MISTBORN RPG video game cancelled

Video game studio Little Orbit have been working on a role-playing video game based on Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels for the past few years. Yesterday they confirmed that the project has been cancelled after a pair of publishing deals fell through.

Little Orbit announced the game as Mistborn: Birthright in 2012 and have spent five years developing a rule set and engine for the game. They took their time on the project, as Little Orbit is a relatively small company best-known for low-budget tie-ins with various properties but wanted to give this project more time and attention.

Unfortunately, Little Orbit appear to have been behind on the curve, preferring to work through publishers rather than releasing games directly to Steam or engaging in crowdfunding. When two publisher deals fell through in rapid succession, the company was forced to cancel the project and only barely survived folding altogether.

Although this is sad news, it does raise the intriguing possibility of a higher-profile company picking up the rights. The movie rights to the Mistborn series (as well as the rest of the Cosmere universe) were picked up a year ago and a writer was assigned to the first Mistborn movie back in January. If the film hits the big screen, expect to see renewed interest in the books and possible further spin-offs.

MISTBORN movie gets a writer

DMG Entertainment has hired scriptwriter F. Scott Frazier to adapt Brandon Sanderson's novel The Final Empire as a film. This is the first novel in the first Mistborn trilogy (which so far extends to a completed trilogy and an almost-completed quartet, with two more trilogies planned) and part of DMG's ambitious plan to adapt most of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe to the screen as a Marvel-style shared universe.

Frazier is a relative newcomer on the screenwriting scene. He has written or co-written the scripts for The Numbers Station, Collide, xXx: Return of Xander Cage and Empress.

The Final Empire is the second Sanderson film that DMG is developing. They are in a more advanced stage with a movie version of The Way of Kings, the first Stormlight Archive novel, with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan already deep in the writing of a first draft for that film.

Brandon Sanderson update

Brandon Sanderson has issued his annual "State of the Sanderson", confirming what projects he will be working on in the coming year. On the Stormlight Reddit community, he has also issued a larger-scaled overview of his Cosmere mega-sequence and where he sees the series going.

For 2017, Sanderson will be releasing Oathbringer, the third Stormlight Archive novel, in November. The Lost Metal, the final Wax and Wayne novel set on the Mistborn world, will likely be released in 2018, alongside his next YA novel, The Apocalypse Guard. The second White Sand graphic novel will also likely appear in the next two years.

For the Cosmere overall, Sanderson envisages the story now encompassing the following series:

Elantris: A three-book series. Elantris itself was released in 2005 as Sanderson's first novel. Elantris II is on the horizon and getting closer, but is not imminent.

Mistborn: Originally a trilogy of trilogies, but expanded to 13 volumes with the addition of the Wax and Wayne sub-series. The first trilogy is done and Wax and Wayne will be done by the end of 2018. There will be two further trilogies. The first will be written in the gap between Stormlight Books 5 and 6, with the final set of three books acting as a capstone to the entire Cosmere mega-series.

Warbreaker: At least a duology. Warbreaker itself was released in 2009 but the sequel, Nightblood, which will bridge the first book and Stormlight Archive, is a long way off.

The Stormlight Archive: A 10-book series, unfolding in two five-volume halves. Books 1 and 2 are out and Book 3 will be out at the end of 2017.

White Sand: Originally planned as a trilogy, but now being released as a graphic novel trilogy instead, with Book 1 already out.

Dragonsteel: A planned 7-volume series which will explore the backstory of Hoid and the 17th Shard, the glue which holds the entire Cosmere together. However, Sanderson has indicated this series may be shrunk to 5 volumes and possibly just an ultra-focused trilogy. This will be the second-to-late Cosmere series, with only the last Mistborn trilogy to follow on from it.

Sanderson has also confirmed that he still plans to write and release Aether of Night and The Silence Divine (although one or both may be shrunk down to novellas), as well as a novel set on Threnody (the planet of the Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell novella) and possibly a novel sit in Silverlight (a city mentioned in Arcanum Unbounded, possibly a city-between-dimensions where worldhoppers can hang out, like Sigil from Planescape).

This puts the total Cosmere series at around 36 novels and three graphic novels.

Brandon Sanderson's COSMERE universe optioned for film

DMG Entertainment has optioned the film and TV rights to Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe, currently consisting of eleven novels, a graphic novel and six novellas and short stories. Sanderson projects that there will eventually be around forty novels set in this universe.

DMG Entertainment - more correctly, DMG Yinji - is a massive Chinese multimedia and film company, founded by Dan Mintz, Peter Xiao and Wu Bing. It has been the prime driver in localising American blockbusters for the domestic Chinese market, even co-producing special versions of films with Chinese-exclusive scenes or Chinese actors, such as Iron Man 3 and Looper. This has allowed DMG to commit $270 million to a production pot. These envisage this to cover 50% of the production costs of the first three films to be covered by the deal. Presumably they will be looking for international companies (probably American) to come on board to provide the other half of the budget.

The first two movies to go into production will be based on The Way of Kings, the first Stormlight Archive novel, and The Final Empire, the first Mistborn novel. It's unclear what the third will be, but potentially Elantris, Warbreaker, White Sand or a sequel to one of the movies. Sanderson has received a chunk of cash under the deal for the rights up-front, plus additional amounts from production and release, which will see a substantial payday for the author even if the films are not successful.

Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, who have worked on Saw franchise, will be adapting The Way of Kings. The Final Empire doesn't have a screenwriter announced yet. DMG plan to fast-track both movies, suggesting we could see them in 3-4 years rather than the much larger lead time you'd expect from such a deal. However, that will likely depend on international production partners being found quickly. Given DMG's immense profile and reputation, that may not be too difficult.

Sanderson has so far sold over 10 million copies of his solo work (also including a large number of non-Cosmere novels for younger reachers, such as the Alcatraz and Rithmatist series) and reportedly more than 12 million copies of his three Wheel of Time novels (derived from Robert Jordan's notes after he passed away in 2007). The Wheel of Time is also in development as a TV series with another company, although further details have not been released as yet.

This is great news for Brandon and his fans, although the strategy will likely leave some scratching their heads. The 600-page Final Empire is far too big for a single two-hour movie, but the 1,100-page The Way of Kings is simply unfilmable as a single feature. Either DMG are envisaging a drastic cut to the storyline, multiple films to cover a single book (with 10 books planned for Stormlight alone, this is unlikely) or possibly a movie or two dovetailing into a TV series later on.

Assuming that all of Sanderson's Cosmere works are covered by the deal, here is what they have the rights to:

Published Works
The Mistborn Trilogy
The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
Secret History (novella)

Mistborn: Wax & Wayne
The Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
Bands of Mourning

The Stormlight Archives
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (short story)

Other works
Elantris
The Hope of Elantris (short story)
The Emperor's Soul (novella)
Warbreaker
Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell (novella)
Sixth of the Dusk (novella)
White Sand (graphic novel series)


Unpublished Works
The Mistborn II and Mistborn III trilogies
6 novels

Mistborn: Wax & Wayne
The Lost Metal

The Stormlight Achives
Oathbreaker
Seven further novels 

Dragonsteel
Seven novels

Other works
Elantris II (and possibly a third book)
Warbreaker II: Nightblood (and possibly a third book)
Hoid
The Silence Divine

Woah.

A History of Epic Fantasy - Part 31

In 2005 Tor Books released Elantris, the debut novel by 29-year-old Brandon Sanderson. Although it had a reasonable amount of coverage for a debut novel, it wasn't heralded as the "next big thing", just a solid opening volume from a new writer. That changed the next year when Sanderson released The Final Empire, the debut volume in the Mistborn trilogy. That really changed a year later when Sanderson was announced as the author who would be completing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time sequence after Jordan's sad death from cardiac amyloidosis.

Since 2005 Sanderson has published nineteen novels,  co-written (from Robert Jordan's notes) the final three Wheel of Time novels and also published ten novellas. He blogs and podcasts frequently, attends conventions and juggles multiple series and projects, as well as playing a lot of the Magic: The Gathering card game. His prolific output and relaxed and friendly interactions with fans have earned him a tremendous fan following. His solo novels have now sold over six million copies, with the Wheel of Time books adding another twelve million (at least) on top of that.

Sanderson core work is The Cosmere, which is the setting for almost all of his adult, original fantasy fiction. To date, this comprises the Mistborn books, Elantris, The Emperor's Soul, Warbreaker and The Stormlight Archive series, as well as the forthcoming White Sand graphic novels and Dragonsteel series (amongst others). According to Sanderson, the Cosmere is a compact dwarf galaxy which is home to a number of worlds inhabited by humans, who in this universe originated from a planet called Yolen. At some point in the past they migrated to other worlds (or were possibly recreated on other worlds) and were then cut off by the shattering of a being/entity/force called Adonalsium into sixteen "shards" of immense power. Those who came into possession of the shards each became a being of immense power, effectively gods, but they also became consumed by the nature of each shard, for good or ill. Each shard has a different form of magic or power related to it, in some cases wildly varying in capabilities.

Sanderson kept this "hidden background" was kept a mystery for his first few books. It wasn't until eagle-eyed fans spotted a mysterious character called "Hoid" appearing in apparently completely unrelated books that they began to piece together a much bigger picture. According to Sanderson, Hoid is one of a handful of individuals who can walk between the worlds using magic. He arrives on each world at a period of crisis, observes events, and then moves on. In some cases he is a background observer, almost impossible to spot. In others, such as the first two Stormlight books, he is  much bigger and more proactive character. Although this hidden background will rise to the fore and become more important in future books, it remains a relatively low-key (and, for some fans, still invisible) part of Sanderson's appeal.

Mistborn

Sanderson's most well-known set of books is the Mistborn series. This opens with an initial trilogy: The Final Empire (2006), The Well of Ascension (2007) and The Hero of Ages (2008) before jumping forward several hundred years for a quartet consisting of The Alloy of Law (2011), Shadows of Self (2015), Bands of Mourning (2016) and The Lost Metal (forthcoming). Two additional trilogies are also planned.

The Mistborn novels take place on Scadrial, a planet that is choking under cloud cover produced by incessant volcanic eruptions. The people of the Empire are kept under the tight control of the immortal Lord Ruler, who is opposed by a band of rebels. Eventually these rebels gain a major victory, but in doing so inadvertently unleash a much greater threat. The initial trilogy deals with these events and introduces the setting's magic system which is based around the ingestion of different types of metal to produce sorcerous effects. This initial trilogy is standard medieval fantasy, but in a post-apocalyptic world. The follow-up novels, which were not originally planned but organically grew out of an idle project Sanderson began to kill some time, are set 300 years later when the setting has moved on and is now more reminiscent of the American Old West. The second trilogy is planned to take place in a more contemporary-like world, with skyscrapers, TVs and electricity, whilst the final trilogy will be more futuristic and will use magic and technology to achieve FTL space travel.

The Mistborn novels have fast-moving action, some well-drawn characters and some intriguing ideas, but the core draw is the worldbuilding. This challenges the notion many fantasies have of being stuck in stasis where nothing ever changes, or change very slowly, or where magic stymies scientific progress. Sanderson, like Jordan before him, suggests otherwise and that magic itself will become part of the scientific method in such a setting, losing its supernatural overtones as it becomes understood as a natural process of the world.

The Stormlight Archive

The Stormlight Archive is Sanderson's latest major magnum opus, planned to consist of two tightly-connected five-volume series. The books published to date are The Way of Kings (2010) and Words of Radiance (2014). The third book, Oathbringer, is expected in early 2017. This series, like Mistborn, is set on a world with a specific geographical feature, in this case massive highstorms that sweep across the planet from east to west. Both the human inhabitants and the wildlife have adapted to deal with these immense storms, but their nature and origin are unclear. There is a bit more of a thematic element as well, focusing on caste systems, slavery and ethnic divisions which are forcing the peoples of Roshar to work against one another rather than the gathering true threat.

This is a much bigger series than Mistborn, with each novel expected to weight in at a massive 400,000 words or so. There are multiple magic systems drawn from multiple sources, the geographic spread of the story is much vaster (an entire supercontinent, generated from a Julia fractal set) and there are many more characters and cultures involved. The novels both have a main storyline and "interludes", self-contained short stories and vignettes establishing settings, characters and ideas that will not be further explored until much later in the series.

The Stormlight Archive has been heralded as the heir to The Wheel of Time in terms of its size, scope and epic reach, and it looks set to replicate that success with its huge sales as well.

Sanderson has written books beyond these, including a superhero trilogy, the YA Alcatraz series and more, but it's The Cosmere mega-series (already being called The Dark Tower of epic fantasy), which will eventually encapsulate more than forty novels, that will be his most famous achievement. He writes fast-paced action stories with a maturing and increasingly satisfying prose style and some vivid characters, all set against a vast, cosmic backdrop which is stunning in scope.


Sanderson is one of the best-known authors to emerge from the 2000s, but there is another author who started writing in the 1980s and publishing in the 1990s, but it was only in the 2000s that they achieved a breakthrough in the United States, won a series of awards and gained a fervent and passionate fanbase...without anyone knowing who they were.

New cover art from Sanderson & Abercrombie

Tor have revealed the American cover art for Shadows of Self, the fifth Mistborn novel from Brandon Sanderson and the second of four books featuring the characters of Wax and Wayne. The book will be out in October this year and will rapidly be followed by its sequel, Bands of Morning, in January 2016.

Meanwhile, Del Rey have unveiled the American cover for Half a War, the concluding volume of The Shattered Sea Trilogy. This book will be out on 16 July in the UK and 28 July in the USA and concludes the story begun in Half a King and Half the World.

No word yet on if Abercrombie and Sanderson will ever collaborate on a novel, possibly one where swearing forms the basis for an imaginative magic system.

A Rough Guide to Sanderson's Cosmere

Brandon Sanderson's latest fantasy novel, Words of Radiance, is out and doing very well, topping the New York Times bestseller list and hitting #2 on the UK's Sunday Times list. The novel is the second book of ten planned in The Stormlight Archive series, but it is less well-known that it is also the eighth novel in his Cosmere setting, which will eventually total over 40 novels.

SPOILER WARNING

This article includes detailed discussions of events some readers may be unaware of in Sanderson's novels. Spoilers for Elantris, Warbreaker, the Mistborn trilogy, The Alloy of Law, The Emperor's Soul and both Stormlight Archive books (including the recently-released Words of Radiance) follow.


Overview

The Cosmere can be likened to how most (or indeed all) of Stephen King's novels and stories take place in the same universe, something that is for the most part completely irrelevant to the book at hand but occasionally becomes important when characters cross from one novel to another (like Randall Flagg appearing in both The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon). It wasn't until King wrote and completed his epic Dark Tower cycle that the connections between all of these books and characters became clear; prior to that point it was more like an assorted collection of Easter eggs for hardcore fans to puzzle over and analyse.

Sanderson's take is a little bit more involved and slightly more prevalent in each book, however. The Cosmere itself is a collection of various planets all linked by a shared extradimensional realm known as Shadesmar. Collectively these worlds are located (relatively) close to one another in a compact dwarf galaxy, and Sanderson has indicated that later books will show people crossing between worlds using starships equipped with magic-powered FTL drives. However, at this stage crossing between the worlds is only possible by magical means and limited to a very small number of people.

The following is a list of works by Sanderson set in the Cosmere, listed by publication order:

• Elantris (2005)
• Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006)
• Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (2007)
• Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (2008)
• Warbreaker (2009)
• The Stormlight Archive: The Way of Kings (2010)
• Mistborn: The Alloy of Law (2011)
• The Emperor's Soul (2012, novella)
• Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (2013, short story published in Dangerous Women)
• The Stormlight Archive: Words of Radiance (2014)

The following is a list of works by Sanderson planned to take place in the Cosmere:

• The Stormlight Archive: Books 3-10
• Sixth of the Dust (short story, set on a minor Shardworld)
• Mistborn: Shadows of Self and a sequel
• The Mistborn II trilogy (set in a semi-modern time period)
• The Mistborn III trilogy (set in a futuristic time period with space travel)
• Elantris II (and possibly a third book)
• Warbreaker II: Nightblood
• Two stand-alone novels, The Silence Divine and Aether of Night
• White Sand and two sequels
• Skyward, a YA Cosmere novel
• The Liar of Partinel, a stand-alone novel which will also apparently be a prequel to Dragonsteel
• Dragonsteel, a seven-volume series which will apparently explain much of the Cosmere backstory
• Hoid, either a stand-alone novel or trilogy focusing on the Cosmere's most visible character

Worlds of the Cosmere

The Cosmere appears to hold countless inhabitable (and maybe inhabited) planets. At least ten of these worlds are important in being 'core Shardworlds', where one or more Shards of Adonalsium are located.

The confirmed core Shardworlds so far are:

• Sel: the planet on which Elantris and The Emperor's Soul are set.
• Scadrial: the planet on which the Mistborn books are set.
• Nalthis: the planet on which Warbreaker is set.
• Roshar: the planet on which The Stormlight Archive is set.
• Ashyn: the planet on which The Silence Divine will apparently be set, located in the Roshar system.
• Braize: a planet located in the Roshar system, will apparently be glimpsed in The Stormlight Archive.
• Taldain: the planet on which White Sand and its sequels will be set.
• Yolen: the planet on which The Liar of Partinel and the Dragonsteel series will be set and the apparent original homeworld of humanity in the Cosmere.

A further planet named Threnody is the setting for Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. Threnody is apparently a minor world of limited importance in the grand scheme of things. Sanderson is also writing a short story called Sixth of the Dust which will similarly be set on one of these 'minor Shardworlds'.

The Cosmere and its Shardworlds (core and minor) seem to mostly work as does the real universe: there are galaxies, stars, planets orbiting them, moons circling them etc. Roshar, for example, is apparently less dense planet than our Earth (and is possibly smaller) and this results in a gravity field only about 70% as strong. Earth does not exist in this universe, and Sanderson uses this to help delineate which are Cosmere novels and which are not (so his Alcatraz, Reckoners, Rithmatist and Legion series, which are all set on Earth or a parallel universe version thereof, are not part of the Cosmere). In the Cosmere universe, the original homeworld of humanity appears to be Yolen.

The Shards of Adonalsium

Adonalsium is a force named several times through the books, but its nature, origin and purpose remain totally unknown. Some have speculated Adonalsium was a supernatural entity of some kind (like a god or deity) whilst others has suggested that Adonalsium was a binding force of energy or reality. For reasons that remain unknown, Adonalsium was shattered into sixteen 'Shards'. The Shattering appears to be the most important moment in the backstory of the entire Cosmere setting, and it would appear possible that it will be explored in either The Liar of Partinel or the later-set Dragonsteel series, which are set on Yolen where the Shattering seems to have taken place.

The Shards can best be described as forces of magical power and focus. Each Shard has different capabilities, and each one of the magic systems in Sanderson's books appears to be derived from one Shard, or sometimes the interactions between several. Shards are not physical objects, as such, but seem to be conceptual ideals/ideas which can be possessed by humans. Humans who take control of Shards take on the characteristics and personalities associated with that Shard, sometimes with disastrous results. For example, the original holder of the Shard Ruin, Ati, was said to be a kind and gentle man but was corrupted by the Shard into the monstrous force of destruction mentioned in the backstory to the Mistborn novels, and eventually had to be slain. Shards can be 'splintered', which appears to dissipate their power amongst lesser forms, but it is unclear if they can be recombined later on. More intriguingly,  the effects of Shards can be combined into new forms. For example, at the end of the first Mistborn trilogy the powers of the Shards of Ruin and Preservation are combined to become Harmony. Whether it is possible for all sixteen Shards to be recombined and Adonalsium, whatever it was, to be recreated in this manner is not known.

The known Shards and their locations and holders are:

• Ruin: originally held by Ati, apparently a kind and gentle man who was corrupted by the Shard into a merciless destroyer. Vin slew Ati at the conclusion of the first Mistborn trilogy and its power was transferred to Sazed, who then combined it with Preservation to become Harmony.
• Preservation: originally held by Leras, who sacrificed his power to imprison Ruin at the Well of Ascension. At the conclusion of Mistborn, Sazed took possession of it and combined it with Ruin to create Harmony.
• Endowment: a Shard located on Nalthis. Its holder is unknown. Its influence is felt in Warbreaker.
• Devotion: a Shard located on Sel and held by Aona. Aona was slain by Rayse and the Shard was splintered. It is theorised that Devotion is linked to the AonDor and the magic of Elantris.
• Dominion: a Shard located on Sel and held by Skai. Skai was also slain by Rayse and his Shard splintered. The Skaze magic (in Elantris) may be linked to Dominion.
• Honor: a Shard located on Roshar and originally held by Tanavast. Honor was also known as the Almighty or, simply 'God' (to his, and others', disquiet). Odium destroyed Honor and splintered it. Apparently the highstorms of Roshar are a manifestation of Honor's power and splintering. The Stormfather appears to be a former servant of Honor, if not a splinter directly. The ten magical forces represented by the Knights Radiant may also be derived from Honor.
• Cultivation: a Shard located on Roshar. Its Shardholder is still alive, appears to be female and may be in hiding. There are numerous fan theories on her identity.
• Odium: the Shard of hatred, destruction and conquest. Held by a man named Rayse, who was apparently an unpleasant and violent individual even before he became a Shardholder. Unlike the other Shards, which appear content to remain on their particular worlds, Odium has moved from world to world, slaying other Shardholders. Rather than taking their Shards, which would risk altering his personality, he splinters them to prevent them being recovered and used against him. His plan is to do this to all other Shards until his is the only one left, by default giving him control of the Cosmere. He slew Devotion and Dominion on Sel, splintering them, and did the same to Honor on Roshar. However, his attempts to further his conquests on Roshar failed and he was somehow bound to the Roshar star system. According to some reports, he is imprisoned on the planet Blaize (one of Roshar's sister-worlds) and seeks to escape with the help of human servants on Roshar. The Voidbringers and Parshendi may be (willingly or not) his servants.
• An unknown shard: held by a man named Bavadin and located on the planet Taldain. Bavadin is regarded, like Rayse, as an antagonist. White Sand will apparently explore his role further.

There are seven as-yet unidentified Shards. The so-called 'Seventeenth Shard' is not a literal further Shard, but an organisation of worldhoppers who keep track of the Shards and what is going on on the various Shardworlds.


Hoid

Hoid is notable as the only character to appear in all of Sanderson's Cosmere works to date, either directly or through writings or other evidence. According to Sanderson, Hoid is not the most knowledgeable or experienced 'worldhopper' in the Cosmere, but is notable for his independent streak (not being part of the Seventeenth Shard, at least not anymore) and also for having been present at the Shattering. Hoid appears to be quite old, intimating on occasion that he is hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Hoid's origins are murky, but a letter suggests that Hoid is not his real name and he took the name from his slain mentor (sample chapters from The Liar of Partinel suggest that Hoid's real name is Midius, but this information is non-canon until the book itself is completed and published).

Hoid's appearances in the Cosmere books are as follows:

• Elantris: Hoid, disguised as a beggar, helps Sarene smuggle weapons into Elantris.
• The Emperor's Soul: Hoid, disguised as the Imperial Fool for the Rose Empire, betrays Shai to arrest and imprisonment for reasons unknown.
• The Final Empire: Hoid acts as a street informant in Luthadel, giving intel to Kelsier.
• The Well of Ascension: Hoid, disguised as a Terrisman, spends the book hunting for the Well in Terris before backtracking to Luthadel and briefly meeting Elend and Spook outside the city.
• The Hero of Ages: Hoid acts a street informant again, this time in Fadrex City. Vin goes to him for information, but an overwhelming feel of dread fills her and she decides not to talk to him. It's been theorised that Vin had been touched by the power of Ruin at this point and this may have given her the feeling of antipahy towards Hoid.
• The Alloy of Law: Disguised, again, as a beggar, Hoid attends the wedding of Lord Yomen and Lady Ostlin. He also appears to have directly written the book's appendix.
• Warbreaker: Disguised as a storyteller, Hoid recounts tales to Lightsong and Siri.
• The Way of Kings: Hoid takes the name 'Wit' and works behind the scenes at the Alethkar royal court. He also writes a letter to the Seventeenth Shard that is periodically referenced in the book.
• Words of Radiance: Hoid continues in his role as Wit, taking an interest in both Kaladin and Shallan. He appears to have received a reply to his letter from the previous book, which is again quoted extensively.

 

Other worldhoppers

In the earlier books, it appeared that Hoid was the only worldhopper at large in the Cosmere. However, both The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance reveal the existence of other worldhoppers, some of whom we have met before in other books. These are as follows:

• Galladon: a native of Sel and a former resident of the city of Elantris, Galladon later reappears on Roshar, taking the name Temoo. He appears to now be a member of the Seventeenth Shard and is looking for Hoid.
• Demoux: a native of Scadrial. He was formerly a captain in the rebel army led by Kelsier, and later a general in Elend's forces. During the events of Mistborn he became a Seer. He later reappeared on Roshar along with Galladon, looking for Hoid. He has the nickname 'Thinker' and is likely also a member of the Seventeenth Shard.
• Blunt: Blunt is a companion of Galladon and Demoux's and, like them, originates from another world. According to Sanderson, we will meet Blunt (presumably under his real name) at an earlier part in his life in a novel yet to be published.
• Nazh: an artist who has worked on Scadrial (where he annotated the maps in Mistborn: The Alloy of Law) and Roshar (some of his artwork appears in The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance).
• Vasher: also known as Warbreaker the Peaceful, Vasher was a Returned on Nalthis and played a notable role in the events of Warbreaker, most notably forging the sentient sword Nightblood. He reappears on Roshar as Master Zahel, a sword-trainer in the Alethi army. He has lost Nightblood by this point.
• Nightblood: a sentient magical sword created by Vasher on Nalthis with the somewhat vague goal of 'destroying evil'. Nightblood is noted for its psychotic single-mindedness and quite devastating levels of power. At the end of Words of Radiance, Nightblood is given by Nalan, Herald of Justice, to Szeth (the Assassin in White) to replace his lost Honorblade. How Nalan came into possession of the blade is not known. It is assumed that the mooted Warbreaker sequel may explain more of this, entitled as it is Nightblood.
• Khriss: an as-yet unseen character named by Sanderson as the most experienced worldhopper out there. Some fans have speculated that he/she is the leader of the Seventeenth Shard and is the person exchanging letters with Hoid in the first two Stormlight books.

So what does it all mean?

The shape of Sanderson's cosmology and setting is much clearer now and we will certainly learn more about the Cosmere through future books. However, it sounds like we might have a very long (more than a decade?) wait before we get to The Liar of Partinel and the Dragonsteel books which will fully explain what is going on. In the meantime, we can theorise and assess.

For those interested in exploring these things further, the Seventeeth Shard website features significant discussion of the topic. The accompanying wiki, Coppermind, also features a lot of more detailed information about the Cosmere and what is and is not a part of it.

Two new MISTBORN novels signed

Tor Books have announced that they have signed two new Mistborn novels from Brandon Sanderson. These two books will continue the adventures of Wax and Wayne, who first appeared in The Alloy of Law.

The first of the new books, Shadows of Self, is already partially written and will be published at the end of 2014, with the third book following a year later. Sanderson will continue to write Stormlight Archive novels in the meantime, with the second, Words of Radiance, due to come out in March 2014. Whilst the new Mistborn books will be somewhat self-contained, they will foreshadow the second proper Mistborn trilogy which will be set 75 years after the events of the Wax and Wayne books.

MISTBORN computer game in development

It's been confirmed that a computer game based on Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books is in development from Little Orbit Games and Game Machine Studios.

Mistborn: Birthright is a prequel set several hundred years before the events of the first trilogy and will depict the misadventures of Fendin 'Fiddle' Fathvell, a young nobleman who must master his Allomantic powers in order to save his family. Brandon Sanderson has written the storyline for the game.

The game is due for release around Autumn 2013 on the X-Box 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Macintosh formats.

Hmm. Interesting but also risky. The game creators are pretty much total unknowns. Little Orbit and Game Machine have worked predominantly on undemanding DS and iPad/iPhone games. They are unproven at making a large-scale, Triple-A fantasy RPG that can compete with the likes of Bethesda or BioWare. That doesn't mean that they can't do a good job (everyone needs to start somewhere), just that I'd have looked for a company with a bit more experience first. Still, worth keeping an eye on.

Brandon Sanderson plans 36-volume fantasy series

Going through some old interviews, I was surprised to read that Brandon Sanderson is planning a 36-volume fantasy series.


The good news is that, if you've read all of his adult solo fantasy novels to date, you're already six books into it. And 'series' is probably the wrong word, a more accurate term would be 'setting'.

It's been an open secret for a while that Sanderson's fantasy novels share a common background setting and mythology, the 'Cosmere'. In his first five novels - Elantris, Warbreaker and the Mistborn trilogy - this took the form of a couple of easter eggs. Most notably, a character called Hoid plays a minor, background role in all five books, apparently observing events with interest.

In The Way of Kings this background suddenly became more important to the plot: Hoid (aka 'Wit') now has a brief POV section and plays a larger role in events. We also meet three other people who can travel between the worlds, two of whom we've met before (one in Elantris and one in Mistborn), who are apparently trying to track Hoid down. Hoid sends a letter to the organisation that sent them (an organisation called the 'Seventeenth Shard') expressing irritation with this move, a letter that appears throughout the second part of the novel. Ultimately, it is clear that the ten-volume Stormlight Archive series will expand on the Cosmere and the linked setting of Sanderson's fiction.

At the moment these works exist in the Cosmere setting:

• Elantris (2005)
• Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006)
• Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (2007)
• Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (2008)
• Warbreaker (2009)
• The Stormlight Archive: The Way of Kings (2010)
• Mistborn: The Alloy of Law (2011)

Note that The Alloy of Law, which was written as an unplanned side-project, is part of the Cosmere universe (Hoid has a cameo in the book as a beggar at a wedding and also apparently writes the appendix, at one stage comparing the Mistborn world's magic with that of Sel, the Elantris planet) but is not part of the planned 36 volumes in the series (nor are its planned sequels).

Sanderson plans to write the following books in the setting (and in some cases has already written very early drafts):

• The Stormlight Archive books 2-10
• Several further Mistborn side-novels featuring Wax and Wayne
  
• The Mistborn II trilogy
• The Mistborn III trilogy
• Warbreaker II: Nightblood
• Elantris II
  
• The Dragonsteel series (seven volumes, first one is The Liar of Partinel)
• White Sand and at least one sequel
• The Silence Divine
• Aether of Night
  

Sanderson plans to write Stormlight #2 (current working title: The Book of Endless Pages) this year for release in mid-to-late 2013, and then the third through fifth books of the series. He will take breaks to release additional Mistborn side-novels featuring Wax and Wayne. He also hopes to release Elantris II in 2015, on the tenth anniversary of the publication of Elantris (his first novel). Then he will release the Mistborn II trilogy (the one set in a world with modern technology). Stormlight #6-10 will follow, possibly with Warbreaker II and other books interspersed between them (presumably there will be no more Wax and Wayne books once Mistborn II has been released), then Mistborn III (the one set in space with magic-fuelled FTL travel). Only after that will we see Dragonsteel. Which assuming Brandon keeps up a book a year, means we'll hit that series somewhere around 2027!

That accounts for 28 further books in the setting. Combined with the six already published, that's 34 books with two left unaccounted so far (recalling that Alloy of Law and its forthcoming sequels are not part of the count, being new inventions). There may be a further Elantris sequel, and Brandon has also suggested that there may be a book called Hoid which tells the story of the titular character in much clearer detail (though apparently the Dragonsteel sequence will reveal a lot more about the underlying mythology and unifying points of the various books and sub-settings).

So far the Cosmere has been something that close readers have picked up on, but casual readers are probably totally ignorant of it. There are shades here of Stephen King's unified supernatural mythology: readers can read The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon with no real clue who Randall Flagg is, but then in The Dark Tower series more information is revealed about him and a grander masterplan can be discerned. This doesn't prevent the books being enjoyed individually but does reward readers who've been looking at things carefully.

Hopefully, by 2035 or thereabouts (when no doubt ebooks will be inscribed directly into our brains with lasers or something), we can look back and see how successful Sanderson was in pulling off the project. But it's certainly an ambitious - even grandiose - idea and it will be fascinating to see it develop in the years to come.

UK cover art for Brandon Sanderson's THE ALLOY OF LAW

Brandon Sanderson has released the UK cover art for the new Mistborn novel, The Alloy of Law.


The book will be published in both the UK and USA in November 2011.

Some cover art and news

The American cover art for Brandon Sanderson's new Mistborn novel, The Alloy of Law, has been unveiled:


As has the American cover art for Vernor Vinge's Children of the Sky, his long-awaited sequel to the much-lauded A Fire Upon the Deep:


Paul Kearney's Kings of Morning has apparently been delayed until November 2011. Disappointing, though that's still only a year after his previous novel, Corvus, was published. No reason has been given for the delay.

New MISTBORN novel in 2011

Brandon Sanderson recently revealed (via Facebook) that he's been working on a Mistborn short story or novella during his break before beginning work on the final Wheel of Time novel in January. However, the book has gotten a bit bigger than originally planned and is now a short novel of approximately 60,000 words (maybe longer when finished). Tor have bought the book and will be publishing it in 2011, meaning that 2011 will not be Sanderson-less as previously thought.


Interesting news. The new book will be set roughly halfway between the Mistborn trilogy and its planned sequel series, which will be set several centuries later when the people of Scadrial have achieved a level of technology similar to that of contemporary Earth, but with allomancy still in use. From the sound of it, the short story will be set at a time when firearms are in use, possibly a Wild West level of technology (apparently it features the 'best allomancy gunfight ever'). A release schedule or title for the book has not been announced yet.

MISTBORN film rights optioned.

Brandon Sanderson has announced that his Mistborn trilogy may be headed to the big screen. Paloppa Pictures, a small film company, have optioned the three books and begun work on a script treatment. This is obviously only the start of the process, as large-scale investment for the likely CGI-heavy movies will be required and a major studio will need to be wooed for financial and distribution support. As with many other projects, it may come to nothing, but this is nonetheless an important first step.

The Final Empire was released in 2006, followed by The Well of Ascension in 2007 and The Hero of Ages in 2008. As the reviews indicate, for me they were pretty good with lots of cinematic battles and good character development, and would be well-suited to a cinematic adaptation.

SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH and MISTBORN 1 now out in the UK

Just a word to let UK readers know that Songs of the Dying Earth and Mistborn: The Final Empire are both now out in the UK, in swanky new editions. Both are excellent and should be available from your nearest bookshop or favoured online retailer.

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

The great volcanoes are gradually covering the world in ash and the cloying mists are lasting longer with each passing day. Crops are failing, humanity is divided and the world is dying. Elend Venture, the emperor of humanity, and his Mistborn wife Vin are doing their best to repair the damage caused by events at the Well of Ascension, but their efforts seem in vain. An ancient destructive force has been unleashed upon the world, and many of their allies have been struck down.


Sazed, last of the Terris Keepers, has lost his faith and now struggles to find a reason to live. The kandra TenSoon has been declared a traitor to his people and put on trial. The Steel Inquisitors and the monstrous koloss have found a new master and now prey on the weaker cities of humanity. As unthinkable as it sounds, it appears that removing the Lord Ruler may not have been the wisest of ideas...

The Hero of Ages opens with the world in a pretty apocalyptic state. Things are, as we are told in great detail, very bad indeed and our heroes' struggles to survive without becoming as brutal as the Lord Ruler are testing them to their limits. Sanderson successfully lays on the gloom and darkness throughout the book, creating an oppressive, backs-against-the-wall atmosphere that frequently has the reader scratching their heads and wondering how their heroes are going to get out this mess. The answer comes in a lengthy series of revelations (sometimes skirting perilously close to info-dumps, but Sanderson manages to just about avoid that pitfall) that are stunning, impressive and extremely logical given what has come before.


The characters continue to develop nicely, with some characters who were only in supporting roles in earlier books coming to the fore here, particularly Marsh and Spook. As with the previous book, there is definitely a lessening of the focus on Vin, who becomes just one more member (albeit frequently the most important) of the ensemble cast here rather than the out-and-out heroine. Oddly, this is actually works very well, since Vin's character has been explored and developed in the previous two volumes to the point where there isn't much more to be done with her.

The gloom that fills the book occasionally threatens to make events too bleak, with the wit and humour of the previous books reduced somewhat, but the pace is definitely turned up a notch from the second book and at around the three-quarters mark events explode into motion, carrying us through the hugely ambitious finale. Epic fantasies often collapse during their finale chapters and if Mistborn falters (some events in the Kandra Homeland during the final few chapters don't seem to make much sense given events at the start of the book), it is to a considerably less-pronounced degree than others. The ending is consistent with what has come before, features some excellent twists on the established characters and magic systems, and leaves clear hints of there being more to come, as well as clues for those readers interested in the greater cosmology and universe which Mistborn shares with Elantris, Warbreaker and the forthcoming Stormlight Archive series.

The Hero of Ages (****½) is a ferocious and satisfying conclusion to the Mistborn Trilogy, confirming Sanderson's status as one of the most promising writers to emerge in the field recently. The book is available now in the USA and will be published by Gollancz on 11 February 2010 in the UK.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Final Empire has fragmented into numerous squabbling bandit kingdoms and rebel states. Elend Venture has taken control of the former capital, Luthadel, aided by Vin, a powerful Mistborn, and the other leaders of the rebellion. But Elend's idealistic dreams of a democratic government are sorely tested when two other rulers lay claim to the city and arrive to besiege it.


Meanwhile, the Terris Keeper, Sazed, is worried by reports of the return of a deadly form of the mists that appear at night, and begins an investigation into the prophecies that led to the Lord Ruler gaining power, searching for clues as to the location of the Well of Ascension, the only power in the world that might save it from destruction...

Picking up where The Final Empire left off, The Well of Ascension sees a marked change in pace in the development of the Mistborn series. The first book was a bit of a caper story mixed in with a traditional 'rebelling against the evil ruler' narrative with a great magic system on top. Book 2 now sees the former rebels coping themselves with the pressures of governance. Elend, a rather thin character in the first book, becomes a lot more interesting in this volume as his former idealism clashes with an increasingly cynical outlook brought about by events. There's also a lessening of focus on Vin. Whilst still the central character, Elend and Sazed come much more to the fore in this novel as well. There's also a new Mistborn character, Zane, who enters the story and provides an effective sparring partner for Vin. Sanderson's worldbuilding also comes on a lot in this book, with a logical development of his metal-based magic system.


On the minus side, the change in narrative style means a slackening of the pace. There's a lot of talk and intrigue in this book, although it isn't entirely convincing and leads to a static pace as the various factions are engaged in a stand-off for most of the story, no one side able to move without being defeated by the others. This makes for a slightly less engaging story than the first book.

However, in the last 200 pages or so Sanderson suddenly turns everything up to 11. All hell breaks loose and as well as featuring major battles there are a series of stunning revelations about the prophecies that our characters have been following so far. The prophecy is a particularly annoying staple of epic fantasy literature but Sanderson's treatment of it at the end of this book is fascinating, making for a great twist ending.

The Well of Ascension (****) takes a while to get going, but decent character development keeps things ticking over until the action and revelation-packed finale. The novel is available now in the USA and will be published on 10 December 2009 by Gollancz in the UK.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

A thousand years ago, a hero whose coming was long prophesied set out to save the world from the Deepness, a force of ultimate evil. He went on a quest to the mythical Well of Ascension, the power of which would allow him to save the world from oblivion. He failed. Whilst he banished the Deepness, he was corrupted by his power and became the immortal Lord Ruler. He went on to conquer the world.


The Final Empire now spans most of the world. The majority of the people are slave-workers known as skaa, whilst a privileged few, the nobles (the descendants of the Lord Ruler's allies and cronies who helped him achieve power), rule in indolent luxury. The Lord Ruler's will is enforced by his obligators and the horrifying Steel Inquisitors, and all opposition to his rule is crushed without mercy.

In the Empire's capital, Luthadel, a man named Kelsier and his criminal crew is planning the ultimate heist. The prize is the rule of the Final Empire itself. To put together the operation he requires powerful and skilled allies and hires Vin, a young girl who has just started exhibiting the powers of the Mistborn, someone who can wield all the powers of Allomancy. Allomancers 'burn' metals to release magical powers. Most Allomancers can only control one metal, but Mistborn can wield all ten, and are formidable opponents. Vin's job is to infiltrate the nobility and gather intelligence on the opposition that is waiting for them, but soon gets in over her head.

The Final Empire is the first book in the Mistborn Trilogy. Prior to this series, Sanderson had won some acclaim with his promising debut, the single-volume novel Elantris, but Mistborn saw a marked improvement in his critical reception and led to him being offered the job of finishing the last Wheel of Time book following Robert Jordan's death.

The Final Empire was published in 2006, around the same time as Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora and Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. Whilst in Europe the book attracted little attention - its first British edition isn't out until the end of this year - in the USA it was compared favourably with those other high-profile debuts. There are some interesting similarities with Lynch, as The Final Empire is also a 'heist' or 'caper' novel with a band of criminals out to pull a con, although in this book the con is a much bigger and more epic in scope. Direct comparisons between the two books beyond that are unfair, as their targets are very different, but broadly speaking The Final Empire is not as funny but is a bit more cohesive and focused on its central plot.


Amongst Sanderson's strengths are a finely-tuned magic system, which is logically and rationally explored. The notion of something eating metals (or, more often, drinking metal-specked liquids) is a bit weird at first, but it works quite well and some of the Mistborn abilities are quite impressive. The laws of ballistics are cleverly invoked to show how a Mistborn can, for example, 'fly' from one place or another by simply repelling or attracting themselves towards metal objects. Character-wise, the book is also strong. Vin is a decent lead protagonist, although her somewhat brooding and paranoid emo-ness at the start of the book is a bit difficult to get used to. Her character evolution over the course of the book and her graduation to the level of Total Badass is perhaps predictable, but nonetheless well-handed. Kelsier and Sazed are also strong protagonists, and the subtle way that Sanderson builds up the character of the Lord Ruler is very clever. However, Elend is a bit of a bland non-entity at this stage, and the other members of Vin and Kelsier's crew tend to blur into a morass of similarly well-meaning-but-decent do-gooders.

The story develops nicely and there's a very nice and clever twist in the ending. In fact, The Final Empire is almost a stand-alone novel, with only a solitary line of dialogue near the end opening the way for the sequels.

The Final Empire (****) is a strong and worthy addition to the ranks of the 'New Fantasy' movement. The writing is fresh and enjoyable and the setting impressively-realised. The novel is available now in the USA and will be published by Gollancz in the UK on 1 October 2009.

Mistborn Heads to the UK

Brandon Sanderson, who has had four successful fantasy novels published in the USA with a fifth on the way, is going to have his books published in the UK for the first time, starting at the end of 2009. His Mistborn Trilogy is going to be released over the course of six months from Gollancz, with The Final Empire currently planned for October, The Well of Ascension for December and The Hero of Ages for February 2010. The trilogy, which has already attracted a lot of acclaim in the USA, shows a world in the aftermath of a traditional 'hero sets out to save the day from Dark Lord' narrative where things went pear-shaped and the Dark Lord won.


Sanderson is also the writer chosen to finish Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Currently it looks like an official announcement about the status and publication date for the final book, A Memory of Light, will be made at JordanCon in the USA in April, where Sanderson, his editor Harriet (also Jordan's widow) and Tor Books head honcho Tom Doherty will be in attendance. The money is currently on the novel, already considerably longer than any other book in the series, being split in two, with the first part being released on 3 November 2009 with the second being released in spring or summer 2010.