Brandon and Book News

    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.

    Welcome to "Peter Sayeth," a new feature on 17th Shard where we talk about what Peter Ahlstrom, awesome person and Brandon's assistant, teases on social media. We totally don't stalk him. That would be silly and creepy. Ahem.

    This month Peter has talked about a lot of goodies, one of which is delightfully trolly about The Bands of Mourning's ending.

    We are still a fortnight away from the release of Shadows of Self but luckily the folks over at Tor.com have posted another chapter to help tide us over. Check out Chapter 5 here! I for one think it is a great chapter, with sequences from all three main viewpoints (Wax, Wayne, and Marasi) that really start to dig into who they are as characters and their backstories. I get the feeling though, that we really ain't seen nothin' yet...

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

    Earlier this week we reported about a change in policy with regards to release parties at BYU. Specifically they are instituting a new "digital line", which was just posted. You can sign up here. One important note, if you want to be entered into the raffle for a number between 1-100 you must sign up within the first 24 hours (i.e. between Friday at noon and Saturday at noon, Mountain time). This form is also the place where you can sign up to volunteer, if you wish to do so.

    In other news it appears that Steelheart is getting a new hardcover release. As we know Steelheart received new US cover art when it got released in paperback, the covers for Firefight and Calamity then continued in the new style. This new release is a hardcover of Steelheart with the "new" paperback design. This means that hardcover owners now have an opportunity to have a matching set. According to Peter this is not an actual reprinting but rather "a rejacketing of warehouse copies of the first printing hardcover".

    Check out our forum topics here to discuss the digital line, and here the new Steelheart release!

    Today, Brandon wrote a blog post about the Shadows of Self release events. We've talked recently about the Weller's Book Works signed copies, but what was most interesting about Brandon's blog post is information about the BYU release party for Shadows of Self. This might not affect most of you, but hey, we are the hardcore Brandon fans, so this is something worth noting.

    This year, there will not be camping in front of the BYU bookstore. This is a huge change, as people have camped since 2010 with The Way of Kings.

    Shadows of Self is only three weeks a way! Following on from last week Tor.com has posted Chapter 4. Check it out here. This one picks up right after Chapter 3 leaves off (at an incredibly intense moment). I do have to admit that it was very exciting to finally find out what happened next.

    In other news Wellers Book Works has posted the pre-order announcement for Signed and Numbered editions of Shadows of Self. This is a great opportunity for fans who won't be able to see him on tour (see here for the full list of events) to get a signed copy. If you want it personalized act quickly as the deadline for personalizations is tomorrow.

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

    Shadows of Self is officially less than a month away! (Check our post here to see Brandon's tour schedule.) With the hype starting to tick up Tor.com has posted Chapter 3 (following their release of the prologue and Chapters 1 and 2 a couple months ago). Check the preview out here! (Do note that a version of this was posted as part of 2013's Steelhunt, but this does cover the last of the Steelhunt excerpt. So if anymore previews are posted it will be entirely new material.)

    First up, Rebecca Lovatt over at The Arched Doorway has just posted a fantastic new interview with Brandon that took place earlier this year at Minicon. Highlights include an embarrassing story from Brandon's youth, a discussion on the setting of Dark One, an update on White Sand, and tantalizing hints about the future of the cosmere!

    Shadows of Self is already a little over a month away, which means that Brandon will soon be on the road again. Tor posted the schedule for the US leg of the tour a few weeks ago and today Gollancz has posted the UK leg.

    A few weeks ago we posted about the Mistborn board game prototype that Crafty Games planned to reveal at GenCon. I found it quite exciting and was desperate for information, and there were quite a few users who felt the same, so I started work on this secret project. I reached out initially to Tellingdwar, and later to Crafty Games, about collecting and posting information about the game for those of us who could not attend. I hope you all find it as interesting as I do!

    Crafty Games (makers of the Mistborn Adventure Game) have just posted their plans for this year's GenCon (July 30 - August 2, only a little over a week away) which include several pieces of Mistborn-related news. Most notably they announced that they will be showing their prototype for a Mistborn board game. After announcing that it was in development back in March without much information, they have finally given us a title, "Final Empire: A Mistborn board game", as well as a brief teaser description.

    Hot on the heels of yesterday's reveal of the Calamity cover art on Amazon.com comes a preview of the first few chapters of Calamity! Those of you subscribed to Brandon's newsletter will recognize a portion of this from the most recent one sent out a few months ago, though this is an extended excerpt. Read it now over on io9!

    The cover art and release date for Calamity, the finale of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, "The Reckoners", have finally been revealed, thanks to the Amazon.com product page. We can expect Calamity to hit bookstore shelved February 16, 2016. (And Peter has confirmed that this is the real release date, though it still could move by a week.) The cover art is also pretty awesome (and thankfully matches the Firefight cover design).