Brandon and Book News

Great news everyone, the Mistborn: House War Kickstarter launched today.  And it has already funded as well, in less than five hours at that!  Go and check it out here.

Next up is the first stretch goal at $45,000 where Crafty Games will add a new playable house, House Bylerum (which is from their A House of Ashes companion).  To just get the base game with no frills requires a pledge of $50, and they also have a more limited "Prestige Edition" which includes special foil versions of cards among other additions for $100 dollars.  They also have all of the Mistborn Adventure Game supplements available as add-ons (including the upcoming Alloy of Law II supplement dealing with information from Shadows of Self and The Bands of Mourning).

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go and back it myself.

Last August we ran an article covering the Mistborn related showings Crafty Games had at GenCon, most notably the board game they had been working on. Now they are ready to Kickstart it. The campaign officially launches next Wednesday, June 15th, but they have posted a draft giving us a sneak peak.

The basics of the campaign are this: they are asking for $30,000 and the minimum pledge to get a copy of the game is $50.

Exciting news! The Stormlight novella--with Lift--that is coming out this fall with the short story collection, Arcanum Unbounded, is now complete, according to comments on Brandon on Reddit. This short story collection is sounding more and more awesome as time goes on. It will contain Mistborn: Secret History, and every published cosmere short story, like Sixth of Dusk, The Eleventh Metal (which was seen in the Mistborn Adventure Game), and The Emperor's Soul.

Hey everyone!

So, I know it's been a couple of weeks, but we finally have the winners of the contest to announce. There are some great entries!

Hello everyone! Voidus here again for this months segment on the RPs and social groups! We've got some progress on some newer RPs involving Wizards, Jedi, and the Wheel of Time. There's also some wonderful roleplaying going on in Oregon right now, and we also talk about the Awkward Knights, the featured social guild this month.

In case you missed it last week we reported that io9 had posted an extended preview of the White Sand graphic novel. Since then Dynamite Entertainment has released a press release with the cover art for the first volume. I for one really love the cover, as someone who has read the prose version it is nice to finally see what certain characters look like. The release is still a few months away but it is safe to say that I am already hyped for it!

In other news the first of a five volume Graphic Audio adaptation of The Way of Kings was released this week. For those who aren't familiar, Graphic Audio is a full-cast (meaning each character is voiced by a different person) reading of the book with sound effects and music. Sort of like a cross between an audiobook and a radio play. Brandon has a short preview of it in a post over on his site. These versions might not be everyone's cup of tea but I know that fans of them are very excited as it was unclear whether The Way of Kings would be adapted in this way.

We have been insanely busy at Hoid's Secret Base (or the 17th Shard HQ) recently, so we have a huge deal of news to talk about. Today, we will be talking about a more precise Stormlight 3 release date (it's later than you would like), a sweet, sweet preview of the White Sand graphic novel, and the second printing of the Elantris leatherbound which you can order right now.

Revealed in the Calamity signing in Houston, Texas, Stormlight 3 will now be out in 2017. This is a bit later than the State of the Sanderson 2015 implied initially. In that older post, Brandon thought we would see it in Fall 2016, with the caveat that his team warned him that that would not be realistic, and so we would see it in 2017 instead.

With the release of Calamity a few weeks ago we Sanderson fans bid farewell to what has become a very successful series (which is currently sitting at number 1 on the New York Times Children's Series Bestseller List!). And while I, personally, do love that Brandon jumps from project (though it does lead to troubling arguments with myself about which book I want the most...) I'm not going to lie, it is really nice to have a resolution like this.

Of course Brandon being Brandon has decided to expand this world multiverse before moving on to something else in his new series Apocalypse Guard.

I cannot believe it but Calamity is being released in three days... With The Bands of Mourning being released so recently it has kind of snuck up on us. Brandon and co. however, in an effort to give Calamity it's due hype, have created some awesome "swag" for those who pre-order a copy of the book from certain bookstores, a list of which can be found here on Brandon's website. The goodies include a 12-page mini comic adaptation of Mitosis, punch-out cards for David, Megan, and Prof (similar to the ones done for Words of Radiance and Firefight), and a set of pins. On top of that any book that comes with this bundle will be signed. Do be sure to check with each store as there is a limited number of these bundles and each store has a different policy (some will do online orders, others only in-store purchases).

Unfortunately the Wellers Book Works pre-order is already sold out. They only sold a limited number of copies (250) and they sold out incredibly quickly.

Phew... The Bands of Mourning is out (along with a very nice surprise novella) so I guess now starts the long wait between Sanderson relea-- Wait, what do you mean Calamity is coming out in less than two weeks? Sparks, so it is...

Brandon just posted the stops for the Calamity over on his website's event page.

Remember if you are planning to go to any of these signings to follow the included links to find out that location's policies. Some of these events are ticketed or require the purchase of Calamity from the store hosting the event.

In a few short hours, the sixth Mistborn novel, The Bands of Mourning, will be available for everyone to read. Our Bands forum will allow full spoilers for the book tonight. Get excited. You can read our review of Bands here. Below we'll discuss about our spoiler policies for this novel. But, there's something more.

As we all know, there is always another secret, and with Brandon, that secret is, of course, a secret project. It is also coming out tonight on ebook formats alongside Bands. It's called Mistborn: Secret History, which Brandon revealed on Reddit after Amazon leaked its existence.

This week, Brandon posted a large progress report on Oathbringer, the third Stormlight Archive book, on the Stormlight Archive subreddit. To talk about how far he has gotten, he went into a detailed explanation on how he structures Stormlight books, so people understand what his word count means. I'm going to talk about what Brandon said, and do some analysis as well!

Long story short, Brandon is 180,000 words through Oathbringer. (For comparison, the first Mistborn book is about 200,000 words long.)

A little over a year ago, Brandon made the surprising announcement that he had not only written the sequel to The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, but the sequel to that as well. The Bands of Mourning, as the sixth Mistborn book, has a lot to live up to. Not only with these characters, but with the world itself, there's a lot of history to contend with. Luckily, Bands soared above the hopes I had for it. It's quickly become my favorite Wax and Wayne era novel, and, for me at least, it's neck and neck with some of the Era 1 trilogy.

Bands picks up about six months after Shadows of Self concludes, the aftereffects of which are still being felt. Wax has had his worldview shaken and is still reeling from the emotional blow of Shadows' climax. So when a kandra arrives, seeking his help to find the Bands of Mourning, the fabled metalminds of the Lord Ruler--rumored to give any who possess them his powers--Wax is disinclined to agree. That is, of course, until a more personal motivation comes to light. The Set, and Wax's uncle Edwarn, are back and there's no telling what they are up to now...

Tor.com has just posted Chapter 6 of The Bands of Mourning over on their site. Check it out here! This is unfortunately the last preview they will be posting (Peter confirmed as much on Reddit last week) but that just means the release is just around the corner. We are back to Marasi's point of view as she examines the information given to the team about what the kandra have been able to get out of ReLuuur when she comes across a drawing of some sort of creature (I wonder what that is, a Hemalurgic construct as Marasi suspects?). And after a rather reflective conversation with Wayne we get to see the adorable aftermath of Chapter 5 for Wax and Steris. Of course, then there's a cliffhanger, but I don't think any of us are surprised by that.

Check out our forum topic here to discuss the preview chapter!

Earlier today Brandon posted about the release party for The Bands of Mourning. As with Shadows, they will be using a digital line. This time however, numbers will NOT be distributed randomly, the earlier you sign up, the lower your number will be. The form for the digital line will be going up here, tomorrow at 10:00 AM Mountain Time.

Brandon is planning on getting to the bookstore early and pre-signing/numbering all of the books before they let in people at 10:00 PM (in case somebody who doesn't want to get it personalized doesn't have to wait through the signing line). From 10 until 10:45 there will be a meet & greet where you can socialize, ask Brandon questions, or get a picture taken as well as other fun activities. Then there will be the customary talk, q&a, and reading.

The release of The Bands of Mourning is just under two weeks away and the preorders for the Signed and Numbered editions from Wellers Book Works have just gone up in Brandon's store. Be warned however that Brandon has changed his policies regarding these preorders, the reasoning for which you can read in his blog post here. The short of it is that signing these preorders is a time-consuming process, and it's only gotten more time-consuming as time has gone on and the number of people wanting more extravagant personalizations has increased. As such if you want something beyond just the signature and number the price is going up, with the extra money going as a donation to the Waygate Foundation. I think this is a nice compromise as he was considering doing away with personalizations altogether, but this way people who really want them still can and there is money going towards a good cause.

Tor.com posted the preview of Chapter 3 of The Bands of Mourning, and good Harmony is it a doozy. Check it out here! I don't want to say too much about it beyond this: a long standing question in the fandom is answered and the main plot of the book is introduced. (Seriously just go read it).

In case you missed it on Friday Brandon posted his third annual State of the Sanderson, discussing what he worked on over the course of 2015 and his plans going forward. Check it out here! This tradition has definitely become one of my absolute favorite things about Brandon. He has such a great reputation for transparency when it comes to his work (except of course when it comes to secret projects, but more on that later) and it is lengthy posts like this one that just goes to show how much he deserves that reputation.

Tor.com posted another new preview from The Bands of Mourning this morning. Check it out here! It picks up soon after the end of the first chapter and has a couple really great conversations between Wax and Steris and Marasi and Wayne respectively. Not to mention I think the hardcore cosmere-enthusiasts among us will be very excited by the last sentence...

In other news Crafty Games has released the newest supplement for the Mistborn Adventure Game, Skaa: Tin & Ash. It has been up for pre-order and digital delivery for a couple weeks but the physical copies just arrived in their warehouse the end of last week. They should be starting to send out orders today, just in time for Christmas!

Before we get into the main bits of news, Tor.com posted the first preview from The Bands of Mourning on Monday! It picks up several months after the events of Shadows of Self on a very important day. Obviously if you have not yet finished Shadows, do NOT read this as it does reference a very important climactic reveal. This is a really fun chapter, so if have finished Shadows I'd really recommend reading it. Check it out here!

In other news the Elantris leatherbound edition, which includes the 10th anniversary revised text, is finally on sale! And the first printing is already sold out... Don't worry about missing out however as a second shipment is expected to arrive in January (not to mention Brandon has mentioned that he wants to keep the book in-stock for at least a year)!

The fandom is still positively buzzing from this week's new releases but tonight holds something entirely new for Sanderson fans. Tonight the HISTORY channel premieres a new series "True Monsters" which seeks to delve into the fact and fiction of myths and legends from around the world. The exciting part is that Brandon is one of the experts they brought in to interview. Brandon spoke a little about it in a blog entry posted earlier today.

One thing that really stands out to me is that Brandon wasn't chosen just because he is a well-known, and incredibly popular, fantasy author but because he is a college professor who has studied the subject.

It's the most wonderful time of year again, Brandon has just released a book and the fandom is buzzing. That's right, today Shadows of Self and the 10th Anniversary Edition of Elantris have finally released! Not only that but they are pretty storming awesome. I'm still reeling from a marathon reading session of Shadows of Self (that ending, oh Harmony). If you are still on the fence on whether you want to get either of them check out our spoiler free review of Shadows of Self and our coverage on the Anniversary Edition and its beautiful new maps. Really though, just go and get them now.

Once you've read the books you can join in on the discussion in our reaction threads for Shadows of Self and Elantris.

The hype train is going up to full speed. Shadows of Self comes out tomorrow, but today, Brandon posted a huge blog about the Elantris Anniversary editions, which also comes out tomorrow and are definitely not something for you to forget about tomorrow.

This new version of Elantris is now the canonical version, fixing some continuity errors. The physical edition will be North American only for now. It's hardcover first, and the paperback will come to this edition later, in a year or so. Ebooks will update to this text (with iBooks, automatically).

Shadows of Self is now only a week away! (Or well for most of us). Brandon in a recent blog post has mentioned that in the UK while Shadows is being released in ebook and audiobook form on Oct 8, two days after the US release, the official UK print release will not be until the 15th. On a happier note Tor.com has just posted the next preview chapter, and Harmony is it a doozy. Check it out here!

Last Friday we reported that Tor.com posted the cover for Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians Book 5: The Dark Talent. Well earlier today the cover artist, Scott Brundage, posted the full wrap-around version of the art (without any obscuring text) on his twitter. It's pretty cool.

Check out our forum topics here to discuss the chapter preview and here to discuss the cover!

It began with a single sentence: "So, there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil Librarians." With that Alcatraz Smedry walked into our lives but although it has been a long, and rather bumpy, road we still have yet to see the infamous altar. The end is drawing near however, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians Book 5: The Dark Talent will be releasing on June 7, 2016.

Tor.com has just revealed the fantastic cover art that Scott Brundage created for the book. I really can't get ov-- Oh, oh my... Is that an altar I spy in the background?

Shadows of Self is the latest Mistborn novel and the sequel to The Alloy of Law, which came out all the way back in 2011. It's been a crazy long time. There's been plenty of Brandon Sanderson to read since then, but my first love is Mistborn, so I've yearned for this for... well, four years. Fortunately, it's fantastic. If you liked The Alloy of Law--particularly the idea of an urban fantasy thriller set in the Mistborn world--you'll love Shadows of Self.

This time, Wax and Wayne continue their hunt for the Set, the shadowy organization seen in The Alloy of Law. Then, the murder of a huge portion of Elendel's criminal elite--including the governor's brother--pushes Wax onto the case, where he discovers that the person responsible is insanely dangerous. They need to find out what this person's plans are, before Elendel collapses in on itself.