Book 4 in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series is 50% done! The author posted the update himself on the series’ subreddit earlier this week, giving fans a preview of the book’s structure.
(Slight spoilers ahead for the Stormlight Archive series up to and including book 4, so click away if you’d rather not see them.)
First, some spoiler space.
Anyone remember Pingu?
Cutest little claymation penguin.
Noot noot!
Book 4, which is tentatively titled The Rhythm of War, begins with the group of characters from the end of Oathbringer, before splitting into three groups of viewpoint characters: group one, which has five characters, group two, which has two, and group three, which also has two. Having finished writing the adventures of group two, Sanderson said he now has groups one and three to write.
The author also shared a concern he had about writing the POVs of Parshendi sisters Venli and Eshonai. As you’ll recall, Eshonai was confirmed dead in Oathbringer, while Venli is slowly but surely embarking on a redemption arc.
One issue I’ve been having with the book is the flashbacks. I’m not 100% sure they’ll work the way I planned them to. In that case, it’s possible I will toss them and doing them from Venli’s viewpoint instead. I’m excited to write more Eshonai, but there’s a real chance that the viewpoints will feel like fluff, as Venli is the one who knew the secrets happening behind the scenes among the Listeners at the time.
[…]
I can’t say for certain, and my gut says that–in abstract–more people would enjoy reading about Eshonai as a character, but would find the chapters a little boring and out of place. Venli flashbacks would, instead, be filled with cosmere mysteries and answers that will be more interesting.
For more details on Sanderson’s thought process on the potential POV switch, tours, and hoped-for release windows, head on over to the update. In the meantime, you can watch Brandon read an excerpt from one of the Venli chapters in the forthcoming novel.
I am 100% okay with this.
So… Venli Flashbacks in novel, and Eshonai backstory novella released as an ebookcompanion a la “Secret History.”
I read several comments and many suggested doing a mix of Venli and Eshonai flashbacks. While I recognize that this could be clunky – I also like this idea of having alternating or shared flashbacks. If he does switch, I really hope he does publish Eshonai’s as either interludes or a novella. I want to read her first meeting with the Alethi, especially.
Switching sounds good. I’d much rather learn more about a character that is still alive.
I can see why he’s thinking in that direction, and it sounds like a good call, but it makes me less excited for the book. I liked Eshonai a lot and Venli is pretty much my least favourite major character in The Stormlight Archive.
Honestly, as somebody who has played around with very mediocre writing and seen the way things just start to flow once you make one change you may have resisted making…I totally trust whatever his process is. In some ways I wonder if that’s the danger of being so transparent; it may lead to a sense of being ‘committed’ to a certain path.
Was Pingu a big thing in the States? I had the impression he wasn’t.
Possibly because during the whole “Boaty McBoatface” incident when US news anchors were reading out all the other name suggestions, they always seemed confused by “Pingu” and had no idea why it got so many votes, and I remember one woman suggesting that it was a typo for “Penguin”.
Pingu was at least visible here in Canada, can’t speak for the US. My boys used to watch it. Can’t remember seeing any merchandise. Not sure it would have clicked for me just seeing the name in that online poll, but say “Pingu the Penguin” and I’d immediately know.
Once I finished reading book 3 I assumed that Brandon had been offering Eshonai as a red herring and had always planned for Venli to be the actual flashback character. I finished the book and figured that Eshonai would not make sense as the flashback character anymore, it was Venli who was significant to the overall plot.
I would be interested to see what Venli thought of Eshoni. Eshoni was an adventurer who led her people to contact with humans while her sister plotted their downfall (not on purpose?) back home.
Does it bother anyone else that the narrator says ‘Timber’, like wood, for Venli’s spren rather than ‘Timbre’ (pronounced /tam-ber/, a musical term?
@10
Both pronunciations are correct.
More cosmere secrets with Venli? Yes please. I fully trust and support whatever Brandon Sanderson tries to accomplish.
@10, @11: I always pronounced it tim-bruh