Brandon and Book News

    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. 

    Yesterday, at a signing at JordanCon, Brandon read out something that was very old, which he said we had been waiting for "for a long time". He thought it was about eight or nine years old. It is crazy, and very exciting. It's a piece called The Traveler which is quite cosmere-aware, which Brandon thought he could now reveal. We recommend you just read it with no further introduction, but if you want some analysis, scroll on down. Get hyped.

    All of this is transcribed on Arcanum, and you can listen to the audio from the man himself at the links below.

    Earlier this week Tor.com announced that the third and final installment of the Legion series will be coming as both a standalone novel (Legion: Lies of the Beholder) and as a part of Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, a single volume that delivers all three Legion books under one gorgeous cover. 

    In preparation for this, Dragonsteel Entertainment has slashed the prices of the first two Legion books significantly.

    Hey there Sanderfans, yesterday Tor.com announced the title and revealed the cover art for the upcoming Legion collection Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds. This will include the original Legion, Legion: Skin Deep, and the never-before-published Legion: Lies of the Beholder which "delves into Stephen’s backstory, his interactions with Sandra, and the nature of his aspects"! The cover art is from the always phenomenal Miranda Meeks (who you may remember as the artist for the covers of Mistborn: Secret History and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell). For those of you who have the Subterranean Press editions of the first two novellas, don't worry. There will be a solo limited edition of Legion: Lies of the Beholder.

    In other news, Brandon is still hard at work on Skyward, but in the progress bars on his website he has one for another "Secret Project". In a blog post Brandon described it as a novella, that he has not spoken about before, which is not in the cosmere. He also describes it as something he "needs to write". Speaking of secret projects, at Brandon's recent Orem signing he also revealed that he has written an outline and a script for a new graphic novel that will be released after White Sand Volume 3 is completed. Hopefully Brandon will reveal more information about these projects soon.

    The release of White Sand Volume 2 has been a tumultuous one. It's been delayed a long time, but now, today, it is actually out. Several people have reported that their physical copy is out for delivery, so that means it is officially real. However, it isn't totally out yet. You might notice the Kindle version and other ebook versions say you can't get it until tomorrow, February 21st. Ian (WeiryWriter) tells me that this is the case because comics generally come out on Wednesdays in America. I suppose that makes sense that there is some discrepancy in the two markets, so there's some weirdness in the release.

    We heard Variety report this in May 2017, and we have seen many teasers on Facebook and Twitter. But yesterday, Arcturus officially announced the Escape from the Shattered Plains VR experience. It will be out for the HTC Vive, and it will be released March 2nd for $10.99. In this experience, you'll take the role of Kaladin, meet Syl, encounter a highstorm, use some Lashings, and fight some Parshendi. 

    Hey everyone, I just want to let you all know that the kickstarter for the Reckoners board game from Nauvoo Games launched today. As of the writing of this post they are at $42,000 USD,which is 60% of their $70,000 USD goal in just 4 hours! The kickstarter page does a phenomenal job of explaining how the game is played through a fantastic video (narrated by MacLeod Andrews, who did the Reckoners audiobooks) and a number of clear and concise animated graphics. The artwork and aesthetics are, in my opinion, are perfectly matched to the setting and the characters. I truly cannot wait until I can play this game, even if the buy-in is a little steep (the lowest pledge level that includes the game is at $69 USD) I think it will be worth the cost.

    Also included in the kickstarter is a little booklet of new information about the world and Epics of The Reckoners written by Brandon himself. They do have a low, $10 USD, pledge level that consists of a pdf of this booklet and a pdf of the artwork for those who want to support the project but cannot do one of the higher pledge levels.

    For the last two years, following the release of the State of the Sanderson, I've done a post discussing it and comparing it to States past. Well this year's State is out so if you have already read that and want to know some more context read on!

    Finished books being released next year:

    Legion: Lies of the Beholder

    Brandon has finally written the third, and final, installment of the Legion series. It will be release as part of a collection with the rest of the series next September, though there will be an individual Subterranean Press edition to match those for Legion and Legion: Skin Deep.

    White Sand Volume 2

    The second volume of the White Sand graphic novel has been sent to the printers and is expected to release in February.

    Happy Koloss Head-Munching Day everyone! For those of you that don't know, this is a bit of an inside-joke for the fandom. Years ago Brandon was asked if there were any holidays on Scadrial, to which he jokingly replied "Koloss Head-Munching Day" (a day the koloss celebrate by having a nice head to eat). It eventually became conflated with Brandon's birthday (so yes, you should all go wish him a happy birthday)

    If you've been around for a few years, you might also know Koloss Head-Munching Day as the time of the year where Brandon posts his annual State of the Sanderson where he recounts what he's worked on in the past year, his upcoming projects, the status of various anticipated sequels, and potential media adaptations. Well it's here, go check it out.

    In other news, Eric (@Chaos) and I (@WeiryWriter) were invited to guest on the Dragons, Sexy Robots, and Adventures: A Nerd Manual podcast where we talked about Oathbringer. We had a great time working with them, and I think the episode turned out really well. Give it a listen here, and while you're at it check out some of their other episodes as well!

    It's time: the Well of Ascension Leatherbound edition is here!  Like the Elantris and Mistborn: The Final Empire leatherbounds, it is expensive but gorgeous. This edition has apparently 24 pages of art which has some brand-new artwork, three maps of the Final Empire, and the Feruchemical table. Personalized copies might not arrive before Christmas, but if you want the book itself, that should arrive before Christmas with priority shipping.

    On the Stormlight Archive subreddit, there is an Ask Me (Almost) Anything with all the beta readers for Oathbringer. These are readers who read an earlier draft of the book and gave extensive feedback to Dragonsteel and Brandon about it. There's tons of spoilers in the thread, but if you want to know about beta readers, the process, or anything, go ask there! Beta readers have a special flair for this event, so you can easily identify who they are.

    We know many of you are not American, but for those of you in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving! You know what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving? That I can talk to you about the excellent, excellent book called Oathbringer. First, Oathbringer got #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Also, you can vote for Oathbringer in the 2017 Goodreads Awards.

    We reported yesterday that the Mystery Project is likely Skyward, and it's confirmed! Brandon spoke at the release party last night and said it is Skyward. It's YA. And not only do we have it, we have it on video. (What? We have a YouTube channel? It's been an eternity since we've used it.) Brandon said that if you're going to one of his signings to not watch this, so you can experience it live. Please respect his wishes!

    It's the last portion of Part One of Oathbringer on Tor.com right now, Chapters 31-32. Sure, it's just two chapters. I'm sure nothing important happens in them or anything... ;) Go discuss them in our discussion thread. If you missed a chapter set, you can find them and each of the weekly discussions in our Oathbringer Chapter Index.

    We're just a week away from Oathbringer's release! How crazy is that? 

    Oathbringer is my favorite book. 

    I know this will seem like an empty statement. We are on 17th Shard, after all. Loving a new Brandon book--especially a new Brandon cosmere book--is par for the course. But, with that said, I've thought about this for a long time, and I truly cannot think of a book I've read that has made me feel the things Oathbringer has. It has the highest highs, the lowest lows, and moments where your eyes go wide in amazement. 

    In crazy news yesterday afternoon, Paste Magazine spoke with Brandon Sanderson about how The Apocalypse Guard has been put on hold. Apocalypse Guard was going to be another book in the Reckoners universe. But now, Brandon said there was something broken about the book. Editorial feedback didn't help, and so it is being shelved for now. I suppose that's why the Apocalypse Guard trilogy progress bar disappeared from the site.

    Happy Halloween! Today it's oddly fitting we have Oathbringer chapters 28-30. Two weeks away from Oathbringer's release, and next week will be the last of Part One of Oathbringer. As always, check out our discussion thread here, or discuss it in our Oathbringer channel on Discord. If you missed a chapter set, you can find them and each of the weekly discussions in our Oathbringer Chapter Index. Lastly, make sure you post Oathbringer stuff only in the Oathbringer subforum.

    We talked about the Oathbringer endpapers before, and now we have the last two! (Scroll down for those, if you think those are spoilers, I suppose.) But there's lots more to talk about. White Sand vol. 2's release date, which was before right around Oathbringer's release, has been pushed back on Amazon to December 26th, 2017, really hitting that holiday release window... But still, waiting for a good product is always good, rather than wanting a rushed product. There hasn't been an official announcement, so it could still be in flux. 

    Last week Edgedancer, a Stormlight novella featuring Lift after her interlude in Words of Radiance, is out as a standalone hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. Edgedancer, thus far, has only been available in Arcanum Unbounded since last fall, but now if you have everything else in Arcanum Unbounded, you can now get it. It's a great way to tide yourself over until Oathbringer on November 14th. This release of Edgedancer also contains the Lift interlude from Words of Radiance, too, so you get all the Lift goodness.

    The news just keeps coming for Oathbringer (it's like a book is coming out soon or something), and we now have Oathbringer's UK Tour Dates, which we haven't quite known for a while. And today, Barnes and Noble tweeted out some images of Oathbringer's endpages, which then we got the glorious, full art from Tor.com. We also know exactly who they are now, but maybe you find that to be a bit spoilery, so click past the break to find out more and to read our analysis on these.