Brandon and Book News

    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.

    So it looks like Brandon's store is getting a summer sale! Here there are a variety of hardcovers going on deep discounts, as well as other merchandise too! (Note, this does not apply to the new Brandon shirts on Amazon that we reported on before.) Note that ALL of these hardcovers are signed, too, and you can get them personalized, too, if you want to wait longer.

    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. 

    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!