Shardcast: The Brandon Sanderson Podcast

"I just need to give the God of the world a hug, okay? I'm just... I'm just gonna hug him. Anybody got a problem with that?" Another week, another Splintercast! In this week's episode, I flail over finding out more about our lovely villain for this book, squee over the reappearance of an original Mistborn trilogy character, and talk about the philosophical question of whether technological progression is inherently valuable. And of course, the most beautiful of fandom experiences: the sailing of a new ship.* I also happen to talk far too much about roleplaying and various campaigns. Oops. Sorry, not sorry. What, is anyone surprised at this point when I'm garbage? I didn’t think so. Once again, comments and responses are greatly appreciated as they are the lifeblood by which I am able to sustain my corporeal form on this plane of existence. Your written contributions to my continued reign of terror will be remembered in the days to come. *Editor's note: Not an actual boat. Nor is it an airship or spaceship. Spaceships aren't for many more books. -Eric

This week, Splintercast continues reading Shadows of Self! The plot thickens, you hear more about Alyx's RP (because of course you do, this should be expected). And it's a long episode too: about fifty minutes long! You get a lot of Alyx this week. Too bad she couldn't write this. She said, "I'm too busy" and "two sixteen hour days in a row are the worst." What a slacker. (Just kidding.) Be careful what you wish for, Alyx! "I'd love to see an awesome lady villain," she says. Heh heh... Yeah, about that.

In a shocking twist, a lowly moderator has hijacked the news feed from the treacherous admins to bring you all this: the return of Splintercast! And this time, I, your intrepid hero FeatherWriter (also occasionally known as Alyx), am here to take on Shadows of Self! Perhaps a bit delayed... but well, hacking my way into the 17th Shard news feed is no small task. I thank you for you patience, dear listeners, and now we can get to the fun! For those new to Splintercast, I record my reactions in real time as I read new cosmere books for the first time, then edit them down to one cohesive, crazy listening experience. All in all, you can expect a good deal of running theories, in-the-moment commentary, shipping, crying, celebrating, and yelling at characters when they're dumb. And Steris appreciation. Someone has to appreciate Steris Harms and I am just the fangirl for the job. It's its own brand of craziness, but also a lot of fun. This first episode not only includes an introduction to Splintercast, and also covers the prologue and chapters 1-3. The current schedule will have episodes posted weekly and will run all the way through both Shadows of Self and The Bands of Mourning in a two-book extravaganza! (Consider this my way of apologizing for the lateness!) Be warned, there are spoilers for the chapters being read, of course, but since it’s my first time through each of these chapters, I obviously can’t spoil you for anything that happens later in the book! Please enjoy and remember that I subsist upon comments and responses, so, if you feel so inclined, drop me a note about what you thought below!

In a shocking twist, a lowly moderator has hijacked the news feed from the treacherous admins to bring you all this: the return of Splintercast! And this time, I, your intrepid hero FeatherWriter (also occasionally known as Alyx), am here to take on Shadows of Self! Perhaps a bit delayed... but well, hacking my way into the 17th Shard news feed is no small task. I thank you for you patience, dear listeners, and now we can get to the fun! For those new to Splintercast, I record my reactions in real time as I read new cosmere books for the first time, then edit them down to one cohesive, crazy listening experience. All in all, you can expect a good deal of running theories, in-the-moment commentary, shipping, crying, celebrating, and yelling at characters when they're dumb. And Steris appreciation. Someone has to appreciate Steris Harms and I am just the fangirl for the job. It's its own brand of craziness, but also a lot of fun. This first episode not only includes an introduction to Splintercast, and also covers the prologue and chapters 1-3. The current schedule will have episodes posted weekly and will run all the way through both Shadows of Self and The Bands of Mourning in a two-book extravaganza! (Consider this my way of apologizing for the lateness!) Be warned, there are spoilers for the chapters being read, of course, but since it’s my first time through each of these chapters, I obviously can’t spoil you for anything that happens later in the book! Please enjoy and remember that I subsist upon comments and responses, so, if you feel so inclined, drop me a note about what you thought below!

You've waited, and now you shall receive. Finally. Here is 17th Shard's exclusive interview with Brandon Sanderson, where for forty minutes, we talk about the Way of Kings, as well as some Mistborn questions, and a very important question about Voltron. The Way of Kings stuff is spoiler free, but once you get to the "Most Likely RAFO Questions", I highly suggest you have read the book before you listen to that part. The Mistborn questions are here because, hey, I run the Mistborn RP, and there some interesting questions to be asked! You should maybe read the trilogy before listening to that part. I hear it's good. In fact, that's usually because I'm the one saying it. You'll notice that while Brandon's voice quality is pretty good in the interview, the three of us (Josh, Mi'ch, and I) are ridiculously soft. This tends to happen when we give Brandon the good mic and we're passing around the bad one.

Hey everyone! KChan, Rubix, and I all interviewed Crafty Games, the creators of the Mistborn Adventure Game, about two weeks ago, and here it is! We blab with Alex Flagg, lead developer for Mistborn, and Patrick Kapera, the lead editor and marketing dude (also God King Emperor of Happy Happy Fun Time). And it was so much fun. We get a ton of information about the Mistborn Adventure Game. We hear Crafty Games' design philosophy, the mechanics, and essentially everything. We learn some very astonishing things about Feruchemy--Spiritual freaking metals--and we learn that there will actually be annotations in it, by Brandon, commenting about the book! How awesome is that? Also, we make fun of Somalia. (Sorry, Somalians in the audience.) All in all, we had a blast with Alex and Pat. They are genuinely nice dudes, so have a listen, enjoy, and buy a copy of the Mistborn Adventure Game, because we think it will be awesome. Just a note, in the interview, they say that the game will be out October 25th, but it will in fact be out November 8th, the same day as the Alloy of Law.

You know the sophomore slump, where the sequel is never as good as the first in a series? In this episode of Shardcast, we desperately try to avoid the sophomore slump with quotes and a better outline. Then, of course, everything Splinters. Fortunately, Kerry is able to put it together again and it's totally seamless. No awkward pauses or forced segues here, no sir. This week, we are discussing The Emperor's Soul, the cosmere novella which comes out in November, and speaking of souls, we also talk about the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical. That's right, we are digging into everything we know about Realmatics. So, of course, it comes out disjointed, because we pretty much know nothing about Realmatics. Fortunately, Will is here and adds crustaceans and waffles. Because you know what Realmatic Theory needs? Waffles. Apart from the madness, we impromptu theorize about Hoid worldhops, and come up with a darned good explanation about it and Shadesmar. So sit back, jump in a pool, and hear some mysterious voices: Shardcasty voices.

Now with introductions out of the way, we delve into the meat of Shardcast: Brandon news, discussion, and theories. This week, we're talking about basic Cosmere stuff. Have you been confused about Hoid or the Shards? Slivers or Splinters? Vases, and splinters of vases? We discuss this and so much more. This is not a drill, this is the real deal. This episode has spoilers on: Pretty much everything (most importantly The Hero of Ages and The Way of Kings, but every cosmere book is touched on here).

This is our final Splintercast--well, at least of the Words of Radiance variety. Here Alyx talks more about her feelings (because you know you want more of that), and about all the stuff she missed. Prepare yourself for a full hour of her talking about this massive, wonderful book. It's been a great run. Thanks for listening. We hope you've enjoyed them! Originally aired 6/14/2014

What else is there to say? It is the last section of Words of Radiance. You know what's coming. You know Alyx will freak. And stress about Renarin until she seems him... Look, I'm not going to spoil it. Enjoy. There will be one more Splintercast tomorrow, one that's a whole book wrap-up, but other than that, we're done! Originally aired 6/13/14