An interview with Chelsea Wilson

Below is an interview with Chelsea Wilson, discussing her podcast about Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere!

What is your podcast about?

-Brandon Sanderson’s cosmere
-The cosmere is where all of Sanderson’s adult epic fantasy books and series (and some short stories) take place—Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, Stormlight Archive, Alloy of Law and its sequels, and Sixth of the Dusk.
-Each planet has a different form of magic based on the destruction of Adonalsium, but we don’t know how or why or even when Adonalsium was destroyed, just that the event is called the Shattering. Sanderson is revealing things as more books are published.

Who is the audience for your podcast? Is it geared towards those who are already fans of Brandon Sanderson or will the common reader be interested?

-It’s geared mostly toward people who have already read the books. To understand the cosmere, I will obviously have to talk about what happens in the books, so there will be massive spoilers for the plot of the books and the history of the cosmere and Adonalsium, but if they’re not worried about spoilers, anyone could listen.
-Early episodes would be best for people who are thinking about getting into Brandon Sanderson’s epic fantasy works, but are intimidated by the size of some of the books. The second book in the Stormlight Archive series, Words of Radiance is 1088 pages, which is literally the largest Tor publishing was physically capable of printing.

What makes your podcast unique?

-It’ll be an in-depth analysis of the history of the cosmere and the role it plays in each of Sanderson’s books.
-Also the magic, some of the characters and how they interact with the magic in their world.
-The connections between the different magics and the way it’s influenced by the presence of the shards.

What is the frequency of the podcast? Will each episode have the same structure?

-Because of the amount of researching required, the podcast will air once every two weeks.
-The first episode will be an introduction to cosmere, essentially the bare minimum of what you need to know, and overview of the first shard.
-From there it will be either an episode per shard, or a few episodes per shard, depending on how much we know about each of the shard.
-There may be special episodes when new books are released that tell us more about cosmere, whether it’s something new or something that changes what we thought we knew.

What do you hope that listeners gain from listening to your podcast?

-A further understanding of cosmere, and hopefully a way to not be intimidated by the 1000-plus page behemoth that some of Sanderson’s books can be.
-It will also be a place for people to think about cosmere together and hopefully find things individuals have missed.

For fun – which book is your favorite from this series and why?

–Final Empire (the first of the Mistborn series) was the first book I ever read, so I have a fond place in my heart for it. Tor released it for free on the Internet after it was announced Brandon Sanderson was finishing Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan died. Kelsier, my favorite character of all time, comes from this series.
–Elantris is his first published book and it has amazing worldbuilding. There are times you can tell it is his first book, and it has some weaknesses his later books don’t have, but the worldbuilding is so fantastic I occasionally reread it just for that..
-Otherwise, the massive Stormlight Archive series because that’s where we’re getting most of our cosmere information. Plus, one of the main characters in the series, Kaladin, is my second favorite character of all time.