Fantasy Book Club discussion

Post your questions for Brandon here.

Brandon has kindly agreed to answer questions for both the Way of Kings and Towers of Midnight. This thread is for WAY OF KINGS questions only please!

My burning question for Brandon is did I miss the explanation, world building moment or historical gem that explains why women have a safe hand and why they must keep it covered?

Jon wrote: "My burning question for Brandon is did I miss the explanation, world building moment or historical gem that explains why women have a safe hand and why they must keep it covered?"

I don't believe it was ever explained. Explaining it would have been somewhat tacky too, since it was obviously such a large part of Alethi 'polite' culture and so ingrained that there is no real reason why any character would even think twice about it.

I suppose there could have been some exchange between an Alethi and a non-Alethi, but I don't really feel it was necessary.

The inside cover is beautiful. Do you plan to do something similar with every book?

I just had a quick thing I was wondering about. (spoiler, btw) Kaladin killed the Shardbearer by jamming the spearhead into the eye slit in the mans visor, right? But when the book talks about Dalinar's shardplate, he just closes the visor and it mists clear, like it doesn't need an opening. Were the two shardplate made differently, or is it something else?

Will Kaladin (or Shallan, or any of the other characters) be going to visit the various places Kaladin saw in his dream, and if so, for extended periods of time or just short trips? I think the interludes are wonderful ways of showing other parts of the world, if I may also comment.

To Jennifer (above post): I think Dalinar's visor looks clear for him but doesn't necessarily look different than otherwise for anyone else, so that he can see in any direction but it still protects him. I don't remember if his visor had eyeslits or not, though.

Jennifer wrote: "I just had a quick thing I was wondering about. (spoiler, btw) Kaladin killed the Shardbearer by jamming the spearhead into the eye slit in the mans visor, right? But when the book talks about Dali..."
Helmet visors have eye slits in them. The metal of the faceplate becomes translucent, but there is still a totally open narrow slit at eye level. Dalinar raises his arm to cover the slit several times as he scouts the area in battle.

Hi, Brandon. I love TWoK. Eagerly waiting for book 2.

- Are you already decide whether it's Shallan or Dalinar story for book 2 central plot? What about the tentative title?
- Which one will you focused more in the future, the Heralds or Radiants? Will you dig deeper into each of Heralds story and some of Radiants?

Questions below are spoiler-ish, so it's OK if you don't want to answer it. But I try anyway:
- Is spren lost their memories and personalities because of the loss of their attached radiants? But retain a basic attraction to things associated with the radiants they bonded to previously?
- Is the remove of Shalash statue connected to the man speaked gibberish that Szeth met before he assasinated Gavilar?

Hi Brandon! Thank you for sharing your gift with us. Love your books!!

Question. When writing TWoK, did you write the story lines individually & then weave them together (e.g. Place the chapters as desired.), after the fact? Or did you write the book generally in the order that we see the end result?

To see all that is involved in writing a book, let alone a series like TWoT or The Stormlight Archive, is truly humbling. I admire the skill it takes & the growth I've witnessed in your career. I look forward to reading many, many, more of your books!

Brandon,

Thanks for the great book.

I really like the dialogs between Jasnah and Shallon, convering sometimes atheism, god, blind faith, etc.

Are you going to expand on these philosophical topics? Will it play a larger part in the plot?

I really enjoyed these moments and hope to see more of them.

Hi Brandon. A really fine book. I specially enjoyed the beautiful artwork (I had bought the e-book and ended up buying the hardcover also only to have the illustrations).

Just a nagging question: What happened to Gaz? After some character development he just vanishes in chapter 59 without further explanation. Will he be back on the next books?

Thanks for your work, and keep it comming!!

Like everyone else I really enjoyed the TWOKs.

1) Your sidekick characters (Nightblood, TenSoon in WoA and Syl) are always interesting, sometimes more so than side characters. Is this planned out or does it just happen? Do you control their lines more than other characters? (I really liked Syl's personality if that wasn't clear.)


2) I felt the illustrations added a lot to the book physically and to the story. Will there be more in book two and so on if you have your way or was it a one book experiment?

3) Can a Herald's blade/equipment be um....adopted? I only ask because Dalinar seems to be lacking one and that Herald at the end did kick the bucket in his capital and he's gonna need more than armor when Szeth shows up.

4) Does the scene where Shallan is counting heartbeats mean what I think it means? It just kind of strange to imagine her carrying around of of those but then again she does like secrets.


I guess that's it. Thanks

Hey Brandon,

You have quite the world you have created. I look at the map and see a lot of different locations. How many of the named locations are actually going to be used? I think I saw one that was called the Shallow Crypts(? - I don't have the book in front of me right now). Anyway, I am always curious as to how much of one's world that has been built actually gets used.

Thanks!

Flip

Hey Brandon, huge fan, read all your books but alcatraz, and ill probably run out of stuff to read soon and pick one up. Will there be flashbacks for a different character in this next book?

Was Syl's appearance and behavior caused by Kaladin giving up his shardblade?

Hello

Will Hoid be a major player in all, most, or only some of these books?

thank you

Hi!

1. Are Kaladin's parents still alive, and if so, are they actually mad at him?
2. Is Hoid a Herald, or a Shareholder, or something else entirely.
3. Was the letter posted on the top of chapters to Sazed?
4. Do dead parshmen turn into Chasmfieds?
5. What is the dark-glowing sphere?
6. What did Szeth do to become a Truthless, and is there anything else involved in being a Truthless that we haven't seen?
7. Barring the Almighty, did we seen a Shardholder (like Sazed) in this book?

Thank you so much :)

Hello,

My question really doesn't have to do with the content of the books (I'm sure any questions I have will be answered as the series progresses), it has more to do with the number of books. I've read somewhere (probably your blog) that the Way of Kings will be made into ten parts. My question is this: Is it ten individual books, or really just ten parts? I notice that the first book had several parts in it so I was just curious.

The Way of Kings is certainly a great first book of a series. It does, however, leave one hungry for more. What's the best guess on when for #2? And does it have a name?

For those interested in book dates he posted this on his blog a month or so ago.

source- http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/...

=====(Future Books)=====
-Scribbler/Rithmatist (Early 2012)
-A Memory of Light (March 2012.)
-Stormlight Archive Book Two (Late 2012 or early 2013.)
-Stormlight Archive Book Three (One year after Book Two.)
-Elantris Two (Planned to be written after Stormlight Three.)

Do Szeth and Kaladin both belong to the same order of knights radiant?

Jon wrote: "My burning question for Brandon is did I miss the explanation, world building moment or historical gem that explains why women have a safe hand and why they must keep it covered?"

No, you haven't missed it. People have asked about this. There will be more explanation in-world as it comes along, but it's for much the same reason that in some cultures in our world you don't show people the bottoms of your feet, and in other cultures showing the top of your head is offensive. It's part of what has grown out of the Vorin culture, and there are reasons for it. One of them has to do with a famous book written by an artist who claimed that true feminine pursuits and arts were those that could be performed with one hand, while masculine arts were those performed with two hands, in a way associating delicacy with women and brute force with men. Some people in Roshar disagree with this idea, but the custom has grown out of that foundational work on masculine and feminine arts. That's where that came from. One aspect of this is that women began to paint one-handed and do things one-handed in upper, higher society. You'll notice that the lower classes don't pay a lot of attention to it—they'll just wear a glove.

As a student of human nature and of anthropology, it fascinates me how some cultures create one thing as being taboo whereas in another culture, the same thing can be very much not taboo. It's just what we do as people.

There's more to it than that, but that will stand for now.

Brandon wrote: "Jon wrote: "My burning question for Brandon is did I miss the explanation, world building moment or historical gem that explains why women have a safe hand and why they must keep it covered?"

No, ..."

Thanks, Brandon, for that insight. I look forward to reading more about this culture 'in-world.'

Jon

Hello,

The Stormlight archive is a very big book. Do you have plans of including a glossary that's more expansive than the ars arcanum?

I know it's sort of lazy of me to ask for one but the world is new and there's so much to remember. :)

Thanks,
<',)))<
Jet

Has Kaladin's windspren Syl reached the epitome of her consciousness or will we see a smarter spren in future books?

meleah wrote: "The inside cover is beautiful. Do you plan to do something similar with every book?"

We asked for colored endpages. At first Tor was hesitant; they're very expensive. We kind of begged a bit, then showed them these cool pages and talked about how great the book would be with them, and eventually Tor decided that they would go with it. One of the aspects of doing colored endpages like that is that generally you have to use the same endpages for the entire series, to offset the printing cost. So those same endpages will be in every hardcover of the series. There will be different interior art, however.

I keep hearing about the great art in the book, but I listened to the audio version. Is the art available to view online?

I really want to know,Brandon how do you get these ideas about so diverser and innovative magic systems?
P.S.I'm going to buy The Well of Ascension for Xmas along with other books.

Amanda wrote: "Will Kaladin (or Shallan, or any of the other characters) be going to visit the various places Kaladin saw in his dream, and if so, for extended periods of time or just short trips? I think the interludes are wonderful ways of showing other parts of the world, if I may also comment. "

I'm glad you liked the interludes. One of the reasons to include them is to show parts of the world that I won't be getting to for a while, but this is an epic, and there will be characters traveling to various places you've seen. Maybe not all of them, but some places will be visited. Some for extended periods, some for shorter periods.

Louise wrote: "Are you already decide whether it's Shallan or Dalinar story for book 2 central plot? What about the tentative title?"

I keep going back and forth. I'll probably have to sit down and completely write out both of their backstories--their flashback sequences--and after finishing that see which one best fits the theme and the plot of the novel, the story I'm trying to tell. So it's going to take a while to decide that, and it would require enough of my focus that I really need to do A MEMORY OF LIGHT first. So we'll know more after A MEMORY OF LIGHT is finished and I begin writing out their sequences.

Louise wrote: "Which one will you focused more in the future, the Heralds or Radiants? Will you dig deeper into each of Heralds story and some of Radiants?"

I feel that I should probably RAFO this one. We are going to delve into the Radiants as orders a lot. But the Radiants as individuals? Depends on what you mean. Kaladin is well on the path toward becoming one of them, though he's not one yet, as Teft is quick to point out. So if you mean focusing on actual Knights Radiant, we'll have to see if anyone actually manages to become one.

The Heralds are integral to the entire story, which is why the Prelude focuses on them. Since someone showed up at the end of the book claiming to be one of them, I think you can obviously expect some attention to be drawn there. Who each of the Heralds are and what their natures were is important.

Louise wrote: "Is spren lost their memories and personalities because of the loss of their attached radiants? But retain a basic attraction to things associated with the radiants they bonded to previously?"

Not all types of spren bonded to Radiants. You will find out more about this in the future. However, if you're speaking specifically of spren that were bonded to Radiants, then yes, you're on the right track.

Louise wrote: "Is the remove of Shalash statue connected to the man speaked gibberish that Szeth met before he assasinated Gavilar? "

RAFO.

SeekingPlumb wrote: "Question. When writing TWoK, did you write the story lines individually & then weave them together (e.g. Place the chapters as desired.), after the fact? Or did you write the book generally in the order that we see the end result?"

I wrote the parts by viewpoint. Meaning that for Part One, I wrote Kaladin straight through and then Shallan straight through. And then I switched for Part Two and wrote Dalinar and Kaladin, and then I switched back. So I did write the storylines individually by viewpoint, but in sections by part.

Bahador wrote: "I really like the dialogs between Jasnah and Shallon, convering sometimes atheism, god, blind faith, etc.

Are you going to expand on these philosophical topics? Will it play a larger part in the plot?

I really enjoyed these moments and hope to see more of them."

I'm glad you liked them. These questions are very important to Shallan and Jasnah and to an extent other characters such as Dalinar, so you will indeed see much more of this. I wouldn't include it if it weren't very important to the characters. And what's important to the characters has a strong influence on what's important to the plot.

If what happens at the end of Part Five with Dalinar is to be believed, then there is a very interesting theological conundrum to this world. Something claiming to be God claims also that it has been killed. Which then in some ways leaves someone who is atheist right, and yet at the same time wrong. When Jasnah and Dalinar meet, you can expect some discussion of what it means to be atheist if there was a God and God is now dead. Or will she say that obviously wasn't God? Those circles of thought are very fascinating to me and to the characters.

Josep wrote: "Just a nagging question: What happened to Gaz? After some character development he just vanishes in chapter 59 without further explanation. Will he be back on the next books?"

I'm planning for you to find out what happened to Gaz. There are sufficient clues that you can guess. But it is not explicitly stated, and I'm not going to say it's as obvious as Robert Jordan implied Asmodean's killer is. I was tempted to spell it out explicitly, but there wasn't a good place for it. I will probably answer it eventually, maybe in the next book, but until then you are free to theorize.

Dustin wrote: "Your sidekick characters (Nightblood, TenSoon in WoA and Syl) are always interesting, sometimes more so than side characters. Is this planned out or does it just happen? Do you control their lines more than other characters? (I really liked Syl's personality if that wasn't clear.)"

Thank you. That is partially intentional. One of the aspects of writing characters like them is that if we're not going to get viewpoints from them, their personality has to be strong enough to manifest externally. Which tends to have an effect, if it's not done well--or sometimes even if it is done well--of making them feel one-sided. In some ways I play this up; for instance Nightblood really is one-sided because of the way his personality works, the way he was crafted. He's a construct, and he has a main focus.

So with someone like Syl, I really wanted to bring out a lot of personality in her dialogue so that we could characterize her without having any of the internal thoughts and monologue and emotions that I sometimes instill in other characters. But Syl also was meant to be a vibrant splash of color in Kaladin's sometimes dreary viewpoints. Because of that, I really needed her to just pop off the page. So it was done intentionally.

Dustin wrote: "I felt the illustrations added a lot to the book physically and to the story. Will there be more in book two and so on if you have your way or was it a one book experiment?"

I'm glad you like what the illustrations added to the book and the story. I plan future volumes to have more of them.

Dustin wrote: "Can a Herald's blade/equipment be um....adopted? I only ask because Dalinar seems to be lacking one and that Herald at the end did kick the bucket in his capital and he's gonna need more than armor when Szeth shows up."

Someone who is not himself or herself a Herald can indeed use one of the Honorblades.

Dustin wrote: "Does the scene where Shallan is counting heartbeats mean what I think it means? It just kind of strange to imagine her carrying around of of those but then again she does like secrets."

It means what you think it means.

Flip wrote: "You have quite the world you have created. I look at the map and see a lot of different locations. How many of the named locations are actually going to be used? ... Anyway, I am always curious as to how much of one's world that has been built actually gets used."

You'll have to read and see what happens. I will say this: When I build a map, I don't consider it to be a to-do list. In fact, it makes a world feel unrealistic to me when every single place on the map ends up getting visited. So it's not a to-do list, but many of those locations are very important.

Cory wrote: "Will there be flashbacks for a different character in this next book?"

Yes. Each book will explore a different character in flashbacks, though Kaladin will also end up getting another book with flashbacks of his sometime down the line.

Robert wrote: "Was Syl's appearance and behavior caused by Kaladin giving up his shardblade?"

It was a major fundamental factor in what happened between them.

Brianna wrote: "Will Hoid be a major player in all, most, or only some of these books?"

He should have as large a role in other books as he had in this one, for the most part.

T.t. wrote: "Hi!

1. Are Kaladin's parents still alive, and if so, are they actually mad at him?
2. Is Hoid a Herald, or a Shareholder, or something else entirely.
3. Was the letter posted on the top of chapters to Sazed?
4. Do dead parshmen turn into Chasmfieds?
5. What is the dark-glowing sphere?
6. What did Szeth do to become a Truthless, and is there anything else involved in being a Truthless that we haven't seen?"

1. Yes, they are still alive. RAFO.

2. Hoid is something else entirely.

3. It is written to a character who exists outside of Roshar. I won't yet say who.

4. No.

5. Major big RAFO.

6. Szeth was perceived as betraying his people in a fundamental way, and you will learn more about that when his book comes along.

T.t. wrote: "Barring the Almighty, did we seen a Shardholder (like Sazed) in this book?"

I think "Shardholder" would get confusing alongside "Shardbearer." Basically, in the Cosmere's terms, when someone holds a Shard of Adonalsium, I call that person a Shard of Adonalsium. They are imbued with the power of that Shard, but they also become the Shard. Fans can use whatever terminology they wish, but this is how I term it.

You did at least see the direct effects of two of the Shards of Adonalsium, but I won't say whether or not you actually saw a Shard of Adonalsium.

Bri wrote: "I've read somewhere (probably your blog) that the Way of Kings will be made into ten parts. My question is this: Is it ten individual books, or really just ten parts? I notice that the first book had several parts in it so I was just curious."

Ten individual books.

Gary wrote: "The Way of Kings is certainly a great first book of a series. It does, however, leave one hungry for more. What's the best guess on when for #2? And does it have a name?"

I'll try to write it so it can be published in late 2012, but it really depends on how long it takes to write A MEMORY OF LIGHT, since I won't start until after that is finished. As for the title, if it ends up being a Dalinar book it will be titled HIGHPRINCE OF WAR, but if it ends up a Shallan book it will have a different title.

Thanks Brandon, once again, for taking the time to join the group to answer questions. It is greatly appreciated.

That ends the question session with Brandon, so no more questions. You may wish to make a post thanking him for his replies.

Thank you so much for answering my question! :)
tt

Thank you Brandon for taking time to answer my question (and others)

Thanks for your time, Brandon. Keep up the good work. The Way of Kings was really impressive!!

Thank you so much, Brandon!!