Spoiler Just finished The Lost Metal and when it introduced Kelsier's gang I literally stopped and thought, "this would be a great idea for a spinoff". It's like the Cosmere Avengers.
Started the Stormlight Archive a while back. Haven’t been able to put these books down. Sanderson in the long forum is so good.
First time. About half way through Words of Radiance. Spoiler Kaladin just found out Moash wants to kill the king and agreed to meet with some people
You’ll reread it. I already want to go back and hit parts of the first book again after stuff I’ve learned. Sanderson seems to have a good history of putting out finished product. I have faith he’ll finish.
I wouldn’t hesitate to start it. Sanderson is rigid in his scheduling and we will get the end of at least this period of the SA. He’s breaking up the 10 books into two separate time periods.
I’m so jaded when it comes to fantasy authors. I don’t trust any of them… except Brandon. I have no doubt we’ll get the end of the first arc next year.
Not yet, I had three libby loans hit in the days before it came out of other series I'm into and they have a timer so this one's on hold.
So I've read 20 pages of The Sunlit Man and have an inkling Spoiler Nomad is Sigzil from Bridge 4 right?
He is. He’s also a genuinely nice person. He values his readers and some of them review his drafts and provide comment and recommendations which he pays close attention to.
It was very good book but left me wanting more cosmere. Excited about the horneater novella supposed to come out next year around the same time as stormlight 5. can’t bring myself to read any of the young adult stuff even though I love his writing style.
listening to the Sanderson livestream from his convention, sounds like his next project is an all prose re-write of White Sands. After that, Mistborn era 3 and Elantris 2&3.
The lone author I will absolutely preorder instantly. 2024 reread of all 4 books for sure in preparation.
STATE OF THE SANDERSON 2023 https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2023/ Spoiler INTRODUCTION Whew, what a year! As I write this, the first of the December boxes are arriving in the hands of backers—meaning the Year of Sanderson has come to a close. By the time this goes live, I believe all of them will be shipped. Twelve boxes, with four books, delivered (mostly) on time! This was a big year for us, full of grand ambitions—and full of Herculean efforts to fulfill those ambitions. Largely, we were successful! As is my yearly tradition, I’m going to go over all the things happening in my world—giving a yearly retrospective, but also talking about how things stand right now. As always, this is going to be a bit exhaustive, but I hope you enjoy the ride. PART ONE: THE KICKSTARTER A large part of this year was, as I’ve already mentioned, been dominated by fulfilling on our Kickstarter campaign. Now that it’s done, we’re all taking a deep breath and letting things wind down a little. So what’s next? Well, if you didn’t see my video concluding the Year of Sanderson, I think it is time to slow down. That’s an idea contrary to the way business normally works—every corporation is always focused on growing bigger and keeping customers spending money. That’s never been the way I see things though. I still remember sitting down with another author soon after I was given the opportunity to complete the Wheel of Time, and this person (a good writer, and wise in the ways of business) said to me, “Now, make sure you go back to them immediately and pitch another follow-up series in the Wheel of Time world so your future is secure. If I were you, I’d want to have a dozen books under contract, so you can keep writing these for the next twenty years.” That might have been the smart business decision, but I rejected it immediately—because that wasn’t what the Wheel of Time needed. And when others came to me and asked if I wanted to do a follow-up trilogy, I told them what I’ve always said: Robert Jordan didn’t want it done, so I don’t think I can do it in good conscience. More isn’t always better. In this case, we’ve had five(!) new releases in one year. I don’t want or intend this to become the norm. I might try something like it again someday, but in the meantime we’re going to slow back down. Next year, we’ll likely only have the one book release: Stormlight 5. In addition, we are not going to try to continue the subscription box. We put all our best ideas into this year’s boxes, and we’re extremely pleased with the quality of what we created. It’s time to be done. That said, we do have two crowdfunding campaigns coming this year. Nothing quite as ambitious as the Year of Sanderson, but both (I hope) worth your time. First will be the Words of Radiance leatherbound campaign, happening on BackerKit this time instead of Kickstarter. That is in March. We will follow that with Brotherwise and the Stormlight pen and paper RPG later in the year, something that many of you have been asking us for. I’ll give Brotherwise some room to update you later on that, as well as time for my crowdfunding team to talk details about Words of Radiance. So, we’re not stopping—and I hope you’ll find something to love in what we’re doing. However, we’re not also going to try to replicate the lightning in a bottle that was the Year of Sanderson. I’m happy to walk away from that experience victorious, and let the quality of what we created stand for now. RPG CREATIVE DIRECTOR: JOHNNY O’NEAL SINCE 2022, BROTHERWISE GAMES HAS BEEN WORKING IN CLOSE PARTNERSHIP WITH DRAGONSTEEL TO CREATE THE STORMLIGHT® RPG. THE OFFICIAL TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAME OF THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE, THIS IS A TRULY AMBITIOUS PROJECT THAT BRINGS TOGETHER SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST TALENTED FANTASY ILLUSTRATORS AND GAME DESIGNERS. WE SHARED AN OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM AT DRAGONSTEEL CON, BUT WE CAN REVEAL A FEW NEW DETAILS TODAY! THE STORMLIGHT RPG WILL LAUNCH WITH THREE BOOKS. THE STORMLIGHT HANDBOOK IS OUR CORE RULEBOOK FOR GMS AND PLAYERS, CONTAINING ALL THE RULES YOU NEED TO PLAY. THE WORLD GUIDE IS A SETTING BOOK THAT EXPLORES ROSHAR IN DETAIL, FROM ITS HISTORY AND CULTURES TO ITS UNIQUE FLORA AND FAUNA. IT’S ALSO A GORGEOUS ART BOOK PACKED WITH NEW ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE WORLD, FROM THE SHATTERED PLAINS TO RALL ELLORIM AND BEYOND. WE CAN’T YET REVEAL THE NAME OF OUR THIRD RELEASE, BUT IT’S A CAMPAIGN BOOK FEATURING ADVENTURE CONTENT THAT WILL TAKE HEROES ON AN EPIC JOURNEY ACROSS ROSHAR. WHILE EVERY ASPECT OF THE RPG HAS BEEN DEVELOPED IN COLLABORATION WITH DRAGONSTEEL, THIS ADVENTURE CONCEPT CAME DIRECTLY FROM DAN AND BRANDON. IT GIVES CHARACTERS THE CHANCE TO BOND SPREN, BECOME RADIANTS, AND PLAY A PIVOTAL ROLE IN EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE TRUE DESOLATION. WE’VE DESIGNED THIS GAME FOR EVERY STORMLIGHT FAN, WHETHER YOU’RE A LONGTIME RPG AFICIONADO, A FIRST-TIME PLAYER, OR JUST SOMEONE WHO WILL ENJOY READING THROUGH NEW LORE AND ARTWORK. YOU CAN SIGN UP BE NOTIFIED WHEN THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN GOES LIVE IN THE SECOND HALF OF 2024. THIS IS A DREAM PROJECT FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED, AND WE CAN’T WAIT FOR YOU TO EXPERIENCE THIS FANTASTIC GAME! PART TWO: MY YEAR (OTHER THAN KICKSTARTER) All right, with all of that out of the way, it’s time to talk about what I spent the year doing! So here’s a rundown, using my spreadsheet of work done as a guideline. I spent January doing revisions on Defiant…then wrote Stormlight 5 for (checks notes) the next eleven months. Yup. When I started the year, I had about 100k words written. I now have 450k written. Across eleven months, that’s a pretty good writing clip. Not insane, but respectable. I stopped a few times for revisions, but I spent the entire eleven months straight working on the book. It’s looking good, but I’m scheduled for six more months straight of revisions (which is the most difficult part of the process for me). So wish me luck! PART THREE: UPDATES ON PRIMARY PROJECTS STORMLIGHT Book Five (now called just Wind and Truth) is basically done in rough draft form. I’m writing this update on the 2nd of December, and I assume by the time this goes live on my birthday that I’ll be very, very close—if not done already. I do want to warn you that Horneater (the novella about Rock) will not be part of the Words of Radiance crowdfunding campaign. Why not? Well, I’ve realized that I would like to be able to write that sometime in the next couple of years when I’m missing Roshar, and want to jump back to tell a story there. I don’t know when this will be though. It will likely be between one of the upcoming Mistborn Era Three novels. So…we’ll see. But I don’t want to offer it to you in the campaign since I don’t know when I’ll be writing it. (Sorry.) Once I finish Wind and Truth, the Stormlight Archive novels will go on hiatus as I write the next few projects listed. MISTBORN Era Two is finished as of last year, and my next mainline Cosmere project after Wind and Truth is Era Three, along with the long-awaited Elantris sequels. I expect to start Ghostbloods (the name of the Era Three series) on January 1st, 2025. Half of next year will be revisions on Stormlight, and the rest I’ll spend catching up on things (like doing a White Sand prose novel update) that I’ve let languish a little too much lately. CYTOVERSE Skyward is done! Please, if you haven’t picked up a copy of Defiant, consider doing so. This has been my best received, best selling, and best reviewed non-Cosmere work. I’m extremely pleased with how it turned out. Janci is taking the reins for a sequel series we’re calling Skyward Legacy. And so I’m going to let her put a section in here talking about it! JANCI HERE! BY THE TIME YOU’RE READING THIS, I SHOULD HAVE TURNED IN THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SKYWARD LEGACY TRILOGY. I’M WORKING ON THE END OF THE CLIMAX NOW, AND I’M THRILLED WITH HOW IT’S TURNING OUT. I’M VERY HAPPY WITH THE BOOK, AND AM LOOKING FORWARD TO REVISING IT OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS TO GET IT INTO PUBLISHABLE SHAPE. THE SERIES BEGINS A FEW MONTHS AFTER THE ENDING OF DEFIANT. THE WORKING TITLE OF BOOK ONE IS BLIGHTFALL (THIS IS NOT THE FINAL TITLE, SO DON’T BE SURPRISED IF IT CHANGES!), AND THE BOOK FOLLOWS SKYWARD FLIGHT, NOW A SPECIAL FORCES UNIT, FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF SADIE AND ARTURO. THE HUMANS OF DETRITUS ARE NO LONGER PRISONERS OR REBELS, BUT FULL CITIZENS READY TO TAKE THEIR PLACE ON THE GALACTIC STAGE. SKYWARD FLIGHT’S FIRST RESPONSIBILITY IS TO HELP THE DDF DIPLOMATIC CORPS MAKE CONTACT WITH OTHER HUMANS IN THE OLD SUPERIORITY HUMAN PRESERVES—AND WHAT THEY FIND THERE MAY POSE A NEW THREAT TO THEIR ALLIANCES, THEIR GALACTIC REPUTATION, AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY ITSELF. MY INTENTION FOR THIS SERIES IS FOR IT TO BE ALL THE THINGS YOU LOVE ABOUT SKYWARD WHILE CONTINUING THE STORIES OF MANY FAMILIAR CHARACTERS. I HOPE YOU’LL GIVE IT READ WHEN BOOK ONE COMES OUT! THE FOUR SECRET PROJECTS I thought I’d put this here to interrupt any questions. I do intend all four of the Secret Projects to be standalone stories! You might see these characters again, but for now let’s just allow them to be something currently rare in the fantasy/sf world: books meant to be read on their own, and enjoyed without sequels. PART FOUR: UPDATES ON SECONDARY PROJECTS ELANTRIS As I said, I’m getting ready to start into this series again! Expect more updates next year as I finalize my outlines for this and Ghostbloods. Elantris will soon become a Primary Project again. SONGS OF THE DEAD Back from the, uh, proverbial dead, this book is actually ready! It’s been sent out to publishers, and there are offers on it. So finally, the long-awaited story about an American necromancer living in London is a go. Now, I did want to say one thing about this project. I built the outline and the world, but as things have gotten so busy with the Cosmere—and because revisions were taking a long time—I made the tough decision to hand this project completely to Peter Orullian, the coauthor. I did two passes on the finished novel, but I’ve realized I won’t have the time to support the rest of the series in that way. The Cytoverse is really the only non-Cosmere thing I can devote time to right now, and while I think this novel turned out great, I have decided that I’m not going to be involved in any sequels. (Other than the worldbuilding being mine.) Now, some of you might try to read between the lines on this, so let me say, there’s nothing to find other than what I just wrote here. Peter and I get along great. I think you’ll love the book. It’s just that I can only do so much, and some five years ago I started to realize I had to limit the number of series (particularly non-Cosmere ones) that I can work on. Peter fought valiantly for this book though, as did my agent—who really believes in it. So it finally came to fruition. I expect Peter himself to make an appearance on my livestreams in the future to talk about the book and the process, and I’ll keep you all updated. But do expect to see this one released in the near future. WHITE SAND The time is nearly here. In July I expect to take the graphic novel, my original book, and a lot of notes I’ve been making, and create the definitive novel version of White Sand! Khriss is a major player in the Cosmere, and so having her book be readable in a prose version is an important task I want to get to. Maybe we’ll have this one for Dragonsteel 2025. DARK ONE Dan is still working away on our novel here! I’ll let him give you an update. HI! DAN HERE. DARK ONE IS A WONDERFUL PROJECT, AND ONE WE BOTH BELIEVE IN STRONGLY. UNFORTUNATELY, AS LISTENERS OF OUR PODCAST ARE AWARE, I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH DEPRESSION IN 2021, AND 2023 IS THE YEAR IT CAME TO A HEAD AND MESSED EVERYTHING UP. SO THE BOOK’S BEEN DELAYED WHILE I GET MY BRAIN IN ORDER, BUT THAT’S MOSTLY DONE NOW AND I’M WORKING HARD ON A NEW REVISION OF DARK ONE. IN THE PAST WE’VE TALKED ABOUT THIS AS THE FIRST OF A TRILOGY, BUT THE MORE WE LOOK AT IT, THE MORE BRANDON AND I HAVE DECIDED THAT IT WANTS TO BE A SINGLE BOOK. CERTAINLY MORE STORIES COULD BE TOLD ABOUT THIS WORLD AND THESE CHARACTERS, BUT THIS FIRST STORY, NOW THAT WE SEE IT TAKE SHAPE, IS FLOWING VERY NATURALLY INTO A CLEAN AND SIMPLE NOVEL OF ABOUT 150K WORDS (GIVE OR TAKE). AT THE SAME TIME THOUGH, WE ARE ALSO EXPANDING THE STORY’S SCOPE A LITTLE TO INCLUDE CHRISTINA AND SOPHIE, THE CHARACTERS FROM THE AUDIO PREQUEL DARK ONE: FORGOTTEN. THEY WERE INTENDED TO BE ONE-OFF CHARACTERS EXCLUSIVE TO THE PREQUEL, BUT NOT ONLY DID WE FALL IN LOVE WITH THEM, THEY CAN HELP SOLVE A LOT OF LOGISTICAL PUZZLES WE HADN’T QUITE CRACKED IN THE ORIGINAL OUTLINE. ALL IN ALL, THE DARK ONE STORY WILL BE A LITTLE SHORTER BUT A LOT MORE DEEP AND RICH. WE THINK YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE IT. Again, if you missed Dark One: Forgotten, the audio original Dan wrote last year, it’s awesome. SUPER AWESOME DANGER You might remember that when I did the reveal for the Year of Sanderson I had five manuscripts, not four. The fifth one (let’s call it Secret Project Zero, so that in discussing it people don’t think there’s one they’ve missed) was a middle-grade graphic novel about two brothers, based loosely on my children. One designs a video game named Super Awesome Danger, and the other gets trapped in it. It’s a whole lot of fun. We’ve moved forward on working on some test images for the graphic novel, and I thought I’d share those with you! We’ll be producing this completely in house at Dragonsteel, using Ben McSweeney (who did the Shallan’s Sketchbook illustrations, among others) and Hayley Lazo (artist for the Alcatraz books) to create the art, using my script. Back in 2019, my son Oliver drew a picture of a creature he named Robog—half robot and half frog—and he gave it to me. I hung it up on my mirror and looked at it every day for many months. Super Awesome Danger started as the story of Robog and developed into a tale of two brothers who design a video game together, and then one gets trapped in it. Ben McSweeney is doing initial layout on the graphic novel, and Hayley’s doing pencils and inks, and while we’re still at the beginning of the process, so far it’s turning out fantastic. Here’s an initial layout by Ben along with some of Hayley’s concept art. We’re excited to show more of this as the month’s progress. PART FIVE: UPDATES ON MINOR PROJECTS Spoiler WARBREAKER/RITHMATIST No movement. (Remember that part about me only being able to do so much?) Someday. RECKONERS/ALCATRAZ/LEGION Finished. Nothing to report, though Steven Bohls is still interested in doing some more Reckoners, so maybe someday. THE ORIGINAL I keep letting this one slip through the cracks. Will try to get you all an ebook. UNNAMED DAN AND ISAAC COSMERE NOVELS Both have made progress this year! But we’re doing this slowly and right. So nothing really to report yet, though Isaac has some words farther below. VARIOUS COSMERE BOOKS I MIGHT WRITE SOMEDAY The Night Brigade, Dragonsteel, the Silence Divine, the Grand Apparatus, Mythos, the Aether World book series…wow, this list keeps growing. My my. PART SIX: THE MISTBORN FILM, HOLLYWOOD, AND VIDEO GAMES The Mistborn film has been in development but has run into some hiccups and is on pause for now, but I hope to have more news to share in 2024. But really, there’s not much else to report. Snapshot (the novella) is still being tinkered with at Universal. It might be the only thing under option right now, because I basically put everything else on hold, despite interest, as I decide on a strategy. Tress would make a pretty great animated feature though, don’t you think? PART SEVEN: NEWS FROM MY COMPANY Here’s the part where Emily, then each of my VPs, get to weigh in on things they want to talk about! EMILY THOUGHTS Emily here. In case you were not aware, Brandon and I sort of divide up responsibility over the departments at Dragonsteel. He oversees Creative Development, Editorial, Narrative, and the Marketing half of Publicity and Marketing. I work closely with Operations, Merchandise & Events, and the Publicity half of P&M. As all of these departments have grown this year, Brandon and I found that we needed a bit of help to keep all the balls in the air! Fortunately, we have Becky Wilson as our Executive Coordinator, and Ethan Skarstedt as our Special Projects Coordinator. Both of them have been invaluable to us in a hundred different ways. During 2023, the things I’ve been juggling included meetings, meetings, and more meetings, travel, guests, the Dragonsteel Construction Project, and the convention. I’m grateful for supportive colleagues, friends and family members who have made this circus not only possible, but a whole lot of fun as well. CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT (ISAAC STEWART) It was a blast meeting many of you at this year’s convention. I particularly loved seeing so many copies of the White Sand graphic novel come through. The omnibus was a labor of love, and we appreciate your patience as well as Dynamite’s hard work getting the book out. I hope you’re enjoying all the cool new things we added to it! Many of you have asked how the Nicki Savage novel has been coming along, so here’s an update. The first draft is finished, clocking in at 118k words, about the same length as Shadows of Self. It needs a lot of revision before I show it to Brandon—he and I have discussed the story, but he hasn’t seen the manuscript yet—so getting it ready for him to read is my next step. As we build out Dragonsteel’s Creative Development department, I foresee more time to work on the revision. This year Ben McSweeney has stepped into more of a hands-on directorial role, taking the reins orchestrating and contributing to things like the art for Defiant, working on that with one of our in-house art magicians and Taynix experts, Hayley Lazo. Ben and Hayley are both hard at work on the pages for Super Awesome Danger. As the company grows and we work with more artists and artwork, more people need access to what we’re creating. Rachael Lynn Buchanan, my assistant, focuses on artist relations and helps me get feedback to the artists I work with directly on our specialty books. She’s also a fantasy author—her debut novel, The Dollmakers, comes out from HarperVoyager on August 13th, 2024 (more details here). Jen Neal manages our database of art assets, prepares print files for our Dragonsteel editions, and generally serves as our nexus of getting files to the those who need them. This year, we added two more art coordinators to our team. Priscilla Spencer joined in January, and Anna Earley in February. Priscilla primarily liaises with Merch and Events, shepherding merchandise designs and sometimes contributing her own (I’m looking at you, Mistborn holiday sweater). Anna is primarily responsible for making sure there’s lots of nice art for the convention (like the DDF propaganda posters!), creating designs and illustrations (ie. the cover for Hyperthief), and shepherding some cool upcoming projects. What was once a job for a mapmaker scribbling away in Brandon’s basement is now a much more monumental collection of projects. I’ve felt the weight of the bridge gradually get lighter as each team member has taken hold and lifted. We’re now practicing side-carry, but we’re preparing for the day when we’ll leap across chasms. NARRATIVE (DAN WELLS) Hello! Dan again. You already heard from me in the Dark One section, but let me give you a bit of an update on everything else. We’ve recently passed my one-year anniversary as an official employee of Dragonsteel, and—as is typical with publishing—most of that time has been spent on things the public won’t see for another year or so. That said, we have published a few projects: First, we were able to release Dark One: Forgotten, which is amazing and incredible, so if you haven’t listened to it yet please check it out. It is currently in audio only, due to a fun formatting gimmick we wanted to try, but that gimmick worked with flying colors, so even if you don’t do a lot of audiobooks you might want to give this one a try. Second, we’ve also published Hyperthief, a short story set in the Cytoverse that Janci and Brandon did, but which I helped put together. Some of my job as VP of Narrative is to write, and some of my job is to help other writers. It’s awesome and I love it. So what does the future hold? So many wonderful secrets. Dark One is tentatively planned for 2025. A very cool [REDACTED] is planned for 2024. And of course my first Cosmere series is deep in pre-production; I’ve built an extensive outline, and I’m working with Brandon and Isaac on some amazing worldbuilding, and I love it all. This is a story I’ve wanted to write for literally years, and having the opportunity to co-write it with Brandon is a dream come true. PUBLICITY AND MARKETING (ADAM HORNE) Adam here! It’s been a crazy year, and I can’t believe it’s finally over! Or at least, nearly over. With all the new books—including all of Tor’s editions of the secret projects—the book clubs, the many hours of livestreams and other video content on YouTube, we’ve been incredibly busy—a sentiment that I imagine is being shared by everyone here at Dragonsteel. But, as Brandon said above, we have two more crowdfunding campaigns next year, so things may be slowing down, but they’re only slowing down a bit for us. You may have already seen our first teaser for the Words of Radiance campaign go live this morning on BackerKit (we plan on posting it to YouTube on tomorrow) that highlights some more information about the Knights Radiant and their spren. We’ll be having these launches every week leading up to the campaign start on March 5th, so be sure to stay tuned on Brandon’s YouTube—and other social channels (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter X) for the latest information. If you want to stay up to date on all our merchandise, you should follow Dragonsteel Books on their TikTok and Instagram too! We have more exciting videos and social content planned for the rest of the year, and we can’t wait to show you! OPERATIONS (MATT HATCH) Hello, everyone! Matt here. It’s hard to believe we’ve arrived at the end of the Year of Sanderson. During my first week at Dragonsteel, in February 2022, I was just as shocked to learn Brandon had written these secret novels as you must have been. At that moment, I knew my journey here had drastically changed. Fast-forward to today, almost two years later, and the last of the Sanderson Fan boxes have been shipped. It’s incredible. I’ve looked forward to this moment, to stop and breathe and celebrate this end and beginning with everyone. I hope you will join me in thanking those who worked day after day to help fulfill this one-of-a-kind journey that was the Year of Sanderson. We did the seemingly impossible, together. And, now, a new beginning approaches! So, what changes await Operations and Human Resources at Dragonsteel in 2024? First, we are working on new job opportunities! If you don’t want to miss them, follow our socials and keep an eye on the Jobs page on BrandonSanderson.com. Beyond that, my departments have the joy of working on ways to make each employee’s journey awesome, and we have a lot of plans to do just that in 2024. Thankfully, it has been my pleasure to have a fantastic team whose nimble and capable efforts help make this possible. My great appreciation goes out to them, including Hazel Cummings, Makena Saluone, Braydonn Moore, Lex Willhite, Kathy Sanderson, Emma Tan-Stoker, and Jane Horne. And, of course, we couldn’t do this without the queen of Special Ops herself, Emily Sanderson. Cheers to all that is yet to come in 2024, for fans and fellow employees alike! MERCHANDISE AND EVENTS (KARA STEWART) We had an idea of what 2023 would have in store, but what a whirlwind year it’s been! And an absolutely monumental journey for the Merchandise and Events team. We just want to start things off by thanking all of those who we were fortunate enough to have on our bridge crew. There were chasms that we simply could not have crossed without them. Our story this year truly begins in March of 2022 with the launch of Dragonsteel’s Kickstarter campaign, where nearly 200,000 fans felt the thrill of the unknown and pledged to bring Brandon’s wild dream to life. In 2023, you joined us for the release of four new books (on top of the already highly anticipated release of Defiant), worldhopped through eight additional fan bundles, and still had excitement left to spare for numerous new Dragonsteel releases outside of the campaign—have you seen that ramen bowl? Through it all we’ve sent over 775,000 individual shipments in one year—more shipments than Dragonsteel has done in all previous years combined! And we haven’t just been packing boxes either. In the middle of everything we moved to a brand-new warehouse (over ten times the size of our previous one), attended Tampa Bay Comic Convention, and planned and executed our best convention yet! Dragonsteel 2023 sold out with 10,000 attendees, and we were beyond excited to see so many of you in person. It really meant the world to us. And, if you didn’t get the chance to see it, we built a brand new booth! The fun doesn’t end there: our Words of Radiance Leatherbound Campaign is prepared to launch March 5, 2024 on BackerKit; our merchandise team is hard at work creating incredible releases for the coming year; and Dragonsteel 2024, running December 5-7, is going to be epic. Stormlight 5 is almost here! EDITORIAL (PETER AHLSTROM) The success of the four Secret Projects showcases the fantastic job the whole Editorial team (Kristy Gilbert, Karen Ahlstrom, Jennie Stevens, Betsey Ahlstrom, and Emily Shaw-Higham) did over the past couple years. Working on those plus Defiant ran us ragged, but it also prepared us for the next big thing. Coming off a hugely successful Dragonsteel convention where the Editorial department got to talk to a constant stream of you wonderful readers across both days, we’ve now buckled back down to work on Stormlight 5. We have part-by-part deadlines scheduled for the book throughout the beta reading, line editing, copyediting, production, and proofreading stages until late summer. It’s already a hectic time, and it’s going to get even more so once we send the final pieces of the book to the editors and the beta readers on January 8th. Wish us luck! (And a huge shout-out to the beta readers and gamma readers, without whom the books would come out in much worse shape.) LIGHTWEAVER FOUNDATION (JANE HORNE) Hi everyone! This is Jane Horne, Director of The Lightweaver Foundation. 2023 was an amazing year, and that was because of all the incredible support we had through your donations and volunteer efforts! This year The Lightweaver Foundation was able to expand our donation capabilities and was able to support a variety of educational initiatives and disaster relief programs, as well as support our core efforts to address basic needs and literacy for all ages. If you would like to learn more about The Lightweaver Foundation, please visit https://www.lightweaverfoundation.org/ , where you can expect a full year recap posting in early 2024. PART EIGHT: PROJECTED SCHEDULE This one is going to be a little hard to gauge this year, as while a few things are set, a lot of others are in flux. For example, I’ll be writing Ghostbloods straight through, maybe with Elantris sequels in between, and don’t want to release any of them until they are all done. Let’s assume they’re all 200k words, and I can do roughly 300k a year. That means I’d be writing them all of 2025, 2026, and 2027. That would put the first one probably coming out 2028, five years from now. In the meantime, we’ll be working on some other cool things, as listed below. December 2024: Wind and Truth Spring 2025: Skyward Legacy One(?) December 2025: White Sand Novel/Dark One(?) Spring 2026: Skyward Legacy Two(?) December 2026: Skyward Legacy Three(?) December 2026: Horneater(?) December 2028: TBD December 2028: Ghostbloods 1 Summer 2029: Elantris 2 December 2029: Ghostbloods 2 Summer 2030: Elantris 3 December 2030: Ghostbloods 3 Note that Dan and Isaac’s Cosmere novels will be in here somewhere, as will Super Awesome Danger and likely a collection of all my non-Cosmere short fiction. Also note that in the past, I’ve been bad at projecting things this far ahead. (You can go look at this section in previous State of the Sanderson posts to see.) So this is all subject to change! PART NINE: UPDATES FROM PUBLISHERS AROUND THE WORLD! Last year, I started letting my overseas publishers have a chance to tell us what they’re working on and releasing in the upcoming year. I’m happy to give them the floor for a little while! Please show them love—they spend a lot of money on translating and publicizing my books, and many of them have become dear friends over the years. BRAZIL (TRAMA) In 2023, Trama Brazil proudly published Tress of The Emerald Sea and Words of Radiance. In 2024 they will launch The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England in April and Oathbringer in May. They are delighted to announce the release of the first three books in the Mistborn series, scheduled for Q3—spring in Brazil. (Previous versions from an old publisher have long been out of print, so it’s great they’ll be available again.) For international fans eager to acquire the Brazilian editions, Amazon remains the optimal platform. Trama says: “Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to sharing these literary adventures with enthusiasts around the world.” CZECH REPUBLIC (TALPRESS) They just published the 10th anniversary edition of Warbreaker in October. 2024 will bring Defiant, three of the four Secret Projects, and The Lost Metal. They’re available in Talpress’s eshop and in bookstores throughout the Czech Republic. DENMARK (ULVEN OG UGLEN) Most recently Ulven og Uglen published the Danish version of The Way of Kings as En konges vej, Stormlysfortællingerne 1, split into two hardcover volumes. Danish articles about translator Jakob Levinsen’s work on this and other books can be found here and here. In the fall of 2024, Ulven og Uglen plan to publish the Danish version of Words of Radiance. FRANCE (LIVRE DE POCHE) In 2023, Livre de Poche published Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Skyward Flight, and The Sunlit Man. In 2024 they’ll release Warbreaker (10th anniversary edition), The Lost Metal, Defiant, and all six Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians books collected in 3 volumes. Fans from other countries can buy the books in French bookstores, or in local bookstores that ship internationally, and if not on the online bookstores such as Place des libraires, Mollat, Décitre, Furets du Nord, Dialogues, and Cultura, or online retailers like Fnac.com, Amazon, Rakuten, Momox and many others. EGYPT (KAYAN) Tress of the Emerald Sea was published in fall 2023. In 2024 they will release Legion, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. They’re also working on translating The Sunlit Man and the Mistborn trilogy, but release dates aren’t set yet. You can find Kayan’s Arabic translations on the following sites: Al-Shourouk Bookstores, Diwan Bookstores, and Aseer AlKotb. GERMANY (DROEMER KNAUR) In 2023 Droemer Knaur published Cytonic and Skyward Flight. In 2024 they we will publish Defiant. They are also on deck to release Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, but likely in 2025. Their books are available worldwide, e.g. via Amazon. GERMANY (PIPER) In 2023 they published Metall der Götter (the German translation of The Lost Metal), which their partner Hörbuch Hamburg also released in audio. They also published Hüter des Gesetzes, a re-release of the German translation of The Alloy of Law (formerly known as Jäger der Macht with a previous publisher—it had been out of print), so at last both Mistborn eras are available in the same format. Additionally, 2023 saw a complete re-release of the Mistborn series (“Die Nebelgeborenen” in German) in e-book format, which also hadn’t been available for some years. Their most recent release was Weit über der smaragdgrünen See (Tress of the Emerald Sea), and in February they’re publishing Handbuch für den genügsamen Zauberer: Überleben im mittelalterlichen England, the German translation of The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England. Their online shop at www.piper.de ships internationally. NETHERLANDS (VOLT) Dutch publishing house Volt made the Reckoners series available in audio in 2023, to find a new audience for it. NETHERLANDS (ICEBERG) In 2023 Iceberg released Station Zonnewind (Sunreach), and in 2024 they plan to release ReDawn, Evershore, and Defiant, plus The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England. The best places to order books internationally are Bol.com and Amazon.nl. SPAIN (EDICIONES B/NOVA) In 2023, Nova published the Spanish edition of the four Secret Projects simultaneously with the Kickstarter releases, a box set of the Mistborn Original Trilogy with the new covers premiered by Tor, and Defiant. In 2024, they will release paperbacks of the Mistborn Original Trilogy and the Mistborn Wax & Wayne Series with the new covers premiered by Tor, and they will do their best to join the US launch date of Stormlight Archive 5. In Spanish, Brandon Sanderson was interviewed by El Mundo in April, by El País in June, and La Sexta TV in February. TÜRKIYE (İTHAKI) İthaki will publish Tress of the Emerald Sea early in 2024, as well as Yumi and the Nightmare Painter and Dark One for release right before Türkiye’s biggest book fair, in Istanbul at the end of the summer. İthaki’s books can be purchased on Amazon, as well as their local Penguen bookstores. POLAND (MAG) In 2023, MAG published Tress of The Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook For Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man. In 2024 they will release the White Sand omnibus in June and Stormlight 5 in December. These online bookstores ship their books worldwide: Amazon.pl, Empik.com, Swiatksiazki.pl. Here are some links to the reviews and articles from 2023: Article 1, Article 2, Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4, Video 5 SERBIA (MIPL) In 2023, Mipl published all four Secret Projects in full color with the illustrations. In 2024, Mipl plans to publish all books from the Mistborn series, as well as Warbreaker. All Mipl books can be ordered online on their webshop mipl.rs, and on the biggest Serbian bookstore website delfi.rs. They have released a video (in Serbian) with the translator and editor of Brandon Sanderson’s books, where they discussed his work, challenges they encountered, as well as some other fantasy books they would recommend to Brandon Sanderson lovers. You can find the link here: PART TEN: CONCLUSION This document is always a lot of work to create, and I feel like I’ve done a marathon when we get it all together! I realize that for an author, I have quite the large business these days. Nobody else I know has more than a few assistants. I’ve always had big dreams and big ambitions. However, it’s important to me that you know that…well, I’m still me. If that makes sense. I still spend most of my time writing the books themselves, despite all of this, because that’s the part I love the most. This started as a guy in his basement telling stories, and I genuinely think I’d be happy if it had stayed that way. I like this a little better, but it can be overwhelming at times! My promise to you, however, is that I always try to keep a good work/life balance. (As good as someone in my position can.) Thank you for all your enthusiasm and support this year in particular. It’s been incredible to see. For now, I just hope to continue entertaining you—and surprising you—for many years to come. Brandon December 2024: Wind and Truth Spring 2025: Skyward Legacy One(?) December 2025: White Sand Novel/Dark One(?) Spring 2026: Skyward Legacy Two(?) December 2026: Skyward Legacy Three(?) December 2026: Horneater(?) December 2028: TBD December 2028: Ghostbloods 1 Summer 2029: Elantris 2 December 2029: Ghostbloods 2 Summer 2030: Elantris 3 December 2030: Ghostbloods 3
I started a Stormlight reread before the date for 5 got announced and just finished RoW. That Maya/Adolin courtroom scene, goodness. And Teft, you king
Most of his series can be read interchangeably without worrying too much about spoilers. You’ll miss some easter eggs but nothing will be ruined for you. I’d start with Mistborn (Mistborn: The Final Empire is the first book in that series) it contains two completed eras (Taylor stole the whole Era’s thing from Brandon). Both Eras (Books 1-3 and Books 4-7) have endings that wrap up those storylines. *I would read Elantris (Novel) The Emperor’s Soul (Novella) between books 3 and 4, or at least before book 7. Then I’d probably read Warbreaker, it’s currently a standalone novel that is great but also has some characters that may try to sneak into some other novels. Then I’d go into Stormlight Archive, his magnum opus that ties most of his other cosmere (the name for his universe) series together. The most Easter eggs and characters from other series reside here. Similar to Stephen King’s Dark Tower (in that it is the hub of his universe, not similar series) Okay now that I typed out my opinion I’ll see if I can find a list that agrees with me
Here’s one that I think works with a couple modifications from me. Main difference from what I posted is it breaks up Mistborn Era 1 and 2 a good bit. I thinks that’s fine but if you want to pull ahead Era 2 that isn’t going to mess you up. Cosmere Order Mistborn (The Final Empire) (Mistborn Era 1) The Well Of Ascension (Mistborn Era 1) The Hero Of Ages (Mistborn Era 1) Warbreaker (Standalone) The Way Of Kings (Stormlight Archive) Words Of Radiance (Stormlight Archive) Elantris (Standalone) Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection **(Short Story Collection, Emperor’s Soul and Edgedancer are musts, Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell and Sixth of Dusk are recommended. DO NOT Read Secret History yet, I’ll add it later) Oathbringer (Stormlight) Dawnshard (Stormlight Novella) Rhythm Of War (Stormlight) The Alloy Of Law (Mistborn Era 2) Shadows Of Self (Mistborn Era 2) The Bands Of Mourning (Mistborn Era 2) Mistborn: A Secret History (Mistborn Novella) The Lost Metal (Mistborn Era 2) White Sand (comic book, I haven’t read it) Tress Of The Emerald Sea (Standalone) Yumi And The Nightmare Painter (Standalone) The Sunlit Man (Standalone)
I also think Publication Order, which is how I’ve read most of them, is perfectly fine. This shows both Cosmere and Non-Cosmere works. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Bibliography
The easter eggs and Cosmere connections are cool, but absolutely not necessary to enjoy each series/book. Way of Kings/Stormlight Archive would be my starting point in hindsight. If you don't love it, his books probably aren't going to do it for you. Warbreaker is another option. It's a great, stand-alone novel (that interconnects with the Cosmere) that showcases his writing style and has the classic Sanderlanche that he's known for.
I started with first three of Stormlight and was in turn kind of disappointed with Mistborn Final Empire trilogy. /hate shield Start with Mistborn imo
Finished this. Had just enough Mistborn feel to it to keep it in the same world. I like all of Sandersons books, but wasn’t in love with this book. I enjoyed it still and already started the 2nd book. The ending took me by surprise. Didn’t expect that twist. Spoiler I think Miles wasn’t a great antagonist. The dude heals but can get captured by nets. It’s a great power, but also he’s still pretty weak and feel like he could’ve been captured a lot easier. Really curious to see how Marisa’s powers are used, bc there’s got to be more to it coming up.
Finally diving into the special projects. These hardbacks are so awesome, one little touch from Tress that I love is when they change what sea they’re sailing in the accents and colors of the chapters change.