The Brandon Sanderson Thread

[11th Heaven]

Just finished the Mistborn trilogy. I think he did a good job - it was very creative, the story itself was interesting and he wrote plenty of varied characters I grew to care about. I'd give it 4/5 stars.

The only problem I can think of just now that I had with it is that I felt Dockson deserved somewhat better closure - my impression was that no one showed any signs of caring that he'd died. At least Club's death had an impact on Spook (and I really liked the direction of his story in The Hero of Ages). While I think the scene of Dockson's death was great, I thought it a shame that given how important he was to the crew's/Kelsier's schemes and that he got largely no recognition for it, and how he's a deeply bitter, hurt man, I thought his character at least deserved some remembrence from the rest of the crew. Admittedly, something of this sort may have occured which I have simply forgotten about.

And yes, I was getting a bit tired of hearing about Elend's "warrior's body".

Re Paul Kearney, I think he did great with Hawkward's Voyage and The Heretic Kings, but I couldn't stand the rest of his series. It was the whole emphasis on Corfe; I found him a 1-D character I couldn't give a s**t about. I still think he has it in him to be a good writer - Hawkward's voyage proved that much at least. I may give A Different Kingdom a try.

[aidan]

A new Brandon Sanderson novel announced, The Emperor's Soul. Coming December 2012.

[Migey]

Huh...

Seems a bit out of the blue.

Not sure how enthusiastic i am about it - i'd rather hear more about the new Stormlight Archive book, the Rithmatist (which i know very little about but adore due to the name for some reason), the Alloy of Law sequel and most importantly of all, Nightblood, because i want that book and will do evil things to get it.

[seeyouintee]

What's up with his fascination with colors? Warbreaker has glowing people that suck the color out of things, Way of Kings has glowing people that use color/light infused money, weapons, and armor. Kind of odd, though I loved the imagery in Way of Kings and the world mechanics would make a great video game.

[aidan]

Light holds a lot of energy and can be splintered into colour?

[dbcooper]

How does the guy find the time!

[Kosciuszko]

How does the guy find the time!

It's a little known fact that he's an android created by Tor. He only needs an oil-change every 100,000 words or so, no eat or sleep.

[Datepalm]

Product of a generation of americans who grew up with Anime, at a guess, re the color thing.

[Migey]

I rather liked the colour thing in Warbreaker. I assumed there was no real logical explanation for how colours have anything to do with the magic of Breath (which i liked even more as a concept), but it worked pretty well and was interesting. I never get the impression that the Way of Kings focused too much on colour.

[Jussi]

Gollancz acquires new Brandon Sanderson series – STEELHEART is coming!

Gollancz, the SFF imprint of Orion Publishing, has acquired the first YA series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, it was announced today by Simon Spanton, Deputy Publishing Director. UK & Commonwealth rights were bought from John Richard Parker of the Zeno Literary Agency.

Gollancz will publish the first novel, STEELHEART, in Autumn 2013 in a simultaneous publication programme with the American publishers, Delacorte Press. Simon Spanton said “Brandon Sanderson has already proved himself to be one of our best-loved fantasy authors. We are hugely delighted to be able to join him on this new adventure. STEELHEART had me from page one. It was an exhilarating ride and I’m sure fans of Brandon – existing and new – will fall in love with his fantastic tale.”

Brandon Sanderson is a #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning fantasy author with books published in over twenty-five languages, and millions of copies sold around the world.

The first novel of Sanderson’s new series, STEELHEART, follows David – a teenager in the city that was once called Chicago – as he searches for the extraordinarily powerful Epic named Steelheart, who killed his father. Steelheart possesses the strength of ten men and can control the elements. It is said no bullet can harm him, no sword can split his skin, no explosion can burn him. Nobody fights back… nobody but the Reckoners.

A shadowy group of ordinary humans, the Reckoners spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then taking them out. For the death of his father, David wants to be there for the kill. For years, like the Reckoners, David has been studying, and planning, and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. He’s seen Steelheart bleed.

STEELHEART takes an action-heavy plot, layers in complexity, and delivers twists and a breathtaking conclusion, as David and the Reckoners try to undo the dystopia the Epics have created. According to Sanderson’s agent Eddie Schneider, STEELHEART has entered preliminary negotiations for a major Hollywood deal.

[Myrddin]

There are more Sanderson books than X-Men comic titles. I can't keep up with reading them all. How does he write them all?

I'm now a firm believer in the theory of multiple Brandon clones: WoT Brandon, EpicFan(tasy) Brandon, and Short-ishFic Brandon. Each clone is available to stand in for AuthorBrandon at Universities, podcasts, and conventions world-wide. Someday this will be proven when WoT Brandon is GoH at a convention on the same weekend EpicFan(tasy) Brandon attends a book signing on the opposite coast.

[Eejit]

No don't be absurd, Sanderson hasn't been cloned.

He has Jamie Madrox's power.

[Samalander]

I think the solution to the mystery is quite obvious: He never sleeps.

I also find it interesting that Brandon never gets flak from his fans for his little diversions from the "main" body of work, like other authors, under similar circumstances, sometimes get.

[Eejit]

I think the solution to the mystery is quite obvious: He never sleeps.

I also find it interesting that Brandon never gets flak from his fans for his little diversions from the "main" body of work, like other authors, under similar circumstances, sometimes get.

Probably because of how rapidly he works despite the diversions. More likely because of them, I think he said it gets him past any writers block he might run into?

[Myrddin]

Probably because of how rapidly he works despite the diversions. More likely because of them, I think he said it gets him past any writers block he might run into?

My thoughts also.

Also. the Sanderson "Brand" is not tied to a single series, like Jordan or Martin (even though they both had many novels prior to their breakthrough series). Or maybe Sanderson hasn't had a "breakthrough" yet where fans are so in love with a single storyline that they are hounding him for that over all others.

I've enjoyed several of his books and plan on reading more, but he's not on my must buy list.

[AverageGuy]

I think the solution to the mystery is quite obvious: He never sleeps.

I also find it interesting that Brandon never gets flak from his fans for his little diversions from the "main" body of work, like other authors, under similar circumstances, sometimes get.

For his epic fantasy, he really hasn't had many diversions.

2005 - Elantris, written to work as a standalone

2006 - Mistborn

2007 - Well of Ascension

2008 - Hero of Ages, worked as the final book in the series

2009 - Warbreaker, standalone

2009 - First WOT

2010 - Second WOT, first Stormlight, which he said before publication was going to be broken up

2011 - Alloy of Law, promoted as standalone novella, though it didn't seem to have a finite conclusion

You also had Alkatraz from 2007-2010 and some shorts, but with an author releasing an epic fantasy or two per year, there hasn't really been a reason for complaints yet. Now that he's intentionally breaking up series publication, pretty much as he's beginning three new series and another iteration of Mistborn, we'll see if complaints start.

[longlivestark]

Only Stormlight can be considered ongoing, I don't know where you are getting the idea he is starting three series, everything else he has published recently are standalones or novellas that he may show intrest in expanding later. From what I have read on his blog he isn't planning to begin the second mistborn trilogy for a few years, Alloy was meant as a short story/novella that kinda grew. From what I hear he plans to release two more Stormlight books then take a break for a while (can't see the hiatus lasting more then two years), depending on how he writes them he could easily get away with taking a hiatus, maybe breaking up the series into parts, kind of like Bakker does with some form of conclusion then start again. I can't see Sanderson getting complaints like Martin and Rothfuss though for not releasing books quickly enough .

[Noroldis]

Well, I'll be the bad guy and admit that I'm not one bit thrilled about this new YA series of Sanderson's - I'd hoped that after he was done with Wheel of Time, he would focus most (if not all) of his attention on the second Stormlight book. I know he writes very quickly, but with his stated intent to slow down his writing pace somewhat (a decision I certainly don't blame him for - writing so much so fast had to be bad for his health) and now this new YA series, I fear it means Stormlight 2 will only be published in mid-2014 at the earliest, or about four years after The Way of Kings. That's... an unfortunately sizeable gap, IMO.

Mind you, if the third Stormlight book is then published just a year or two after the second one, I'll be one happy reader. :)

[AverageGuy]

Only Stormlight can be considered ongoing, I don't know where you are getting the idea he is starting three series

Five or six posts up, "Gollancz acquires new Brandon Sanderson series." So Steelheart. Stormlight. Wax and Wayne, which is what I was talking about when I said other iteration of Mistborn, may have "grown" but from the ending of Alloy and blog posts seems to be intended to be a series now. And we'll see what actually happens with Scribbler, though I guess it's only a standalone at this point.

I can't see Sanderson getting complaints like Martin and Rothfuss though for not releasing books quickly enough .

Neither can I, actually, but I wouldn't be surprised by complaints like Donaldson and Butcher and Lackey and many other authors who have written multiple series get.

[peterbound]

Well, I'll be the bad guy and admit that I'm not one bit thrilled about this new YA series of Sanderson's :)

Most of the stuff already published by BS should be considered YA.