Audience Q&A

Right, this is Pete and Abby from the Therapy Crowd. We're currently sponsored by TUI. Now, Pete and I never disagree about where to go on holiday, right? Really? Quiet, Pete. But if we did, then we know TUI is the place to go. If you want to find a holiday that works for both halves of a couple or every member of the family, then TUI is the answer. Have you just said quiet, Pete? Yeah. TUI has more options and more choice with hundreds of destinations worldwide. So you can find a place with water slides for the kids, a beautiful beach for Abby and around the Gulf for me. Tui, you pick it, they sort it. Book and T's and C's apply. Atoll and Abta protected. Howdy, howdy, her, and welcome to Fantasy Fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Stephen, your assistant to the regional hey hey and lover of all things fantasy okay folks it is time we are taking a little bit of a break from the deep dive for just one week while i am off at sea for a little audience q a to just kind of hold you over until we get to the last episode of well of ascension so right now you're on a boat i'm on a boat drinking my eighth margarita i am passed out on a pool chair oh what What is time when you think about it? It's crazy. We're listening to your voice, but it's not really your voice. Your voice has got bottles in it or whatever. It's got margarita in it. I've got bottles in my voice, babe. Before we get started, we want to remind you guys that we are now a part of the Fantasy Fangirls Fan Club. So if you would like to directly support the show, you will get all kinds of benefits for just $8 a month. You can check that out in the link in our description. And another quick reminder, we also have Fantasy Fanfellas merch, so be sure to check that out after you listen to the show as well. And if you call right now, Hayden will send you a bottle of his sweat from the boat. From the boat? From the boat. Shipping costs on that are going to be crazy. No, like sweat that you make on the boat. Gotcha. Okay. You're not like carrier pigeoning from the boat. Oh, so I'm saving it and then shipping it once I get home. Right. Imagine what they're going to ask me about that when I'm going through security. Why do you have these bottles of sweat? They're my vials. They have metal in them. And one last quick disclaimer before we get started. This episode is going to be spoiler-free for anything beyond Well of Ascension. So if you have not read Hero of Ages or anything like that, there's no worries. You're still able to listen. No problem. Perf. Okay, Stephen. Yes. Are you ready for the burning questions that our audience asked us? how big are my feet 10 and a half to 11 depending on the size depending on the brand oh i'm a 10 10 and a half we could share shoes if we wanted i can't do 10 they're too small oh well never mind sometimes 11 and a half but that has to be from another country probably okay gotcha gotcha yeah all right steven our first question is from at fictional meg 37 okay which sanderson character trait do you see shine in the other co-host and witch in yourself. Well, now I need a list of the Sanderson character traits because I feel like I'm not as well versed in them as you. Right. Well, okay. I'm going to do mine first so you can kind of get a taste of what it is. Just a taste. Yeah. So for me, I'm going to say I am, I mean, the epigraphs are not a character, but they are written by characters. So I'm going to say I'm like an epigraph. I'm very vague and hard to read when it comes to you. So that's one. And And then with you, I think you have Breeze's good sense of humor. Okay. I didn't know where you were going with that. You have Breeze's attraction to young women. What? Stop it. I'm not Leonardo DiCaprio. Also, I'm not as old as Breeze. But still, I have a sense of humor. Yeah. No, I think you're a funny guy. And he always has these quips and stuff, and so do you. So it's a compliment. Now, you have Ellen's jawline. I don't know. I don't know how to answer the question. Okay, I'll side with you on the whole vague thing. Yeah, you're an epigraph. I'm an epigraph, cool. You're an epigraph and a plot twist. Okay, so then who have you identified with in the Mistborn series so far? Unfortunately, probably Yasties. Because I'm always doing stupid things. I've been decapitated a time or two. I'm always getting drunk and hiring a large blue group of people with wooden coins. All right. I don't know. I'd have to think harder about it. I'll go with what you said. You seem to be the one in charge here. So, yeah, you're right. All right. All right. All right. So the next question is this. At RMF5160, love the format of one expert, one reading along. Would you guys do a wrap-up episode with all the foreshadowing at the end of the series? We could. I don't know what that would look like necessarily. No, I think it would maybe just be a little bit more loose and like us looking up all the different foreshadowing that we missed because there's already some that I've noticed as I've gone through the series again one more time. But then – There's a market for that too in that if somebody doesn't – unfortunately doesn't want to listen to all of them or they could just do a quick synopsis one at the end. Well, and I think, too, it's like reading through these books, there's just so much to take in that you don't realize the foreshadowing that you missed until you reread it. So for you, I think it would be a really interesting experience as well because then I could point to be like, hey, do you remember this? Well, this was pointing at this. Yeah. Yeah. Here's where my mind was here. I don't have to say that because you already know. But we could also do like a counter. Here's all my predictions. What is the percentage that was right? Yeah. We could do that. But I appreciate RMF5160 that you said one expert and one reading along and not one dumb person. One expert, one freaking moron. Thank you for being generous with your lingo. I am reading along. Unless you did say moron and Hayden changed it to reading along. No, no, no, no, no. Okay, no. I'll give him props. All right. Whoever you are. Thank you. All right. Moving on to at Jenna Beth's reading journal. Oh. This is a question we get all the time. will you cover books outside of the cosmere lord of the wing lord of the wings what is that akatar lord of the wingspans lord of the rings i will say this we're not doing lord of the rings we can't it's been talked about way too many times there's podcasts that have done it way better than we could ever imagine and the fan base surrounding it is already so good at knowing all the things they would burn us at the stake yep we would miss all the things that are important And there's no information that we could give that would be mind-shattering or fun to listen to. Yeah, and I think about what is this show for? It's really to introduce people to new fantasy works that they may not be familiar with already. Everybody knows what Lord of the Rings is. Yeah. Most people know the movies. Yeah. Fewer people know the books because they're much different than how they read. Even people who haven't read the books. what like i still don think we be introducing people to this work because there it has such a strong place in pop culture that like even if you haven watched the movies you know who Frodo is You know who Gandalf is You know the Ring of Power blah blah blah blah blah Yeah. I think other people have done a better job. There's no reason to reinvent the wheel there. Yeah. But yes, we will definitely be covering books outside the Cosmere. I don't see us doing any more Cosmere after these three. I agree. For the time being. I agree. Unless if we wanted to do the novella that comes after Mistborn, which is Secret History, and that one would be a couple episodes long. I think that the other stuff within the Cosmere, especially the series like Stormlight Archive, which each book is at least 1,000 pages long. Yeah, like book one is the shortest one, and it's almost 1,200 pages. It's just too long. It's too long to do through a podcast. and so i just can't see us doing that we could do eventually some of his standalone stuff that would be a lot more manageable yeah i think red rising would be fun at some point if not next i still haven't finished the series but i think that'd be a good one to deep dive because there's so much in there that'd be a lot of fun yeah i agree i agree all right next up is heather who is in the fantasy fan club discord by the way shout out to the discord shout out to heather yes for both of you who is your favorite character slash did that character change between mistborn and well of ascension ellen he's your favorite character i don't know he's such a good character well i don't i don't know that i have a favorite i like ellen i like vin i like saizad and i like osir i liked kelsior he's not my favorite though i don't know ellen i like ellen's growth because in the beginning he was just had knowledge didn't know anything about life yeah and then he starts putting these things into practice and realizing he's been making mistakes, still being a good person, but making mistakes. And then we get to watch him grow. And now he's in a point where he's cutting people's heads off and he's just a different character. So I'm going to go with Elland for now. And yes, he's changed. Okay. All right. So, okay. So then who was your favorite character in book one then? Was it still Elland or? It wasn't Elland in book one. I was intrigued by Elend. It may have been Kelsier at that point in time. I can't really remember. It might have been Vin. Probably Vin. Yeah. Okay. Vin or Kelsier. Okay. It probably was Kelsier because I had no idea he was going to die. So I'm going to think back to when I first read these books and consider who were my favorite characters then, because Seized was not my favorite character from the first book, if that makes sense. I liked Seized, but he really started to become a stronger character for me in the later in the books. I would say when I first read them, I think my favorite character was Vin in the first book. And then in the second book, my favorite character is Tensun or Orsir. I just love his relationship with Vin so much. And we get to see him slowly opening up, slowly starting to trust. But at the same time, we never quite know where we stand with him because he is so mysterious. and also I just love that he was a full-on wolf. It's so cool. And he crossed his paws. It was always cute, little things like that. Yeah. Yeah, Osir or Tinsun, I guess the real name is Tinsun. Yeah. I do like him in book two. I'd like to see more of him. The book's almost over, so we'll see. Yeah. Hopefully he's in book three. I don't know. Do we get some more Tinsun? I guess he'll just have to keep reading. We're vague even in the Q&As. When will it be my moment? All right. Let's move on to the next question. This is from at G. I don't know how to pronounce this, but I'll say G. Weissol's. W.E.I.S.O.L.S. 6-6. That can't be right. I don't think that's right at all, but good effort. Gweissol's. Gweissol's sounds like a meal. Yeah. Give me some Gweissol's. Speaking of meals, what would your last meal be if you were executed, is the question. Appetizer would be chips and salsa. Okay. I would like a medium rare steak. Oh. Also, maybe a slice of pizza. Leg of lamb. Why are you laughing? I want all the things I love. Because you're like mutton. Let me think. Turkey leg. I don't really like – maybe like one of the best big cup Reese's for a little dessert. Okay. Or cheese and cheesecake. And I'll just bite off of everything. Yeah, some more meats probably. Okay. Yeah, I think I definitely – medium rare steak would be there for sure. I would say – oh, I would love like just a perfect like fettuccine Alfredo pasta would be amazing. I hate pasta. Really? Yeah. Why? The taste? The texture? All of the above. Not a pasta go. Wow. I'm not really big on Italian food. Oh, man. The breads are good, but I don't really like pastas and things like that. Oh, wow. This is so interesting. This is just now coming to fruition. I didn't know this. If I had known this, I would not have made you my co-host. It would have impacted the decision-making. So, yeah, I would have medium rare steak. I would have fettuccine Alfredo. And I would have for dessert, I would make like – Make? I would make it. But it's something that I've made before. is there is a, it's like cookie butter cheesecake. Oh, that sounds good. It is. Oh, it's delicious. I like a good cheesecake and I like a good cookie butter, whatever the hell that means. It sounds good though. It's like, it's like a, you know, when you like go on the plane and they give you the little cookies that are like the little like Biscoff cookies. Yeah. It's like that flavor basically. It's so good. Oh, it's got cinnamon in it? Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. I could get on board with that. Yeah. All right. Uh, next up is Elizabeth Gilmore creates. What is your favorite non fantasy story? The most dangerous game. Do you ever read that? It's like a short story. Uh, I forget the author, but it's about this guy goes to an Island where I don't remember if he, it's been so long since the red, I don't remember if he paid to be there or if he had to be there for some reason, but this guy lives in this big house and he hunts people because he got tired of hunting animals. So this guy has to go out and hide in the forest or the wilderness, and this guy is going to come hunt him. And it's just a fun story. Oh, interesting. Okay. I would say I've got two right here that I want to reference. There are two books that are more like fiction. They're literary fiction, but they're not fantasy. We've got Stoner by John Williams, which is about a guy. It's really just about his life. He grows up on a farm, and then he goes to college, and he becomes a literature professor, essentially. And you just kind of chronicle his life from birth to death. And it's very introspective, kind of sad and heartbreaking, but so, so good. And then this is the only book that I've ever read in a single day, partially because it's super short. It's only like 100 pages. But it is called Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. This is the story of a family that lives in a small Irish town in I believe the 1980s 1990s as they going through the sunset of the Industrial Revolution and money is starting to be filtered out of the small towns And it just follows this guy who is trying to do the right thing And that's all I will say. But it's probably pound for pound my favorite book. If I'm going to do like a full book, I'll say – what's the name of that book? Oh, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Oh, cool. Yeah. That's like one of the OG big plot twist at the end books. Oh, interesting. I haven't read it and I've heard so many good things about it. Yeah, I mean it's a very old book and it's kind of boring at times, but it's not supposed to read like a fantasy book. Yeah. And I just enjoy it. Cool. All right. Let's see. At Riondi D. Toit, which other Sanderson books should I read? Hmm. Well, you would need some more clarification on what you're looking for. I'm going to answer the question this way. If you're just looking for one other Sanderson book to read to kind of propel yourself through after you've read the first Mistborn trilogy, I would direct you to a novella called The Emperor's Soul. The Emperor's New Groove? Yeah. I love that movie. Classic. So essentially the conceit is you have this character named Shay who is able to use magic that is built around stamps. And you're able with stamps to manipulate the soul of objects. And so you can convince objects to be other things. And so essentially it's a commentary on what is art, what does it mean to create art, and that kind of thing. It's super interesting, but it's also super short. So if you're trying to just get some more Sanderson in really quickly, that's a really great option. Interesting. It's called The Emperor's Soul. Doesn't Wear Clothes? Is that what it is? The Emperor's Soul. Emperor's New Clothes? Okay, Emperor's Soul. Perfect. Or I want to read the Stormlight Archive at some point. I have the first four books. But like you said, they are so thick, I'm scared. Steven, they are my favorite series of all time. I'm sure it's fantastic. I hear it's better than Mistborn. It is orders of magnitude better than Mistborn, in my opinion. But it's not a fast-paced read. It's got so many things in it that are drawn out at times. It's a big commitment. Yeah. I mean, that's seven trees right here, all these books I'm looking at. It's definitely one that is really helpful to kind of do the dual reading where you read some physically, but you also lean on the audio book as well because it helps getting through some of those slower parts a little bit easier in my opinion. Yeah. I do a lot of audio books anyway, cause I drive a lot for work. Yeah. Yeah. I go back and forth. So yeah. Okay. It would be cool to do a whole thing on that, but it would, it's a huge commitment and it would take a lot of work. Think about it. I mean, we cover Mistborn. The first one I think is like 500 pages, right? So we did that in eight episodes. Mm-hmm. But I feel like these other ones are probably more in-depth. They're more dense. So I think you would take like 20 episodes at least for each book. Wow. It's just not going to happen, folks. Sorry. It's not going to happen. Maybe if it works out, maybe one day. Yeah, who knows? Doubtful. Who knows? All right. At KristaTurner83, who are some of your favorite characters in any books you have read? I'll give you one. Okay. This book here, A Darker Shade of Magic. I've referenced this many times. But also the audiobook narrator is the same one as Mistborn. Mistborn, right? Mistborn. And it's the same company. That's awesome. Yeah. For fantasy. Anyway, there's a character in this book. Her name is Delilah Bard. She's a pirate. Like a cutthroat. Love that character. One of my favorite characters. Ooh, okay. Also, Kaz Brecker from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Okay, yeah. Kaz Brecker. Okay. I love that guy, too. Interesting. Okay. So I would throw out Furlong. He is the main character of small things like these. He's definitely one. A couple from the Stormlight Archive are Kaladin, Dalinar. I would say also I love Adolin from the Stormlight Archive. Let's see. Let me look at my bookshelf here. We're both doing that. We're both, like, glancing back. I forget every book I've ever read when I'm asked questions about books, which is weird. Ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh. this one man what is her name her name i'm supposed to read that book by so many people okay kai ghan misaki from the sword of kai ghan she is an incredibly rich character so good i would also say kind of looking back on other stories i mean i i loved serious black growing up i loved Dumbledore, you know, all that stuff. Anything else? I mean, I like Aragorn. I can't say whether or not I like him in the books, though, because I haven't read the books since I was in middle school. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that about covers it, though. And then Seized, of course. You know I love Seized. Yeah, we've already talked about our favorite characters in this book series. Yeah. Okay, let's see. I'm trying to think if there's any other. I mean, I know there is, but I just can't think of any on the top of my head. Oh, well. Okay. All right. Oh, I also need to give a shout out as well to Darrow from Red Rising. Oh, yeah. See, I already forgot. I mentioned that earlier. I forgot that book. I love Darrow. Yeah, I love Darrow. I love Mustang. Oh, Mustang. Love Mustang. Cassius even. Yeah, so it's really, really good. Okay, let's see here. Moving on to the next question from Atbrook Solomon. Favorite Romantic series from both of you? And does Hayden enjoy Romantic? Well, I have to go. give props obviously to a court of thorns and roses not because it's necessarily the best it is the most culturally impacting for the genre itself because it's the one that gets most people started myself included it's the only reason why we're here today because i read that book and started talking about it which got me in conversation with fancy fangirls which eventually got me to meet hayden which eventually got us to make this thing here so i'm partial to that book simply because it is my introduction into the Romantic space and into any sort of bookish fame on the internet. And I happen to love the series. So I guess we'll go with A Court of Thorns and Roses. I know that's a seemingly cliche answer, but it's not cliche to me. Is there one that's kind of more under the radar that you really, really like as well? Probably. Do you have an answer while I look at my shelf? Yeah, let me think. Because I forgot every book already. I think my favorite Romantic series, and most of my exposure to Romantic has been through my work with fantasy fangirls i will say i really love the kindred's curse saga like with spark of the ever flame i've read that i have the first i have all of them but it's really good and i just especially loved the twist at the end of the first book was just so good and the second book is excellent as well so i would say uh the kindred's curse saga is one of my favorites i'm really looking forward to the conclusion of that coming out sometime soon i don't know if this is considered romanticy it's got romance in it and it's a dark fantasy uh two twisted crowns i would say that isn that uh but there any spice i can really call it romanticy is that the one by rachel gillig yes it the second book in that um that oh one dark window is what i meant so that duology both one dark window two twisted crowns i need to go back to it i started it and i was really enjoying it but for some reason i put it down and haven't picked it back up i need to finish that yeah i don't know if i can call that romanticy though because again there's no spice in it but it gets thrown into the romantic kind of genre i i feel like it's definitely circles with the same group of people people talk about it like it is romantic for sure yeah i guess we'll go with that but again i can't really escape akatar because it's what i started with and nothing else kind of beats it for me like quicksilver i don't think it was as good as throne of class fourth wing i don't think it's a class uh akatar i don't think fourth wing was as good as akatar so i don't know okay i think that's better than most of the popular ones. Okay. I will say that the second part of the question is, does Hayden enjoy Romanacy? Yes, I do. I'm looking forward to enjoying more of it as soon as I finish all of Sanderson's work. I feel like it has consumed me and I'm in this black hole that eventually I will get out of, but I'm just not out of it. I don't think you will. Because the thing about Sanderson, he's going to finish a book before you finish his book. I know. I know. And then he'll just keep going. He churns them out pretty quickly. Oh, it's a mess. Because these are relatively recent books, all of them, right? Yeah, I mean – We're not talking about anything from the 90s. The first Stormlight Archive book, I believe, came out in 2010. Oh, jeez. Yeah, and the fifth one just came out in 2024. And then there's going to be another five of those. There's going to be two more – Another five Stormlight Archive books? There's going to be another two Mistborn series as well. Oh, is that what Apple meant when they said, I want all your books and any books you write that are coming? That's the idea. Because they knew – Yeah. Five more Stormlight Archive books? So there's been two Mistborn series so far. The first had three. The second era, they call them, had four. There's going to be a third series for Mistborn and then a fourth, which is going to be like the culmination of everything with the Cosmere. And then there's five more Stormlight Archive books. And then he has plans for all these different standalones down the line as well. How old is Brandon Sanderson? He turned 50 this past year. Oh, so he's still got – Yeah. He's got some years. He said very clearly, he's like, I plan on finishing everything that I need to write for the main Cosmere by the time I'm like 70 or 75. He's got a 25-year plan. Yeah. That's good. Keep your health up, buddy. And every year he releases this written out blog post that's essentially like says his plans for the next year and then for the timeline for the rest of the Cosmere. And he lays out like each year that he plans like, okay, in 2030, this book is supposed to be released. 2032, this one's supposed to be released. So he is really trying to stay on top of it. Yeah, well, whatever he's doing is obviously working. I don't know if he, in the back of his mind, has a plan, but it seems like he does. Yeah. Okay, Stephen. This is our final question, and I think perhaps the most important question of the whole lot. If you had to ride into battle on a piece of pasta, what pasta shape would you choose? Now, I know you don't like pasta, but... On a piece of pasta? Yep. Or with a piece of pasta. We could go with, too, just to throw in another element, too. Okay. Well, I'm going spaghetti, obviously, for the battle with. Ooh. Because I need it to be long and stiff. It'd be like a whip, basically. No, no, no. A hard one. Are we talking about, like, baked? Well, you could bake it, and then it's like a whip. Are we talking about made? Or you could make it, or you could have it, you know, shelf-stable, and it's like a spear, basically. Well, as long as we're in this magical world, I would make it whippable and stiffable. Okay. What are those ones that kind of look like corkscrews? Oh, my God. Spiral ones. I'm riding in on that. I'm looking it up. I feel like I could get some damage done with that thing. I'll just drill my way through the wall and go in behind it. Oh, yeah. Kava toppy. Yeah. I'm going to be on top of that kava. Okay. I think for my weapon, I would use pinet. okay what does that look like so pinet looks like it sounds like you're saying penny but you're an asshole about it can you hand me a pinet p-e-n-n-a it looks like here i'm gonna send it to you right now pinna p-e-n-n-e oh e sorry i didn't mean to say a there we go i just sent it to you i would come in riding on a macaroni because they're kind of shaped like a horse oh i thought you were going with Yankee Doodle. No, no, no, no. They're shaped like a horse, kind of. Macaroni? Yeah, it has the two, it's like a little arch. So the two ends would be like the feet. Let's see. Macaroni is this. No, I'm talking about, no, no, no. There's ones that are like more curved. Are you talking about the shells? No, not the shells. Macaroni. It has two holes, and it's like curved like this, and so it'd go... You're getting angry now. It'd go like this. I need you to show me a picture, because I don't know what the hell you're talking about let's see i like how this is the one we spend the most time hold on let's see yeah i don't know aha all my macaroni was just little old tubes here we go are you sending it to me yep let's see let's see here like that oh like a rainbow you just need to work on how you describe things it looks more like a rainbow if you liked pasta you would know what macaroni looks like i like can we really call macaroni pasta yes because because macaroni like has been kind of co-opted to mean macaroni and cheese only oh that's like when it was made in italy it was like just like any other pasta basically i thought that's what you meant with macaroni and cheese yeah so okay well okay you want you want to ride in on a little rainbow yeah that's beautiful i love that for you maybe a Turtleneck? We've talked about that. Yeah, that's awesome. You like a good turtleneck? Yeah. Okay, everybody. That is it for our Q&A episode. Thank you all so much for tuning in. And we hope that you will join us next week for the final episode of our Well of Ascension coverage. Also, please, please be sure to give us a five-star rating and review on your podcast platform. And give us a follow on Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Fan Fellas. And lastly, if you loved this episode and you have a friend who would love to ride into battle on a piece of pasta, this is a great episode to share with them. Okay, everybody. See you all next week for episode 10 of Wheel of Ascension. Bye. Ka-ching. This is James of Friar from Shits and Geeks, and we're currently sponsored by TUI. Now, we've been known to have the odd disagreement, but the ones which can run deep are often about where we go on holiday. Too right. One of us wants to chill, the other wants to explore. It's like, how are we going to fix this fine mess? Thankfully, that's where TUI comes in. TUI has more options and more choice, with hundreds of destinations worldwide. So we can find somewhere for me to relax and you to get your adventure on. Perfect. TUI, you pick it, they saw it. Booking T's and C's apply. Atoll and Abda are protected. Most CRMs are clunky and slow down your team. It's time to switch to a new one. that's where pipe drive comes in a simple crm for growing sales teams see all your deals and customer info in one pipeline it's powerful enough to grow with your business yet simple enough for your team to love using it switch to pipe drive and join over 100 000 companies visit pipedrive.com forward slash audio to get started with a 30-day free trial