The Case for a second Arcanum Unbounded

[Karger]

Brandon is currently working diligently on SA4 and agree wholeheartedly that he should not be disturbed.  That being said once that and the Rysn novella have been put to bed I think the sheer number of short stories he has in the works make another Arcanum Unbounded collection an urgent project.  Just my memory without reference tells me that Brandon currently has at some stage of completion or outline: A Lopen Story(or The Lopen story), Nicki Savage, A Sixth of the Dust Sequel, Rock's Novella, and Mistborn Secret History 2.  The last two would also be great for increasing interest in SA5 and The Lost Metal respectively.  I also being a megafan find that I get a lot more information and sometimes enjoyment out of Brandon's short stories and he can often write them faster.  As such I think it would be nice if he released another collection sometime in the more immediate future.

[Honorless]

When will the Rysn/Aimia novella (is the title Wandersail confirmed?) be released?

If I recall correctly, the Rock novella is supposed to go with book 5, and the Lopen one afterwards to go between books 1 & 2 to complete the pattern of novellas between the novels

There were two First of the Sun works, a YA one and a sequel to Sixth

You know what would be great? Opening the index of AU 2 and seeing the word 'Vax'.

A short story from the Aether of Night world would also be nice (assuming it's not Vax)

Edited April 20, 2020 by R J

[+Oltux72]

7 hours ago, Karger said:

and Mistborn Secret History 2.  The last two would also be great for increasing interest in SA5 and The Lost Metal respectively.

Well, it would have to postdate The Lost Metal. It would spoil too much.

[Karger]

8 hours ago, R J said:

When will the Rysn/Aimia novella (is the title Wandersail confirmed?) be released?

Before SA4.  Sanderson has to write it first.

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Well, it would have to postdate The Lost Metal. It would spoil too much.

We don't know that.

[Red Windrunner]

I like the idea of a second anthology set. But honestly I think it should release as the short stories happen naturally. Assuming the Rock, Lopez, and Rysn stories are all Roshar based. I’m sure there will be a Mistborn short story By then but no sense in rushing it. If I had to guess we will get another anthology after Mistborn Era 2 and Stormlight 5 but before Era 3 or Stormlight 6. Maybe the novella between Stormlight 5 and 6 will be the big centerpiece of the anthology?

[Honorless]

2 hours ago, Red Windrunner said:

I like the idea of a second anthology set. But honestly I think it should release as the short stories happen naturally. Assuming the Rock, Lopez, and Rysn stories are all Roshar based. I’m sure there will be a Mistborn short story By then but no sense in rushing it. If I had to guess we will get another anthology after Mistborn Era 2 and Stormlight 5 but before Era 3 or Stormlight 6. Maybe the novella between Stormlight 5 and 6 will be the big centerpiece of the anthology?

That is how Brandon intends to go about it.

Quote

Questioner

Are there plans for another thing like Arcanum Unbounded?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. But it's gonna be a ways off.

Where Arcanum came from is the fact that, early in my career, I would have an idea, I would sit down, I would write a novel. That is how I trained myself to be a writer. That's where I came up with thirteen novels before I sold one. That turned into my greatest advantage, and one of my greatest liabilities as I have progressed as a writer. The reason it was an advantage is, having spent all those years learning to write and learning my process, I knew what to do when a book wasn't working. I knew what to do with a book when it worked, but I wanted to make it better. I knew how to build an outline that would really make me excited about a story. But I also was really, really good at telling a new story and opening things up, and I had not practiced closing things off. All thirteen of those novels were basically all standalones with series potential, where I was hinting at something larger. And so early in my career, I was very good at, "Let's write a book. And of course, because I know what came before and what'll come after, I will make those things open for me."

And then I ended up-- The Wheel of Time came along, and kind of slammed into me like a freight train, and left me with all these first books that I had started. The Rithmatist. I had started, at that point, working on Legion. I had been doing Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. And I found that what I needed to learn how to do was write a self-contained novella to get some of these ideas out of my head, rather than writing a novel that promised sequels. Because I also had promised sequels to Elantris, and sequels to Warbreaker.

And so Arcanum Unbounded is my attempt to kind of do like the interludes in Stormlight in my own career. Little interludes where I take an idea and I dig into it and I explore some part, often of the cosmere, without promising sequels. And part of my goal right now as a writer is to make sure I'm closing off more things than I open, or at least at the same rate. So that's why I finished Legion this year, which is done, and why I'm trying to finish Alcatraz for next year. If you're waiting for Rithmatist--which is the one I get the most requests about--eventually. It's gonna take a little while. It's been a really hard one to figure out how to do the sequels to.

But, closing things off. What you'll see me doing are more novellas like that, as time progresses. Eventually, I will start collecting them, like I did with Arcanum. But it's gonna take me a few years to get enough of them written that then they'll be worth another collection.

Skyward Anchorage signing (Nov. 12, 2018)

Stormlight probably will have multiple novellas by then. Maybe Isaac's Nazh story could also be there under Threnody.

Edited May 20, 2020 by R J

[Hoids4thApprentice]

On 5/20/2020 at 0:29 AM, Red Windrunner said:

I like the idea of a second anthology set. But honestly I think it should release as the short stories happen naturally. Assuming the Rock, Lopez, and Rysn stories are all Roshar based. I’m sure there will be a Mistborn short story By then but no sense in rushing it. If I had to guess we will get another anthology after Mistborn Era 2 and Stormlight 5 but before Era 3 or Stormlight 6. Maybe the novella between Stormlight 5 and 6 will be the big centerpiece of the anthology?

So far we only have one completed Novella (Dawnshard) that would go into Arcanum Unbounded 2. We know one other Roshar novella - Rocks (and possibly a second - Lopens) are in the works. Given that a the Silence Divine is another possible novella set in the Rosharan system, and that there is a time jump between SA5 and SA6, I'm not sure a bridging novella before SA6 is necessary.

I'm hoping that Branden will use the time to focus on non Rosharan novellas instead. We know he has started a 6th of the Dusk sequel, he also mentioned he has a great idea for an Emperor's Soul sequel and that he has ideas of a Silverlight Novella. After Lost Metal comes out it might also be perfect timing to get the Second Secret History and possibly the 1940s Mistborn interlude he has hinted at as a novella before he starts on Era 3. 

All these ideas together would be plenty for a second Volume of Arcanum Unbounded. I was reckoning that as the first volume came out in 2016, that enough of these ideas would come to furition that we could have the second volume as early as 2021. Later I thought like yourself that it would fit more naturally the year after Stormlight 5 comes out but before Mistborn Era 3 (so 2024 or 2025). 

I was wondering why we didn't get any updates on these ideas in the 2020 and 2021 States of Sanderson as he normally uses Novella as writing exercises to keep himself fresh while writing other project. I guess that after the Secret Projects announcement we now know he has been focusing on the 4 full novels as breaks from his scheduled projects. It's therefor a lot less surprising that we haven't had any progress or updates on the novellas. It's therefor feeling more likely that a second Arcanum Unbounded won't happen until Brandon has already done Mistborn Era 3 and started working on the back half of Stromlight.