01/10: The Way of Shadows/ Q&A with Brent Weeks

[Chris]

Here is the thread we can use to post questions and comments that we'd like to share with Brent Weeks. We should keep this limited to The Way of Shadows, or at least to general questions that won't spoil the other books in the series for those that haven't read them yet.

[Pamela]

Were any of your characters more difficult to write than others? Who did you enjoy writing the most?

Were there scenes cut from the original draft that you wished made it into the final cut? If so, can you give us a brief description to what they were? Also, were there characters not in the original that were developed during revisions? Now I am just being nosy.

How long did The Way of Shadows stew in your head before it made its way to paper?

If you were in a fight with Blint, what would be your weapon of choice?

The words you introduced, did they stem from anything or where they just letters you connected to create your own words?

Can you give us any insight on The Black Prism. Will there be any reoccurring characters?

Will you possibly be at ComicCon 2010 in San Diego?

Please disregard any questions you do not wish to answer. Thank you for the utterly fantastic read!!

[Sandi]

I just started the book and my son (the non-reader) asked me what it was about. I read the blurb on the back and he told me to look up the Assassin's Creed video game. He said the guy on the cover of The Way of Shadows looked like the guy on Assassin's Creed and that the plot sounds kind of like the game. (He swears he hasn't played it, but who knows what he's playing at friends' houses.) Of course, I have to ask:

Did the game had any influence on the novel or is it just some sort of zeitgeist thing going on?

[Pamela]

Small side note. I am an Acknowledgment reader. And no, I am not looking for my name. I recommend reading Libba Bray’s pages in Going Bovine. Even if you are not interested in the book, her acknowledgements are the best I have read. If I remember correctly, it was four pages long and I laughed my ass off the entire way through.

Charlene Harris has a good one... Something along the lines of... If there are any mistakes in this book I blame the people who helped me. I chuckled at that too.

[Brent]

Okay, lemme just hit a few of Pamela's so you all know I'm here. (Technically, I'm supposed to be editing now. No one tell!)

Yes, Elene was the hardest to write by far. Writing an innocent, non-stupid, woman who nonetheless has blindspots and areas to grow was tough. You almost never see an innocent character written well. Then I was surprised by the vehemence of some reaction to her. On the flip side, of course Durzo was fun to write. I was writing him early on in the development of the book (the scene in the statue garden as a matter of fact, I remember the moment), and I thought, well, Durzo would say X, but he's talking to the king. Then I had this flash. Durzo is the guy who DOES say X, he doesn't care if it's a king or a chimney sweep he's talking to. That gave me a ton of clarity on Durzo's character--and made him a blast to write. Plus he lies, which is also great fun.

How long did this story stew in my head before I started writing it? About two months. When we got married, we decided that my wife was going to work the day job and I would write full time. We didn't know how long we could make it doing such a crazy thing, but I knew I couldn't write and work a fulltime job--and I NEEDED to write. So I started right away. I did cut the first 30,000 words, though, when I wrote a scene and went, "Oh, my story starts right here."

In a fight with Blint, what weapon would I use? (I'm assuming fire arms and air strikes are out?) Smoke bomb, to cover my pansy @$$ as I ran away.

A little of both, and getting published will teach you the dangers of trusting your subconscious on things. Take the Sa'kage (roughly the thieves guild if you haven't read the books). The sa' is an abbreviation I made up and use elsewhere simply meanings "lords of" the "kage'" was because I thought that sounded... shadowy. Thus, the Sa'kage' are the lords of the shadows. After I published, I got some people saying, "Sweet, Brent Weeks knows Japanese!" and I was like, uh, no I don't. "But Kage' means shadow in Japanese." Oh, oops. Apparently, I absorbed that somewhere along the way. Other words are plays off of bits of language I've picked up here and there. I'm not fluent in any other language, but I'm always on the lookout for cool words and sounds. So Waeddryn and Caernarvon have a Welsh influence because I spent some time in Wales, and so forth.

The Black Prism is set in a new world, new time, new characters, new magic. So there won't be any characters from the Night Angel trilogy. However, after the Black Prism books, I definitely intend to come back to Midcyru. I have a couple of points where I might pick up the story and involve some of the important characters from the earlier books. I just haven't chosen yet. The main idea is to pick up with a kid of one of the characters, sixteen years later. He would then be the main character, and the major characters from the Night Angel books would only be ancillary. There's a bit of a practical challenge to having main characters from one trilogy transition to a new trilogy--mainly, that I as a writer can't assume that everyone has read the Night Angel books first. So I will have to introduce information in a different way. I hope to do so in a way that is smooth and intriguing to both new fans, and folks who've read Night Angel two or three times, without boring anyone. A challenge, but a fun one, honestly.

ComicCon 2010... right now, I don't have any plan to. Honestly, I'm trying to protect time for writing, but ComicCon is one that has totally intrigued me. I definitely want to go to one someday.

Sandi,

I've played Assassin's Creed, and enjoyed it. It was kind of funny, when the game came out, I was sort of pissed because I was like THIS is my guy! They'd really captured what my (completely written, finished, unpublished) book was about. However, the storyline is totally different. Not at all similar--well, other than that the main character kills people. Plot, setting, tone, are all different.

Was Assassin's Creed a big influence on the art department that made my covers? No doubt. I know that people have given my books a shot because of the cool covers Orbit gave me. Now that I've sold a few books, I only hope I'm returning the favor--that people are giving the game a shot because the loved my books. :)

Whew, well, I guess I hit them ALL so far... now I better get back to editing!

[meleah]

Hi Brent.

I really enjoyed your trilogy. I have just a couple questions -

Were there any real life influences for any of your characters?

If given the option, would you want your books turned into a movie?

You mention poisons and traps quite a bit and it's very intriguing. Can you share any insight on your knowledge/inspiration on these? I've recently been playing Dragon Age: Origins and there is poison-making and trap-making abilities and for some reason it always reminds me of your books.

Thank you for your time. I'm really looking forward to your next book.

[Brandon]

Hi Brent! I just started reading the first book of your trilogy and now I'm officially hooked! I first noticed you book while looking for a book at borders (WOT lol), when i saw what i first thought to be a Assassins Creed book. to tell the truth thats why i picked it up to look at it in the first place. then i went to amazon and saw that it was "related" to Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books which are some of my favorites.
so first i have to ask if you have read the mistborn books and how do you feel to be linked to that series and that author?
also what are your plans for future books and when?

[Brandon]

oh i just saw you mentioning The Black Prism books. is it going to be on the same concept of assassin's or a whole new concept?

[Christopher]

Brent, I'm curious about the days before you became a full time published writer. Did you always consider yourself a writer first and a 'regular' job person second? Or, were you a 9 to 5'er who had a good story you felt you had to write and publish?

Thanks
~Chris

[Brent]

Meleah, Thank you! By real life influences, do you mean do I base characters on people I know? If so, no. I know some people find that really helpful--David Gemmell did it all the time--but I don't do that. On the other hand, I have picked up parts of historical characters and used them. Lantano Garuwashi is influenced by Japanese swordsman/philosopher Miyamoto Musashi, but more for his backstory than his personality. (Musashi was sort of the Michael Jordan of swordsman--ridiculously, astounding good in a time when lots of guys were really practiced fighters.)

I currently have a handshake deal for movie rights with an actor/producer, but it's Hollywood... who knows. Even if you sign a deal, LOTS of deals are signed, and very few movies made. Tolkien sold his movie rights in 1969, and it took how long to make the movies? And he was Tolkien. So I'm optimistic, but not holding my breath.

Poisons... that was some of the most fun of the book, researching that stuff. Man has been learning about poisons since they first thought, hey! shiny red berries! Yum! But it's not the kind of information easily transmitted. The natives who used tree frog poison on their arrows made this elaborate paste to make the poison more potent--in reality, the paste makes the poison _less_ potent, but it was still plenty strong. And who knows, maybe it smeared more easily on their arrowheads. But they didn't know! And how would you except through a kind of scientific controlled experiment that doesn't really mesh with the hunter/gatherer lifestyle? So poisons are fascinating to me. How do you know the dose, what's the right delivery method? Heck, doctors still struggle with whether EGGS are healthy for you or not, and how long have we been eating eggs?

Though the specific poisons I use in The Way of Shadows are made up (I had the brief thought that if I used real plants and a real way to prepare them, someone might actually TRY it), the forces are not. Some animals can safely eat plants that are poisonous to us and suffer no ill effects, but it will make their meat toxic. And potentiation--drugs heightening each others' effects--is definitely real.

[Brent]

Brandon,
This year has been sort of a sprint, trying to write a book, and adjust to a new life and what is basically a new job. When you become a published author, you don't just get paid to write, you get paid to write and promote what you have written. No one knows exactly what kinds of promotion help, though, so every writer has to try to figure that out on their own. And run a website, and talk over contracts, and write faster! And blog! And do Twitter! And write faster! And answer emails, do interviews, set up forums, visit forums, guest blog, do book signings... it's a huge list, and it's sort of overwhelming. Okay, it's totally overwhelming, but you do it because you want to give yourself every chance of making it.

So to make a short answer long here, I've read Elantris, really enjoyed it, and have had Mistborn in my to be read pile for quite a while. But I just haven't done that much reading this year. Which is sad, being a writer and all. I'm certainly happy to be linked by Amazon to Brandon Sanderson. He's very talented. He's certainly emerging as one of the new giants in the field.

The Black Prism is an entirely new concept, new world, new magic. I don't have a final back cover copy blurb to share--did you know I get to help make those up, too?--but the setting is more like 1600 Mediterranean. Rudimentary firearms, tons of cool magic, neat cultures, and yes, there are some pirates. Though no one says "Arr!" Or "Ahoy!" Cross my heart.

Christopher,
I took an odd path that I don't recommend. I found I couldn't have a decent job AND write. Which sucks. Lots of people can do both. Most people HAVE to do both--and I simply couldn't. I taught for a year and was miserable, because I had no creativity left to write with. I tended bar nights and wrote days but wrote slowly, and finally, when I got married my crazy/visionary wife decided to support me while I wrote full time. For five years, she looked crazy. Now she looks visionary, of course. I sort of bet it all on writing. I didn't have a backup plan. This is hard when you have friends who are graduating from law school and getting initials like MD behind their name and all you have to show is an unsold manuscript and an oddly long gap in your employment history. When the odds are as bad as they are to actually get published, much less make a living writing, that is a terrible idea. But, of course, I was convinced that I was an outlier. In my case, I was right. And most people who have a dream can't be convinced that they aren't outliers, too. ;)

[Fox]

Brent,

That's one of the things I fear about getting published. That I will be so busy promoting a book that I will have no time left to write. I graduated with a degree in criminology and I still have no desire to do much of anything but write. So I have a job doing nothing but writing and advertising. Good preparation, I think. heh

So exactly how much time have you had to write while writing Beyond the Shadows and such books? And have you slept in the past 3 years? If so, how? Thanks! :)

[Matt]

Hey Brent,

Love the books! Read them twice through each, and twittered that fact the other day for some reason, and you replied with appreciation which was surprisingly thrilling for me!

Do you have a process you go through when writing? i.e. do you spend time developing your characters with character profiles, and then organising plot? Or are your minions of fiction alive in your head already, and you simply let them run onto the page through your fingers?

Also, do you have any pearls of wisdom for a talentless hack writer such as myself? Something to take away and inspire me to be a better writer?

[Brandon]

oh wow it sounds overwhelming! but i'd have to say it's worked and I'm glad to have found your books. Black Prism sounds like it has the makings of a great series and with you being the writer i'm sure it will be :) and thank you for making the pirates not say "argh" lol. well you are now on my map of writers and i will be following you from now on (not literally tho).

[Matt]

You were already on my radar of writers, even before i realised you were working on the Black Prism, and i will be following you from now on (quite literally... in fact, don't turn around, i'm stealing your towels as we speak... 0_o )

[Brent]

Viktoria,

Honestly, finding time to write AND do all the other stuff that this career and just normal life requires is a challenge that every author meets differently. I try to write every morning because that's my most productive time, and then do the business stuff in the afternoons. Some writers stay up all night. I guess you just do what you have to. And I say no to some things that would be fun to do. My primary job is to write, and to write the best @#$% books I can. Publicity is helpful, and you should do as much as you can, but the best publicity is to write a great book. Then fans will tell their friends about it--with no further effort from you required. I think a lot of writers lose sight of that. Spend the time on the book. Make it absolutely as good as you can. Readers are looking for great books, and books get spread by word of mouth all the time. In fact, I think books are unique in how the most powerful marketing for them IS word of mouth.
Best of luck, and hang in there! It's a long hard slog, just do what you have to to get there.

[Brent]

Matt,

My process is a little too chaotic to be called a process. What we do is a creative endeavor, so I think that's okay. I spend tons of time writing snippets: great dialogue, cool magic, nifty artifacts, possible conflicts, world history, mythology and the truths behind it, cultural oddities, political history, ways I want some characters to be, and so forth. I have tried some character profiles. I do outlines of different kinds. Then, I get writing, knowing that after draft 1, I won't be even close to finished. Sometimes I don't even really understand two characters' interactions--even AFTER I'm finished with the first draft. Well, guess what? The creativity doesn't stop just because you've written the supposedly-magic words THE END.

This happened with Momma K and Durzo in The Way of Shadows. They had this weird friendship and they understood each other all along, but I finished and during rewrites, I was like, "Why do they even hang out with each other, when they both obviously cause each other pain?" And my sudden answer was that they had both been in love with the other, and had kept it secret for their various reasons. I thought that inserting that would take a ton of rewriting and changing things. Instead, it took maybe an hour. It just fit, and it made sense of all sorts of actions, heightened tragedy, cast new light on Kylar's choices--and so on down the line.

So, if you need character X to do Y, and there's no obvious reason for it, I'd say just keep digging. Keep working. Keep creating. And I don't know if it's great advice, but a writer is an entertainer first. To do all the rest, you must entertain. If you're writing a book and YOU get bored, it's because your book is boring. But guess what? You have total control over that. So do something to make it cool, make it interesting, make it fun.

There's only one rule in writing: Make people want to keep reading. If you can do that, you can break every other rule. All other rules should serve that.

[Brent]

Brandon,

Thanks! Yeah, someone said, "Well, he wrote about ninjas first, so naturally, now he HAS to write a book about pirates." Arr.

Actually, though pirates are definitely a PART of the world of Black Prism, it's not a book ABOUT pirates. In fact, in the first book, they're a very small part. I just mention them to evoke the setting.

Matt,

If you really stole my towels, you must have taken the ugly ones first. In which case... thanks! I've been trying to get rid of that raggedy Little Mermaid towel since... oh, wait, my wife might read this!

[Matt]

Well i tried to steal your towels but couldnt find the light switch, so i was stumbling around and it turns out it wasn't your house after all, it was mine, and now i have to pay for the window i broke to get in. Turns out i'm a rubbish thief.

Thanks for answering my questions, but I feel the need to extend on one. If your creative endeavour involves the creation of so many different snippets, be it character related, plot ideas, neat things you want to include, whatever, then how do you keep track of them and put them in any kind of coherent order? Do you have a filing system where you have allocated sections for the various creative ideas you come up with? Or do you have a word processor document that you jump back and forth within adding in the ideas as they come to you?

Are you an author that has a pen and paper by the bedside, and wake up in the middle of the night, flick on the light and jot down the idea that was delivered to you in a dream (no doubt much to your wife's disgust)?

[Chris]

Brent,

Once again I'd like to thank you for spending your valuable time with the group and answering our questions.

My question has to do with the wetboys in your story. Before I picked up a copy of your book I was looking forward to reading a series based on an assassin. But then I discovered that Kylar and Durzo are much more than assassins. A wetboy has the additional magical Talent to enhance his/her abilities.

As Durzo put it: assassins have targets because they sometimes miss. Wetboys have "deaders". I loved that saying.

What were the wetboys of your series based on? I suspect a variety of sources, as they had to learn not only the art of killing, but court etiquette, politics, history, geography, etc. They're very learned in the world, not just in their art. But did you have a specific society or branch of society in mind when you made your story around them?

[Bill]

@BrentThere's a bit of a practical challenge to having main characters from one trilogy transition to a new trilogy--mainly, that I as a writer can't assume that everyone has read the Night Angel books first. So I will have to introduce information in a different way.

Hi Brent,

I tend to read book series only after it has been completed. I am glad the SFBC did an omnibus edition of Night Angel or I fear I would have missed this most excellent trilogy. And, IIRC, it was the only way to get it in hardcover.

Since I tend to read series back to back, I am very sensitive to how a reprise is done. Some do a prologue which is OK, as I can skip it or just look at the last page to see if anything new is included. But it is sort of uncool. Some retell the basics in the new book, which I find very annoying. "Come on get on with it." The best are so subtle that it is barely noticed. But, frankly, I like authors who just assume one has read the before books. Dune and LOTR are like this: giant novels in 6 parts.

I am glad The Black Prism is coming out as a hardcover. Perhaps you can sell signed copies on your website, for those of us living in the middle of nowhere in N. America [hint:].

(Bill B. on your site forum)

[Brent]

Matt,

The assertion that I DO put my ideas into coherent order might be argued in certain corners of the internet... ;) Honestly, just work. I do whatever I have to. Word searches, re-reading, time line sketches, MORE notes about what characters know at what time, whatever I need to. And while I don't often sleep with note pad by my bed, if I have a great idea, I do get up and trot into the next room and type. Not fun when bed is warm, but the speed of typing versus the speed of writing longhand means I get to get back in bed sooner.

[Brent]

Justin,

Socrates said that "Every action intends some good." His idea being that people who do bad do so out of ignorance. I'm not sure I totally buy that, but it's a good thing to keep in mind when writing bad guys. They have reasons in their own minds for what they do. You need to delve into that. Give them blind spots, hypocrisies, and inconsistencies just like you give the good guys--not because there's no difference between good guys and bad guys but because both are human. (Well, in my brand of fantasy, anyway.)
How I get into the bad guys' shoes? I dunno. I just think about them. There always has to be a why. Why should he go do X? Make it a good reason. The better you make it, the more compelling that bad guy will be. It's best if the bad guy has a point--something I think you'll see in The Black Prism.
For practice, take some world conflict that you think is pretty clear cut who's in the right. Then imagine you were on the other side. What are your justifications for what you believe? What assumptions about history/politics/religion do you have to believe for these "bad" guys to have a point?
I have played Dragon Age. Still on my first playthrough, though, and I think I played as too good of a guy for Zevran. :) So... secretly I have good impulses? ;)

[Brent]

Chris wrote: "Brent,
My question has to do with the wetboys in your story...."

I didn't--in my mind--BASE my wetboys on any historical source. I just imagined what would a person have to know and do to be the best assassin possible. They learn politics for their own survival (good to know who you're working for--and against!), but also for their disguises. If you pretend to be a noble in order to get close enough for a kill, you'd better be able to pass as a noble. And of course, Durzo is a unique example and maybe a bad one, because he's not only the best, but he's far more than just a wetboy. Hu Gibbet is closer to the norm, albeit a lot sicker: more focused simply on the mechanics of killing; he would never pose as a noble, because it would be boring and he'd be bad at it.

[Brent]

Kernos wrote: "I'm very sensitive to how a reprise is done...

Kernos/Bill,

This is another fiendishly difficult technical challenge for a writer of trilogies. I think Tolkien simply didn't reprise because he thought LOTR was ONE book. And submitted it as such. The publisher simply split it up. I can't speak for Herbert, though.

I DID reprise information in the Night Angel Trilogy, but not much. I took advantage of the fact that they were being published back-to-back. I basically assumed that you were going to remember most of the characters and subplots. If the books had been published years after each other, I WOULD have handled reprising obscure information differently. It's simply not fair (in my mind) to force readers to read the first book just to be able to understand the second. Of course, I hope to write books that are good enough that people want to do that, but I wouldn't be so presumptuous.

The best way that I can think of (off the top of my head) to reprise is to make sure that when you're presenting the information that you use it to add a NEW conflict. So, the reader already knows Joe cheated on Sally in book 1, but can't remember all the details. Maybe early in book 2, Joe confesses his brother Ted that he cheated on Sally, minutes before she is going to come over to his house. Ted is stunned, angry, asks questions, has opinions--and then Sally shows up at his door, carrying champagne, and opens her fur coat to reveal she's wearing only lingerie beneath...

See, you get the information out, but in a way that ADDS new tension. That is what makes a reader hardly notice it.

However, when you write HUGE books, with deeply complicated backstories like I do, it's hard to do that all the time. And of course, you can only have Sally go over to so many guys' houses wearing lingerie in one book.

Oh, and thanks for the compliments!
-brent

[Jute]

Brent,

I really enjoyed your books and am anxiously awaiting your next offering.

I am one of those people who doesn't read a series until all of it is published, is Black Prism going to follow your excellent idea of having the whole thing published at once?

Jute

[Kira4Inu]

Brent,

I just finished the first book and just want to say that it was really enjoyable. It was quite an inspiration for me to push forward with my own novel and I just have to ask: when you were writing The Way of Shadows (or at all I guess) did it ever seem that a part that you wrote bored you? I guess like you just had to change it and if so did you change it?
Also was writers' block something you expirenced frequently during the whole process of writing it?

[Brent]

Jute wrote: "Brent,

I am one of those people who doesn't read a series until all of it is published, is Black Prism going to follow your excellent idea of having the whole thing published at once?..."

I actually considered waiting until all three were done to publish, but I think my fans/editor/agent would all murder me if I waited five years before I gave them more books. Writing a big book takes time, no way around it. I wrote the Night Angel books in five years. It will probably take a similar amount of time of the Black Prism trilogy.

[Brent]

Kira4inu wrote: "did it ever seem a part bored you?..."

Boredom happens. I regard it as a challenge. If _I_ am bored, the reader may get bored, too. So if it's boring, what do I do? Good news, I'm in total control of the boredom level of a book. So I make it not boring. That's it. If you're bored, it's your job to make it not boring.

Making changes to what you've written is as much a part of writing as the first draft is. If a change makes the book better, do it no matter how bad it hurts. I took nine months to rewrite The Way of Shadows after I thought I was "finished" and ready to sell it. That sucked. It was also necessary. Once you're tinkering with changes that may or may not make the book better, or you're changing a lot of changes back... kick that sucker out the door. The world will be cruel to it and point out its flaws. Oh well. That's the price to play the game.

[Kira4Inu]

Brent wrote: "Kira4inu wrote: "did it ever seem a part bored you?..."

Boredom happens. I regard it as a challenge. If _I_ am bored, the reader may get bored, too. So if it's boring, what do I do? Good news, I'm..."

Alright. What about the writer's block? Do you ever feel like you just can't write, like if you have no ideas of how to continue the story? And if this happens how do you get over it?

[Nora]

Brent,

I thoroughly enjoyed the Night Angel trilogy and read them all back to back. I can't wait for your new book(s) to come out.

One of the things that made the story come alive was the detailed descriptions you wrote of the battles. It made me wonder, are you a military buff? I'm not, but your writing made me realise the value of having someone tell you more than just "There was a fight. Men clashed. Many fell that day."

[Brent]

Kira4inu wrote: "What about writer's block?..."

In writing, there's always SOMETHING you can do that will further the story you need to tell. So you're totally stuck on this scene. It happens. Maybe you don't know the characters' motivations well enough. Maybe you still haven't come up with a good name for that six-legged dog-bear thing you made up. Maybe you haven't decided if Joe and Lisa hooked up ten years ago before Lisa married Joe's brother. Maybe you've been meaning to draw that map. Maybe your webpage needs to be updated (if you're a published, the Stuff That Must Get Done is much more daunting). Maybe you've been meaning to dig deeper into that Mayan history that your book is loosely based on. It's ALL work. It's all necessary. If you're stuck on one part, get busy on the other part. When you understand your characters better, or their world better, or you mentally flesh out details of a relationship, you're going to find what intrigues you about them.

When in doubt, head for the biggest conflict of your story. Then make it bigger. And worse. And more complicated. And threaten more areas of your character's lives. It isn't just their life on the line, but their reputation, their honor, their boyfriend's reputation, their mom's opinion of them...

[Brent]

Nora wrote: "are you a military buff?..."

I am, but I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as I'd like to be. I think being a general is actually a hideously complicated job, and until we start to understand SOME of what that job entailed, we can't really tell WHY a Napoleon or an Alexander the Great WERE great. Mozart, we can understand because we can hear it for ourselves. Those guys are a mystery to us. So I have a natural curiosity about that, too. When Napoleon criticized the risks Alexander took in a certain battle (that actually DID pay off), to me it's like they're speaking an alien language. So it's a fun area to explore--and to teach to others as I explore it.

This is one of the most awesome things about being a novelist. If I find something fascinating, I can make it part of my job to study it. And it can be ANYTHING. I just then have to make it interesting to YOU.

Oh, and thanks! Glad that for you at least, I did make that stuff intriguing. :)

[Shannon]

Brent wrote: "...until we start to understand SOME of what that job entailed, we can't really tell WHY a Napoleon or an Alexander the Great WERE great. Mozart, we can understand because we can hear it for ourselves..."

Actually, that is probably a more apt analogy than you thought. :) If you start to study music, you realize more and more what a genius Mozart was. Yes, you can hear a beautiful symphony--and you can see that great generals won wars. But it's a lot more complicated when you get into the details of why...

[Chris]

I'm going to close this thread, as our discussion month has concluded.

Thanks to all the participants for the great questions in this Q&A. Thanks as well for treating Brent well as he valiantly kept up with the questions.

And a special thanks of course to Brent Weeks himself, for taking the time to make this Q&A discussion a huge success!