[Werthead]

Sanderson has signed a new contract with Tor Books for the first four volumes of his planned ten-book WAY OF KINGS series. Each of the four books has a significant six-figure advance and when combined with 'performance-based bonuses', the possible total advances on the deal "could exceed $2.5 million".

Most impressive. That's NOT including the money for the work on THE WHEEL OF TIME books, and is separate to the recent new deal he signed with Tor for Books 13 and 14 of that series.

We just need Erikson to announce a new deal with Tor and Bantam for $3 trillion or something to upstage everyone

[Eddie Dean]

I'm just excited to get to read The Way of Kings. I think a mult-book epic wrote by Sanderson would be really good.

[alt146]

I've been impressed by all of Sanderson's work, I'm curious as to how he handles a true epic. He could definitely be one of the next big names of the genre.

[Yellow]

He's a clever guy. The WoT deal was always destined to make him a huge wad of cash, one way or another.

[HoosierDaddy]

I'm a big Sanderson fan, so I'm happy for him. I'm interested in how he'll do an "epic" fantasy as opposed to his Mistborn Trilogy, but everything I've ever read by him has been quality stuff, so I'll definitely buy first volume no matter what is said about it.

I really love how he interacts with his readers. He makes sure his readers are always in the loop: getting annotated chapters, free digital copies, and keeps us in near constant communication. Quite frankly, this places him in the realm of digital Olympus for authorial cyber-gods.

[dktorode]

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

[HoosierDaddy]

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

He has written a stand-alone novel: Elantris, which is obviously both rare for its single-story, but also very well written.

The Mistborn Trilogy: Mistborn: The Final Empire; Mistborn: The Well of Ascension; & Mistborn: The Hero of Ages which is a FANTASTIC series, where Sanderson creates a very unique and awesome system of magic, and a very well described, defined, and special universe in which it takes place.

[RangerSG]

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 03:39 AM, said:

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

He has innovative magic systems. You'll either like them or hate them. I love how he keeps in touch and is a very "open" writer when it comes to his craft, how he does things, and the nature of the business. I don't know that he's in my top rank of favorite authors. But he does a lot of things well. And I'm curious too about how he'll do with an epic fantasy.

[dktorode]

HoosierDaddy, on Jun 25 2009, 10:54 AM, said:

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

He has written a stand-alone novel: Elantris, which is obviously both rare for its single-story, but also very well written.

The Mistborn Trilogy: Mistborn: The Final Empire; Mistborn: The Well of Ascension; & Mistborn: The Hero of Ages which is a FANTASTIC series, where Sanderson creates a very unique and awesome system of magic, and a very well described, defined, and special universe in which it takes place.

BONG!...

shweet ass, will have a squizz on amazon then, dont think they have his books here

[alt146]

HoosierDaddy, on Jun 25 2009, 10:54 AM, said:

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

He has written a stand-alone novel: Elantris, which is obviously both rare for its single-story, but also very well written.

The Mistborn Trilogy: Mistborn: The Final Empire; Mistborn: The Well of Ascension; & Mistborn: The Hero of Ages which is a FANTASTIC series, where Sanderson creates a very unique and awesome system of magic, and a very well described, defined, and special universe in which it takes place.

There's also a free version of his next novel available on his website.  It's decent, but not as good as the stuff Hoosier mentioned, mainly because he's still in the process of tweaking it.  I would think it's very cool if you're an aspiring writer though since he's updated it every time he made changes to it, as well as posted notes about his thought process during the writing and editing.

[HoosierDaddy]

alt146, on Jun 25 2009, 05:03 AM, said:

HoosierDaddy, on Jun 25 2009, 10:54 AM, said:

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

He has written a stand-alone novel: Elantris, which is obviously both rare for its single-story, but also very well written.

The Mistborn Trilogy: Mistborn: The Final Empire; Mistborn: The Well of Ascension; & Mistborn: The Hero of Ages which is a FANTASTIC series, where Sanderson creates a very unique and awesome system of magic, and a very well described, defined, and special universe in which it takes place.

There's also a free version of his next novel available on his website.  It's decent, but not as good as the stuff Hoosier mentioned, mainly because he's still in the process of tweaking it.  I would think it's very cool if you're an aspiring writer though since he's updated it every time he made changes to it, as well as posted notes about his thought process during the writing and editing.

That would be "Warbreaker", which seems fairly interesting, and I'll probably purchase to support him.

He also writes for YA (I believe that the...) Librarian Series... or whatever it is called, is for a junior audience. But then again, he wrote both Elantris and the MBT such that it would be appropriate reading for an advanced middle-school reader (13-14), so what do I know?













What? OK. You caught me. I'm representing the Group.

[dktorode]

alt146, on Jun 25 2009, 11:03 AM, said:

HoosierDaddy, on Jun 25 2009, 10:54 AM, said:

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

He has written a stand-alone novel: Elantris, which is obviously both rare for its single-story, but also very well written.

The Mistborn Trilogy: Mistborn: The Final Empire; Mistborn: The Well of Ascension; & Mistborn: The Hero of Ages which is a FANTASTIC series, where Sanderson creates a very unique and awesome system of magic, and a very well described, defined, and special universe in which it takes place.

There's also a free version of his next novel available on his website.  It's decent, but not as good as the stuff Hoosier mentioned, mainly because he's still in the process of tweaking it.  I would think it's very cool if you're an aspiring writer though since he's updated it every time he made changes to it, as well as posted notes about his thought process during the writing and editing.

Would one find him at Exclusive books?

[alt146]

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 11:16 AM, said:

alt146, on Jun 25 2009, 11:03 AM, said:

HoosierDaddy, on Jun 25 2009, 10:54 AM, said:

dktorode, on Jun 25 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

never read him.

anything i should look out for?

He has written a stand-alone novel: Elantris, which is obviously both rare for its single-story, but also very well written.

The Mistborn Trilogy: Mistborn: The Final Empire; Mistborn: The Well of Ascension; & Mistborn: The Hero of Ages which is a FANTASTIC series, where Sanderson creates a very unique and awesome system of magic, and a very well described, defined, and special universe in which it takes place.

There's also a free version of his next novel available on his website.  It's decent, but not as good as the stuff Hoosier mentioned, mainly because he's still in the process of tweaking it.  I would think it's very cool if you're an aspiring writer though since he's updated it every time he made changes to it, as well as posted notes about his thought process during the writing and editing.

Would one find him at Exclusive books?

You may have to ask them to order for you, you dont see it on the shelves too often.

[HoosierDaddy]

I have no idea. He's available at every major U.S. book store............ but that doesn't mean much for the international community.

I know Amazon, BnB, Borders, and other random U.S. sellers have his books. (In fact, I've recently purchased Well of Ascension (HB) used over the net to complete my Mistborn Trilogy).

There are some available at your site. Looks like 1 and 2.

[dktorode]

Those covers look familiar....

[tickhill43]

I'll add a note of caution to all the Sanderson love around here. I've read all three of his mistborn novels and find him to be an average writer. His best points are his interesting ideas and well thought out magic system. However in my view his characterisation was weak, the fictional world he built flimsy and unconvincing and his technical skill as a writer similarly unconvincing.

Quite frankly I'm amazed that he has been given such a remarkable advance for a four novel contract. I really can't see his publisher getting a good return for that kind of money, even with the massive boost his profile has received since he took over as the Wheel of Time author.

[alt146]

tickhill43, on Jun 25 2009, 03:16 PM, said:

I'll add a note of caution to all the Sanderson love around here. I've read all three of his mistborn novels and find him to be an average writer. His best points are his interesting ideas and well thought out magic system. However in my view his characterisation was weak, the fictional world he built flimsy and unconvincing and his technical skill as a writer similarly unconvincing.

Quite frankly I'm amazed that he has been given such a remarkable advance for a four novel contract. I really can't see his publisher getting a good return for that kind of money, even with the massive boost his profile has received since he took over as the Wheel of Time author.

I agree that his characterisation is probably his biggest weak point, but I have to disagree about the world-building and writing which I thought were pretty solid.  He hasnt reached the level where he could be considered one of fantasy's greats, but to be honest I enjoyed Mistborn as much as Abercrombie, Rothfuss and Lynch's work, all of which has received lots of hype.

[Tarcanus]

Quote

I'll add a note of caution to all the Sanderson love around here. I've read all three of his mistborn novels and find him to be an average writer. His best points are his interesting ideas and well thought out magic system. However in my view his characterisation was weak, the fictional world he built flimsy and unconvincing and his technical skill as a writer similarly unconvincing.

This, this, this.

I remember that while I was reading his books I was able to tell exactly what he was trying to do with each of the characters, and he uses too many scenes where the characters just move around thinking to themselves. Every time he does that, the characterization gets sloppy and obvious, like he's dragging the reader by the nose to whatever conclusion he wants them to reach.

His prose is also pretty bad. I remember reading his annotations on the Mistborn trilogy when he mentioned one of the chapters where he tried to use prose to open the scene. It pretty much bombed, imo. It was awkward and didn't flow well into the rest of the chapter. Every time he tries to use better prose he's failed for the aforementioned reasons.

I will salute the man for his awesome dedication to his fans by keeping them updated on everything he's doing and explaining why somethings are the way they are.

His magic systems are also very well thought out.

Overall, though, I'm surprised at this amount of money he's being given as he's not nearly a good enough writer to warrant such high pay.

[Terez]

I found his style to be pretty pedestrian at first, but I think he improved a lot over the course of the Mistborn trilogy (which had a great ending). Also, he's said on his blog that his editors noted when he turned in some stuff for the Way of Kings that working on WoT has matured his style quite noticeably as well.

[Salt-Man Z]

I've only read Elantris, which was okay, but nothing special. He definitely creates an interesting magic system, for sure. It was very obviously his first novel, but I've heard that it was actually written some time before it was published, and that he's only improved since then.