koloss have more Ruin in them oddly pleasing, and a good fit with the whole Balance thing. What do you guys think?

Hi, I've been a member of the site for a long time (since TWG tanked, and I needed a place to get my cosmere-crack somewhere) but I've never posted in the forums: I normally just lurk around once in a while when I've been re-reading one of the cosmere novels. However, I was planning to post a question about Stormlight, and I figure I should participate in the discussions that I so often creepily stalk. I figured introducing myself once would be a good idea. Also I kind of really want a cookie. Some real world information: I'm an undergraduate in India (I study math), and I got introduced to Brandon when he took the job for finishing Wheel of Time. It's a little hard to be a fan over here, because his publishers don't seem to send his non-WoT books to bookstores here, so I have to rely on online shipping sites to get his books. Also this means I have to spend between 2 to 4 weeks keeping somehow myself off the parts of the internets which have spoilers (this has happened twice yet, with Way of Kings and Alloy of Law, and I strongly suspect it will again with Words of Radiance). Thanks for building this community by the way. I really enjoy my visits to these forums, even though they happen sparsely.

Ooooh. Me want.