Author Topic: ***SPOILERS Official Hero of Ages Spoilers Thread. Includes Q&A w/Brandon****  (Read 334687 times)

Adrienne

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The Kandra.

Yes, they live.

Thank you for that.  That brings me a lot of relief to know that things end up as they should.  I wouldn't think a sacrifice that large would go unnoticed by Sazed. 

It's a pleasure seeing you on the boards talking about the topics.  It makes the series a special one for me.

I finished the book about an hour ago.

I adored the book.  It held a lot of surprises for me, a relatively new reader to Mistborn.

I enjoyed the twist that Ruin actually improved on Spook as a person.  The way his character developed was nicely done.  Seeing a person that was so much like Vin (when they first appeared) mature really helped complete the story.

Even though I knew that Vin wouldn't survive a third book (and El without her) I wish that Vin and El could have been around long enough to see everything come to fruition.  It seems a bittersweet end that their legacy wouldn't have been passed on by having children or a picture of Vin able to hold a flower. 
« Last Edit: October 16, 2008, 03:41:24 AM by Adrienne »

AhoyMatey

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Just finished the series. It was awesome. As is everything I've ever read of Brandon's. Can't wait for AMoL and other stories. I've read two versions of Warbreaker (including the latest) and will buy the hardcover when it's released. It'll be money well spent. And Somebody should have a long career ahead of them....

Brandon, I just wanted to confirm that you did have a couple of cameos as Slowswift? Or was that mean to be someone else?

Chaos

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I'm pretty sure Slowswift is Hoid. The Ars Arcanum says he "bears a striking resemblance to a storyteller", which I take to mean Hoid.
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lostknight

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Hey Brandon, it was a pleasure to meet you in Denver (I was the one asking entirely too many questions).

First of all, phenomenal work. I will write a review up later in a public forum - but this was easily the strongest of your books so far. The bitersweet ending (even with hints that it wasn't quite so bittersweet) was great, and the story came to a interesting and solid conclusion.

I  suspect that when - if as I suspect the sales of Mistborn 4 are solid  - your next series is greenlit, it may be a while before you come back to these characters. That's great, they are already in a comfortably cubby-hole in my mind. Their purpose finished, the story told.

I am curious if any changes were made to the story after you got AMoL or after the Name of the Wind was published? The style hasn't changed, but the story seemed to flow much better this time around.

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I'm surprised no one else has asked but does this new world have atium? If atium was the body of Ruin then it would seem when Sazed took up Ruins power he would have reabsorbed all of the atium. New atium then would be bits of Sazed's new powers and weaken him with each newly formed bead. It would seem then that if atium exists it would be much rarer, and mean that Sazed would not be able to control this process.

I guess I am trying to understand why he would want to allow any Atium to make its way into the hands of people or rather out of his control?

It's theoretically possible for Atium to appear in the future, but right now Sazed has no plans to release any of it to the people.  It is, effectively, now something of myth and legend. 
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Re: ***SPOLIERS Official Hero of Ages Spoilers Thread. Includes Q&A w/Brandon*
« Reply #35 on: October 16, 2008, 07:07:58 AM »
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3)  The last two metals are Chromium and Nicrosil.  We'll reveal what they do on the Allomancy poster.  Suffice it to say that in the next trilogy, the main protagonist would be a Nicrosil Misting.  And, to make a Robert Jordan-type comment, what those two metals do should become obvious to the serious student of Allomancy...  (It has to do with the nature of the metal groupings.)

If I read the poster correctly, and have the correlations down, these metals are the external enhancement metals.

The simplest idea is that they do to another person what Aluminum and Duralumin do to the Allomancer burning them.  If this is true, then Chromium would destroy another Allomancer's metals (useful skill, that, especially in a group of Mistings fighting a Mistborn) while Nicrosil would cause the target's metals that are currently burning to be burned in a brief, intense flash.  This could be used either to enhance a group of Mistings or to seriously mess up an enemy Allomancer.

Nicely done.

Ookla is right, the others don't have 1/1 correlations.  But I liked this concept far too much not to use it. 

In a future book series, Mistborn will also have become things of legend.  The bloodlines will have become diluted to the point that there are no Mistborn, only Mistings--however, the latter are far more common.   In this environment, a Nicrosil Misting could be invaluable both as an enhancer to your own team or a weapon to use against unsuspecting other Misthings.
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Re: ***SPOLIERS Official Hero of Ages Spoilers Thread. Includes Q&A w/Brandon*
« Reply #36 on: October 16, 2008, 07:28:48 AM »
Hi, new here, registered just so I could ask some questions:

1) Will we get a map of what the new world? Or do we have to wait for the next trilogy, whenever that may be?

2) When the Mists come back, will they continue Snapping people?

3) Was Reen named that specifically because its so close sounding to Ruin, or is that a coincidence?

4) Did the Lord Ruler have any Hemalurgic spikes in him? It would seem he'd need to for Ruin to influence him, but it wasn't mentioned. Or did his bracers work as spikes?

5) Was TenSoon more susceptable to Ruin's powers than the other Kandra because he took OreSeur's Blessings?

6) Did Sazed leave information about how his new religion should be run for Spook and the others to find? His note to Spook implies that there is an afterlife...

7) With all the talk about action and reaction and whatnot, will some force form to counter Sazed's new Ruin/Preservation mix? It seems to me like the whole nature of the world can't stand to have one person unnopposed.

8) Does the Well of Ascension still exsit in the new world? Or is it no longer necessary? I assumed that Preservation collected there like Ruin collects in the Pits of Hathsin, so if Atium keeps forming then the well should keep filling...

9) Was Kelsier under Ruin's influence as well? It seems to me that destroying the Pits of Hathsin (and thus preventing Ruin's power from leaking) is something that Ruin would want to happen...

Ok, that's enough questions for now...

1)  You'll  have to wait, I'm afraid.  The future series is still far off.  I can't dedicate resources to getting a map drawn up until I begin work on the series officially. 

2)  No.  The mists will revert back to their more neutral state.

3)  Coincidence. 

4)  His arm bracers, which pierced his skin, were his spikes.

5)  Yes, he was.  However, the Blessing of Presence actually enhanced his mind to make him more resistant, so they balanced out. 

6)  Sazed didn't immediately leave this, as he was too focused on other things.  The next period of time will be difficult for Sazed, as he essentially sees himself as an avatar of deity--the force of Preservation--and not God with an upper case letter.  He's still not sure what Truth is 100%.  And there is an afterlife, but it's probably not what you're thinking.  In other words, Sazed has not touched Heaven or Hell, and actually doesn't yet know what the final beyond contains.  He has, however, run into some people who have been sticking around something of a middle place.  It's related to the larger cosmology, and I'm afraid that I'll need to RAFO anything further. 

7)  Ruin and Preservation were not the only Shards of Adonalsium, though they are the only ones on Scadrial at the moment.  Sazed's ability to be both at once is actually something I drew from Eastern mythology, where it is believed that the ability to contain two opposing forces at the same time represents ultimate harmony.  The Buddha, for instance, was said to have performed the miracle of producing both fair and ice from his hands at the same time. 

8 )  The Well (and the small wells in the Pits) is no more.  For now at least.

9)  There is a short story forthcoming which will deal with Kelsier, the days after he Snapped, his training, and what influence (if any) Ruin had on him.  Most likely, this will appear in the Mistborn RPG coming out next year.  So I'm afraid that's a RAFO.
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Chaos

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Very interesting about the Nicrosil.

So, if there is no more atium, then that would mean in any future trilogy, there would only be 14 metals, right? Somehow, that doesn't seem right, but maybe that is because it irks me that one quartet to be left incomplete with the absence of atium.

Would it be possible for Sazed to create a replacement metal, by chance, or will the temporal quartet remain inherently empty? It doesn't seem like it's too far of a stretch for Sazed to make more metals: after all, the metal Elend ate was a fragment of Preservation, and now Sazed holds Preservation.

Quote
7)  Ruin and Preservation were not the only Shards of Adonalsium, though they are the only ones on Scadrial at the moment.

Is "Scadrial" the proper name to refer to the Mistborn world?
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EUOL

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Question about Atium and Duralumin

I was happy when Elend finally burned Duralumin with Atium. I was holding my breath hoping that someone would eventually do it. However we didn't really get any info as to what Elend experienced. Does a Duralumin enchanced atium burn allow a person to see significantly farther into the future. If so, being that Elend's army was dying all around him did he get to see into the afterlife . Also if you could tell us what he saw that would be awesome. Did something he saw make him not want to avoid Marshes strike.

On a similar note if someone bured electrum with duralumin would they get to see significantly into thier own future.

There is much here that I can't say, but I'll give as much as I can.  Elend saw Preservation's ultimate plan, and Elend's own part in it.  What he saw made him realize he didn't want to kill Marsh, and that his own death would actually help save the world.  Like a master chess player, he suddenly saw and understand every possible move his enemy could make.  He saw that Ruin was check-mated, because there was one thing that Ruin was not willing to do.  Something that both Elend and Vin could do, if needed.  And it's what they did.  

So, in answer to your question, Elend stayed his hand.  This is one of the reasons why I changed my mind and decided that Marsh had to live through the end of the book.  Elend spared him; I needed to too.  
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TyranAmiros

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Thanks for answering our questions!  I'm looking forward to meeting you in a couple weeks at the San Diego signing!

1) How/why did you decide to go with Sazed as the epigraph author?  I'll admit I was absolutely positive it was going to be Rashek, if only because of the parallelism (ancient story in epigraphs/modern story in text).
2) What happened to Kwaan? I was half expecting to see him amongst the kandra First Generation.
3) How technologically advanced was the society before the Final Empire? You reference gunpowder, and certainly the current day seems to have technologies like canning and clocks, so how much did Rashek destroy?
4) Do any structures/cities still exist after Sazed's ascention? Or do the survivors need to start from scratch?

EUOL

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Another minor question --

What was Zane's hemalurgical power?  (Or was he just spiked for control?)

Extra power with Pushing on metals.  It lent him extremely great precision.  
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Just finished the series. It was awesome. As is everything I've ever read of Brandon's. Can't wait for AMoL and other stories. I've read two versions of Warbreaker (including the latest) and will buy the hardcover when it's released. It'll be money well spent. And Somebody should have a long career ahead of them....

Brandon, I just wanted to confirm that you did have a couple of cameos as Slowswift? Or was that mean to be someone else?

Thank you very much for the kind words!

Slowswift is an homage to Grandpa Tolkien.  A study of his personality will reveal why that name was chosen for him.
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EUOL

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I'm pretty sure Slowswift is Hoid. The Ars Arcanum says he "bears a striking resemblance to a storyteller", which I take to mean Hoid.

Hoid appears in that same chapter, but Vin doesn't meet him.  Something he does spooks her.  She's just too darn observant for her own good. 
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I am curious if any changes were made to the story after you got AMoL or after the Name of the Wind was published? The style hasn't changed, but the story seemed to flow much better this time around.


Actually, no.  This one was finished off back before I knew anything of AMoL or before I'd read Name of the Wind.  Hopefully, the smoothing is a result of me trying to work out kinks in my storytelling ability.  I'm learning to distance out my climax chapters, for instance.  (I think I've I'd have written this book years ago, I'd have tried to overlay Spook's climactic sequence with the ending ones, for instance, which would  have been a mistake.) 

Also, of the three books, I worked the hardest on this one.  Choosing that ending--even though I'd planned it for some time--was very difficult.  I knew that it would anger some readers.  I also knew that it was the right ending for the series. 

I'm glad it worked for you.
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Very interesting about the Nicrosil.

So, if there is no more atium, then that would mean in any future trilogy, there would only be 14 metals, right? Somehow, that doesn't seem right, but maybe that is because it irks me that one quartet to be left incomplete with the absence of atium.

Would it be possible for Sazed to create a replacement metal, by chance, or will the temporal quartet remain inherently empty? It doesn't seem like it's too far of a stretch for Sazed to make more metals: after all, the metal Elend ate was a fragment of Preservation, and now Sazed holds Preservation.

Quote
7)  Ruin and Preservation were not the only Shards of Adonalsium, though they are the only ones on Scadrial at the moment.

Is "Scadrial" the proper name to refer to the Mistborn world?

On a replacement metal:  That's a RAFO, I'm afraid.  Suffice it to say that what the characters think they understand about the metals, they don't QUITE get right.  If you study the interaction between the temporal metals, you might notice an inconsistency in the way they work...

Scadrial is indeed the name of the planet. 
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