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Brandon Sanderson - The Cosmere |OT| there's always another secret...

Woorloog

Banned
He has long hair though! :p

I remember he had long beard but long hair too? Well, pony-tail it then, gather it so that it won't go into eyes.

(Seriously, long hair's really annoying. But i'm too cheap to get it cut, nor do i care to waste time cutting it... It is a lose-lose-lose situation no matter what.)

I need to re-read the Stormlight Archive, it is a bit vague in my mind, visually that is.
 

Kaladin

Member
My least favorite part of WoR hahah

Sanderson has a way of taking your least favorite characters and giving you something to like, or at least a reason to care about them. Other authors struggle with this. I'm looking at you Martin.
 
There was some website that casted all of the Stromlight characters a few weeks back and Sanderson retweeted it so I checked it out.

They casted Dalinar, Adolin, and the rest of the Alethi as Asians - mostly Chinese actors/actresses from what I remember - but I always pictured them as being more Arabic ethnically.

Only physical descriptions were tanned skin and dark hair - that plus the desert like setting of the Shattered Plains, I guess I imagined them as Arabic.

Anybody else in the same boat? Or am I the outlier?
 
Sanderson has a way of taking your least favorite characters and giving you something to like, or at least a reason to care about them. Other authors struggle with this. I'm looking at you Martin.

Martin used to be good at this, back in the Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords era. Jaime comes to mind as a pretty classic example of a dude you go from hating to loving in the span of a couple books.
 

Kaladin

Member
Martin used to be good at this, back in the Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords era. Jaime comes to mind as a pretty classic example of a dude you go from hating to loving in the span of a couple books.

One of his underrated story arcs too, IMO. I was more thinking of like Catelyn Stark who I never liked and
welcomed her death
.
 
One of his underrated story arcs too, IMO. I was more thinking of like Catelyn Stark who I never liked and
welcomed her death
.

Yeah. I largely just felt bad for her, but I think Martin's aim through the first 3 books was to make you care about pretty much every character's motivations, with some small exceptions. Like, Gregor Clegane and Ramsay Bolton are probably the only characters I could really point to as just irredeemably bad dudes in the first few books, with a couple characters you're pretty clearly designed to root for, like Dany, Jon, and Tyrion. The one thing I liked about ASOIAF was the fact that you got multiple sides of every story, like I mentioned with Jaime, but I think you got to see the "well I guess I can understand that" aspect of generally unlikable characters like Stannis, Tywin, and Cersei.

That said, his storytelling is in a totally different style than Sanderson's.
He also went into a damn tailspin with books 4 and 5, and I don't really care about how the damn thing ends anymore.
To keep it on topic, since this isn't a GRRM thread, I personally had this feeling primarily with Kaladin. I went from loving him when he was first introduced, to being reeeallly annoyed with him, to cheering for him again, to being reeeallly annoyed with him again, to cheering for him again. I really hope that we don't have to deal with another 500 pages of
how much Kaladin hates everything
in book 3.
 
Yeah. I largely just felt bad for her, but I think Martin's aim through the first 3 books was to make you care about pretty much every character's motivations, with some small exceptions. Like, Gregor Clegane and Ramsay Bolton are probably the only characters I could really point to as just irredeemably bad dudes in the first few books, with a couple characters you're pretty clearly designed to root for, like Dany, Jon, and Tyrion. The one thing I liked about ASOIAF was the fact that you got multiple sides of every story, like I mentioned with Jaime, but I think you got to see the "well I guess I can understand that" aspect of generally unlikable characters like Stannis, Tywin, and Cersei.

That said, his storytelling is in a totally different style than Sanderson's.
He also went into a damn tailspin with books 4 and 5, and I don't really care about how the damn thing ends anymore.
To keep it on topic, since this isn't a GRRM thread, I personally had this feeling primarily with Kaladin. I went from loving him when he was first introduced, to being reeeallly annoyed with him, to cheering for him again, to being reeeallly annoyed with him again, to cheering for him again. I really hope that we don't have to deal with another 500 pages of
how much Kaladin hates everything
in book 3.
I'd bet that is exactly what we will have to go through. Other than The Emperors Soul, I have yet to read a Sanderson book that didn't have a lot of unnecessary repetition.
 
There was some website that casted all of the Stromlight characters a few weeks back and Sanderson retweeted it so I checked it out.

They casted Dalinar, Adolin, and the rest of the Alethi as Asians - mostly Chinese actors/actresses from what I remember - but I always pictured them as being more Arabic ethnically.

Only physical descriptions were tanned skin and dark hair - that plus the desert like setting of the Shattered Plains, I guess I imagined them as Arabic.

Anybody else in the same boat? Or am I the outlier?

I think that Asia makes because of all the stuff about honor and competing high lords under one emperor. A lot of similarities to feudal Asia.
 

Kaladin

Member
I really hope that we don't have to deal with another 500 pages of
how much Kaladin hates everything
in book 3.

I know what you mean, he's the worst when it comes to that,
even when you think it should be going good. I get annoyed with Kaladin easily with that.
 

suzu

Member
There was some website that casted all of the Stromlight characters a few weeks back and Sanderson retweeted it so I checked it out.

They casted Dalinar, Adolin, and the rest of the Alethi as Asians - mostly Chinese actors/actresses from what I remember - but I always pictured them as being more Arabic ethnically.

Only physical descriptions were tanned skin and dark hair - that plus the desert like setting of the Shattered Plains, I guess I imagined them as Arabic.

Anybody else in the same boat? Or am I the outlier?

Alethi peoples' eyes have epicanthic folds. So I imagined them as a mix of Arabic and East Asian, with a darker tan.

I think Horneaters are probably the most white-looking people in that world. lol
 

Faiz

Member
Sanderson has a way of taking your least favorite characters and giving you something to like, or at least a reason to care about them. Other authors struggle with this. I'm looking at you Martin.

Man Martin often goes the other way :/
 

Kuros

Member
Alethi peoples' eyes have epicanthic folds. So I imagined them as a mix of Arabic and East Asian, with a darker tan.

I think Horneaters are probably the most white-looking people in that world. lol

From the horses mouth.

http://kogiopsis.tumblr.com/post/87962806784/people-in-the-cfsbf-chat-were-talking-about-this

Alethi = Hawaiian Asian (But he says some people would describe them as Arab) Also that's Asian in the American sense rather than the English perspective where Asian = Indian/Pakistani etc

Shin are Caucasian.

Horneaters are "bizarre redhead things!"

Also i hate his pronunciation of Shallan hah.
 

ExMachina

Unconfirmed Member
The Shin are the only Rosharans who don't have epicanthic folds (that's why everyone says they look childlike/have big eyes)... so they're the closest to Caucasian looking. Sanderson has said that his model for Kaladin is a Japanese-Hawaiian guy.

I think it's dope that this epic fantasy series being written by one of my favorite authors stars PoCs. Very cool since I'm SE Asian but grew up reading fantasy that was predominantly Western Euroepean inspired.
 

suzu

Member
That's cool. I was close. :)

So Shallan is basically a Eurasian red-head thing, hah.

I also read Shallan like Sanderson.
 
I don't picture any characters from any books vividly. At all. Everyone and everything is always vague in my minds eye. It's almost like they're silhouettes or like a camera shot that's just out of focus enough that the details are blurred rather than clear and sharp.

Even things like skin tone and color quickly get forgotten unless the author constantly mentions it or it's a specifically unique race. Like the Parshendi I sort of picture as humanoid up-armored Ant-like people. But at the same time I picture Parshmen as more frail and less Ant-like. It makes no logical sense but that's how it works in my head.
 

Faiz

Member
From the horses mouth.

http://kogiopsis.tumblr.com/post/87962806784/people-in-the-cfsbf-chat-were-talking-about-this

Alethi = Hawaiian Asian (But he says some people would describe them as Arab) Also that's Asian in the American sense rather than the English perspective where Asian = Indian/Pakistani etc

Shin are Caucasian.

Horneaters are "bizarre redhead things!"

Also i hate his pronunciation of Shallan hah.

Can't listen right now, does he mention the Veden? Because the illustration of Shallan is unmistakably Caucasian and was already pretty close to how I imagined her.

Also, whenever (if) the film actually gets cast it's gonna be hugely white-washed :/. (That or Kaladin will be a mighty whitey in a sea of brown).

Also brings to mind that I can't recall how he describes Zahel. May need to go check into that...

Edit: found a decent (!) tumblr on the subject as well, cobbling together WOB from different sources with links. To answer my own question, yes the Veden are Asian featured, pale skin, red haired. None of the races match up 1:1 seemingly with earth ethnicities, hopefully movie casting at least tries.
 

Kaladin

Member
Half way through the Alloy Of Law book. I'm burning through this one like I did the first Mistborn title (the last two were slower reads). I'm loving the Wax and Wayne characters. They're going to make it hard for me to put off the other two books and move onto something else before continuing after I'm done.
 

Faiz

Member
What was the tumblr?

tumblr links are banned right? It sure but won't risk it. Name of it was "he really isn't".

And I'll clarify that by decent I mean it had helpful information with links, but it was pretty typically tumblr in language and attitude, though I've certainly seen worse.
 
Half way through the Alloy Of Law book. I'm burning through this one like I did the first Mistborn title (the last two were slower reads). I'm loving the Wax and Wayne characters. They're going to make it hard for me to put off the other two books and move onto something else before continuing after I'm done.

All 4 of the Wax and Wayne books are freaking awesome and have so many great characters.
 

Woorloog

Banned
There will be one more (4th, Secret History is not part of 2nd Era) Wax/Wayne book but that'll take till.. what, after Stormlight 3?
 

Faiz

Member
There will be one more (4th, Secret History is not part of 2nd Era) Wax/Wayne book but that'll take till.. what, after Stormlight 3?

Yeah. Knowing Sanderson he'll do something crazy like get Stormlight 3 out and then be all "yo, so I wrote this other book while Oathkeeper was being edited.... Wax and Wayne book 4 coming next month!!!"

Ok probably not but a little wishful thinking mixed with how he's had surprises up his sleeves on the last several books like that. We'll probably be lucky to get it late 2018.
 

Kaladin

Member
Yeah. Knowing Sanderson he'll do something crazy like get Stormlight 3 out and then be all "yo, so I wrote this other book while Oathkeeper was being edited.... Wax and Wayne book 4 coming next month!!!"

Ok probably not but a little wishful thinking mixed with how he's had surprises up his sleeves on the last several books like that. We'll probably be lucky to get it late 2018.

The Wax and Wayne books do seem to be quick writing for him though, so you never know.
 
I'm 100 pages into Warbreaker, and I can't put it down. I only read Way of Kings, and Words of Radiance. After I finish Warbreaker, I'm going to start reading the Mistborn series.
 

suzu

Member
tumblr links are banned right? It sure but won't risk it. Name of it was "he really isn't".

And I'll clarify that by decent I mean it had helpful information with links, but it was pretty typically tumblr in language and attitude, though I've certainly seen worse.

Never heard about any tumblr ban here. If it's a nsfw link, then yeah don't post it. lol
 

ExMachina

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, I don't think there's a Tumblr ban on GAF - I've seen links to Tumblr blogs/content in many threads.

I assume Faiz is talking about this: https://kaladinisntwhite.tumblr.com/

At one point, I was a really active participant in the Cosmere Tumblr fandom (mostly contributing art). From my experience, it's on the smaller side but the fans are super passionate and I've made a lot of friends around the world through it. They're just as thorough and detail-obsessed as 17s (so many of them have been RAFOed, hehe) while also writing well about topics like diversity, neurodiversity, etc. Hell, Sanderson has even consulted with fans from the Tumblr side to make sure he got depictions of certain characters right (like Renarin and Steris, who are both on the spectrum).

So if you find something cool and Cosmere-related on Tumblr, share away. :p Honestly it's just another venue for people to talk about the books and share fanwork.
 
tumblr links are banned right? It sure but won't risk it. Name of it was "he really isn't".

And I'll clarify that by decent I mean it had helpful information with links, but it was pretty typically tumblr in language and attitude, though I've certainly seen worse.

Tumblr links aren't banned, lol.
 

Faiz

Member
Never heard about any tumblr ban here. If it's a nsfw link, then yeah don't post it. lol

Yeah, I don't think there's a Tumblr ban on GAF - I've seen links to Tumblr blogs/content in many threads.

I assume Faiz is talking about this: https://kaladinisntwhite.tumblr.com/

At one point, I was a really active participant in the Cosmere Tumblr fandom (mostly contributing art). From my experience, it's on the smaller side but the fans are super passionate and I've made a lot of friends around the world through it. They're just as thorough and detail-obsessed as 17s (so many of them have been RAFOed, hehe) while also writing well about topics like diversity, neurodiversity, etc. Hell, Sanderson has even consulted with fans from the Tumblr side to make sure he got depictions of certain characters right (like Renarin and Steris, who are both on the spectrum).

So if you find something cool and Cosmere-related on Tumblr, share away. :p Honestly it's just another venue for people to talk about the books and share fanwork.

Tumblr links aren't banned, lol.

Fair enough. I honestly can't keep track lol.

I'd be interested in some of the stuff regarding Renarin and Steris - my son has an ASD diagnosis.
 

ExMachina

Unconfirmed Member
Fair enough. I honestly can't keep track lol.

I'd be interested in some of the stuff regarding Renarin and Steris - my son has an ASD diagnosis.

There's not much else outside of the books except a few confirmations from Brandon (transcripts of fans asking "are Renarin and Steris on the autism spectrum?" and him answering "yes"). Though for example, I do know that the box that Renarin uses as a stim toy came about because of discussion with one Tumblr fan who is thanked as a consultant in the forward to WoR.
 

Faiz

Member
There's not much else outside of the books except a few confirmations from Brandon (transcripts of fans asking "are Renarin and Steris on the autism spectrum?" and him answering "yes"). Though for example, I do know that the box that Renarin uses as a stim toy came about because of discussion with one Tumblr fan who is thanked as a consultant in the forward to WoR.

Thanks, that was enough to get me started in the right direction. :)
 

Faiz

Member
Not a huge update but Sanderson reports Stormlight 3 is going well and hes planning to have it finished this month.

https://twitter.com/brandsanderson/status/798302354223206400

Not that anyone ever doubted he'd be on time, because he is who he is. Honestly I'm more interested/curious about what he gets up to in the space between edits and revisions before publication. He has a tendency to really get crazy and surprise us during his "recharging" periods.
 

rickyson1

Member
damn I read books so weird sometimes

was reading the second stormlight book and took me 3 weeks to read the first half then I randomly read the rest of it in one sitting

any of the non cosmere stuff worth reading? i'll read warbreaker then move to some other authors for a while but will hit up a series or two later if they are worthwhile

I have heard that some of them are super YA which I don't really care for as a general rule so that puts me off a bit
 

Faiz

Member
damn I read books so weird sometimes

was reading the second stormlight book and took me 3 weeks to read the first half then I randomly read the rest of it in one sitting

any of the non cosmere stuff worth reading? i'll read warbreaker then move to some other authors for a while but will hit up a series or two later if they are worthwhile

I have heard that some of them are super YA which I don't really care for as a general rule so that puts me off a bit

The YA books are unmistakably for that audience. It's hit or miss for me.

I do like some of his sci-fi novellas tho.
 

Faiz

Member
Went ahead and preordered Arcanum Unbounded - have someone house sitting while we are gone so no worries about it sitting on the porch too long.

Also, it's on the Kindle match program so I can get the Kindle copy for only $3, letting me read it even before we get home ^_^
 

X-Frame

Member
I can't wait to re-read WoK and WoR before the 3rd book releases. I've been holding off on re-reading because I want to surf the Cosmere wave from the start and right into book 3.
 
In Arcanum Unbounded, do we know how the White Sand excerpt is going to work? Given how White Sand (as published) is a graphic novel and all...
 

Faiz

Member
In Arcanum Unbounded, do we know how the White Sand excerpt is going to work? Given how White Sand (as published) is a graphic novel and all...

No idea. I've been working on the assumption that it's an excerpt of the original text or part of the script. Could be actual pages from the GN but it would surprise me. Might be some info on 17s or something. If not, only one week till we find out.
 
No idea. I've been working on the assumption that it's an excerpt of the original text or part of the script. Could be actual pages from the GN but it would surprise me. Might be some info on 17s or something. If not, only one week till we find out.

If that's the case, my next question would be how are the audiobooks going to work? (Since that's the version I specifically read/consume)
 
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