Interview with Brandon Sanderson
Posted by Goodreads on January 2, 2013
With four books likely out in 2013, best-selling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson's boundless energy is more than evident—he even writes at a treadmill desk. Best known for the Mistborn series, which was widely acclaimed for its intricate world and detailed magic system, Sanderson has also penned the stand-alones Elantris and Warbreaker, the middle-grade series Alcatraz, and his newest series, The Stormlight Archive. Last but certainly not least, in 2007, Sanderson shouldered the task of finishing the landmark high fantasy series Wheel of Time following the death of its creator, Robert Jordan, who left instructions for a successor so that his fans could eventually read the long-awaited ending to his epic. This month the series' final book, A Memory of Light, is being published. The Utah-based Sanderson chatted with Goodreads about writing the biggest battle Wheel of Time has ever seen, leaving unanswered questions for fans, and why he'll be sure to leave detailed notes behind when he dies.
Goodreads: The publication of the final Wheel of Time book is a big event for fantasy readers, many of whom have been anticipating the end of the series since the first book in 1990. As a longtime fan yourself, how do you feel?
Brandon Sanderson: It's really a weird experience. I discovered fantasy when I was 14, and the Wheel of Time books were the first series that started when I started. I have been following it all through, and it's also one of the few series that continued with me: I enjoyed it both as a youth and as an adult. Wheel of Time has always been there through my whole career, so I understand completely how [fans are] feeling about it.
But it is also a weird experience for me as a fan. I read Robert Jordan's ending in December 2007, so part of me has had the Wheel of Time done for five years now, and the rest of the world is finally getting to catch up with me. I think that people are going to feel a lot of what I felt when I read that last scene; I was very satisfied. I loved the scene, but there was also this deep sort of sense of, "Wow, it's actually over." The series has been going for 23 years, and we have joked in Wheel of Time fandom for 22 about when the ending would come. It's a reverent feeling, it's an excited feeling, and it's also a sad feeling.
GR: Endings can often be the hardest part of a book to get right.
BS: Since Robert Jordan wrote the last scene, that actually made this whole project mountains easier. I had a target to shoot at. While I didn't have a ton of written material from Robert Jordan that I could actually put in—there are about 200 pages worth of scenes and notes that needed to become somewhere around 2,500 pages [Books 12-14 by Sanderson total 2,556 pages]—a lot of those 200 pages were summaries of scenes he wanted. Robert Jordan wrote by instinct. He was what we called a discovery writer, so what was handed to me was a big pile of half-finished scenes or paragraphs where he wrote, "Well, I am either going to do this, this, or this. I was thinking of this, but it could be this." Yes, cracking an ending is hard, and the Wheel of Time had a lot of loose threads. My job was to take all those threads and weave them into an ending, which was a real challenge.
When I was handed this project by Harriet [Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's wife and editor], she handed it to me as a collaborator, not as a ghost writer. It's not like building a shelf from Ikea, which is good, because otherwise my creativity wouldn't have been engaged. She handed me full creative control for the first draft, and then we went into the editing phase where we really worked on it to make sure that it fit her vision and Robert Jordan's vision for the series. But going into it, nothing was off-limits. So I wrote them like I write any novel. Nothing is taken for granted, nothing is sacrosanct.
GR: How much liberty did you have in deciding which characters would play the biggest roles in the last battle?
BS: In a lot of ways the "why" or the "how" was not said, and in other places in the outline there were just empty holes where a character is in one place and 800 pages later, then another place.
[In the final book] we've got a lot of questions that still need to be answered. Robert Jordan did leave me instructions on which ones, in some cases, not to answer. There are things he wants to leave unresolved, and there are other things he said do answer this, and there are some things that he said either way. He left a lot of instructions about who lives and who dies, but there are also plenty of cases where I got to make the judgment call. It's a big, cool, awesome, scary thing, and all of the gloves are off. Anything can happen in this book, because I don't need to worry about setting up any future books.
GR: Many plot points are in motion at the end of the next-to-last book in the series, Towers of Midnight. Can you set the stage? What can readers expect in the final book, A Memory of Light?
BS: A little bit of spoilers here: One of the big things we got going on is Rand and Egwene on opposite sides of the big decision regarding what needs to happen with the last battle. It's a power struggle that has been brewing for a long time behind the scenes. Some may not have noticed it until I brought it to the forefront in the last book. We've just had a main character who has been gone for a long, long time show up again in the end of Towers of Midnight, and there are ramifications for that. Can we work together? How do we work together?—that's going to be one of the themes.
And, of course, this is the last battle, which means there's a lot of war in this book. And that's actually very different for a Wheel of Time book. There have been big battles before, but not ones that span half of the book or more.
GR: You've written extensively about magic systems in fantasy novels, including "Sanderson's First and Second Laws" for fictional magic. Were you tempted to change any part of the Wheel of Time magic system?
BS: Being a fan for so long, there was a danger that I would come in and say, "Well, this is my chance to fix all the things that have bugged me about the Wheel of Time." But I realized I couldn't approach the story like that.
Robert Jordan handles magic systems in a different way from how I handle a lot of mine. He works harder to preserve the sense of wonder than I do. I explain more nuts and bolts. He reserves the right to say, "We don't know how this works." I had to tell myself my job is not to change that. That's how his magic works, and it works really well like that. Even though on the Sanderson's First Law scale, it is much more to the middle than mine are. Mine are on the right side (right meaning direction-wise, not correctness-wise), where his is more toward the middle and Tolkien is more toward the left side. And I didn't want to push it.
The balance that I struck is, I was going to do my best to avoid a lot of new weaves [different kinds of magic], and I was going to take the existing weaves and push them further along the scale than I would let myself [in my own books]. The two instances are what happens in the world of dreams and gateways. I told myself, I am going to play with these two parts of the magic systems and let myself do some of the fun things I will do with magic. I am not going to spend a lot of time inventing new parts of the magic.
GR: Goodreads member Erfna says, "As a fantasy writer, does writing about different worlds affect the way that you see the real world around you?"
BS: That is an interesting question, and it's not one I've pondered very much myself. I would say fantasy has changed the way I see the world, but at the same time I am a pretty logical guy. People talk about my book a lot as kind of a science fiction and fantasy crossover, because I like to look at magic in logical ways. Storytelling for me is about characters. I try to write these characters in such a way that someone who is reading the book will say, "Yes, he understands me." That's my mandate and challenge as a writer. The fantasy world has not changed me nearly so much as the need and the passion for trying to get characters liked by readers who are different from me—and that is the big change in my life.
GR: Goodreads member TJ says, "Please ask Mr. Sanderson whether he contemplates writing a sequel to Elantris. It's among the finest stand-alone fantasy books ever written.
BS: I wrote Elantris years before I got published. Back then when I was trying to break in, I always developed stories with sequel potential. So I developed a full sequence, a trilogy based around Elantris, but I also wanted early books that I wrote to all stand on their own. When [new readers] took a chance on me, I wanted them to get a story in the first book that was complete, that if they were to try my books out and decide this just isn't for me, that they would have their full story, and no harm, no foul. So when my editor said, "Do you want to do a sequel?" I said, Yes, I have a sequel, but I don't want to do it. At least not right now because I like the idea of having a stand-alone for people to be able to try me out with.
That was then. Nowadays, most people who try me out pick up the Mistborn trilogy, because it stands as a completed work. So I now could do Elantris. The problem is, Elantris is a really good stand-alone. I don't want everyone who reads and writes the fantasy genre to feel that everything has to be a series. I am conflicted about it.
GR: Goodreads member Joyshumaker says, "Many of Mr. Sanderson's original books are very theologically based. I enjoy the complexities of the religions he creates but wonder what drives him to write literature that is so deeply theological, even if those theologies exist solely in these fictional worlds."
BS: I am a religious person, and so I am fascinated by religion and all of its aspects. I am fascinated by why people believe, why people don't believe. I am fascinated by the motivations behind this, and I am fascinated by what happens when religion goes bad. I am fascinated by what happens when religion goes well. So what I am interested in ends up in my books.
Beyond that, it pops up time and time again because [my books] are all connected: I hid some recurring characters in Elantris and the Mistborn trilogy, and [readers] started to pick it up by the time Warbreaker came out. There is an underlying theme behind them all and an underlying deeper story that is going on behind the scenes with some big theological components. It's within the thematic nature of the complete series—one that will eventually be told, assuming I live long enough. And if not, I'll leave good notes, so someone else can finish it! Turnabout is fair play.
GR: On that note, Goodreads member Regina says, "My biggest question for Mr. Sanderson is if finishing the Wheel of Time series has had any sort of impact on him or his other writings, and if so, in what ways?"
BS: Yes, it has, certainly because I learned a lot. Wheel of Time I've described as "power lifting." I had to get into shape as a writer very quickly and swim in the deep end, and it has improved my writing drastically. A good example of this is The Way of Kings. I was writing it in 2002, and the draft wasn't good enough. I didn't know why, but I was dissatisfied with it, and I told my editor we weren't going to publish it yet. I didn't know what I had to learn, but knew I had to learn things. The ideas were all there, but the technical skill wasn't there yet to pull off the book that I wanted to do. It wasn't until after finishing The Gathering Storm that I knew what was technically lacking, and I was able to go back and write that book. I feel it turned out quite well on the second attempt.
GR: Briefly describe a typical day spent writing. Do you have any unusual writing habits?
BS: I work until about 4 a.m., and then I don't wake up until noon. The job I do lets me have the weirdest sleep schedule ever, because sometimes I sleep for like three hours, and then I get up and work and go back to bed. An average day for me is two four-to-six-hour writing blocks during this time. In each, I try to write at least 1,500 words, and I am somewhat goal based. I have a tread desk that I walk on while I type a lot of the time. It's not like I am getting any real exercise because it's moving like one mile per hour, but it is good for just moving and not just sitting there. I write in my bedroom. I have an easy chair that I also sit in.
I get done at about 5:30, and I go out and play with my kids and hang out with my family and do all the stuff that dads and husbands do, then I put my kids to bed, hang out with my wife for a bit, then usually go back to work at about 9 or 10 and get my second block.
GR: What authors, books, or ideas have influenced you?
BS: How many pages do we have? The obvious one is Robert Jordan. I like to list three authors who got me into fantasy. I was not a reader when I was younger, and it was the right book at the right time, which was Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane. I love what she has does with fiction. So she is kind of responsible for me in a lot of ways. Once I discovered that, I ran to the library and tried to dig out something that was like Dragonsbane. I didn't even know this genre existed, and next in the school library's card catalog was Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight. Her Pern books I would also list as a very big influence. And then Melanie Rawn and the Sunrunner books. Her use of magic is part of what made me interested in magic systems. Classically, I really like Les Misérables and also consider myself a Shakespeare buff and love to see Shakespeare live.
GR: What are you reading now?
BS: I am reading a book by Brian McClellan, who was a student in my class during one of my first times teaching it. I teach a class at BYU [Brigham Young University] called How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. I just started reading his debut novel, Promise of Blood, and so far so good. I always have sitting on a shelf near me a Terry Pratchett novel, who I think is (well, it's probably a tie between him and Guy Gavriel Kay) the greatest fantasy writer writing right now.
Brandon Sanderson: It's really a weird experience. I discovered fantasy when I was 14, and the Wheel of Time books were the first series that started when I started. I have been following it all through, and it's also one of the few series that continued with me: I enjoyed it both as a youth and as an adult. Wheel of Time has always been there through my whole career, so I understand completely how [fans are] feeling about it.
But it is also a weird experience for me as a fan. I read Robert Jordan's ending in December 2007, so part of me has had the Wheel of Time done for five years now, and the rest of the world is finally getting to catch up with me. I think that people are going to feel a lot of what I felt when I read that last scene; I was very satisfied. I loved the scene, but there was also this deep sort of sense of, "Wow, it's actually over." The series has been going for 23 years, and we have joked in Wheel of Time fandom for 22 about when the ending would come. It's a reverent feeling, it's an excited feeling, and it's also a sad feeling.
GR: Endings can often be the hardest part of a book to get right.
BS: Since Robert Jordan wrote the last scene, that actually made this whole project mountains easier. I had a target to shoot at. While I didn't have a ton of written material from Robert Jordan that I could actually put in—there are about 200 pages worth of scenes and notes that needed to become somewhere around 2,500 pages [Books 12-14 by Sanderson total 2,556 pages]—a lot of those 200 pages were summaries of scenes he wanted. Robert Jordan wrote by instinct. He was what we called a discovery writer, so what was handed to me was a big pile of half-finished scenes or paragraphs where he wrote, "Well, I am either going to do this, this, or this. I was thinking of this, but it could be this." Yes, cracking an ending is hard, and the Wheel of Time had a lot of loose threads. My job was to take all those threads and weave them into an ending, which was a real challenge.
When I was handed this project by Harriet [Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's wife and editor], she handed it to me as a collaborator, not as a ghost writer. It's not like building a shelf from Ikea, which is good, because otherwise my creativity wouldn't have been engaged. She handed me full creative control for the first draft, and then we went into the editing phase where we really worked on it to make sure that it fit her vision and Robert Jordan's vision for the series. But going into it, nothing was off-limits. So I wrote them like I write any novel. Nothing is taken for granted, nothing is sacrosanct.
GR: How much liberty did you have in deciding which characters would play the biggest roles in the last battle?
BS: In a lot of ways the "why" or the "how" was not said, and in other places in the outline there were just empty holes where a character is in one place and 800 pages later, then another place.
[In the final book] we've got a lot of questions that still need to be answered. Robert Jordan did leave me instructions on which ones, in some cases, not to answer. There are things he wants to leave unresolved, and there are other things he said do answer this, and there are some things that he said either way. He left a lot of instructions about who lives and who dies, but there are also plenty of cases where I got to make the judgment call. It's a big, cool, awesome, scary thing, and all of the gloves are off. Anything can happen in this book, because I don't need to worry about setting up any future books.
GR: Many plot points are in motion at the end of the next-to-last book in the series, Towers of Midnight. Can you set the stage? What can readers expect in the final book, A Memory of Light?
BS: A little bit of spoilers here: One of the big things we got going on is Rand and Egwene on opposite sides of the big decision regarding what needs to happen with the last battle. It's a power struggle that has been brewing for a long time behind the scenes. Some may not have noticed it until I brought it to the forefront in the last book. We've just had a main character who has been gone for a long, long time show up again in the end of Towers of Midnight, and there are ramifications for that. Can we work together? How do we work together?—that's going to be one of the themes.
And, of course, this is the last battle, which means there's a lot of war in this book. And that's actually very different for a Wheel of Time book. There have been big battles before, but not ones that span half of the book or more.
GR: You've written extensively about magic systems in fantasy novels, including "Sanderson's First and Second Laws" for fictional magic. Were you tempted to change any part of the Wheel of Time magic system?
BS: Being a fan for so long, there was a danger that I would come in and say, "Well, this is my chance to fix all the things that have bugged me about the Wheel of Time." But I realized I couldn't approach the story like that.
Robert Jordan handles magic systems in a different way from how I handle a lot of mine. He works harder to preserve the sense of wonder than I do. I explain more nuts and bolts. He reserves the right to say, "We don't know how this works." I had to tell myself my job is not to change that. That's how his magic works, and it works really well like that. Even though on the Sanderson's First Law scale, it is much more to the middle than mine are. Mine are on the right side (right meaning direction-wise, not correctness-wise), where his is more toward the middle and Tolkien is more toward the left side. And I didn't want to push it.
The balance that I struck is, I was going to do my best to avoid a lot of new weaves [different kinds of magic], and I was going to take the existing weaves and push them further along the scale than I would let myself [in my own books]. The two instances are what happens in the world of dreams and gateways. I told myself, I am going to play with these two parts of the magic systems and let myself do some of the fun things I will do with magic. I am not going to spend a lot of time inventing new parts of the magic.
GR: Goodreads member Erfna says, "As a fantasy writer, does writing about different worlds affect the way that you see the real world around you?"
BS: That is an interesting question, and it's not one I've pondered very much myself. I would say fantasy has changed the way I see the world, but at the same time I am a pretty logical guy. People talk about my book a lot as kind of a science fiction and fantasy crossover, because I like to look at magic in logical ways. Storytelling for me is about characters. I try to write these characters in such a way that someone who is reading the book will say, "Yes, he understands me." That's my mandate and challenge as a writer. The fantasy world has not changed me nearly so much as the need and the passion for trying to get characters liked by readers who are different from me—and that is the big change in my life.
GR: Goodreads member TJ says, "Please ask Mr. Sanderson whether he contemplates writing a sequel to Elantris. It's among the finest stand-alone fantasy books ever written.
BS: I wrote Elantris years before I got published. Back then when I was trying to break in, I always developed stories with sequel potential. So I developed a full sequence, a trilogy based around Elantris, but I also wanted early books that I wrote to all stand on their own. When [new readers] took a chance on me, I wanted them to get a story in the first book that was complete, that if they were to try my books out and decide this just isn't for me, that they would have their full story, and no harm, no foul. So when my editor said, "Do you want to do a sequel?" I said, Yes, I have a sequel, but I don't want to do it. At least not right now because I like the idea of having a stand-alone for people to be able to try me out with.
That was then. Nowadays, most people who try me out pick up the Mistborn trilogy, because it stands as a completed work. So I now could do Elantris. The problem is, Elantris is a really good stand-alone. I don't want everyone who reads and writes the fantasy genre to feel that everything has to be a series. I am conflicted about it.
GR: Goodreads member Joyshumaker says, "Many of Mr. Sanderson's original books are very theologically based. I enjoy the complexities of the religions he creates but wonder what drives him to write literature that is so deeply theological, even if those theologies exist solely in these fictional worlds."
BS: I am a religious person, and so I am fascinated by religion and all of its aspects. I am fascinated by why people believe, why people don't believe. I am fascinated by the motivations behind this, and I am fascinated by what happens when religion goes bad. I am fascinated by what happens when religion goes well. So what I am interested in ends up in my books.
Beyond that, it pops up time and time again because [my books] are all connected: I hid some recurring characters in Elantris and the Mistborn trilogy, and [readers] started to pick it up by the time Warbreaker came out. There is an underlying theme behind them all and an underlying deeper story that is going on behind the scenes with some big theological components. It's within the thematic nature of the complete series—one that will eventually be told, assuming I live long enough. And if not, I'll leave good notes, so someone else can finish it! Turnabout is fair play.
GR: On that note, Goodreads member Regina says, "My biggest question for Mr. Sanderson is if finishing the Wheel of Time series has had any sort of impact on him or his other writings, and if so, in what ways?"
BS: Yes, it has, certainly because I learned a lot. Wheel of Time I've described as "power lifting." I had to get into shape as a writer very quickly and swim in the deep end, and it has improved my writing drastically. A good example of this is The Way of Kings. I was writing it in 2002, and the draft wasn't good enough. I didn't know why, but I was dissatisfied with it, and I told my editor we weren't going to publish it yet. I didn't know what I had to learn, but knew I had to learn things. The ideas were all there, but the technical skill wasn't there yet to pull off the book that I wanted to do. It wasn't until after finishing The Gathering Storm that I knew what was technically lacking, and I was able to go back and write that book. I feel it turned out quite well on the second attempt.
GR: Briefly describe a typical day spent writing. Do you have any unusual writing habits?
BS: I work until about 4 a.m., and then I don't wake up until noon. The job I do lets me have the weirdest sleep schedule ever, because sometimes I sleep for like three hours, and then I get up and work and go back to bed. An average day for me is two four-to-six-hour writing blocks during this time. In each, I try to write at least 1,500 words, and I am somewhat goal based. I have a tread desk that I walk on while I type a lot of the time. It's not like I am getting any real exercise because it's moving like one mile per hour, but it is good for just moving and not just sitting there. I write in my bedroom. I have an easy chair that I also sit in.
I get done at about 5:30, and I go out and play with my kids and hang out with my family and do all the stuff that dads and husbands do, then I put my kids to bed, hang out with my wife for a bit, then usually go back to work at about 9 or 10 and get my second block.
GR: What authors, books, or ideas have influenced you?
BS: How many pages do we have? The obvious one is Robert Jordan. I like to list three authors who got me into fantasy. I was not a reader when I was younger, and it was the right book at the right time, which was Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane. I love what she has does with fiction. So she is kind of responsible for me in a lot of ways. Once I discovered that, I ran to the library and tried to dig out something that was like Dragonsbane. I didn't even know this genre existed, and next in the school library's card catalog was Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight. Her Pern books I would also list as a very big influence. And then Melanie Rawn and the Sunrunner books. Her use of magic is part of what made me interested in magic systems. Classically, I really like Les Misérables and also consider myself a Shakespeare buff and love to see Shakespeare live.
GR: What are you reading now?
BS: I am reading a book by Brian McClellan, who was a student in my class during one of my first times teaching it. I teach a class at BYU [Brigham Young University] called How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. I just started reading his debut novel, Promise of Blood, and so far so good. I always have sitting on a shelf near me a Terry Pratchett novel, who I think is (well, it's probably a tie between him and Guy Gavriel Kay) the greatest fantasy writer writing right now.
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Tom
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Jan 03, 2013 02:04PM
It's been "awhile" and I don't know how I'm going to remember the tapestry of this saga, but I'm still going to get this book.
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Thanks for this great interview, I can't wait to get A Memory of Light in my hands (and read it!)Elaine
Great interview! How do I post this to my feed?
Great interview. And now I have a few new authors to look up once I read A Memory of Light!
I bought it a while ago.. Now just waiting. I want to go to your party at BYU next week, but it is too cold for me to be standing around outside waiting for the doors to open. I do however love your work.
Well.. I think Brandon's the greatest fantasy writer writing right now..
Great interview! I'm really looking forward to reading the last Wheel of Time book (as well as other works by Brandon Sanderson, I think he's a great writer).
Emanuel wrote: "Well.. I think Brandon's the greatest fantasy writer writing right now.."without a doubt
Jesse wrote: "Emanuel wrote: "Well.. I think Brandon's the greatest fantasy writer writing right now.."without a doubt"
Agreed. Also, I'm sad to say I've never picked up a Wheel of Time book before. In high school I heard about them, but there were already 9 or so books, and it just seemed a bit daunting to get through. I'll have to start though.
Great interview! I can't wait for Tuesday to come so I can get my hands on 'The Memory of Light'.
I came across Mistborn on Audible- it was an awesome series and fantastic to listen to on my commute to work- I will definitely be buying more of your books-
Thanks Brandon Sanderson and three cheers for Goodreads! I really like this site. Re read towers of Midnight again and I am ready for the ending! Oh and Brandon, Go Utes!
Have my book reserved for Monday at midnight. I'm in the last stages of re-reading Wheel of Time. I will miss it when its over, but imagine I'll pick up the series and start again, probably mid-summer. Brandon finishing Wheel of Time turned me on to his,wtiting. I think hes done an exceptional job finishing this series. Anxious to read Stormlight 2. I hope my questions are answered when I'm finished with AMoL or I'll be bugging somebody. LOL.
Darn, I forgot to submit my question in time. Oh well.
I have been waiting for this book to come out before I read books 12 and 13. I am so excited to know it is finally coming out!
I cannot wait! I am amazed I made it through all the other books. I know I had to go back and reread some of the books to refresh my memory.
I'm always looking for a "series" to read that is complete when I find it. I had heard about Wheel of Time years ago, and that Mr. Jordan had passed before he completed the last book. I felt sorry for all of the fans that had faithfully followed the series and decided not to start it. But now I can happily spend a long time reading a series knowing that the ending is there (and I also have a new author to add to my list!)
I have been reading this series for years, and years, have all the books, except the END... Yo, I am getting old, I would hate to croak before I get to read the ending yall.
I have been waiting for months to get this book and am looking so forward to a good read and a good ending. I have all the books on my Kindle and in hardback and have read most of them twice and learned more the second time. I'm glad I lived long enough to read the end.
I wonder if we will see any spin-offs from the Wheel of Time? There are so many fantastic character and story lines that could be carried forward. I can't wait to read the book!
Scott wrote: "I wonder if we will see any spin-offs from the Wheel of Time? There are so many fantastic character and story lines that could be carried forward. I can't wait to read the book!"Scott that is a good question. I am wonder the same. I think it would be wonderful if there was a character spin-off. However, we will have to wait and see who is killed off etc. I have most of the books and ebook a. My father per-ordered the Memory of Light audiobook so I am looking forward to listening to it.
Preordered this book a month ago. Can't wait to see how it ends.VW
This series got off to a great start and then bogged down. I decided to stop reading it after book 9 until the series was complete so I'm looking forward to picking it up again. I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses and judging whether all the good things I hear about Mr. Sanderson are true and will entice me to read some of his solo work.
Like Brandon, the Wheel of Time has been a part of my teenage and adult years. I'm looking forward to being able to finally finish the series. I reread the books so often they're falling apart. Any spinoff should be carefully considered within the greater whole so as not to dilute the integrity of the series.
Brandon Sanderson is a great writer and I look forward to any new book that he writes.
i don't care how good a writer sanderson is when given the opportunity to finish this series all he could see was $ signs so he stretched it out to 14 books to cash in on a great writers work shame on you sanderson now let's finally finish this saga
I picked up Eye of the World for the first time back in high school. I'm 35 now and saving A Memory of Light to read during my paternity leave. My first child is due in three months and I think it will be nice to reflect back on everything that's happened between that first book over 20 years ago and this one. Thanks Mr. Sanderson, you've done an excellent job.
My brother and I have been arguing for two years about the ending of this series. ( We have no earthly idea how George RR Martin will tie up every loose end in his !!)We both feel you can tell where Jordan's skeleton of the story ends and Sanderson's fleshing out the story begins.
Will you tackle the prequels now? Jordan planned to write 3 but only wrote New Spring?
Bill wrote: "Will you tackle the prequels now? Jordan planned to write 3 but only wrote New Spring?"Sanderson has stated in other interviews that he wont be writing any prequels or spin-offs. There are 2 main reasons for this:
1. Robert Jordan didn't leave any detailed notes for any potential prequels like he did with the actual wheel of time story. Brandon stated that he doesn't feel comfortable just making stuff up in a world that's not his.
2. He wants to focus on his own books, telling the stories he wants to tell.
Tim wrote: "i don't care how good a writer sanderson is when given the opportunity to finish this series all he could see was $ signs so he stretched it out to 14 books to cash in on a great writers work shame..."Yes, because a major decision like that is entirely up to the hired hand and not the rights holders: his wife and editor, and the publisher.
Besides: have you actually read the series? How anyone who has can think that the series after Knife of Dreams could have been wrapped up in a single book and not feel like a rushed hack job is beyond me.
Tomw wrote: "It's been "awhile" and I don't know how I'm going to remember the tapestry of this saga, but I'm still going to get this book."Wiki's got decent plot summaries of all the books.
I'd like to thank Mr. Sanderson for taking on this huge project. The effort certainly consumed several years of his life and affected his own personal output. Personally, the last several books by Jordan seemed to "ramble" on. I've really enjoyed the more flowing style that Mr. Sanderson has used. I've pre-ordered MOL (today is the pickup day) and can't wait!
I'm going over the wot encyclopedia. http://www.encyclopaedia-wot.org/
Tomw wrote: "It's been "awhile" and I don't know how I'm going to remember the tapestry of this saga, but I'm still going to get this book."
very disappointing after waiting so long for the final book it was like slowly letting the air out of a balloon. I hope u enjoy the extra money you gouged out of us sanderson
I feel like I need to start from the beginning to remember what happens in this series. Still I'm excited to revisit the characters again.
I finished Memory of Light a few days ago and loved it. It was so intense, especially since any of these characters we've followed for so long could die. One trouble with the Wheel of Time series is that the bad guys are so bad that they are caricatures. That is why Guy Gavriel Kay's books are so good: one understands why the bad guy does what he does.
My first child is due in three months and I think it will be nice to reflect back on everything that's happened between that first book over 20 years ago and this one. Thanks Mr. Sanderson, you've done an excellent job.
