Brandon and Book News

It's been a busy few weeks here at Area 51 Dragonsteel Entertainment the 17th Shard - you can tell because all weeks are busy for our hardworking, handsome, and horribly hantastic (look, I tried) team - and it's pretty much all Brandon's fault. The highlight of it all, of course, was his visit to DragonCon where he held a panel and multiple signings (only days after he posted the fifth Stormlight #4 Reddit update) and read from the prologue of the storming book.

Today, Brandon posted another update on Stormlight 4 on Reddit. This update includes a visual outline of Stormlight 4's structure as well as a warning that the flashback character may not be who we were expecting! The rough draft is 50% complete, at about 200k words long out of a projected 400k. Brandon is still hopeful for a Christmas 2020 release, but he's still about a month behind schedule with a busy October down the road. Note that this update includes some light spoilers, mostly concerning the structure of book 4. (and major Oathbringer spoilers)

White Sand: Volume 1 was released today on GraphicAudio! 

In an interview earlier this year, Rik Hoskin revealed he was working with GraphicAudio to adapt Brandon's novel yet again! Rik has prior experience with GraphicAudio, which produces audiobooks that include a full cast of actors, sound effects, and cinematic music. While this new iteration is, at its core, an adaptation of the graphic novels, the script also pulls directly from the prose source material, and even includes scenes that had to be cut from the graphic novels.

Check out the book's page on GraphicAudio's website for a trailer as well as a 4-minute sample of some exciting action set towards the end of volume 1, chapter 1! With the prose novel available via Brandon's newsletter, this means we'll have three very different takes on the same story. Are you excited to see this new rendition of White Sand? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Here's an interesting news piece from San Diego Comic Con. J. Michael Straczynski--of Babylon 5 and Sense8, and a big time TV writer--is working with Brandon Sanderson on a pilot for the USA Network. The "urban fantasy" was confirmed by Sanderson to be Dark One, and JMS says it "turns many of the standard tropes upside down." 

We got a very short reading from Stormlight 4, courtesy of a video update from Brandon that aired at San Diego Comic Con 2019. (It was delivered via video since Brandon is still in Spain at the moment.) Check it out! 

Today, Brandon posted another update on Stormlight 4 on Reddit. He's finished Part One of the book (which is 111k words long), which, assuming the book is about 400k words long, is about 28% of the book. Brandon is modestly confident in a 2020 release date, but he did warn that if the book needs more time, he will take it. 

Today, Vault Comics have announced the first Dark One graphic novel set to be released in 2020. Jackson Lanzing, one of the writers, also tweeted that the manuscript was 209 pages, and they started work on it eight months ago. He said next year, "you can finally join us in Mirandus," presumably the world of the story, and said "Down with the Narrative. All hail the Dark One." 

Today Brandon revealed on Twitter why the progress on Stormlight 4 didn't go up much during his trip to Germany. He didn't have much time to write, but he said he got through two scenes of a non-Stormlight cosmere novella. We were going to go through a long list of things it could be, but then he revealed on Reddit it was a Sixth of the Dusk sequel.

Earlier this week, Dynamite Entertainment, the publisher of the White Sand graphic novels, released an interview with Rik Hoskin about the series' forthcoming third, and final, volume. Hoskin is an accomplished comics writer who was brought in to help adapt Brandon's original prose draft of White Sand into the graphic novel format, and in this interview he talks about his experiences working on the project. The interview also confirms the identity of the new artist, Fritz Casas, the cover art, as well as the release date, June 2019. Perhaps the most notable bit of information however, is the reveal of a Graphic Audio adaptation of White Sand currently in production.

Last week, we got a cover reveal of the US edition of Starsight. It shows Spensa IN SPAAAACE! Probably due to all the stars or something. We also have a release date of November 26th, 2019, and you can preorder it now. This is later than the previous October release date because of the Starsight revision Brandon did.

Hey all, Brandon just dropped his third update for Stormlight Four, tentatively entitled The Rhythm of War on Reddit! He's given us a look into the potential release dates for his next few major titles, Starsight and Stormlight 4, as well as a look into how the writing itself is going and the structure of Rhythm of War.

We have a few short news items for you this week! First up, Brandon has moved the Stormlight 4 and 5 outline to 25%. Brandon wants to make sure the next two books are plotted so he doesn't miss any plot threads at the end of the first Stormlight arc in Stormlight 5, which you can read about in his Stormlight 4 Update 1 Reddit post.

Next up, the amazing Miranda Meeks made a fantastic piece of Vin and Elend for the Hero of Ages Leatherbound, and now you can buy a poster of it for $10.

With Koloss Head-Munching Day still a week away, many of us were managing our hype so it reaches its peak on December 19 when Brandon writes his State of Sanderson annual blog. This year, however, we get an extra present - the reveal of the much-discussed "Secret Project" that popped up on Brandon's progress bars a while back. Well, wonder no longer, as io9 has published an exclusive - and Secret Project is now officially Magic: Children of the Nameless, a Magic: The Gathering novella Brandon wrote for Wizards of the Coast!

It's the fall, and as usual a new 10th Anniversary Leatherbound is nearly upon us, this time, with the Hero of Ages. We say nearly upon us, because it turns out there is a paper shortage, so Dragonsteel doesn't have the books yet. They can't guarantee anything before Christmas. But, regardless, preorders for numbered copies are starting Monday 11/26, 12:01am (Mountain time) via Subterranean Press, Mysterious Galaxy, and the BYU Bookstore.

There's been an update to BrandonSanderson.com's store for the holidays with a few new items. There are signed Oathbringer hardcovers (personalizations will start again in January), a Doomslug shirt (which is absolutely adorable), and some new lanyards. The two new lanyards are a cosmere one and a Skyward one, and you can get both of the new ones for $12. There's also a Glowing Kaladin t-shirt.

Skyward is the first of a quadrilogy of books by Brandon Sanderson. This Top Gun/How To Train Your Dragon mashup is a YA sci-fi story that tells the story of Spensa, the daughter of a coward, and her battle against both the alien Krell and the very Defense Force she is trying to fight for.

Until Brandon Sanderson, I was mostly a sci-fi guy, with Brandon being my first foray into fantasy. As such, I was very excited for my first ever Brandon sci-fi (I haven’t read much outside of the Cosmere). Brandon has said before that he doesn’t see much difference in the way he writes his fantasy and his sci-fi, and I have to agree, Skyward is a Brandon Sanderson novel through and through.

Badali Jewelry, makers of all sorts of amazing jewelry from the cosmere, from Stormlight, Mistborn, and Elantris, is having a fall sale until November 22nd. Not everything is on sale, but a lot is, from the Steel Alphabet rings we reported on, Aon pendants, Cosmere symbol pendants (which I am currently lusting about), and also some pins. There's a huge variety of things there. Be sure to check them out.

So, apparently last week on Instagram (the... place for your book news?) Brandon posted that last week's batch of chapters would be the last of them. My apologies for being misinformed and getting your hopes up last week in the last release that you might get Chapter 17 today. Indeed, more chapters did not arrive this morning, but yesterday we did get a short bonus chapter, Chapter 15. 

If you are looking for a new series to read, have you heard of this Brandon Sanderson guy? He writes some pretty great stuff. We're fans. Among his best and most popular is his Stormlight Archive series, and if you're in the US and Canada, you can get the first three books, The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer for $2.99 a piece. This sale will end November 5th, but what a killer deal. 

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means: more Skyward! This time we're back to three chapters, Chapters 12-14! As usual you'll need to scroll down to the newest stuff. One's a short chapter but this is still a meaty week for Skyward. Discuss it in our discussion topic! There's only one more week of Skyward previews left, because Skyward comes out November 6th!

Last week we all had a pretty brutal cliffhanger in Skyward, but now we get the resolution in Skyward Chapters 10 and 11! There's just two chapters, but action is pretty fun. As usual, that GetUnderlined link has every Skyward chapter released, so you'll have to scroll down to Chapter 10 for the new stuff.

Last week, we got more of Skyward than revealed before, going from the prologue all the way up to chapter 6. Well, Wednesday looks to be the day for new Skyward chapters, and we get three more, chapters 7 through 9! It's actually in the same link as last week, so if you missed the last preview Skyward stuff, you can still read it all in one page! That's convenient. Once you do, you can discuss the new chapters in Discord or our forum topic on the chapters. 

Thursday, Brandon did an AMA on Skyward, and we thought we'd give you a quick rundown of what occurred in it. He also answered some questions on Facebook, which we also have. If you'd like to read them all, check them out on Arcanum for easy reading.

First up, Brandon "My Books Become More Books" Sanderson said that Skyward, though originally planned as a trilogy, may now be four books. Brandon says the first three will stand pretty well on their own, but the final one will be more reliant on the other three.

You've been able to read the prologue through chapter 2 of Skyward on io9, and you could read chapter 3 from a signing, but today, you can now read it all in the same spot and up through chapter 6 on Getunderlined.com. Brandon's assistant, Adam, also says that they will be releasing new excerpts each week until Skyward's release until November 6th.