Brandon Sanderson
PART FOUR: UPDATES ON SECONDARY PROJECTS
Alcatraz Series
As I warned you last year, 2021 was going to be spent on repackaging this series–and getting the art for the sixth book done. I also co-wrote this one with Janci, as I got about halfway through it back in 2014 and got stumped on something, so I went to her for help both with that and with smoothing out the character voice. (This one is from Bastille’s viewpoint.)
So, there’s not much of an update from last year. The first five books are coming out with new covers in 2022, culminating with the final book on September 20th. Final revisions for the book are in, and artwork is approved for the new covers of the early ones, so we should be super close.
Their release schedule is below, including the brand new sixth book!
- May: Book 1: Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
- June: Book 2: The Scrivener’s Bones
- July: Book 3: The Knights of Crystallia
- August: Book 4: The Shattered Lens
- September: Book 5: The Dark Talent
- September: Book 6: Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians
Dark One
A second Dark One graphic novel is in the works for those who enjoyed the first! But in case that’s not your thing, you can go read the Mainframe update above, where we’re working on a prose version. That should be released first in audio, but Dan Wells is currently drafting from my original outline for that–and I’ve read some of his work on it, which has made me very excited. In the meantime, enjoy Dark One: Forgotten, a shorter tie-in that Dan and I have created for release this fall.
Elantris, Warbreaker, Rithmatist
Nothing here, again. (Yes, Rithmatist fans, I hear you screaming at the screen.) Elantris/Warbreaker sequels aren’t planned until after Stormlight Five, as I’ve been saying for years now. Rithmatist might be a little closer than it was, as we’ve been researching potential co-authors who have knowledge and background in the real-world Aztec lore I’d like to incorporate into the book. So don’t give up hope. But, like finishing Alcatraz, this is more a labor of love than a mainline series of mine, so it has to take a back seat to the main stories I’m telling.
Part Four: Updates on Secondary Projects
Songs of the Dead
Moving this one back to minor projects this year. Though Peter Orullian is still working on it, this is one of the co-authored projects that has turned out to be a more difficult write. He’s spent this year on revisions of it, and I hope you’ll all be able to read it someday. But we need to make sure it’s working right first.
The Reckoners
If you didn’t see that there is a new Reckoners novel out…then there’s a new Reckoners novel out! It’s called Lux, and I co-authored it with Steven Michael Bohls, another of my writer friends. (This was a Mainframe project, and so it was an audio original.) The reception was great, and the sales were great too, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we did another one soon. But we’re figuring out when and how to do this. (Also we plan a print edition sometime, but at the very least an ebook should come out around the one-year mark of the audio edition.)
The Original
This first of the Mainframe projects will soon be getting an ebook release! So if you don’t like audio, take heart. It’s coming in January. I wrote it with the excellent Mary Robinette Kowal, and it’s a kind of cyberpunk/action/mystery.
Check out the pitch for it here!
White Sand
We should have the graphic novel omnibus coming at you sometime in the near future. I hear that the individual original volumes are sometimes going for a lot of money, but I’d suggest not grabbing one of those but waiting for this new edition. We’ve spent a lot of time making it the quintessential White Sand graphic novel experience, updating text and dialogue to be more in line with the Cosmere. There are 38 new pages at the beginning, revised text and art throughout, a new map and glossary, and fourteen Ars Arcanum pages. We think you’re really going to enjoy experiencing the complete package.
All Others
If there’s something not on this list you’re waiting for, then there’s not really anything to update you upon. Other novellas and small projects continue to bounce around my brain, but I haven’t had time for most of them lately.