The future of White Sand/Taldain

[Jubilus]

So, White Sand Volume 3 is releasing on Kindle next week and the hardcover's coming out in a few months. I think it's fair to say that the reception to the graphic novels so far have been... less than stellar, especially with the art. Regardless of how the last volume turns out, this adaptation definetely left a bad taste in most people's mouthes overall.

Now, these 3 graphic novels are an adaptation of White Sand (Prose), which in itself is a rewriting of both White Sand Prime and Lord Mastrell, Brandon's first and third novels, and was supposed to be the first of a trilogy. Brandon talked about this before, saying that how the rest of the trilogy would be released would depend on fan reaction, and about how there could even be another story set on Taldain after this trilogy.

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Iceblade44

The original White Sand was the first of a trilogy so i was wondering what is your plan for the other two books? Writing them as books, graphic novels, or are you just to busy to actually do anything about it right now?

Brandon Sanderson

We'll decide when the graphic novel is done and out. Basically, we have to gauge fan response. If sales are good, and fans want more, we'll likely do them as graphic novels.

When I write more in Taldain, I intend to construct a new story, taking place after the events of the trilogy. (Whether or not we actually do graphic novels of the other two originals.)

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 29, 2016)

The question now is, what will happen with those 2 (or more) other books?

Well, in the State of Sanderson 2018, Brandon said about White Sand that "I have no immediate plans to do sequels to this in graphic novel form, though you can expect stories set on Taldain to happen in the future." So if we're getting those 2 sequels in novel form, it's probably not happening anytime soon, seeing as Brandon is working on a lot right now and has a full schedule up until at least Stormlight 5 and probably has no time to work on other main cosmere novels.

However, to me, when he says "you can expect stories set on Taldain to happen in the future." is sounds a lot like he's talking about the "new story after the end of the trilogy" he mentioned in the WoB, not a direct sequel to the graphic novels. Does this mean these 2 novels are cancelled or put on hold for the foreseeable (without using any voindbringer powers, of course) future? Is he going to try yet another medium to tell that story in now that the graphic novels didn't work out? Maybe he plans on coming back to it after the Dark One graphic novel is out, if that one has a better reception, and using what he learns from that experience to make it better the second time around.

Honestly, I have no clue, and I don't even know what I want to happen with this series. Switching back to novels would yield 2 really good books but also a very weird series that starts with 3 graphic novels and somehow transitions into 2 more regular novels, which would probably be very hard to pull off and create a bunch of problems for how those books are writen. I've seen some people say they wanted the graphic novels to be wiped from canon and to just start over again with a regular trilogy of novels, but that's really unlikely, and I don't know if I'd want that either (it would also pile up even more work on Brandon's back and nobody wants to overwork the guy any more than he already does himself).

So, what does everyone think is most likely to happen from now on? What would would be your prefered way out of this whole mess? I really like this series, despite all its shortcomings, and want to see it finished one way or another, and I'm sure there's some important cosmere tidbits we still need to learn from it too!

[Elegy]

I don't think direct sequels to White Sand are going to happen. The graphic novels have not been received all that well and as far as I know, they're some of the least successful releases of Brandon ever. That alone would probably be enough, but Brandon has also had kind of a troublesome experience making them happen - the change of the artist, which he said he hated doing and also the constant delays. After all, Vol. 3 was pushed back 3 or 4 times over the course of this month alone. I'm pretty sure he'll just leave it be, especially since the Cosmere gives him the opportunity to suggest events after the end of the story that we know by cameos etc.

But I'm very sure that there will be more Taldain stories. There's interesting things going on there (Autonomy and her worldhopping blockade, etc) and it's also the first world he ever wrote about, so I imagine he'd have some kind of leaning towards it. We'll see what medium he'll choose for those. I think he'll probably write some novellas (at least that's what I see as the most simple, reliable and desirable way).

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I've seen some people say they wanted the graphic novels to be wiped from canon and to just start over again with a regular trilogy of novels, but that's really unlikely, and I don't know if I'd want that either (it would also pile up even more work on Brandon's back and nobody wants to overwork the guy any more than he already does himself).

There's a "WOP" about how unlikely this is:

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Tahona1125

Is there any chance White Sand the novel ever gets revised and published? I'm not sure if there is a place for both the novel and graphic novel, but I really enjoyed the read.

Peter Ahlstrom

Well, Brandon said it's not outside the realm of possibility, but I hope he doesn't. The first draft of White Sand is already nearly 20 years old at this point. Nowadays, Brandon has better ideas. He has plenty of things to write that he's excited about. He has already written White Sand twice, and I think it would be hard for him to get excited about it, and his excitement translates into a good book.

Assuming the three volumes sell well enough to warrant continuing the story, then Brandon could get excited about outlining the sequel to get adapted into more volumes.

And, since it's the Cosmere, you can be assured that sand masters will show up when all the planets start interacting with each other.

General Reddit 2015 (Dec. 4, 2015)

 

[Jubilus]

I wouldn't be surprised if the important parts of the planned sequels were reworked into novellas or a standalone novel in Taldain, but like you said, this is the first world and first story Brandon ever wrote, I expect he has some attachment to these characters and plotlines and wouldn't want to leave them unfinished.