The Wheel of Time doesn’t need replacing. To intentionally set out to replace the Wheel of Time would be monumentous hubris.
I have to be my own person, approach storytelling in my own way, and write with my own voice. However, I don’t intend to replace the series. My career has been shaped by them, and several years of my life recently have been dominated by their stories. More than half of my life, now, has been spent with Rand and company. I’ve been reading these books since I was fifteen. It will be difficult for me on two levels, both as a fan and as a writer. I will be sorry to see the Wheel of Time end, just like many of you will be. POINT TWO: It is not a replacement for the Wheel of Time.
#BRANDON SANDERSON BOOKS WAY OF KINGS SERIES#
(Though I do have the entire series plotted, and am fairly certain I know exactly how many books it will be.) For now, let me just say that it won’t be as long as the Wheel of Time, but will be longer than anything I’ve attempted so far. I’m not planning that to be the end, though I’m cautious at locking myself into a certain number of books. The series is called the Stormlight Archive, and Tor purchased four books from me. (Which will be the final draft.) That will put it at roughly double the length of MISTBORN or ELANTRIS. I’ll be trimming that down to (hopefully) 380–390k when I do the next draft. POINT ONE: This book is the start of a longer epic. Mostly, this post is to nudge everyone’s expecations in a realistic direction. I won’t go into plot very much (though I’ll take a stab at explaining some of the book’s themes in a future post). I don’t think that will serve anyone, so I’ve prepared some points about the book so I can discuss what it is and what it isn’t.Īdvance warning, this is probably going to be one of my trademarked long, rambling posts.
However, I do want to issue a warning-considering my current status, the publisher’s expecations, and the other projects I’m working on, it would be very easy for this book to get overhyped. I now feel my writing skill is capable of doing the story justice. If you want a short summary of that post, here you go: KINGS is what you might call my baby, the grand epic I’ve been wanting to tell for many years. The history of the novel, and why I decided to do it now, is all in there. I mentioned in a (probably too long) blog post last year that this is a book I’ve been working on for quite a long time. In case you don’t know, THE WAY OF KINGS is my next novel, set to come out August 31st of this year. However, this seems like a good time to start posting more information. So far, I’ve been rather quiet about KINGS, mostly because I didn’t want to distract attention from THE GATHERING STORM. This, along with some of the marketing copy that Tor has posted on Amazon and the like, has people talking about the book. If you missed it, Tor posted the cover to THE WAY OF KINGS a little while ago.