Mason Wheeler

Wow! The numbered copies sold out within 10 minutes! Glad I got one right away before they vanished!

The Elsecaller lore seems a bit odd to me. This line intrigues me, because the one Elsecaller we've seen so far could be best described as a prosocial psychopath. (ie. the charismatic type who ends up as cult leaders or CEOs in our world. On Roshar... well... yeah. Close enough!) This is someone whose response to learning about a failed genocide was disgust at its failure, who used a vigilante murder spree of a handful of criminals as a philosophical object lesson for her apprentice, whose first reaction to learning about the way the Desolation cycle really worked was "we should find some Heralds and kill them to fix this," and whose first thought on learning something was weird about her own brother's spren was to reach for a Shardblade. Murder appears to be her go-to solution to every problem! Thoughtful, careful, cautious and wise does not fit Jasnah particularly well at all! Is this just another case of "you're so different from what your order is supposed to be as to be a mockery of it" a la Nale's derisive dismissal of Lift? Because not all of the Radiants we've seen so far are bad matches for their orders. Kaladin isn't, and Dalinar definitely isn't! (Malata may or may not be; we'd have to see more of her...) But I fear for the future of Alethkar with Jasnah in charge!

I've heard people talk about general points before, even very publicly such as on Shardcast. I'm deliberately trying to keep to the same level of generality here.

Very interesting story! Brandon's said that the Shattered Plains in The Way of Kings was lifted straight out of Dragonsteel. It was, to a surprising degree -- one of the characters becomes a bridgeman in Bridge Four, just for starters -- but he also made a lot of changes. (There's no The Tower, and the counterpart to that scene was done very differently, for example, as was the aftermath.) Frost was in it. As everyone knows, (around the fandom at least,) Frost is a dragon. At no point in this book does it say he's a dragon, though Hoid Cephandrious has some pretty strong suspicions that he's something more than the ordinary human he appears to be. Oh, and speaking of Stormlight, the Shattered Plains isn't the only thing Brandon lifted out of Dragonsteel. Hoid's "Wit" persona is very recognizable in the character of Cephandrious! Also, and this may be a total coincidence, but there's a local god of death and destruction named Xeth, who's associated with a specific color. (Though it's not white.) And speaking of gods, that was probably the most surprising thing of all to me: at no point in the story does it mention Adonalsium! I liked the magic. There's one "big" magic system going on, with different people having access to different aspects of it. (Again, reminiscent of Stormlight's Surgebinding.) And it plays well into the big reveal at the end, which I probably should have seen coming, but totally didn't! Anyway, it was a fun read. I'd recommend it to any other fans who get the opportunity.

Those are perfectly good words!

Oh wow, that's rough! I hope you're able to pull through! Valuing stuff like this is always tricky. Probably your best bet would be to look on ebay and see if any similar items are selling, and at what price.

So my wife recently decided to take a few classes at BYU. Among other things, this means access to the library, home to one of the rarest of all books. And because she's just that great, she checked it out for me! #MyWifeIsAwesome

It came! And it's beautiful! My collection continues to grow...

I'm so sorry. Every single time I've ever had something shipped by UPS, there's been some sort of screwup. Remember on the first Iron Man movie, the scene with Jim Cramer trashing Stark Industries? "This is a weapons company that doesn't make weapons!" This is basically how I view UPS: a package delivery company that doesn't deliver packages! So... hopefully you'll get your book. Eventually.

Just got my notice. It probably won't be here in time for Christmas, but it'll be here soon!

We know there's some level of dark magic in the Jesker Mysteries, though details are a bit light...

I got some interesting answers to questions. Paraphrasing by memory here, especially the last one. Q: So Vasher moved to Roshar to live off the easy Investiture from Stormlight. A: Yeah... Q: Does he know about larkins? A: He's heard of them. Q: How afraid of them is he? A: He's really glad that they're extinct, or so he's heard at least. Because a larkin would kill him. Q: The Double Eye of the Almighty... is that just religious symbolism, or does Tanavast have weird pupils? A: Just religious symbolism. However, if you were to meet Tanavast after that symbolism had gotten enough traction, you might notice he has weird pupils. Q: Sort of a "the god is shaped by the ideas of his believers" thing? A: Yeah. But he wasn't born that way. Q: When you got picked to finish up The Wheel of Time, I remember thinking two very different things. One was "oh cool, he writes good books," but the other was "he's only published a few books; I wonder why they picked him and not someone more experienced." What was that like, the process of you getting chosen to finish the series? A: Well, the main thing was that Harriet had read Mistborn, and she liked it. The other main contender was George R. R. Martin, but they decided not to go with him because it would cause his fans to riot; even back then he had a reputation for taking a long time to publish new books. But a lot of it was that Harriet liked Mistborn, and she wanted someone with a strong understanding of the world of The Wheel of Time, which I had. But also, I think she kind of wanted a writer without much experience, so she could help guide and teach him on the project, rather than someone who was already really established and set in their ways. That's what she did with Robert Jordan afterall; she was the editor who first discovered him. So that was fun! Anyone else get any good WoBs?

Argh, I missed the photo!

Thanks for the update. I'll see you guys in a couple hours.

Someone remind me, what time does it actually open?

@Ark1002 That's because they're anonymous!

From the site: Sure looks like you should be able to pick up everything you need at the high school after 5.

You're "super close by" but have to take the bus? Where do you live? (I'm local and might be able to give you a ride home if it's not too far.)

Already got my ticket. Who else will be there? (Ticket link for those who haven't seen it yet...)

Anyone else reading M-Bot's voice as an Elcor from Mass Effect now?

Me too! I'm surprised we haven't seen a preorder form for Warbreaker 10th Anniversary Leatherbound Edition yet.

You know what would make for a really great Shardcast episode? Adonalsium. For all that we've learned about the Shards and their origin, the most central question remains maddeningly vague: why? What was the problem to which the original Vessels believed that the best/only solution was to destroy God and scatter its pieces far and wide across the Cosmere? I'd love to see what sort of juicy speculation you guys manage to come up with on the subject...

Also, we were talking with a guy from Dragonsteel while in line, and he confirmed that a Warbreaker leatherbound is in production. I know we all sort of figured it would be since this year is the 10-year anniversary of its publication, but this is the first time I've heard anyone actually authoritatively say so.

My WoBs from this event: Q: You've said before that Hoid has had many love interests over the ages. So does that mean he has a bunch of distant descendants running around the Cosmere? A: RAFO Q: Well that kind of makes my follow-up pointless, then. A: Yeah. (The follow-up was going to be "Is Kaladin one of them?" It's a personal theory of mine.) Q: How many worlds of the Cosmere has Nightblood visited, by which I specifically mean, being present in the Physical Realm in that world. A: More than two. Q: ...seriously? *trying to sort of stare him down to get a less vague response* A: *he just grins and nods* Q: How many shots would it take for Wax using his gunnery to break a section of Shardplate? A: *going into full equivocation mode* Well, it would depend on what gun he was using... Q: His usual. A: With Vindication? Well, hmm, it would depend on what sort of ammo he was using, he's got different kinds you know, but... probably 2 or 3. He might even be able to do it in one shot with the right sort of ammo. So that's what I got. Enjoy!

Q: Brandon has always said that Earth doesn't exist in the world of the Cosmere, but in a hypothetical story where a Dysian Aimian worldhopper visited Earth, where would it end up? A: Seattle.