Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Stomping on Yeti: Interview with Brandon Sanderson (Verbatim)

Structurally, The Way of Kings is fairly unique. There are three main POV characters in Kaladin, Dallinar, and Shallan, a handful of minor POV characters Szeth, Adolin, and then The Asides in which we only get a few pages of material largely unrelated to the overall plot. How will the cast grow and change in future volumes? Are you thinking of keeping each volume to a similar number of POVs or expanding it?

There will be a similar number, with a small expansion. At this point I believe you have met every one of the major viewpoint characters for the series. I don't want it to spiral out of control. I think too many viewpoint characters is a danger to epic fantasy, putting a writer in difficult predicaments for subsequent books—whether to leave some characters out, or whether to show a little bit of each of them without getting any major plot arcs for any of them.

So you've seen pretty much everybody. Now, at this point there are several who are major viewpoint characters for the series who we have not had many or any viewpoints from yet—Jasnah is one, a character who shows up in the epilogue is another, and there are a few others—but there are in my mind essentially eight or ten major characters in this series, and it will stick to that.

The interludes will continue to be what they are, which is that those characters may show up again, but it's unlikely that there will be many more viewpoints from them. The interludes are there because I wanted to have my cake and eat it too—I wanted to have the big sprawling epic with a lot of major viewpoints that we spend a lot of time on like Robert Jordan did, but I also wanted to have the quick jumps around that George R. R. Martin does, and they're two masters of the genre. And so I decided on the interludes as a way to jump around and show the world, to give depth and to give rounding to what's happening—give you little glimpses into important aspects of the world—but those characters are not people you have to remember and follow. Each of the interludes will have one character that you need to pay attention to, but you can take the interludes and read them and without having to focus too much on remembering and keeping track of what their plot is. Then you can jump back into the main characters. And that's always going to be the case in the books to come.

Each book will also have one character who has flashbacks throughout that book—we'll stick to one per book, and you will find out how they ended up where they are as we dig back into their past.

stormlight archive, worldbuilding, characterization,

Reddit AMA 2011 (Verbatim)

Do you plan to write the Stormlight Archive books with the same POV characters throughout the series (like WoT) or do you think that you give other characters POV (aSoIaF) as the series continues?

Most of the main POV characters have been introduced. Each book will take one major character (Kaladin, Dalinar, Adolin, Jasnah, Shallan, Navani, Szeth, Taln) and give them 'flashback' sequences in the same way Kaladin got flashbacks in the first book. There are some open spots for which I'm toying with other characters being used.

Other characters will get viewpoints now and then, but I feel that one of the ways that big series get off track is by changing the focus to side characters. (Note that I will continue doing the Interludes to give some other voices and perspectives screen time. Few of these will be main characters.)

oditogre

This problem, more than any other thing, 'broke' 3 of the biggest fantasy series for me (you can probably guess which ones)—I gave up on each of them partway through.

I liked Mistborn, but honestly I hadn't planned on even giving Stormlight Archive a chance because I assumed it would do the same type of thing as those other series. Knowing what you said above, I'm going to have to pick up that first book, now.

BRANDON SANDERSON

I'm hoping it will work. If I can do it right, and each main character gets a book of their own, it should keep me on track.

The sprawl gets reduced, in theory, as each book has its own specific focus. You get a little of each main character in each book, but one takes center stage and you get a full story with them. (Flashbacks to their past, getting them to the first book, and a depth of story for their narrative in the novel.)

If you do read the book, one of the things I do to try to keep this all from going out of control is I write what are called "Interludes." Most of these (all but the ones about a character named Szeth) are essentially short stories in the world, about characters you don't have to remember or learn. They add depth, expand the plot, but are set off as their own thing with a specific sort of "This won't be on the final" sort of feel.

stormlight archive,

Fantasy Faction Interview (Verbatim)

Okay, the next question we have�I think this one you might have answered before�but have we met all the main point-of-view characters yet? Or, if not, what percentage are we talking?

You have met almost all of them. Let me do a count... Let's see. The main characters in the book are�in the series�Kaladin, and Dalinar, Adolin, Jasnah, Shallan, and Navani, whom you all met in this book and most of them had viewpoints. Szeth, Taravangian, and Taln. And one of the other Heralds; I'm not going to tell you who that is. But I think you've met...you have, I'm sure, met that person; I know he's in there. And so, I think you've met them all, basically. Taln is the person who shows up in the epilogue.

Marc Aplin

Excellent.

Brandon confirmed that Shalash was seen in The Way of Kings, but he also hinted there were others.

stormlight archive, way of kings, shalash, taln, heralds,

WOR Signing Table Q&A (Verbatim)

What Jasnah did, in the first book, with Shallan in the alleyway. And what happened at the end of this book, between Adolin and the other character. Would you put them on the same level? Or would you say that what Adolin did was maybe a little bit darker?

I would say that what Adolin did was less dark, personally. I would say that what Adolin did was something that needed to be done, that no one else was capable of doing.

Question

Will it have any ramifications for him down the line? With how it was handled?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, there are definitely ramifications. How it's handled, there's lots of ramifications. And there are certain characters who would think that what he did is totally, totally, totally wrong.

adolin, jasnah, sadeas,

Calamity-Austin

Jasnah’s book, would an in world person consider that she is also advocating for gender equality for men?

In-world? Jasnah would, but I don’t think most people who read it would.