"It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a good storyteller." - Alan Rickman.
I love love love stories. They are my greatest teachers, my biggest heroes - and there is such magic in these tales. They have the power to create worlds and shape minds, alter perceptions and each story read adds a bit more depth to the universe.
One of my favorite books right now is the Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.
Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.
“We follow the codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise become.”
(Chew on that for a bit)
“We follow the codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise become.”
(Chew on that for a bit)
He has such engaging characters - they are not perfect beings, as in totally evil or purely good, but that is what I love about them. They are human. And this universe that he has created is so unique, so detailed.
And I absolutely love Wit.
Otherwise known as Hoid.
Or whatever you want to call him.
Wit is the kind of guy I would love to meet - and he had very few lines in the whole book. He is the main reason I am dying for the next installment in the series. I won't bother trying to explain him - it is impossible.
Funny fact: in all of Brandon's books, he has a character named Hoid.
Not so strange after I read this.
While on Tumblr I stumbled across the below post - I know it is impossible to understand entirely without reading the books, but still Brandon Sanderson blows my mind.
While on Tumblr I stumbled across the below post - I know it is impossible to understand entirely without reading the books, but still Brandon Sanderson blows my mind.
The Masterwork of Brandon Sanderson
I just recently finished The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, which, I have to say, blew me away (Sanderson seems to be doing a lot of this). It is the first of a ten novel series, The Stormlight Archive, which is looking to be an absolutely amazing series in itself.
But it revealed more than that.
The Epigraphs for Part 3 of the book took the form of a letter, sent from a person being chased by The Seventeenth Shard, to someone who it appears to be is a Deity of some form, or at least immortal.
I realize that you are probably still angry. That is pleasant to know. Much as your perpetual health, I have come to rely upon your dissatisfaction with me. It is one of the cosmere’s great constants, I should think.
What was really shocking was one of the names mentioned in the letter.
Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him.
I struggled for four days with this name, before I remembered where I heard it, mentioned maybe once in the Mistborn Trilogy. The name of the being who was Ruin.
So the letter was talking about the Gods - of another book written by Sanderson. Which could really mean only one thing - they all take place in the same universe - with the same rules governing them.
And then another dozen things leapt out of pieces I had read.
Even now, I can barely grasp the scope of all this. The events surrounding the end of the world seem even larger than the Final Empire and the people within it. I sense shards of something from long ago, a fractured presence, something spanning the void.I have delved and searched, and have only been able to come up with a single name: Adonalsium. Who, or what, it was, I do not yet know.
Sazed speaking this time. Adonalsium, a fractured presence, and gods fighting gods and Shards. The Shards were the centre of it all. Shards of something that was once whole, all conjecture, Adonasium.
The Shards that turn beings into gods - but also shaping the beings into the gods that they are. Ati was shaped into Ruin, changed from a generous man into a being that only brought about the destruction of everything in his path.
But even more frightening - the following - once again from the letter.
Rayse, on the other hand, was among the most loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals I had ever met. He holds the most frightening and terrible of all the Shards. Ponder on that for a time, you old reptile, and tell me if your insistence on nonintervention holds firm. Because I assure you, Rayse will not be similarly inhibited. One need only look at the aftermath of his brief visit to Sel to see proof of what I say. In case you have turned a blind eye to that disaster, know that Aona and Skai are both dead, and that which they held has been Splintered. Presumably to prevent anyone from rising up to challenge Rayse.
One of the Shards is travelling around the universe ‘splintering’ the other Shards - presumably the same as killing them, or permanently destroying them in some way. Although, if you splinter something… You still do have it’s fragments.
Which really hit the spot.
Yes, the plot of the Mistborn Trilogy was epic - and yes The Stormlight Archiveis shaping out to look even bigger than that. But these are nothing in comparison to the story that Sanderson is telling in the background.
The fracture of the force that created the universe into Shards - and then the actions of these Shards that slowly tear the universe apart to destroy each other. More horrifying, was the original force shattered with ill intent - is there a greater threat out there than the Shards alone..
It is mind boggling… How big… How grandiose his plan is.
To get an indication of how large… Thirty six books in something like seven settings.
Check this out for an accounting of what they will be.. The Wertzone.
Something else to leave you with. A ‘hope’ you could say. A piece of the Prophecy of the Hero of Ages, from the Mistborn Trilogy.
That which has been sundered must again begin to find its whole.
An interesting thought indeed.
I am most certainly getting my hands on Elantris and Warbreaker as soon as I can, to see what they add to this.
Could Mr. Sanderson possibly be connecting his works together?
I'm super duper excited to find out.
Your Daily Funny:
McCall
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