Inkthinker

Michael has expressed an interest in continuing to work on the Stormlight series, and I know Isaac and myself are firmly attached. And we're all unreasonably obsessed with continuing to improve our skills, so I think that bodes well for the future. -EDIT- or did you mean ALL of Brandon's future books? As I said, Isaac and I aren't going anywhere, but the way artwork is integral to the Stormlight Archive is a little bit unique. Not every Sanderson series uses art the way Stormlight does, and many of them don't need to.

Me too. I'm trying to convince myself they're warranted... Michael did all the hard work.

Impressive! Are you planning to mess with it more (do you want feedback?) or are you done and ready to move on to the next thing? Thank you for getting the mouth right.

The best thing about the hardbound editions is that they are the definitive printing (for now) on the artwork. In paperback we have to reduce some of the texture and detail, and in e-book we have to reduce size and resolution for memory (these still tend to be significantly "larger" as e-books than others of similar word count, thanks to the image files). And with this series, the artwork isn't always just decorative... there's stuff to learn in there. The art in this series is purposeful, deliberate, and devised in direct partnership with Brandon. Remember, every image in these books is meant to represent an in-world document... that map is hanging in a library, those drawings are pages from a notebook, and so forth. Very little is done without purpose, and we're very careful about how the images are placed in the book. For folks who read the e-book editions, all the artwork can be found at fairly high resolution on Brandon's site. For instance, all the published art from Kings can be found here. While I'm making a supposition here, I expect the same will hold true for the published artwork in Words of Radiance.

I know that crem most certainly collects, but it also washes away, dries and breaks up. It's certainly a part of the biosphere, insofar as various flora and fauna derive nutrients and extrude minerals from it... it's been theorized that this is how many rockbuds get their "rocky" bits and the reason chulls have giant boulder-shells, through a process in which the nutrients are extracted and the unusuable stuff is extruded through the skin or shell. I'm almost certain that it's one of the staples of diet for cremlings (hence the name). I don't know if there's a mystical source of it. I'm thinking not, but it might be... It's an interesting question, someone should ask Brandon.

Neat! You can revise your vote after you place it.

Sorry. The "real anime" thing punches a button. I apologize if I was being excessively snarky, but a statement like, "if it were anime, it would have to be X and Y and Z because that's what anime means" is a perfect, almost literal example of failing to see a forest for the trees. Even if it were produced entirely in Japan by a Japanese studio (and the Koreans), without the influence of Dragonsteel, the idea that in doing so it would need to conform to some ridiculous modification wherein Kaladin becomes this girly man, Dalinar collects panties and Shallan becomes a big-tit tsundere (or whatever other argument is being made that boils down to "it can't be that, because 'anime' means what I say it does") isn't just short-sighted, it's harmful. It prevents good work from being done and reinforces stereotypes that only serve to illustrate false representation. It also suggests that Brandon would be foolish enough to sell out for an adaptation without any stipulations regarding content. The biggest flaw with adapting Stormlight as an animated series would be convincing people that it's not any of those stupid things people have talked about.... a task made harder by idiots telling the ignorant that if it's "anime" (a term which has almost no purpose in English outside of a marketing classification), then it must be stupid, or badly animated, or for kids, or for perverts. Way to go, fans. ... Anyhow, I'm open to any convincing argument that suggest how the full range of action, characters and locations can be brought to a new media, while also realistically addressing the issue of budget, distribution, VFX and scope. Budget is the real killer. If we're opening the discussion to a dream land where someone is just going to open the money hose forever, then I could see shooting for a GoT style series. But it is SOOOO visually effects heavy, we're talking Avatar levels of CGI, going on for dozens of hours. Really, think about showing the world of Roshar. Horses are rare, giant walking crabs with shells made of stone are common. Almost every plant in the world is animated, and reacts to humans by withdrawing in some way. Most of the cast would need to be Asian or Indian, if we're not whitewashing the characters, and that comes with a whole bucket of challenges that would be awesome to overcome, but are poison to fiscally-wary investors. And where would you shoot it? LotR works because of New Zealand. GoT shoots in Ireland and Morroco and all over. But what live sets do you propose substitute for the Shattered Plains, the City of Bells, or the knife-edge mountains of Alethkar? Is every place going to made of whole cloth, shooting in green rooms like The Phantom Menace? So, let's make a video game. I'm actually into this idea... it could look great, and we could go anywhere, and we could see almost anything. But I think perhaps there's some misunderstandings about what can be practically achieved in terms of gameplay and balance, especially considering that we're two books into a five-book arc of a ten-book series. If you want to wait until 2020 for an adaptation, a video game is much more reasonable, and I think it would be pretty cool. But it's too early to know if any sort of multiplayer is practically feasible, much less reasonably convertible into a player-interactive format. Unless we want to reduce the scope massively, and only allow the player to work from the viewpoint of a handful of characters with limited abilities. As it is, we wouldn't be adapting The Stormlight Archive (novels) into another media, we would be adapting the Stormlight IP into a new story, with new characters. Which I'm fine with, but that's a whole warehouse full of worm-buckets you're opening up there. Lastly, I would point out that the budget for producing a videogame is significantly higher than that of an animated series. Even a really expensive animated series costs less than a cheaply-made game, at least the sort of game I think most of us imagine when we read the novels. But what might help achieve that level of budget would be an expanded fandom, supported by multiple media. Only one media option allows adaptation of the source material in the most faithful, fully realized form outside of the written word. I'm talking about comics, of course. Actually, how come comics isn't an option? I guess that would be part of "None of the above"... I would totally back a comics adaptation. Or I guess it would a be MANGA adaptation, though I think that doesn't mean it needs a Japanese artist. It would need someone versed in long-format storytelling, though, and man... it would be a very slow production. Could work though. Would be cheapest, could look great, has a lot of potential to feed additional media adaptation. It would take a long time to produce, but then turnaround time for all these options would require a couple years or more of production before having anything distributable. Actually, in that sense, comics might have the fastest results, too. If released online in small chunks, you could be reading an adaptation online mere months after it were started.

Oh, I'm familiar with that "debate". It's pretty much exclusively the territory of children and people who want to maintain some sense of "purity" in their fandom. I consider it to be incredibly stupid and short-sighted. I don't care where animation is produced, I only care if the content is good. There's as wide a gap between Cowboy Bebop and Pokemon as there is between Rabbit Fire and Fire & Ice. Heck, the very examples you provide cover a huge spectrum of visuals, pacing and audience. Look to a production such as The Legend of Korra and tell me where that fits in such a tiny little box. It's anime, 'cause it's made in Korea (as everything is) and kinda looks like other shows from Japan! No, it's not, 'cause it's designed/boarded/directed/produced in California and made for an English-speaking audience! WHAT BASTARD CHILD IS THIS?! And man, that Korra sure is dumb and has big boobs, right? Tenzin, such a pretty boy! But sure, if it helps exclusionist, discriminatory "anime fans" from getting their panties wound in a twaddle, consider my viewpoint modified. Stormlight would work best as an "animated series". With the existing team playing a role in design and direction, insofar as we are able (given that most of the team has a background in animation production, I would argue that we are, at least, well-qualified.) And I'm sure that it would have some "anime influence", because pretty much everyone on the team is a fan of Japanese animation, to varying degrees. But if anyone thinks that it means a show couldn't be produced in which Dalinar and Kaladin are real men, or that we would let Shallan suddenly gain four bra sizes and lose half her IQ, then I am both disappointed in your lack of faith in the team and saddened at your paucity of vision.

Man, there's nothing inherent about anything in "anime". It's another word for ANIMATED. No one style, no single look. The same tools that make Naruto also make Scooby Doo. Sometimes it's the same people. Stormlight would work best as a full-season animated series. It's the most cost-effective (which is hugely important if we're having a real discussion and not just daydreaming) media that's fully capable of depicting all the magic and wonders of the series. Trust the design team to handle the designs, it would not look like Pokemon. Sheesh. Obviously it would look like Beyblade. Duh.

Mwahaha... this thread will be very interesting in a few months, I'll have to come find it again. I don't think Brandon will ever publish an explicit sex scene, though who can say what the distant future holds... I just don't see it, given his personality and background. I doubt that he'll ever hit something like a Richard K. Morgan level of explicitness, and I expect we'll always "pan the camera away", so to speak. And I'm fine with that, because there are plenty of authors who are willing to go there already.

Nothing you're describing is inherent to the media itself. Stormlight would be as well-designed and directed as it has the potential to be. There's no need nor any interest in modifying character designs to make them hypersexualized (and I think I can speak for the team that we wouldn't support any such attempt). Stormlight would not work as a television show because the costs of sets and costumes would be astronomical (or it would look half-assed. You really want Shardplate to look like clanky Renn Faire armor with LED's under the edges?). Game of Thrones is great, but it's suited to the format in ways that Stormlight is not, and Westeros asks much less of the fantastic than the world of Roshar. It doesn't work as a film because the overarching plots and themes explored so far are not well-suited to a 120-minute script. A completely new story would be necessary, and there's no way to explore the breadth of the world and it's many aspects within the time-frame... we'd have to give up a lot. It could work as a game, provided the right people were developing and the right scope were defined, but it would be difficult to include every aspect of the magic systems into a well-balanced playable engine. Not to mention the endless argument over what type of game it should be. MMO? 3rd-person adventure? Battlefield action? Much like a film, we couldn't cover everything and we would have to give up something. That being said, I'd like to see ChAIR work with the license. As an animated series, it can look as fantastic as described in the text, last as long as the story needs it to, and encompass every aspect of the world. There's no place you couldn't go, no scene that could not be envisioned. In terms of budget, the cost for deveopment is significantly lessened, and the content has precedent for success with the consumer. It's the logical, obvious choice.

Need a multiple choice poll. Anyhow, as an animator, I would push for an animated adaptation. I would also push for a video game, but an animated adaptation seems better suited to Stormlight. I would argue that Stormlight makes the better anime, and Mistborn the better game.

Word of Brandon, settles that.

Nice! Interesting variations, but a lot of consistency, which is good. I should clarify, I'm mostly interested in physical descriptions, that being my bailiwick. I'm almost positive that Alethi don't have the epicanthic fold. Nearly certain, anyway. On the topic of hair lenth, "shoulder-length" is a term that allows for a good bit of interpretation. I would take it to mean anything from the collarbone up to the base of the neck. Interesting that there's a couple opinions on the length of Adolin's hair... I see it as being quite long and straight, at least down to his shoulderblades, but now I have to go check for text to support that (or at least nothing to contradict it).

So, here's the game: WITHOUT looking at any comments posted so far, go straight down to Reply and describe, in your fullest capacity, the following characters: - Kaladin - Shallan - Dalinar - Adolin - Jasnah - Sadeas You can cast with actors if you like, but let's not post pictures, at least not on this first page, so as not to distract people scrolling down to write their replies. Ideally, don't even check the book for details! I want the impression that reading the novel has left in your head. If you've a writing mind, consider this a writing exercise. Feel free to describe as many details as you like. I chose a handful of main characters, but kept it short... if you want to add Navani or Wit or Renarin to your list, go right ahead. After you post your impressions, only then should you go back and read what others have written, and discuss! This isn't a contest, there are no "right" answers. The only hard and fast "facts" in this discussion come from descriptors that are laid out in the text (Shallan has red hair. What shade of red is open to discussion), but even there I'm curious to see if there are any descriptors that are consistently forgotten, missed or interpreted differently. So don't worry about being wrong or right, just descibe them as you imagine them to look. This is not any part of what's going on with the books, nor any part of my work for Dragonsteel. This is something I'm curious about on my own time. It is possible that I might come back to this thread at a later date to mine it for resources, but I'm not doing any portraits of the main cast for Brandon (some of you are probably already familiar with his policy on "official" likenesses, to which I fully subscribe). That being said, I'm more obsessed than average (I think) in seeing visual interpretation from the novels done "right", as it were, and a conversation like this may be helpful in the future.

If you dig into the fanart sticky, you'll find the first piece of Vin fanart that I posted, which got Brandon's attention and led to so many nice things.

It's worth proposing to the team at Crafty, and you should! But I reckon they're pretty focused on the Alloy of Law supplement for the RPG, in addition to their other product lines, so even if that were to happen, it would be a while from now. Writing new fiction in the Mistborn universe sans Brandon himself is tricky business, and there's not a lot of people willing to (or capable of) filling those shoes. Not to mention that the license is somewhat tangled now, with the game and the film and the future novels. But who knows what the future holds? A solo adventure isn't even close to the craziest proposal out there. I'm personally a big fan of solo gamebooks, because I also grew up with an interest in games but very few opportunities to play. I'd like to see it happen!

If your heart beats faster, you summon your Blade faster.

Yep, the first time was DragonCon 2010.

If nothing else, folks, we're getting the whole Stormlight crew together for the first time in a couple years. It's a rare opportunity to find Brandon, Peter, Isaac and myself all in one place.

That's quite clever. Don't know if it's true, but it's clever and it fits. Nice!

Originally I think the sleeves were designed like a cone of fabric, with the narrow end at the torso and the widest part sewn nearly closed except for an opening about 6-12 inches long, which can button closed. False buttons down the seam balance the functional ones, embroidery and patterns decorate the sleeves to break up the silhouette and add detail to the design. Now, as I look on, I'm not so sure that the cone-shaped sleeves are either A.) practical or B.) all that attractive. But there's a world of room to move around in, a monolithic fashion culture would be booooring. Brandon leaves plenty of details open to interpretation. The big trick is to accomodate the safehand, and that usually means long sleeves. There are gloves for practical usage, but I think that wearing a glove implies that you need your hands in order to function, therefore you are of a menial/labor class. It's much classier to look for other options to cover the hand, and extending the sleeve is an obvious solution. I had another design that extends both sleeves equally, but allowing the right sleeve to open along the arm up to the elbow, letting the right hand move freely. You could also do some interesting things with slashes or layers of fabric that allow one hand to emerge but keep the other covered.

The safehand sleeve in the dresses that Shallan and Jasnah wear is very much like the sleeve of a kimono, with the accompanying pocket space in the corner. Safehands should be completely enclosed, but a slit is cut into the end of the sleeve so that you can get in there with your other hand, or extend the safehand if needed. Button it up for security. My solution was generally to make the left sleeve about a hand's-length longer than the right sleeve, with buttons to close up the opening. Create other options! As a concept guy I know just enough about clothing to get into trouble, practical details and accurate seamery are not my forte. The original concepts were based on Brandon's descriptions, then modified as we moved ahead, what he describes in the text of the book is pretty close to what we came up with, but I can't swear that translates straight into wearable clothing without some creative interpretation. The buttons along the sides of the torso run along the same seams that you would have to allow the dress to hug the body, so from the throat down along the outside of the breast to the waist. At that point, I had stopped the seam with a little ornamental embroidery. The skirts are split into six or eight panels, and beneath them are interwoven sheets of lighter fabric. I wish I could just show the artwork but it remains in sequester until a future date. Sorry 'bout that, but I'll see what I can do about providing another option in the near future.

Mythbusters busted catching a katana blade, which is (to be fair) the sort most often seen in that myth. It doesn't work because A)the blade is thin, B)the blade is REALLY sharp, and C) when your hands come together around the blade, they get cut because it's a really thin, sharp blade. Shardblades come in many shapes, some of which are wide enough that it might concievably work. Though I wouldn't want to try it. Rule of Cool still rules the school.

Abercrombie recently wrote quite an interesting post on his blog about this very subject, and went a long way towards explaining why it is that I really like his books. The Value of Grit He makes it very clear, this isn't about being GRIMDARK for the sake of shoving a middle finger up to the faces of classic fantasy lovers, but more about expressing that real people respond to the real world in ways that are often messy, dirty, and morally grey. He breaks it down to a tight focus on character, moral ambiguity, honesty and range. And he admits, sometimes it is about the shock factor, because sometimes you want to punch the reader right in the metaphorical nuts, to shake them out of their complacency. I also like his reasoning behind his use of modern language (especially profanity). It's not for everyone, some people just want an escape. But I'll say that The Heroes is still the best book about a major battle than I've ever read, and it's because his characters feel like real people. When they succeed, it's a real success, and when they die it feels like real death. By the same mark, Best Served Cold is the best revenge novel I've enjoyed since Westlake wrote The Hunter. He goes too far, sometimes. I feel like Jezal Dan Luther's plotline in the First Law trilogy ended realistically, but I hated that ending so much that I nearly gave up on his books altogether. Luckily it was offset by how much I really liked Logen Ninefingers, the Dogman, and just about every part of The Bloody Nine's story, right up to the very end. I don't think Brandon will ever be as gritty as Abercrombie, but that's fine... Brandon's not the same kind of person as Joe, just reading their blog posts can tell you that. They're not writing from the same place, or with the same intentions, and as such they won't write the same books, and that's just fine. Sanderson does focus on his characters, and they certainly have nuance, and failures, and are often not what they claim or appear to be. And that's more than enough ambiguity to keep me interested.