Hoid??

[Peter Ahlstrom]

The Harold B Lee Library at Brigham Young University has a copy of the version of Dragonsteel that was Brandon's English thesis. You may be able to get it via interlibrary loan at your local library.

Brandon is sure to some day publish a completely rewritten version of Dragonsteel, but it may not be for years or even more than a decade. (Since he has so many projects he's working on right now.) Part of the old Dragonsteel book, however, will (as of the most recent information available) be used in the Way of Kings series he's starting after he finishes the Wheel of Time.

[Natalie Perkins]

Ah, but my library had gotten skillfully apt at transferring my calls to different departments in order to frustrate me. They get very touchy when I ask them about interlibrary loans outside of Illinois. Tsk tsk.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

You should walk in and ask for an interlibrary loan form to fill out. Then they'll have to do something with it.

[Miyabi]

I knew there was one of his books that I hadn't read yet. >>

-goes to find a way to get it.

[Cosmic_AC]

Ah, but my library had gotten skillfully apt at transferring my calls to different departments in order to frustrate me. They get very touchy when I ask them about interlibrary loans outside of Illinois. Tsk tsk.

You can borrow my copy.  All it will cost is...
...Your soul.

Sorry, I just finished reading the second Alcatraz.   
I don't actually have a copy.

[Miyabi]

Ah, but my library had gotten skillfully apt at transferring my calls to different departments in order to frustrate me. They get very touchy when I ask them about interlibrary loans outside of Illinois. Tsk tsk.

You can borrow my copy.  All it will cost is...
...Your soul.

Sorry, I just finished reading the second Alcatraz.   
I don't actually have a copy.

Speaking of Alcatraz Hoid hasn't made his appearance there yet.  Unless I'm extremely ditzy and missed it.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I don't think he will. I think Alcatraz is not set in the same universe—but the way the breaking talent is described in book 2 does seem kind of like a Shard, so I won't swear by that statement. (There is some inside info I have on the connection between the worlds, though, which I sadly must do no more than taunt you with.)

[Miyabi]

"click and listen" must you do this to us?!


xD

That video was ridiculously hard to find. ha ha.

[Cosmic_AC]

So, there seem to be a ton of parallels between Alcatraz and Mistborn, some of which may not be so obvious to me so maybe I missed them.

• A nonsense phrase from Final Empire (when Breeze was trying to make up something using Spook's vernacular, IIRC) was used as a "gibberish" sentence for some character in Alcatraz whose name escapes me.  This was obviously an in-joke, but might it be a clue as well?
• Time/Space/Matter/Knowledge looks a lot like Temporal/Physical/Enhancement/Mental.
• Even the format these forms of magic are presented in -- wheels -- is the same.
• Our hero just happens to have the unique and incredibly rare ability that spans all four quadrants, and then some.
• Plus there are outer circles of seemingly divine power; Identity/Possibility looks a lot like Preservation/Ruin.  Kazan even says it's "Metaphysics."
• Glass and sand are awfully important in the Alcatraz series, sort of like metal in Mistborn.
• Our hero is made aware of a semi-ambiguous "Prophecy" which he/she assumes applies to him/her.
• Bloodforged lenses.  Hemalurgy.  Similar, you think?
• Both the Incarna and Ruin are somehow able to manipulate written language.  Mortals are a little annoyed with both the Incarna and Ruin.
• Alcatraz makes an offhand comment about how epic stories should be told in trilogies.

Okay, I know some of those points are kind of a stretch, but what I'm wondering is, are these parallels the direct result of some Brandonverse-related relationship between Mistborn and Alcatraz, or is Brandon just ripping himself off?  (And if the former, then Hoid really ought to be in Alcatraz.  Could he have been the security guard on the airplane who acted confused when he found a "kid" instead of a "terrorist"?)

EDIT: Crud, I just realized I used the word "so" three times in the first sentence.   

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Well... Brandon did write the first book in 16 days and the second book in 17 days, so it wouldn't surprise me if he took some shortcuts. You're right that some of those correspondences are a big stretch, and I'm thinking most of them aren't very significant. Brandon can do whatever he wants when he's writing; the problems come in if that means the reader can predict what will happen next based on other books he's written.

I think you should start up a new thread with that list and make predictions for Alcatraz 3, because it's getting interesting and it's not very Hoid-related.

[Cosmic_AC]

Good point.  Actually, the only excuse I have for putting that there is that similarities between Alcatraz and Mistborn may indicate Hoid appearances as well.  Or maybe it's just Mistborn-for-kids, sans Hoid, with shortcuts.  I sure don't know.

[Alatar]

Hello.
I am new to the forum (and introduced myself as the good boy I am ) and wanted to greet you all sanderson addicts (and those who aren't, too, I must act polite in my first posts  ).
I have been around for some days and have read the posts about Hoid and the shards, which I believe are very intriguing issues.

Have you read books set in Moorcocks' Multiverse? I don't know why, but Hoid makes me remember them. Of course, there's the Eternal Champion, which is a man who exists in all planes of existance, but there is also the Companion, not a hero, but the Hero's friend and minion.
Before reading about the Hoid phenomenon I didn't notice it, but now I believe he could be something like that, he is there where a shard exists. Also, he gives information (very little to Sarene, a little to Kelsier, none to Vin and a lot to Siri).
I just wanted to present the idea in order for anyone who feels like that to ponder it, but I'll give it more thought.

And, Ookla, that reference abouth Hoid = Dioh is very obscure, are you by chance a language researcher? 
Hey, I am from Andalucia and even I didn't think of it. 

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Well, my degree is in linguistics and I've always been interested in languages. I'm not actively studying though.

So are you suggesting that Hoid exists on all the worlds at the same time, or just that he goes from world to world like we've been thinking?

[EDIT: Whoops, I meant world, not universe, really! I'll blame it on you talking about multiverse stuff...yeah...]

[Alatar]

So are you suggesting that Hoid exists in all the universes at the same time, or just that he goes from universe to universe like we've been thinking?

Well, I don't really would like to abandon any of those two lines of thought but I have the feeling that he exists in all worlds (I do think BS series are set in worlds in the same universe instead of separate planes) at once, with different features in each one but the same consciousness.
If you read Moorcock, I'm thinking of Erkosse, who is the only Eternal Champion who remembers any and all the lives in all the different universes.

Maybe Hoid can die in one world but still remain in one another, though I think if he indeed dies, will reappear again.

As a matter of fact, I searched through WoA and didn't find Hoid. And probably the one in HoA is the same as in FE. Why and when and how has he moved from Luthadel to Fadrex is something I don't know, as is beyond my imagination how can Cett know of a skaa informant and for how long has he known of him.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Yeah, he does not appear in WoA.

I think having him appear on different worlds at the same time is confusing, and it's something very hard to prove because we don't know what time the different books are happening compared to each other. Well, we know that The Liar of Partinel happens thousands of years before the other books, but beyond that we have no clue. Brandon could even write a book someday where it's one of his normal fantasy worlds and then people from Scadrial show up in space ships.