Wind and Truth

[First of the Dun he/him]

Anyone wanna weigh in on the title choice? I’m a bit bummed we’re not getting a ketek of title acronyms — but then someone pointed out there’s 5 more books coming after WaT.

Seems like a lot of books with W’s in them… thoughts?

[alder24]

6 hours ago, First of the Dun said:

Anyone wanna weigh in on the title choice? I’m a bit bummed we’re not getting a ketek of title acronyms — but then someone pointed out there’s 5 more books coming after WaT.

Seems like a lot of books with W’s in them… thoughts?

WaT looks wrong. For me it's still KoWT, the opposite of (t)WoK. That's how the in-world book will be called, the ketek still exists in-world!

Spoiler

HunterPai

[T]he last time I checked, the book was going to be called "Knights of wind and truth", but I see some people referring to it as "Wind and Truth." So I was wondering, what is the official name of the book?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm almost 100% in camp shorter title now. Just "Wind and Truth."

The in-world book will be Knights of Wind and Truth.

But I won't make the decision fully until the book is done, my editorial team has read it, and we can talk it through together.

General Reddit 2023 (Oct. 18, 2023)

 

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

[...]

First off, if you missed it in the State of the Sanderson, the working title of this book right now is some variation on Knights of Wind and Truth. I’ve been shortening that a lot to Wind and Truth in my mind as I write, so it’s possible I might just go with that as the cover title. If I do, the rest of you can know that in our hearts, the REAL title is Knights of Wind, Truth. That way, you can have your symmetrical title.

[...]

Stormlight Five Updates (March 13, 2023)

Only the names of the first 5 books will form the final ketek, the back 5 books will probably have it's own, separate ketek. 

[J. Magi she/her]

I was actually worried about this when my brother showed me the official announcement! I'm glad the ketek is still there, if only in-world.

[AquaRegia he/him]

I was also a bit surprised, but it's still a good title - many layers of meaning in there!

One specific interpretation stands out to me:  "Wind and Truth" seems to be a clear reference to the Shinovar mission of Kaladin and Szeth - the Windrunner and the former Truthless.  I freely admit, I'm looking forward to the adventures of Kal, Szeth and Nightblood more than anything else that might be in the novel.  I recently reread some earlier scenes, looking for appearances by Hoid; when he meets young Shallan at the Middlefest Fair (WoR ch. 45), there is a Thaylen merchant with a talking "chicken".  Shallan calls it a "voidbringer", and warns the man that "you'll draw the eyes of the Unmade upon us!"  His response?  "These things are common in Shinovar.  If they attracted evil, all of Shinovar would be overrun."

Delicious foreshadowing, anyone?

[Nitpicking]

Any beta readers, or others who have access to someone on Brandon's team?

The "Pre-order the book" page (https://read.macmillan.com/torforge/the-stormlight-archive/ ) has a "Pre-Order Now" dropdown and a "Buy the Stormlight Archive" dropdown.

The Pre-order dropdown has a link to Indigo, which is selling, quote, "Tor Fall 2024 Title to Be Announced". None, zero, of the preorder links let me buy a DRM-free epub. That's what I actually want, so ....

The Buy dropdown is worse. There are two Barnes & Noble links. One goes to Apple Books, and one goes to nowhere, because the URL in the hyperlink runs two bookstores together. The Apple link leads to Books-a-Million. The Books-a-Million link leads to BAM as well. The Target link leads to Indigo.

It's a real mess.

I realize that this is a Macmillan site, not Dragonsteel, but a call from, say, JABberwocky (Brandon's agents) would definitely wake them up.

Note that I did try the Contact page at https://brandonsanderson.com, but Cloudflare times out without showing it.

Thanks.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Nitpicking

[olivemyheart]

I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the title. There's nothing wrong with it...but it feels a little generic and underwhelming. But of course, that's all subjective. I'm sure the novel will still be amazing, which is what really matters.

[Nitpicking]

5 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

Any beta readers, or others who have access to someone on Brandon's team?

I suddenly remembered that I know Moshe Feder, Brandon's editor, slightly. He is getting it fixed.

[Treamayne]

To me, it's not that it is a good or bad title, it just does not feel like a Stormlight Archive title. But, then, I am also not-a-fan of the KiloWaT title either, which always felt forced into the Ketek pattern to me. I would rather a meaningful title entirely devoid of the ketek pattern, than a partial or forced "acceptable" title just to (almost) fulfill the "title ketek" (which, technically will still have a smaller version in books 2,3,4 - regardless of the Title of SA5). If a "Title ketek" was really needed, I would rather have it exclude "the" than add "and", because who really refers to SA1 as "The Way of Kings" all of the time?

WoKWoRORoWKoW would be my preference.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Treamayne
SPAG

[+Child of Hodor]

On 12/19/2023 at 8:40 AM, alder24 said:

WaT looks wrong. For me it's still KoWT, the opposite of (t)WoK. That's how the in-world book will be called, the ketek still exists in-world!

I'm always going to hear "What?!" when I see WaT.

On 12/19/2023 at 1:40 AM, First of the Dun said:

Anyone wanna weigh in on the title choice? I’m a bit bummed we’re not getting a ketek of title acronyms — but then someone pointed out there’s 5 more books coming after WaT.

Seems like a lot of books with W’s in them… thoughts?

It's not an interesting title on it's own AND it doesn't fit the Ketek. According to Shardcast the in world book will still be Knights of Wind and Truth, but what's the point if you are changing the actual book title? Someone putting them next to each other and see how it goes back to front and saying "huh, that's neat" is the only real payoff possible to this whole tortured exercise. Ah well. 

[Elegy he/him]

On 12/21/2023 at 6:06 PM, Child of Hodor said:

It's not an interesting title on it's own AND it doesn't fit the Ketek. According to Shardcast the in world book will still be Knights of Wind and Truth, but what's the point if you are changing the actual book title? Someone putting them next to each other and see how it goes back to front and saying "huh, that's neat" is the only real payoff possible to this whole tortured exercise. Ah well. 

This was my thought was well! The payoff of the in-world ketek is basically nonexistent. Especially when the cost is a weak title.

Also, hardly anyone who wanted the ketek actually seems to be happy with the in-world ketek situation, so it doesn't even work as a compromise.

I really don't see why he doesn't just drop it instead of a title that he literally came up with by going "this is the less bad version of a title that doesn't work and that was only ever considered because of a gimmick that isn't intact in this less bad version anymore". (Especially considering how pragmatic and well-thought-out his decision-making usually tends to be.)

Edited December 23, 2023 by Elegy

[Treamayne]

Just remembered this WoB:

Spoiler

Questioner

What's your working title for the third book [of The Stormlight Archive]?

Brandon Sanderson

It has two. The original working title was Stones Unhallowed. However, [Patrick] Rothfuss is using Doors of Stone, and I kind of feel like I might want to do something different, so my interim title is Skybreaker, but it has to be an in-world book. The in-world book for book 3 is kind of a different one, so I can do a lot with it, but Stones Unhallowed is easier.

Words of Radiance Philadelphia signing (March 21, 2014)

Since Rothfuss never did finish Kingkiller Chronicles book three (and is unlikely to release it in 2024) it would be awesome if Sanderson went back to the original Stones Unhallowed title. . .

[themeeka]

Old post, but personally I think Knights of Wind is a much better title than Wind and Truth or the older longer title. It also sacrifices the ketek but not as much in my opinion. The "the" in TWoK is kind of unnecessary

[Ravenclawjedi42]

I personally strongly dislike WaT, but loved KoWT. Because in my opinion “Knights of Wind and Truth” represented the Order of Skybreakers very well, with them being one of the flying orders with Gravitation as well as their ideals being focused on the law, of which Justice and Truth should be the basis.

But Wind and Truth takes away that symbolism and in my opinion just ruins the title. There’s nothing good about this one, really, in my opinion.

[Master Silver]

I think Sanderson, just wanted to shorten it for simplicity's sake and marketing reasons, but I think the shorter title goes against his intent ofThe Stormlight Archives being grand and sort of his magnum opus.  

[Stitof]

I like WaT much better than KoWT personally.