Do you think Sanderson releases too fast too many books?

[Sythrin]

I think with the years his writing style has become less refined.

Don‘t get me wrong, his world building, plot ideas and magic system developments becomes maybe better and better with each iterarion.

But I kinda have the feeling that the epic moments in the later books become kinda less and less impactful. They miss the certain umpf factor and don‘t get me goosepumb like the earlier. Scenes like

Spoiler

the shardduell with adolin, Dalinar giving up his blade, Kelsier dyning to Rashek.

The newest books kinda miss it. Maybe just the delivery is not as strong. Especialy in Wind and Truth. Like 2 of the biggest scenes are kinda muddled by callback quotes to other better scenes.

Spoiler

Like dalinars death or Kaladin ascension to being a Herald.

Does anybody see it similar.

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, Sythrin said:

I think with the years his writing style has become less refined.

Keep in mind that Moshe retired. Oathbringer was the last book to be edited by Moshe, which may be why there is such a sharp change after that (though IED feels much more like old Sanderson).

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

Keep in mind that Moshe retired. Oathbringer was the last book to be edited by Moshe, which may be why there is such a sharp change after that (though IED feels much more like old Sanderson).

IotE? Whats IED?

[Treamayne]

6 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

IotE? Whats IED?

Same same Isles of the Emberdark.

Kida like Tress = TotES = TES or Yumi = YatNP = YNP

Edited July 12, 2025 by Treamayne
Elaboration

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

2 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Same same Isles of the Emberdark.

Kida like Tress = TotES = TES or Yumi = YatNP = YNP

ah. Ok.

[Nitpicking]

I still find the Sanderlanches very impactful. It's the first 2/3 of the books that I find to drag. Emberdark (which I haven't finished yet) does not do that to me, only Stormlight books. I think, honestly, that he is a bit self-indulgent, just stuffing everything in and not wanting to cut. It happened to Stephen Donaldson, for one.

[teknopathetic he/him]

I think we have all begun to detect a slide in his work. He has turned himself into a company and now has to produce enough to keep his company running, which means he cannot spend extra time refining his art to make it what it needs to be. I still enjoy his work, but after Oathbringer everything feels rushed and unpolished. He honestly needs an entire other round of edits. But he cant do this, or else what would happen to his staff he has working? 

Big fan and I could never do what he does ever as an author, but I have stopped being mega mega excited for his work post WaT; I hope he can take a step back for a while and see if he can reset somehow, but I know that he cant because he is a company now. 

Edited September 6, 2025 by teknopathetic

[DoctaDajman]

8 hours ago, teknopathetic said:

I think we have all begun to detect a slide in his work. He has turned himself into a company and now has to produce enough to keep his company running, which means he cannot spend extra time refining his art to make it what it needs to be. I still enjoy his work, but after Oathbringer everything feels rushed and unpolished. He honestly needs an entire other round of edits. But he cant do this, or else what would happen to his staff he has working? 

Big fan and I could never do what he does ever as an author, but I have stopped being mega mega excited for his work post WaR. I hope can take a step back for a while and see if he can reset somehow. 

Perhaps that is what will happen with era 3 of mistborn. I believe his plan is to write all 3 books before releasing any of them. Maybe that will give the time and refinement that we are all hoping for. 

[Leuthie]

On 7/11/2025 at 9:09 AM, Sythrin said:

I think with the years his writing style has become less refined.

Don‘t get me wrong, his world building, plot ideas and magic system developments becomes maybe better and better with each iterarion.

But I kinda have the feeling that the epic moments in the later books become kinda less and less impactful. They miss the certain umpf factor and don‘t get me goosepumb like the earlier. Scenes like

  Reveal hidden contents

the shardduell with adolin, Dalinar giving up his blade, Kelsier dyning to Rashek.

The newest books kinda miss it. Maybe just the delivery is not as strong. Especialy in Wind and Truth. Like 2 of the biggest scenes are kinda muddled by callback quotes to other better scenes.

  Hide contents

Like dalinars death or Kaladin ascension to being a Herald.

Does anybody see it similar.

I think his rigid structure for Stormlight but propensity for adding more elements during discovery writing is the reason for the issues with KoWT. Too much had to be crammed into a single package. His other works haven't had similar issues.

[SpliceosomeofAdolnasium he/him]

On 7/11/2025 at 12:09 PM, Sythrin said:

I think with the years his writing style has become less refined.

Don‘t get me wrong, his world building, plot ideas and magic system developments becomes maybe better and better with each iterarion.

But I kinda have the feeling that the epic moments in the later books become kinda less and less impactful. They miss the certain umpf factor and don‘t get me goosepumb like the earlier. Scenes like

  Reveal hidden contents

the shardduell with adolin, Dalinar giving up his blade, Kelsier dyning to Rashek.

The newest books kinda miss it. Maybe just the delivery is not as strong. Especialy in Wind and Truth. Like 2 of the biggest scenes are kinda muddled by callback quotes to other better scenes.

  Reveal hidden contents

Like dalinars death or Kaladin ascension to being a Herald.

Does anybody see it similar.

Yes. Longtime Sanderson superfan from the very beginning. I rarely comment on this site but I needed some validation on my feelings about WaT. I feel like the quality really slipped in WaT. There's a moment where we find out that thing about Shallan and I don't feel like it was as impactful as what we learned about her in tWoK and WoR, even though it should be. I think he really botched a bunch of arcs in how they played out even if they ended up where I thought they should. 

Ironically, I preferred the destination over the journey.  

I'm second guessing a ton of his decision making for WaT. The easiest improvement would have been to have Jasnah and Shallan team up together in the Spiritual Realm. Jasnah is the historian she should have been there to see history play out, and would have made much more sense of her going after the Ghostbloods rather than  adding Rlain and Renarin to the mix for no apparent reason. He dropped the ball entirely on the fact that the Ghostbloods tried to assassinate Jasnah multiple times and then 0 follow-up on how Jasnah will react to Shallan joining them. 

Agree with everyone he needed to cook more, and he didn't and this is the result

11 hours ago, Leuthie said:

I think his rigid structure for Stormlight but propensity for adding more elements during discovery writing is the reason for the issues with KoWT. Too much had to be crammed into a single package. His other works haven't had similar issues.

I've made that excuse in the past for RoW but for WaT there's less of an excuse. There was just poor character choices. Have Kaladin back on the Shattered Plains again, not in Shinovar. Have Jasnah with Shallan in the spiritual realm. 2 easy fixes immediately more impactful dynamics. 

[Isilel]

Personally, I really love the cosmere setting and Sanderson's plots, as well as many of his characters. But I was never a fan of his writing style and I don't believe that he could ever improve enough to make longer wait times between books and less side-stories worth it to me.

For that reason, I really, really hope that he manages to get cosmere writing collaborations going. Because I  want more cosmere and I might even like other writers prose better. Which is why I am pretty worried that we haven't heard anything new or concrete about the Nikki Savage book in the last couple of years.

[Nitpicking]

7 hours ago, Isilel said:

Personally, I really love the cosmere setting and Sanderson's plots, as well as many of his characters. But I was never a fan of his writing style and I don't believe that he could ever improve enough to make longer wait times between books and less side-stories worth it to me.

For that reason, I really, really hope that he manages to get cosmere writing collaborations going. Because I  want more cosmere and I might even like other writers prose better. Which is why I am pretty worried that we haven't heard anything new or concrete about the Nikki Savage book in the last couple of years.

I've thought for years that Brandon should do for himself what Harriet did for Robert Jordan: find collaborators to finish the series. He'd have to write about twice as fast as he currently is to complete every book he's got solidly planned, let alone the "optional" ones like the Threnody sequel. Find two up-and-coming writers and farm out books to them, under the support team (led by Peter Ahlstrom) and finally Brandon's supervision.

I don't think he'll actually do it, and of course that is 100% his decision, but it means the Cosmere won't be completed unless Brandon lives to be 100 and retains his full writing capabilities into advanced old age.

[TruthwatchingRadiant He/Him]

I think he can release em’ fast enough! Yes I care about the quality, and I think him and his team been doing a great job so far. I’m over here waitin for Ghostbloods to come out, thinking even the happiness of Kaladin seemed to take longer than the release of this series. For context to anyone seeing this post in the future: I’m from a time when the Ghostbloods series hasn’t come out yet. July 2025.

[Use the Falchion]

On 7/18/2025 at 1:43 PM, Nitpicking said:

I've thought for years that Brandon should do for himself what Harriet did for Robert Jordan: find collaborators to finish the series. He'd have to write about twice as fast as he currently is to complete every book he's got solidly planned, let alone the "optional" ones like the Threnody sequel. Find two up-and-coming writers and farm out books to them, under the support team (led by Peter Ahlstrom) and finally Brandon's supervision.

I don't think he'll actually do it, and of course that is 100% his decision, but it means the Cosmere won't be completed unless Brandon lives to be 100 and retains his full writing capabilities into advanced old age.

He's already done something similar to that, with Isaac Stewart and Dan Wells. Brandon hired Dan because he needed, in his own words, "a second brain" to complete some of the projects he'd like to get to but doesn't have time. Isaac has his own Mistborn book written and has been slowly revising it over the years. Brandon now trusts Isaac to finish the Cosmere if he dies, rather than joking about Brian McClellan carrying the torch. (Personally, I think it should go to Will Wight. Wight is a fan of Sanderson, a fast writer, and is experienced in writing in different subgenres of fantasy and sci-fi. Honestly, I think Brandon should team up with Will anyways.)

 

Brandon's already outsourced a lot of stuff as a "time triage" so he can focus almost exclusively on the Cosmere: 

He passed off the Cytoverse to Janci Patterson. 

He passed off Songs of the Dead to Peter Orullian.

He was looking for a cowriter for the Alcatraz sequels so he could finish them with the proper amount of respect.

He's working with Dan Wells on lots of things, some of which are probably projects he doesn't have time for. 

 

 

Right now, Brandon's doing what he can to make sure he can finish the Cosmere. The complications are:

1. Sanderson's a VERY ambitious man, so he's always looking to build and explore in new ways. This takes time, resources, and energy that could be used for writing. 

2. Sanderson's not just a writer - he's a businessman. He has a business to run as well. Employees to look after, meetings to go to, things like that. What started off as a way to offload all of the non-writing things has transformed into something that takes a massive amount of time to run. And the resources taken to run it are tied into what he releases. 

3. Tor wants money. Brandon's talked about how Tor will want to release things ASAP, even if Brandon and Dragonsteel aren't entirely ready. This leads to crunches and overtime. Sanderson is just getting to a place to combat that, as of 2023 or 2024 I think. 

4. Brandon doesn't want to be just an editor, rubber stamping his name on books and releasing them. He (usually) wants to be involved with the process all the way through. 

[Nitpicking]

14 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

He's already done something similar to that, with Isaac Stewart and Dan Wells.

Except neither of them is working on any of the announced "Brandon main timeline" stories, like the Elantris sequels. They're doing side projects. I thought that too, but then Brandon (as you say below) couldn't let go of any of "his" stories, so they're just adding even more not-yet-written stories to the Cosmere. (Isaac mentioned some time last year that he wasn't actively working on his novel at that time. IIRC.)

I mean, I hope Brandon does live to an actively-writing 100. I won't be here to see it (I'm older than he is) but it would be great for the grandchildren of the youngest current 17th Sharders.

[Use the Falchion]

14 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

Except neither of them is working on any of the announced "Brandon main timeline" stories, like the Elantris sequels. They're doing side projects. I thought that too, but then Brandon (as you say below) couldn't let go of any of "his" stories, so they're just adding even more not-yet-written stories to the Cosmere.

True, but some of those are things that Brandon would want to write but doesn't have time, hence handing them off. That way, Brandon can focus on the stories that matter to the Cosmere. Yes, some of these are added in, but I'm also sure that some of these are stories that Brandon would have wanted to tell but knows he can't. Skyward Legacy and Songs of the Dead are the big non-Cosmere examples, but they matter because now Brandon can devote more time to the Cosmere. 

The truth is that Brandon is going keep adding things to write because he's a creative person and likes writing new things. It's how he trained himself, hopping from one project to the next, and it's what keeps him engaged. He's not the type to sit down and just "finish the Cosmere" because that's what expected of him. That would drain him and create a worse product. He's also not going to spend time writing books he promised when he has time to write a secret project (as much as I wish he did), because that wouldn't refresh him most likely. 

 

14 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

(Isaac mentioned some time last year that he wasn't actively working on his novel at that time. IIRC.)

From the State of the Sanderson 2024

 

Quote

Book of Nails

One of the questions I often get asked is how my Cosmere book is progressing. For those who haven’t heard of it, Book of Nails is set on Scadrial and follows the adventures of Nicelle Sauvage, aka Nicki Savage from the Era 2 broadsheets--though the novel presents events as they actually happened rather than in a sensational serialized story written by Nicki.

With the addition of a few art directors to the creative team, I’m starting to reclaim a little time to work on the story. This year I received amazing feedback from a beta read we held for the first part of the book. Additionally, I’ve been running chapters through members of the department and Brandon’s writing group. There’s a list of changes to make, but I’m confident in the story’s direction and can’t wait for you to see it. I’ll be working through feedback and making revisions over the next several months.

 

[Nitpicking]

7 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

The truth is that Brandon is going keep adding things to write because he's a creative person and likes writing new things. It's how he trained himself, hopping from one project to the next, and it's what keeps him engaged. He's not the type to sit down and just "finish the Cosmere" because that's what expected of him. That would drain him and create a worse product. He's also not going to spend time writing books he promised when he has time to write a secret project (as much as I wish he did), because that wouldn't refresh him most likely.

I don't disagree with any of that. I just say that this means he'll never complete the Grand Apparatus, I mean his grand design for the Cosmere.

[Use the Falchion]

11 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

I don't disagree with any of that. I just say that this means he'll never complete the Grand Apparatus, I mean his grand design for the Cosmere.

And I think he will because he's not getting sidetracked AS much as before. He's young enough to complete it and has mapped out about how long it'll take. (Until he's somewhere between 74 and 78 IIRC.) He's building a team that knows how he functions in case he passes before he can complete his legacy, and he's letting them stretch their legs in the playground so if they need to start running, they've got it. 

[hephaestus]

On 7/31/2025 at 4:49 PM, Use the Falchion said:

2. Sanderson's not just a writer - he's a businessman. He has a business to run as well. Employees to look after, meetings to go to, things like that. What started off as a way to offload all of the non-writing things has transformed into something that takes a massive amount of time to run. And the resources taken to run it are tied into what he releases. 

 

3. Tor wants money. Brandon's talked about how Tor will want to release things ASAP, even if Brandon and Dragonsteel aren't entirely ready. This leads to crunches and overtime. Sanderson is just getting to a place to combat that, as of 2023 or 2024 I think. 

#2 there would suggest that he might be best served finding someone to do the "run the business" part of things.

As for #3, I should think TOR would have to be happy enough with the money he's dragging in for them to not want to kill that golden goose by angering the consumers of the product.

Which, to be fair, I don't agree with a lot of the criticisms in this thread, it all still seems to hit me like it used to. I'll just say that the crying was ugly at the "Brandon, you absolute bastard" part of YaNP. And the vast majority of his books have at least one scene that hits that hard for me, if not several.

[Use the Falchion]

On 9/5/2025 at 7:52 PM, hephaestus said:

#2 there would suggest that he might be best served finding someone to do the "run the business" part of things.

If you can convince him to give up control, go for it. Brandon has learned his lesson too many times about giving up control IMO. (White Sand graphic novel, Mistborn movie rights, NOT giving them up for anniversary/leatherbound editions and realizing that making and signing those is a viable way for middle-of-the-road authors to make money long-term.) He's too much like Dalinar in that he's not going to give up control for a while yet. 

 

On 9/5/2025 at 7:52 PM, hephaestus said:

As for #3, I should think TOR would have to be happy enough with the money he's dragging in for them to not want to kill that golden goose by angering the consumers of the product.

Why would they anger the consumer? Brandon's hardcore fans - us, that's us on this forum dedicated to him and his works - are going to buy most of what he releases anyways. We're an audience they can consistently rely on. I think they'd need to worry if Brandon becomes a PR nightmare, but even then, it's not too hard for publishers to separate the author from the work and still make bank. (Ender's Game, Harry Potter, etc.) 

TOR is also a business, and a business' primary goal is to make money. Brandon makes them money. The more books Brandon releases, the more money they make. The more books Brandon releases within a shorter timespan, the more money they can make quicker. (The money then goes to allowing other investments such as new authors to become potentially viable solutions in the future, as now they have a safety net. It's the same way in the movie business I believe, and banking works similarly.) It's simple math. I'm not saying they're RIGHT for doing that, but it's easy to see where they're coming from. 

On the other extreme, you get Patrick Rothfuss, Kingkiller Chronicles, and what happened to DAW. DAW put all of their hope onto the KKC goose, and when it didn't lay any eggs, they went out of business. Of course, Brandon isn't Patrick, and TOR has so many more resources than DAW that it's not even funny, but the overall problem could be the same - TOR, by allowing Brandon to do whatever he wants and take all the time we deem necessary, would be losing a lot of money and could even go "into the red." 

I'm not saying Brandon couldn't use more editing or time between releases, because I think that's true to an extent. (WaT could have definitely used more time in the oven, and someone to do a better diction edit than whoever did it.) But I also think that this will become less of a concern since Brandon will have 4-5 years to write a LOT of things and get them edited before releasing them. (If he finishes writing Mistborn 10 and Elantris 3 by 2028, he'll have 2-3 years to write more books before they have to show up on the slate. He could spend half of that time on Stormlight 6, have a leisurely revision process, and STILL have it done almost a year before its release.*) I also think the verbiage and syntax will be less of a concern for later books as they become more modern in their setting. The modern setting will match the modern discriptions, so there won't be as much of a dissonance between what is happening and how it's being described.  

 

*By my latest guesstimates and not counting secret projects that we all know Sanderson will write, I suspect Brandon will: 

Spend 2025 finishing up Mistborn 8. (Tailored Realities for DSNX)

Spend most of 2026 on Mistborn 9 before sprinting through Elantris 2 (Dark One or Skyward Legacy 2 for DSNX?)

Spend all of 2027 on MIstborn 10 and revising Elantris 2. (??? for DSNX? I think Arcanum Unbounded 2 would be pretty easy...maybe Isaac Stewart's book?)

Spend the first half of 2028 revising Mistborn 8 while also writing Elantris 3. Mistborn 8's revision would be "rushed" but since the trilogy would also be fully written, parts of the revision would actually be easier as a whole.

Spend the second half of 2028 revising Mistborn 9 and 10, and finishing Elantris 3. Then he could spend the final few months of the year outlining Stormlight 6 and the back half of Stormlight. (Mistborn 8 for DSNX)

Spend 2029 writing Stormlight 6 for a 2031 release date and revising Elantris 3. (Mistborn 9 for DSNX)

Spend 2/3 of 2030 revising Stormlight 6; spend the final third of 2030 writing something new. (Mistborn 10 for DSNX)

Spend most of 2031 writing and revising new projects for later years. (Stormlight 6 for DSNX) 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 7/15/2025 at 6:29 AM, teknopathetic said:

I think we have all begun to detect a slide in his work. He has turned himself into a company and now has to produce enough to keep his company running, which means he cannot spend extra time refining his art to make it what it needs to be. I still enjoy his work, but after Oathbringer everything feels rushed and unpolished. He honestly needs an entire other round of edits. But he cant do this, or else what would happen to his staff he has working? 

1. Beginnings are easier than ends
2. A fuller Cosmere makes novelty harder. Wind and Truth must feel repetitive if you've read Hero of Ages
3. A fully connected Cosmere makes deviations from the plan harder

I think he made a strategic error in closing the first arc of Stormlight in only five books.

[teknopathetic he/him]

On 10/1/2025 at 2:48 AM, Oltux72 said:

1. Beginnings are easier than ends
2. A fuller Cosmere makes novelty harder. Wind and Truth must feel repetitive if you've read Hero of Ages
3. A fully connected Cosmere makes deviations from the plan harder

I think he made a strategic error in closing the first arc of Stormlight in only five books.

I completely agree with you, and think these points only exacerbate the issue. Brandon needs like 3x the amount of time to weave the final book into the narrative even more so with all these challenges present, but because his company [and publisher] needs him to rattle out books at a certain pace, he just isn't able to take the time needed to keep his artistic craft up at a high enough level. 

Not that you said this, but it generally annoys me when people say Brandon can be a better artist because he "doesn't need the money". But seeing as he is employing so many members of his family and of his community, he needs the money income stream in a much more profound and artistically compromising way than basically any other author I can think of. 

I am happy for him, as this sort of structure seems to be what he wants to create and to be able to maintain. But I truly truly believe that his desire to create this sort of empire around his IPs is coming at a narrative and artistic cost. He seems happy to make this trade, but as fan, this choice has made me less interested in the products he is releasing. 

Edited October 2, 2025 by teknopathetic

[+Oltux72 he/him]

5 minutes ago, teknopathetic said:

I completely agree with you, and think these points only exacerbate the issue. Brandon needs like 3x the amount of time to weave the final book into the narrative even more so with all these challenges present but because his company needs him to rattle out books at a certain pace, he jsut inst able to take the time needed to keep his artistic craft up at a high enough level. 

But then he'd start new series or continue shorter series. I am sure that Warbreaker II or Horneater or The Night Brigade would have been easier than Wind and Truth.

Frankly it looks to me that he's increasingly becoming bored by preindustrial settings and wants to advance.

[Nitpicking]

On 10/2/2025 at 4:10 PM, teknopathetic said:

I completely agree with you, and think these points only exacerbate the issue. Brandon needs like 3x the amount of time to weave the final book into the narrative even more so with all these challenges present, but because his company [and publisher] needs him to rattle out books at a certain pace, he just isn't able to take the time needed to keep his artistic craft up at a high enough level.

Feel justified, my friend. Brandon says almost exactly this in a YouTube video.