Brandon and Book News

    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 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.

    Yesterday, Brandon turned in the second draft to the sequel of Skyward. This is good news, as he said that he had to scrap large chunks of Skyward 2. Brandon figuring out how to make that book work is good news for all of us! He also updates us with what his plans are for the future. Writing on Stormlight 4 begins, for sure, in January! In the meantime, Brandon says he will get revisions done on a few smaller projects.

    Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds is now out. If you aren’t familiar with Brandon’s Legion stories, they’re a mix of action, mystery, and a splash of a Brandon magic system. The first two novellas have been released before, but this omnibus is currently the only place where you can find the final story. 

    Legion is about a man named Stephen Leeds who is perfectly ordinary except for one small detail: he see hallucinations of people he calls aspects. Each aspect is an expert in a different field and he uses them to solve crimes.

    The news is coming fast and furious this week. Brandon's store is having a fall sale, with a very exciting new item: the Rosharan foil map. It's a beautiful rendition of Roshar, and trust me, it's even better in person. It's $45 on sale now, but it looks like its regular price is $60. It's a special limited edition of 1000 unnumbered posters. Why pay so much for a poster of a map of Roshar? That's the "foil" part. It shines.

    Brandon announced yesterday that he will be doing a live reading and Q&A this Saturday, September 1st, at 6:00PM PDT for Read for Pixels 2018. Just follow this link to join the livestream on Youtube when the time comes, and if you log into YouTube you should see a chatbox to participate in the Q&A. Questions will be selected by a moderator. There's no news yet on what he will be reading, but Legion or Skyward are safe bets!

    You can pre-order a signed hardcover copy of Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, releasing on September 18th, from Barnes & Noble at no additional charge. This collection includes the full trilogy of novellas, including the original Legion, Legion: Skin Deep, and, new with this release, Legion: Lies of the Beholder. If you've never delved outside the Cosmere, Legion is a great place to start--especially with the story now complete!

    Recently the company Brotherwise Games, launched a Kickstarter for a new "hero-crafting" card game titled Call to Adventure. As part of the Kickstarter they announced their first expansion, themed around the book The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. Earlier today, in honor of the Kickstarter reaching $300,000 USD and GenCon 2018, Brandon announced that Brotherwise Games will also be releasing a Stormlight Archive themed expansion in Fall 2019.

    I won't go into too much depth about the game (they do a pretty good job of that over on their Kickstarter), the gist of it however is this: you start with a hero, defined by their origin, their motivation, and their destiny, and you choose different cards to help craft them into the greatest hero (or antihero) possible. The Stormlight expansion will add special destiny cards for the Orders of Knights Radiant. This is the first I've heard of the Kickstarter, but this game seems right up my alley so it is safe to say I will soon be a backer. It's unclear whether the Stormlight expansion will also be Kickstarted, of if it will go directly into production.

    Hot off the heels of yesterday's monumental announcement about Brandon's multimedia plans for Dark One, Publisher's Weekly has revealed more information about the graphic novel slice of the pie. The graphic novel will consist of two volumes, the first of which is due out in Spring 2019, less than a year away! The also revealed the creative team that will be co-writing it with Brandon, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly. On a personal note, I found this news incredibly exciting as Lanzing and Kelly have worked on some of my favorite comic series in recent years. Yesterday I felt cautiously optimistic, today I am full steam ahead on the hype train, because I know these guys can write a good story. The two of them plus Brandon? Now that is going to be something awesome.

    They also revealed what seems to be the cover art which looks pretty storming cool.

    Jackson Lanzing, on his twitter, has also confirmed that the artist for the project is Nathan Gooden, and posted line art for part of the cover.

    Deadline has announced some pretty exciting news today about a story Brandon has been wanting to write for years, Dark One. This story, which has slipped in and out of the Cosmere over the years, is about a young man who instead being the hero prophesied to save the world, is the one destined to destroy it.

    In their announcement Deadline reveals that not only is there a television series and graphic novel in the works, but there is also a multi-volume book series and a podcast are as well. The tv series is being developed by FreemantleMedia North America with Random House Studio and the graphic novel will be published by Vault Comics. Where the tv series and graphic novel appear to be planned to tell the same story, the book series will expand on it while focusing on secondary characters and the podcast will explore the events leading up to the tv series.

    Those of you who been following Brandon's projects over the years will know that for a long time the next YA book was going to be Apocalypse Guard. And although AG had to go to the backburner for some time, Brandon was quick in putting together a replacement for it - Skyward, the first book in a trilogy for Random House.  Today it has a cover, illustrated by Charlie Bowater and designed by Regina Flath.  Take a look!

    Today, the first three Stormlight Archive books, The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer are available in an ebook bundle for about $30 (specifically, I'm seeing $29.58 today) on many different ebook platforms. If you haven't gotten all three of these ebooks, this is an obscene value. It's 1.2 million words and many hours of entertainment, and all for $30? Yeah, I would say that is a good deal.

    It is May 3rd. A day otherwise mostly unremarkable, except for a few things. One, it happens to be the National Wordsmith Day. But, coincidentally, it is also the day we are getting official Brandon Sanderson apparel on Amazon! And while that alone might be exciting to some, what's more important is that many of the designs are brand new! Check out this amazing First of the Sun/Sixth of the Dusk Symbol t-shirt, for example!

    Yesterday, the first part of the Oathbringer Graphic Audio came out. Its regular price for a digital version is $16.99, and you can also get it on CD as well. Graphic Audio has done many of Brandon's books and are highly regarded. It isn't just a usual audiobook. It has a full cast of readers acting out the dialogue, with music as well. You can listen to a sample to see if it's your sort of thing on the Graphic Audio page.