Brandon and Book News

Brandon has written a big blog post today. Well, actually, he's written a great deal, but today he wrote a blog post about what he spent 2014 doing. Some things are expected, like Firefight, Legion: Skin Deep, The Aztlanian (Rithmatist 2). But then there were some other things.

He not only finished Shadows of Self, the sequel to Alloy of Law, but also wrote the next book after that, titled Bands of Mourning. Shadows will be released October 2015, and Bands will be released very shortly after in January 2016.

Crafty Games, the lovely people who makes the Mistborn Adventure Game (and its two supplements!), has an exciting Kickstarter. They are making lovely Allomancy dice that have an Allomantic symbol on the six slot. Guess what, it's already funded, so if you back it, you're definitely getting some really nice dice! (Assonance not intentional.)

Today the Mistborn Adventure Game's Alloy of Law supplement is out now in both digital and print editions. There's an original story from Brandon, and an overview of the people and society of the remade Scadrial, with "information not seen in the novel." Seems pretty great!

Guys. Guys. There's a new Stormlight scene that Brandon has read at his recent signings. It is an early draft, and Brandon says the terminology should not be considered canon (it needs to be firmed up a bit), and most importantly, you really shouldn't read it if you haven't finished Words of Radiance.

It's official! Brandon will be at Salt Lake City's Comic Convention this September. No word yet for the panels he will be on, but no matter what you'll get to hear it, since this time we're going to be there as well!

We reported on Shadows Beneath, the Writing Excuses anthology before, but now you can get the ebook from Dragonmount, at a price of $9.99. Update: you can now get it on all major ebook retailers.

It contains the cosmere story, Sixth of the Dusk, as well as I.E.Demon, by Dan Wells; An Honest Death, by Howard Tayler; and A Fire in the Heavens, by Mary Robinette Kowal. It also contains behind-the-scenes looks, comparisons of the first and last drafts, transcriptions of the episodes regarding the stories, and awesome illustrations.

The Writing Excuses Anthology, containing stories from all the Writing Excuses podcasters--Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette Kowal--will be called Shadows Beneath. Intrepid 17th Sharder masaru discovered it via Googling "writing excuses anthology". It is not for sale yet, but it should be out July 3rd

For cosmere fans, this is of interest because it will contain the cosmere story Sixth of the Dusk.

Legion: Skin Deep, the sequel to the novella Legion, is now available for preorder from Subterreanean Press. It is a $45 limited edition with a full-color dust jacket, and two full-page and full-color interior illustrations too. They are limited to 2500 copies, and are signed leatherbound copies. Additionally, you get the ebook for free.

Big news today: White Sand, an unpublished cosmere novel, is going to become a three part graphic novel series, the first coming out next year.

White Sand was the first novel Brandon ever wrote, and he eventually did a complete rewrite of it around the time of Elantris. That version of White Sand was good enough for Brandon to get his agent, though they decided to submit other works instead. White Sand was to be the first in a planned trilogy, but Brandon was never satisfied with how the plot turned out originally, but we now we'll finally get to see it and its world.

We previously reported that there would be a new edition of Mistborn coming in May, and it came out last week. It's a trade paperback size, and this time it's marketed towards teens. The actual text is exactly the same (save for a few mistakes that were finally fixed), but has new maps. I snagged it today, so let's take a look.

Hey Sharders!

Brandon has added an awesome perk to the Altered Perceptions campaign, and it's definitely worth looking into.

There's something very cool happening: the campaign to fund the Altered Perceptions anthology. It's a campaign conceived by Brandon to help Robison Wells, who has crippling debt due to medical issues. It's a cool, awesome thing. And what can you get for doing it? Well, some chapters from the original draft of The Way of Kings.

As Brandon explains on his blog...

As you may or may not have known (Oh who am I kidding, you're here, you know.), but Words of Radiance came out last week. What you may or may not have known is that so far, it's been selling REALLY well.

If you're in the US, Words of Radiance is out right storming now. Did you know Brandon has never gotten #1 on the New York Times bestseller list? It's time to fix that.

Is it shipping to you at the moment? Well, go to your favorite ebook retailer--Amazon, Nook, Google Play, iBooks, and Dragonmount--to grab it and devour it. You're on 17th Shard on release day, so obviously you aren't reading it. You should fix that. And if you're not in the US, I certainly wouldn't suggest that maybe you could fool those servers by pretending you are in the US, but, hey. I didn't suggest it either, so that's plausible deniability right there.

You know how when Tor posted sample chapters of Words of Radiance, they skipped Chapter 7? Well, you can at last know what happens, as it has now been posted. You don't get to read it, but you do get to listen to it, at least the first part of it.

Words of Radiance comes out in just a few days. On Tuesday, March 4th, the wait will be over--well, for those in the US. Sorry everyone else But what if you missed some of the preview Words of Radiance content? Fear not, for we have you covered, to hopefully sate you over from the hype you might be feeling.

It's safe to say that Words of Radiance has the most pre-release hype of any of Brandon's solo works to-date. And it makes sense. The Way of Kings was Brandon's best work at the time, and so everyone is wondering, will Words of Radiance live up to the high bar set by book one? This is a sequel that has a ton riding on it. After all, despite the first book's length, there's still so much more of Roshar to explore. There's so many places that The Stormlight Archive can go from here, that it has been hard to predict what would happen in this book, much less a few books down the line. Words of Radiance could fall on its face. So, does it live up to the hype?

Crafty Games has revealed what the first supplement to the Mistborn Adventure Game will be: Terris: Wrought of Copper. We at 17th Shard had thought its next supplement would be an Alloy of Law-era one, but this is not the case. That doesn't mean we aren't excited--to the contrary! Crafty Games has worked with Brandon to develop material that provides a detailed look at the Terris Dominance and its people, which is definitely not something we saw much of in the original trilogy.

There are multiple new items in Brandon's excellent store. Just in time for Words of Radiance, there are multiple Stormlight related things in the store. You can get both t-shirts and decals of the Stormlight Archive symbol (seen here), as well as the Bridge Four Glyph. You can also get an actual patch of the Bridge Four glyph, just like Kaladin gets in Book Two. Finally, you can get a beanie with Kaladin's slave brands on it. Check out below for images of all the awesomeness. Looking at the Bridge Four t-shirt, it is pretty darn slick. It's hard to zoom in and see, but the Bridge Four symbol there is made up of the Second Ideal of the Windrunners. Sweet!

We have a scoop for you today: a new edition of the first Mistborn novel is coming out May 13th, 2014. Now it's going to be marketed towards teen readers, as evidenced by its new, lower age range, as well as mentioning his other teen book from Tor, The Rithmatist, on the cover. The synopsis has less emphasis on Kelsier and the setting, and focuses on Vin, which is sure to appeal to teen readers more. It also includes the cover that was previously found on the Mistborn ebook trilogy, which is some of our favorite cover art for Mistborn.

Tis a sad day for us all. For while there are brand new Words of Radiance sample chapters, Brandon said on his most recent blog that this is going to be the last of them.

So, rejoice, as there is more awesome Words of Radiance content! Then, weep because we have to wait till March 4th to read the rest of the book.

This week, there is not one but two awesome new releases for us to enjoy. We have both a four-and-a-half hour long

Of course you were thrilled by the awesomeness of the first bit of Words of Radiance, and you just can't wait for more. Well lucky for you, Tor has the next three chapters up!

Guess what? It is January 2014, which means Words of Radiance is coming out in just two months. In fact, if you follow the social medias, you already know that Words of Radiance is basically done (just the final proofs need to be turned in, and then it is done). So you know what that means: new sample chapters.

Tonight, we have not one, but two amazing announcements. Not only did Writing Excuses win the Hugo for Best Related Work, but the Emperor's Soul won the Hugo in the category of Best Novella!