Wintersteel Pre-Order & Unsouled BTS!

9/22/2020

Recently I have returned from my state of undeath by "acquiring" a new mortal body to house my spirit. I come back to you with news:

First, the Wintersteel pre-order is live now! The book will be released on October 6th, and the print length is 513 pages! That's approximately 145,000 words, which makes it the longest book I've ever written.

You may notice that the Amazon page says its print length is 540 pages, and that's because the "print length" section on Amazon is a dirty liar. I'm holding a copy printed by Amazon as we speak and it's 513.

Pro Tip: that section is always wrong. Never trust it.

The ebook and audiobook are both live for pre-order as we speak, and will both be released on October 6th!

The paperback edition will come out on the same day, but we're not allowed to set a pre-order for that one, so I recommend cryogenically preserving yourself for a few weeks if you're after the paperback.

***
Now this brings us to our first (arguably second?) entry in our brand-new Cradle Behind The Scenes series!

When it came to Unsouled, there were quite a few sources I could have mined for behind-the-scenes information, though I didn't really have any "deleted scenes" for this book per se.

I could have gone through my development of the magic system, telling you that at one point it was based on animal spirits and Lindon was going to get the least-threatening animal spirit I could think of. Potentially a rabbit or a small deer.

Or shortly after that, where I had people developing powers based on one item that was a manifestation of their soul. Lindon was going to get a shovel.

You can see the pattern: first off, the powers of these original proto-systems were always based on specific symbols. Emblems. Icons, you might call them.

Second, Lindon always got the most non-threatening, mundane, or embarrassing version I could give him.

Instead of going into the magic system, I could give you the first draft of the original pre-chapter texts for Of Kings and Killers, which were written a year before Unsouled and chronicled the ongoing attempts of the Abidan in Sector 11 Control to convince Ozriel to destroy Asylum.

My draft of that interaction ended up directly influencing the development of Cradle's Abidan storyline.

But ultimately, I thought nothing illustrated the evolution of Unsouled as much as its original title.

We hadn't finished development on the cover when we changed our minds on the title of the book, but here is an early draft of what might have been the cover for Cradle, Volume One: The Fox and the Phoenix.

-Former Remnant Will

(Phoenix painting by Nat Burt; cover design and all life's wisdom by Patrick Foster.)

43 Comments

Djineater

9/22/2020 11:03:08 am

Dang wonder what eithen and Yerins animals were gonna be...

Jess

9/22/2020 11:10:43 am

Yerin = porcupine

Nate

9/22/2020 01:11:59 pm

Eithan = still scissors somehow... What?

MitchyGoodness

9/22/2020 01:31:56 pm

Edward Scissorhands

Sean K

9/23/2020 06:29:54 am

Crab. Chomp Chomp!

Avinash

9/22/2020 01:27:44 pm

In yerins own words

LINDON would have been a squirrel spirit.

WonderingLight

9/22/2020 06:42:39 pm

Squirrel kinda run the world lol reminds me of the episode of rick and morty

Xektalon

9/22/2020 10:46:12 pm

Capybara!

Unmesh Sadawarte link

9/22/2020 11:03:47 am

What is sword icon?.. in uncrowned, I didn't really understand that part. Does it symbolise something? And are these the icons you talked about here?

tim

9/22/2020 11:17:22 am

It sounded like it's a step to becoming a sage. Connecting yourself to the way will grant them another step towards advancement or something. Kind of how like to get to underlord you needed a soulspace. My guess is that we'll see more of that in wintersteel.

Levi

9/22/2020 11:43:34 am

I always assumed that the Icons were something like the Socratic Truth concept. Like the archetype of the thing, if I say chair, I might mean one specific chair, and the chair that you think of when I say the word is a different chair, but both are just attempts to describe the ultimate concept of "Chair". So manifesting the Sword Icon would be like Yerrin's technique becoming closer to the ultimate manifestation of "Sword". As the concept of Sword is a thing that cuts, my thought was that as her techniques become closer to the Icon, they become more like concepts. Unstoppable, unbreakable, able to cut anything at any time anywhere.

Gabriel Syme

9/22/2020 11:55:48 am

My inference from Uncrowned is that the Sword Icon is something like a Platonic Form. It's like the perfect essence of Sword from which all physical swords derive the their "sword-ness". A sword path that taps into this would have attacks that are more real and definite than someone without the Icon. This would seem to be the difference between an Archlord and a Sage, despite them both being at the same level of advancement, one step below Herald. My intuition is that most sacred artists lack the spiritual insight or alignment to connect with an Icon. The implication of several statements in Ghostwater and Uncrowned is that Sages have a more profound range and depth of ability than Archlords, as Sages were the lowest stage who could make items like Void Keys and those spatial transport stones.

Yosef Berg

9/22/2020 11:15:05 am

Got to say while I like the Title and it's a nice looking cover, I think it was a good choice to go with the badges. Both the alt-covers you've shown us so far look very generic in their design and could fit any number of fantasy books. whereas the current Cradle covers while simplistic feel that they belong to the series

9/24/2020 07:06:32 pm

Acethememelord

9/22/2020 11:21:46 am

It’s not too late to give lindon a spirit shovel. I would dig it.

Zexand

9/22/2020 01:14:27 pm

Seriously, thank you for this post. Brightened a really shitty couple days.

Van

9/22/2020 11:27:38 am

Is the background how Sacred Valley looks, a alpine - esqe rocky mountainous region? Or maybe is this just the mountain range where the Heavens Glory school lives?

Sean

9/22/2020 12:28:35 pm

Could have given Eithan shears for his item (which would make him a Gardener)? Or maybe a broom since that's so nonthreatening? Oh the things that might have been!

Scott Nichols

9/22/2020 12:52:14 pm

But then you'd have to start calling him Shera

9/22/2020 12:51:17 pm

Ooh, this may imply that Elder Whisper has more of a connection to the dreadgods, or at least the bleeding phoenix. I think this means sacred valley is the monarch prison and Whisper is the caged Monarch

Keid

9/22/2020 01:09:51 pm

I'm pretty sure the phoenix in the title is Suriel, not the Bleeding Phoenix.

9/23/2020 01:55:48 am

the Phoenix is Suriel and the Fox is Lindon

Nikolai

9/22/2020 01:01:54 pm

>Recently I have returned from my state of undeath by "acquiring" a new mortal body to house my spirit.

Remnants can come back to life confirmed.

Also welcome back to the world of the living ! 2020 still sucks but at least we are gonna get Wintersteel !

Ahuri3

9/22/2020 01:21:18 pm

The "Don't call it a book club" podcast actually guessed right that it was at first meant to be an animal spirit kind of power,

9/22/2020 01:30:49 pm

Welcome back to life will

Truth be told I didn't care for ur remnant much

He never replied to any comments on the blog

9/22/2020 01:35:17 pm

https://www.reddit.com/r/Iteration110Cradle/comments/istiqv/where_should_you_go_for_book_news/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

>I don't respond to blog comments very often anymore, due to sheer volume across all the social media platforms I now have to pay attention to, but I do still tattoo each comment into my living skin.

9/22/2020 01:41:04 pm

Since okak was mentioned
I would like to clarify something

Was it ever made clear why the Elder kelerac was blindfolded while talking to the mistress of mist .
Cause it was way before the time of the emperor
And ester six blindfolded him during the war .and since then he started wearing one in his man puppet/projection.

StarDragon53

9/22/2020 01:48:09 pm

Personally I think you should have gone with that title and cover there amazing in my opinion.

Phil

9/22/2020 02:14:45 pm

The original title is good, but the old mantra of cut, cut and then cut again which left you with unsouled was far better!

Stupid 2 week wait, next one ready by Xmas right? :)

Eithan Arelius

9/22/2020 02:19:10 pm

Heey! HEEEEEY... Will. DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR CURRENTLY A NUMBER 1 BESTSTSELLER OVER MYSTERY MAN! I think you should make Little Blue turn into a shovel as an homage to your original idea before Mystery Manderson used it first. ;)

Chris

9/23/2020 04:09:36 am

Hey I saw that. #1 best seller in Epic already. Well done Will

Bewildered

9/22/2020 05:55:38 pm

"The paperback edition will come out on the same day, but we're not allowed to set a pre-order for that one",

NOOOOOOOOOOO00000000000ooooooooooo!

I just arrived here after checking two different Amazon sites and wondering where the PBK version is. I also check TBD and no dice there either. :-(

I usually pre-order my books as part of a mass binge - unless the pre-order date is something like 2+ years away, so this is a cataclysmic disaster. Given pre-orders are usually possible this really is quite peculiar. Can anyone explain why pre-orders aren't possible? Is it simply the difference between going through Tor or Baen and being an Amazon author?

Enlightened

9/22/2020 08:08:12 pm

Preorders on print books haven’t been allowed on amazon for a long time. At least two years or three years. https://www.shawnpbrobinson.com/setting-up-a-pre-order-for-your-book-part-i/

Luke

9/23/2020 10:19:18 am

You can't pre-order printed books ever dude

Carl

9/27/2020 01:40:23 pm

I preordered Dresden files hardcover weeks ago.

Aaron

9/22/2020 07:45:54 pm

Lindon gets a shovel, Yerin gets a bowling ball, Eithan throws forks, obviously.

"I shovel well. I shovel... VERY well."

Percula1869

9/22/2020 08:57:33 pm

Lindon- Baby Squirrel or Turtle ( Or maybe still a shovel)
Yerin- Wolverine or Honey Badger
Eithan- Blond Fox
Mercy- Black Labrador

Shuvo

9/23/2020 12:42:48 am

I'm so glad you didn't go the Douluo Dalu route.

BlackMage

9/23/2020 06:54:28 am

You can tell Sanderson WinterSteel outsold Rhythm of War in pre-orders! (If there is one book I'm looking forward to more than WinterSteel, it's Rhythm of War. Pre-ordered on Audible.com six months ago.)

Istyatur

9/23/2020 02:09:39 pm

Thanks to timmy of the unconventional heroes series i never think of a shovel weapons the same. Fitting in a way.

Now im thinking of Lindon as a necromancer and it works so well

Chad Brink

9/24/2020 08:02:13 am

The book is pre-ordered. The audio book is not. Yikes the full boat price on the audio book is high! I'll be waiting until the matchmaker discount price kicks in in a few months. In fact, this series is one of the few I have read in which I might wait and just listen to it in audio. Baldree has made it come alive in my head unlike any I have read or listened to otherwise and I have to credit him with my zeal for the series.

Zei link

9/24/2020 07:32:18 pm

Phew. Bullet dodged there.

Rad Eccles

9/25/2020 05:09:03 am

Phew, I was worried for a second there, I’m glad Will was able to procure a mortal vessel. Although I think this procurement of his is eerily similar to that of the Elders...

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.