Questions for Brandon Sanderson?

[Ash Hopwill]

does he like marmite?

 

and is it a fact that in our age marmite is indeed the beginnings of 'bubbles of evil'? . . . . or pots of evil.

[Aiyen kin Leary]

1. How technologically advanced was the AOL? Was black powder ever used for war in the AOL or is this the first time? Same for the steam engine and other projects of Rand's academies.

 

We'd all love to hear Brandon elaborate on the Age of Legends, so definitely ask that.

However, we can already answer a lot of the question. The Age of Legends was at least as technologically advanced as our own time (the First Age) in most ways. They had cars (jo-cars), aircraft (sho-wings), elevators (lifts), antigravity (at least if you believe the guide, which calls hoverflies antigravity-powered aircraft) and superb genetic technology (Aginor was a geneticist, as the Nym may have been created that way as well, though we don't know for sure). The AoL equivalent of a rifle was the shocklance, described by RJ as an "energy discharge weapon". Apart from some extremely bulky lasers, we can't build any sort of effective energy discharge weapons even now. Black powder would have been an extremely primitive weapon when the War of the Shadow broke out.

 

On the other hand, your question still stands. We don't know how much low tech the AoL had. They might have gradually regressed, from shocklances to guns, and then to swords, or they might have never thought of something like a black powder cannon. Steam engines might be something not seen since the First Age. Also, it's not clear how much of their tech relied on the Power? Aes Sedai were rare, even then, so most of society was designed to work without active channeling. On the other hand, there was something called the Standing Flows that powered most ter'angreal without the need for a Servant of All, so it's possible that nearly everything they had was Power-reliant, much as the First Age depends on electricity.

[Fantasy-Faction]

Thank you for your patience guys!!!

 

Interview can be found here: My linkhttp://fantasy-faction.com/2011/brandon-sanderson-interview

 

I asked quite a few questions suggested by users of the three forums I posted in as well as various Wheel of Time, Way of the Kings, Mistborn and Writing questions. I hope I done the fantasy community justice.

 

If you could leave a small comment and give us a like on youtube, that would really help securing future interviews for our readers and would be most appriciated.

 

All the best :)

[Kahsm]

Not bad. Some interesting answers/questions.

 

I particularly liked Brandon's answer to the last question. Just a few years ago I was finding it difficult to find really inventive epic fantasy. And since then there has been some very interesting worlds come out of some very new names. I completely agree we're approaching a golden age.

 

Edit: P.S. Brandon is such a huge nerd lol. And I mean that in the most loving and endearing way =)