All things Brandon Sanderson

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slippery

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Oathbringer (Stormlight 3) just inched past the 2/3rds mark. 67% done, as per the percentage bar, updated as of today.

I think he's come a very long way as an author and his quality of writing has vastly improved, but I really like the Mistborn story and think it has the best magic system.
 

Phayd

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Glad to see Stormlight 3 (Oathbreaker) pass the 2/3 mark. Still hoping for a spring release.
 

Arative

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Just finished second book in the stormlight series - awesome books. Decided to start mistborn books and I'm struggling. Just don't think they're very good really, especially reading after malazan & stormlight stuff. Does it pick up later on (about 1/3 through book 1)?

Sanderson has shown a lot of growth as an author. If you read stormlight first and then go back to read his earlier books, you're going to see a drop in quality. Elantris is really hard to get through but that is his first book. I'd recommend any of the cosmere books though.
 

lindz

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Glad to see Stormlight 3 (Oathbreaker) pass the 2/3 mark. Still hoping for a spring release.
Sadly, not a chance. He'd need to be sending it in to copy edits now to get a spring release and he's still on first draft. He's skipping world con this year to keep working on it, which sucks. It was fun to see him last year.
 

Valderen

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2/3 in Stormlight 3, good he should be done this weekend at the speed he writes. :)
 

Decado

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Yeah he's definitely massively improved as a writer. I did enjoy the earlier Mistborn books but they weren't quite as good as his newer stuff. Worth persevering with i'd say.

And an author i like that writes at the speed he does? A godsend :)
 

slippery

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And an author i like that writes at the speed he does? A godsend :)

Right? He writes so fast that when something isn't coming out it feels weird. He had 2? books this year, and it feels like it's been a long time lol. Compared to people like Patrick Rothfuss and Martin whose books I can't even remember anymore... Just on work ethic alone it annoys me that those guys are getting all the movie and show deals
 

Valderen

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I'm sure studios have tried contacting him, but his secretary probably answer. "Brandon is busy writing right now, may I take a message. He'll contact you when he's done writing." and he never calls back because he's always writing. :)
 

tyen

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is this the dude that ran for president and lost this year?
 

Phayd

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Looks like it's now going to be a late 2017 release, coming in at about 450k word count.
Time for another update! If you missed the last one, find it here at this link: Update Three

I'm happy to post this update only two months after the previous one--which seems like a much more reasonable interval than the many months between two and three. I do feel bad at how long this book is taking, but I'm coming to grips with the fact that Stormlight books are just too involved to do as quickly as I once imagined. I still intend to get to them at a reasonable pace, but this year of work is showing that big epic fantasies require a lot out of even a somewhat quick author like myself.

In the wee hours this morning (3:00 am) I sent Part Three of Oathbringer to my editor. This means I've finished the rough draft (of Part Three) then done a quick revision, putting it at second draft level. (I explain in previous updates that I'm doing more revisions as I go on this one, hopefully to speed the editing process.)

Part Three is tight and fast, a nice counterpoint to Part Two, which was more leisurely and character-focused. The book stands at around 325k words right now. (Words of Radiance was right around 400k at publication.) I have on my website "73%" I believe, though I intend to move that to 75% soon. I started out counting 4k words as 1%, but I'm pretty sure that the final wordcount will be in the 450k range, which is why I have slowed the percentage bar velocity a tad. (Goal is for Part Four to be around 100k words, Part Five to be around 25k, and the interludes to take around 25k. Then I'll trim the book before publication, getting it down to around 450k.)

If you're following the general outline shape from Update Two, I moved the novella from this part to the next part, after deciding I liked the feel of this book having a narrow-wide-narrow-wide focus for the first four parts. We'll see how I feel after finishing the next part.

Next up, I'm going to dive into writing some Szeth flashbacks (which won't reflect on the percentage bar moving up) so I have his past nailed down. Then I'll expand the outline for Part Four, and write it. Goal is still to finish the book by the time I go on tour in late October, but we'll see. This part took me two full months.

Even if I'm a little late, however, having sections of the book already with the editor means we will still be on schedule. Plan is still for a late 2017 release, and it would take a major upset in writing plans to budge us from that.

Thanks, as always, for your patience and your kind words. The book is feeling very strong to me, and I think you'll be pleased with how it turns out.

Brandon
 

Malkav

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Just finished the Bands of Mournings. God damn, he said next tome will be after Oathbringer but that seems like in a long time.
 

Reht

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I am about half way through the way of kings and i can say i am really impressed.
 

Ritley

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Yeah, they are going to be bad. The best they could do is the screnwriters of saw 4-6?

Plus way of kings doesn't strike me as a movie that will be easily adapted to a movie
 

Enob

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I have low expectations as well but there probably isn't anything I'd rather see on screen than this. I hope Brandon retains a good amount of creative control or I could see them hamfisting extra connections between each series.

Agreed on Way of Kings. Stormlight Archive seems nearly impossible to adapt to movies. It needs the Game of Thrones treatment in a longer TV series except that it would hit the same content wall GoT did where the show needs to pass the books. Even with Brandon's writing speed, those books are so content heavy that I don't think it would be possible. Mistborn, though, would make a fantastic movie trilogy. Here's how it would work in my dreams:

Mistborn I trilogy, movie released every other year to kick it off, say 2018, 2020, 2022
Other standalone books interspersed on the off years ala Star Wars: Elantris 2019, Warbreaker 2021, etc.
Stormlight Archive massive HBO TV show starting 2019 or 2020, 1 season per book so 10 seasons, should be enough of a lead for him to maintain
Wax and Wayne spinoff TV series beginning year after Mistborn I ends, 2023
Mistborn II trilogy, 2024, 2026, 2028

Would never in a million years be pulled off to a mainstream audience and therefore would never get made. I would nerdgasm for a decade plus, though.
 

Reht

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YPlus way of kings doesn't strike me as a movie that will be easily adapted to a movie
Yeah, that was my first thought, maybe a 10 part mini series like GoT season 1. Elantris has me intrigued, i think they could pull off a decent movie.