Second Edition for Wind and Truth?

[Lord Stormer]

For all who have read it, we know the problems. Editing may have been rushed, sacrificing exposition and prose. With all due respect I understand the pressure, the demands, the unprecedented length, and the ever increasing number of contributors to the project. It is a feat to refine a 500,000 word epic given the time Brandon was provided.

Few months ago I came to know Words of Radiance was revised for a second edition, with Brandon changed some conversations near the ending. Considering the long break until Stormlight 6, I just think it's intuitive to expect minor changes in Wind and Truth. Taking into account of the general reception, if I wrote the book, I'd try to fix what's possible - still very cautious not to oblige readers to get a new copy.

I want your thoughts.

Edited May 17, 2025 by Lord Stormer

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Lord Stormer said:

For all who have read it, we know the problems. Editing may have been rushed, sacrificing exposition and prose. With all due respect I understand the pressure, the demands, the unprecedented length, and the ever increasing number of contributors to the project. It is a feat to refine a 500,000 word epic given the time Brandon was provided.

Few months ago I came to know that Words of Radiance had a second edition that came a year or two later, with Brandon changed some conversations near the ending. Considering his reasons to edit that book and the long break until Stormlight 6, I think it's reasonable the same will be done to Wind and Truth. Taking into account of the general reception, if I wrote the book, I'd try to fix what went wrong - though very cautious not to oblige the readers to reread.

What it is to be expected?

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Regarding the original question - keep in mind that the changes to Words of Radiance was mostly about Kaladin's Choice, and how that climax resolved in the Hardcover may have been a violation of his Windrunner Oaths. The Change was made for the Paperback edits. WoB:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Words of Radiance Tweak

Moving on to Words of Radiance, as we were entering typo fixes for the paperback of this book, I made changes to a few lines near the end. This isn't anywhere near as extensive as the changes in Elantris, but once again I figure I should be up-front about what I did and why I did it.

This part is going to have some spoilers for the book, so if you haven't read it, please stop right here. I'll put a number of blank lines here to prevent accidental spoilers. Scroll down if you've finished the book.

So, in Words of Radiance, I think the scene I worked on the longest both in my head and on the page was the final confrontation between Kaladin and Szeth.

There was something I wanted to do, and took a stab at it in the text, then backed off because I couldn't make it work. It was important to me that Kaladin refuse to kill Szeth at the end. Kaladin is about protection, not vengeance, and once he realized that Szeth really just wanted to be killed, I wanted Kaladin to hesitate.

It didn't end up working, and I moved on to a new version and submitted it. But this itched at me, and by the time the book was released, I felt I'd made the wrong choice for that scene. So I've taken this chance to roll it back to the previous idea, and written it in a new way, which I like much better.

The events are the same, except for that moment. Szeth is now killed by the storm instead of by Kaladin, which I think is more thematically appropriate.

The question this raises is about Szeth being stabbed by a Shardblade, then being resuscitated. I'm sad to lose this sequence, as it's an important plot point for the series that dead Shardblades cannot heal the soul, while living ones can. I'm going to have to work this into a later book, though I think it's something we can sacrifice here for the stronger scene of character for Kaladin and Szeth.

Brandon's Blog 2015 (March 6, 2015)

 

[EdgedancerJacob he/him]

Frankly, I hope this does not happen. At least his reason for changing Words of Radiance was not about fan reception, but unhappiness with the decision he made. Even this is a little frustrating to me, to be honest. 

Worth noting that I'm not someone who was too bothered by the prose or humor. I thought it was unremarkable but not a negative. 

[Returned he/him]

On 5/13/2025 at 3:29 AM, Lord Stormer said:

Taking into account of the general reception, if I wrote the book, I'd try to fix what went wrong - though very cautious not to oblige the readers to reread.

The general complaints readers have had about the book (based on posts here, at least) suggest that "what went wrong" is pretty deep seated and pervasive in the book. Fixing that may be beyond the sort of thing that new editions typically do, significantly more so than just re-working a few scenes or conversations. Personally, a second edition which involved such a rewrite would make me pretty angry. I paid full price for a book at launch and would not be pleased to find out I was buying an early, unfinished draft in order to be part of crowd-sourcing major editing, all so that I could purchase (again, at full price) the true final draft. That would be very disrespectful towards the biggest fans of his writing, if not outright abusive.

I expect a second edition to be pretty minor in its changes: addressing the most common reader complaints would take a lot of time and effort while also suggesting that he releases books before they're ready, and doing so would make it harder to stick to his self-imposed schedule (a schedule which may have led to those very complaints arising in the first place). We may get a more polished version of the book that already exists (minorly revised conversations in a few places, maybe). Perhaps decades down the line we'll see a fuller revision.

Edited May 18, 2025 by Returned

[Geoffray]

Look to the last Shardcast episode. They talk about that. TL,DW: not gonna happen. What happen in WoR only happen once and not more. Brandon is aware of some of the problems of prose,etc. But he's not gonna change it.