50-522: Brandon Winn Sanderson (born December 19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy , science fiction , and young adult books. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe , in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive , are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners ,
100-510: A biochemistry major. He took a two-year leave of absence from 1995 to 1997 to serve as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was assigned to serve in South Korea . After completing his missionary service, Sanderson returned to BYU and changed his major to English literature . While an undergraduate, Sanderson took a job as a night auditor at
150-537: A "Weekly Update" in his YouTube channel which will give updates on his current projects every week. On May 26, Brandon Sanderson revealed the title and cover for "Cytonic", the third book of his Skyward series, which was published on November 23, 2021. Sanderson started a new podcast in June 2021 called 'Intentionally Blank', with friend and fellow science fiction author Dan Wells . Sanderson announced in March 2022 that, over
200-614: A 1971 essay, "High Fantasy and Heroic Romance", which was originally given at the New England Round Table of Children's Librarians in October 1969. Many high fantasy stories are told from the viewpoint of one main hero. Often, much of the plot revolves around their heritage or mysterious nature, along with a world-threatening problem. In many novels the hero is an orphan or unusual sibling, and frequently portrayed with an extraordinary talent for magic or combat. They begin
250-550: A bookstore" called Dragonsteel Plaza. Sanderson first turned to Kickstarter in 2020, when he generated $ 6.7 million from almost 30,000 backers to produce a collectable leather-bound 10th anniversary edition of the Stormlight Archive novel, The Way of Kings. In 2022, in his second Kickstarter project, Brandon Sanderson raised over $ 41.7 million for four secret books, all intended as stand-alone novels, through Dragonsteel Entertainment. The crowdfunding campaign became
300-408: A broad term to include a number of different flavors of the fantasy genre, including epic fantasy , mythic fantasy, dark fantasy , and wuxia . It typically is not considered to include the sword and sorcery genre. High fantasy has often been defined by its themes and messages. " Good versus evil " is a common one in high fantasy, and defining the character of evil is often an important theme in
350-604: A common basis for many fantasy books and many other authors continue to contribute to the settings. Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. Tor was founded by Tom Doherty , Harriet McDougal , and Jim Baen in 1980. (Baen founded his own imprint three years later.) They were soon joined by Barbara Doherty and Katherine Pendill, who then composed
400-467: A four-book series. It debuted at number nine on the combined print and e-book New York Times Best Seller list . On August 31, 2012, Sanderson published a science fiction novella entitled Legion , followed by another short work titled The Emperor's Soul . In 2013, Sanderson published two new young adult series. These series included The Rithmatist and the first of The Reckoners series titled Steelheart . In March 2014, Words of Radiance ,
450-598: A group of evil librarians who are bent on taking over the world. The first of his " laws of magic " were first published in 2007, with the second and third published in 2012 and 2013 (respectively). In 2008, the third and final book in the Mistborn trilogy was published, titled The Hero of Ages , as well as the second book in the Alcatraz series, titled Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones . That same year, he started
500-544: A local hotel in Provo, Utah , as it allowed him to write while working. One of Sanderson's roommates at BYU was Ken Jennings , who nearly ten years later became famous during his 74-game win streak on the game show Jeopardy! . Sanderson graduated from BYU in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts . He continued on as a graduate student, receiving an M.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing in 2004. While at BYU, Sanderson
550-457: A novella e-book, Infinity Blade: Awakening , based on the action role-playing , iOS video game Infinity Blade , developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games . In November 2011, he published a sequel to the Mistborn trilogy, Mistborn: The Alloy of Law . It was originally planned as a standalone novel set about 300 years after the original trilogy, but it was later expanded into
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#1732794196004600-539: A podcast with author Dan Wells and cartoonist Howard Tayler called Writing Excuses , involving topics about creating genre writing and webcomics . In 2016, the American media company DMG Entertainment licensed the movie rights to Sanderson's entire Cosmere universe, but the rights have since reverted back to Sanderson. Sanderson's March 2022 Kickstarter campaign became the most successful in history , finishing with 185,341 backers pledging $ 41,754,153. Sanderson
650-653: A range of its works as ebooks and, in 2012, Doherty announced that his imprints would sell only DRM-free ebooks by July of that year. One year later, Tor stated that the removal of DRM had not harmed its ebook business, so they would continue selling them DRM-free. In July 2018, Macmillan Publishers and Tor prompted a boycott spread across social media websites and library bulletin boards after they announced that Tor's e-books would no longer be made available for libraries to purchase and lend to borrowers, via digital distribution services such as OverDrive , until four months after their initial publication date. The company cited
700-530: A rebranding tactic in 2021. It holds copyrights to many of Sanderson's novels and has self-published several of his stories in both digital and print formats. In 2024, Sanderson appeared before 5,000 fans at FanX in Salt Lake City, Utah at a 50-minute panel. During the panel, Sanderson announced that Dragonsteel Entertainment had purchased land in Pleasant Grove, Utah to "theoretically build
750-688: A ridiculous number of books. Because of that, he hides connections to his other works within each book, creating a "hidden epic". He has estimated that the Cosmere sequence could conclude with at least 40 books. The story of the Cosmere is about a mysterious being called Adonalsium, who existed on a world known as Yolen. Adonalsium was killed by a group of at least seventeen conspirators, causing its power to shatter into sixteen different Shards, each of which bears immense power. Sixteen of those people—referred to as Vessels—then took these Shards and traveled to new worlds, populating them with different systems of magic or extending on ones already present. In one case,
800-485: A sense of wonder in the reader. Sanderson's three laws of magic are creative writing guidelines that can be used to create magic systems for fantasy stories: Additionally, there is a zeroth law: Sanderson is adjunct faculty at Brigham Young University , teaching a creative writing course once per year. Sanderson also participates in the weekly podcast Writing Excuses with authors Dan Wells , Mary Robinette Kowal , and web cartoonist Howard Tayler . He began hosting
850-414: A spectrum. Hard magic systems follow specific rules, the magic is controlled and explained to the reader in the narrative detailing the mechanics behind the way the magic 'works' and can be used for building settings that revolve around the magic system. Soft magic systems may not have clearly defined rules or limitations, or they may provide limited exposition regarding their workings. They are used to create
900-660: A work of high fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings . The importance of the concept of good and evil can be regarded as the distinguishing mark between high fantasy and sword and sorcery. In many works of high fantasy, this conflict marks a deep concern with moral issues; in other works, the conflict is a power struggle, with, for instance, wizards behaving irresponsibly whether they are "good" or "evil". Role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons with campaign settings like Dragonlance by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis and Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood are
950-540: The Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan 's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time . Sanderson has created several graphic novel fantasy series, including White Sand and Dark One . A New York Times best-selling author, Sanderson created Sanderson's Laws of Magic and popularized the idea of "hard magic" and "soft magic" systems. In 2008, Sanderson started
1000-1144: The Equitable Building . Tor is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group. The Forge imprint publishes an array of fictional titles, including historical novels and thrillers. Tor Books has two imprints for young readers: Starscape (for readers 10 years of age and up) and Tor Teen (for readers 13 years of age and up). The Tordotcom imprint focuses on short works such as novellas , shorter novels and serializations. A United Kingdom sister imprint, Tor UK, specializes in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and publishes young-adult crossover fiction based on computer-game franchises. Tor UK briefly maintained an open submission policy, which ended in January 2013. Orb Books publishes science-fiction classics such as A. E. van Vogt 's Slan . Tor Teen publishes young-adult novels such as Cory Doctorow 's Little Brother and repackages novels such as Orson Scott Card 's Ender's Game for younger readers. Tor Labs produces podcasts . A German sister imprint, Fischer Tor,
1050-507: The podcast Writing Excuses with Howard Tayler and Dan Wells . Sanderson rose to prominence in late 2007 when Harriet McDougal , the wife and editor of author Robert Jordan , chose Sanderson to complete the final books in Jordan's epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time after Jordan's death. McDougal asked Sanderson to finish the series after being deeply impressed by his first Mistborn novel, The Final Empire . Tor Books made
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#17327941960041100-616: The "direct and adverse impact" of electronic lending on retail eBook sales but suggested that the change was part of a "test program" and could be reevaluated. Tor won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Publisher in 33 consecutive years from 1988 to 2022 inclusive. In March 2014, Worlds Without End listed Tor as the second-most awarded and nominated publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror books, after Gollancz . At that time, Tor had received 316 nominations and 54 wins for 723 published novels, written by 197 authors. In
1150-543: The 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards in the Fantasy category, was a finalist in the Best Speculative Fiction category of the 2015 Whitney Awards, and was a preliminary nomineed for the 2016 Gemmell Legend Award . On November 16, 2015, Sanderson's agency (JABberwocky Literary Agency) announced that Sanderson officially sold over 7 million copies worldwide. On January 26, 2016, Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning
1200-772: The Best Young Adult—Speculative category. It also placed eighth in the Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction category of the Goodreads Choice Awards and was a finalist for the 2015 AML Award in the Young Adult Novel category. Nine months later, Sanderson published Mistborn: Shadows of Self as a direct sequel to The Alloy of Law . The novel won the 2017 Neffy Award in the Best Novel category, placed third in
1250-649: The Dor, from which Seons and Skaze have emerged. On Roshar , Odium splintered Honor and brought about the Everstorm and the True Desolation. He has also splintered Ambition , in the Threnody system. A man known as Hoid is seen or mentioned in most Cosmere books. He travels the so-called Shardworlds, using the people of those worlds to further an unknown agenda. Sanderson has indicated that an upcoming work in
1300-496: The Shards Ruin and Preservation worked together to actually create a planet and its people (Scadrial, as featured in Mistborn ). Each Shard has an Intent, such as Ambition or Honor , and a Vessel's personality is changed over time to bring them more in-line with their Intent. One such Shard, Odium , has killed—or "splintered"—several other Shards. On Sel , he splintered Devotion and Dominion , accidentally creating
1350-464: The ability to 'burn' metals and alloys after ingesting them—gain enhanced senses and control over powerful supernatural forces. He published the second book of the Mistborn series The Well of Ascension in 2007. Later that year, Sanderson published the children's novel Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians , about a boy named Alcatraz with a talent for breaking things. Alcatraz confronts
1400-573: The all-time most successful campaign . The Kickstarter campaign finished with 185,341 backers pledging $ 41,754,153. Before the conclusion of his Kickstarter campaign, Sanderson also backed every other publishing project on Kickstarter, for a total of 316 projects. One of the secret projects during the pandemic, Tress of the Emerald Sea , was released in book form in April 2023. Sanderson also collaborated with Unknown Worlds Entertainment to create
1450-472: The announcement on December 7, 2007. After reviewing what was necessary to complete the series, Sanderson and Tor announced on March 30, 2009, that a final three books would be published instead of just one. The first of these, The Gathering Storm , was published on October 27, 2009, and reached the number-one spot on the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction. Towers of Midnight ,
1500-434: The epic stature of its characters , themes , or plot . High fantasy is usually set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world , rather than the "real" or "primary" world. This secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set on Earth, the primary or real world, or a rational and familiar fictional world with
1550-451: The inclusion of magical elements. The romances of William Morris , such as The Well at the World's End , set in an imaginary medieval world, are sometimes regarded as the first examples of high fantasy. The works of J. R. R. Tolkien —especially The Lord of the Rings —are regarded as archetypal works of high fantasy . The term "high fantasy" was coined by Lloyd Alexander in
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1600-468: The largest in Kickstarter history by pledge volume, surpassing the previous record holder by more than double. It also set new records for the most funds raised in the first 24 hours, with $ 15.4 million, as well as the highest number of backers and total funding within the same time period. In August 2024, Sanderson teamed up with Brotherwise Games to create a tabletop role-playing game (RPG) based on
1650-495: The lore and setting for the video game Moonbreaker , which was released via early access in September 2022. Sanderson announced a further 'secret project' novel, set for a 2025 release, in March 2024. Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC is a company acting as publisher, storefront, and producer for various Sanderson-related products and projects. It is also known as Dragonsteel Books , according to Sanderson's personal blog as
1700-470: The middle of a graduate program at BYU, he was contacted by Tor Books editor Moshe Feder, who wanted to acquire one of his books. Sanderson had submitted the manuscript of his sixth novel, Elantris , a year and a half earlier. Elantris was published by Tor Books on April 21, 2005, to generally positive reviews. This was followed in 2006 by Mistborn: The Final Empire , the first book in his Mistborn fantasy trilogy, in which "allomancers"—people with
1750-619: The mythical universe the Cosmere, featured in many of his fantasy novels. With over $ 14.6 million in pledges, the Kickstarter campaign broke the previous record in pledges for a tabletop RPG. In the summer of 2024, Brandon Sanderson partnered with the Maryville University League of Legends team to financially support them in their involvement in the North American Challengers League (NACL), a tournament created by Riot Games that serves as
1800-730: The official path to becoming a professional League of Legends player in North America. The Cosmere is the name of the universe in which Elantris , Mistborn , Warbreaker , The Stormlight Archive , White Sand , Tress of the Emerald Sea , Yumi and the Nightmare Painter , The Sunlit Man , and stories contained in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection are all set. This idea came from Sanderson's desire to create an epic-length series without requiring readers to buy
1850-640: The original startup team. Tor is a word meaning a rocky pinnacle, as depicted in Tor's logo. Tor Books was sold to St. Martin's Press in 1987. Along with St. Martin's Press; Henry Holt ; and Farrar, Straus and Giroux , it became part of the Holtzbrinck group, now part of Macmillan in the US. In June 2019, Tor and other Macmillan imprints moved from the Flatiron Building , to larger offices in
1900-399: The podcast Intentionally Blank with Dan Wells in June 2021, where they discuss random things they enjoy. Sanderson has been nominated for and also won multiple awards for his various works. See Writing Excuses for additional awards and nominations. High fantasy High fantasy , or epic fantasy , is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by
1950-490: The previous two pandemic years, he had secretly written five otherwise-unannounced books (four full adult novels and a shorter junior novel). The full novels (three of which are set in the Cosmere) were made available through a Kickstarter subscription that releases them quarterly through 2023. The Kickstarter campaign was highly successful, raising $ 15 million in its first 24 hours and over $ 20 million within three days, becoming
2000-565: The same year, the third Alcatraz book was published, titled Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia . In 2010, Sanderson published The Way of Kings , the first of a planned ten-book series called The Stormlight Archive . It achieved the number seven slot on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list. The fourth Alcatraz novel, Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens , followed soon after. In October 2011, he finished
2050-580: The second book in The Stormlight Archive , was published. Later that year, Subterranean Press published the second novella in the Legion series, Legion: Skin Deep . It was a preliminary nominee for the 2015 Hugo Awards , but did not make the final ballot. In January 2015, the second book of The Reckoners , titled Firefight , was published. Firefight won the 2015 Whitney Award in
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2100-420: The second-to-last The Wheel of Time book, was published just over a year after The Gathering Storm on November 2, 2010, debuting at number one on the bestseller list. In early 2013, the series was completed with the publication of A Memory of Light . In 2009, Tor Books published Warbreaker , which originally appeared serially on Sanderson's website while he was writing the novel from 2006 to 2009. In
2150-606: The series will be in the Cyberpunk genre, a marked departure from the setting of the high-fantasy and urban-fantasy settings that have featured in the Cosmere universe to date. Sanderson makes an express distinction between "soft" and "hard" magic for purposes of world building and creating magic systems in fictional settings. The terminology of hard and soft originate from hard and soft sciences , which lends itself towards hard science fiction and soft science fiction . Both terms are approximate ways of characterizing two ends of
2200-533: The story young, if not as an actual child, or are portrayed as being very weak and/or useless. The hero often begins as a childlike figure, but matures rapidly, experiencing a considerable gain in fighting/problem-solving abilities along the way. The progress of the story leads to the character's learning the nature of the unknown forces against them, that they constitute a force with great power and malevolence. The villains in such stories are usually completely evil and unrelatable. "High fantasy" often serves as
2250-487: Was born on December 19, 1975, in Lincoln, Nebraska , the eldest of four children born to Barbara and Winn Sanderson. He was a "reluctant reader" as a child but became a passionate reader of fantasy in his teens after a teacher gave him a copy of Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly . He made several early attempts at writing his own stories. After graduating from high school in 1994, he went to Brigham Young University (BYU) as
2300-1349: Was founded in August 2016 as an imprint of S. Fischer Verlag (which also belongs to Holtzbrinck Publishing Group). It publishes international titles translated into German, as well as original German works. Fischer Tor also publishes the German online magazine Tor Online , which is based on the same concept as the English Tor.com online magazine, but has its own independent content. Authors published by Tor and Forge include: Kevin J. Anderson , Kage Baker , Steven Brust , Orson Scott Card , Jonathan Carroll , Myke Cole , Charles de Lint , Philip K. Dick , Cory Doctorow , Steven Erikson , Sarah Gailey , Terry Goodkind , Steven Gould , Eileen Gunn , James E. Gunn , Brian Herbert , Glen Hirshberg , Robert Jordan , Sherrilyn Kenyon , George R. R. Martin , Richard Matheson , Tamsyn Muir , Lucy A. Snyder , L. E. Modesitt, Jr. , Andre Norton , Harold Robbins , Brandon Sanderson , John Scalzi , Mary Robinette Kowal , V. E. Schwab , Skyler White , and Gene Wolfe . Tor UK has published authors such as Douglas Adams , Rjurik Davidson, Amanda Hocking , China Miéville , Adam Nevill , and Adrian Tchaikovsky . Tor publishes
2350-621: Was on the staff of Leading Edge , a semi-professional speculative fiction magazine published by the university, and served as its editor-in-chief for one year. In 2006, Sanderson married Emily Bushman, an English, Spanish, and ESL teacher and fellow BYU alumna who later became his business manager. They have three sons and reside in American Fork, Utah . Sanderson wrote consistently throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies; by 2003, he had written twelve novels, though no publisher had accepted any of them for publication. While in
2400-470: Was published as the sequel to Shadows of Self . On February 16, 2016, the third and final book of the Reckoners trilogy, titled Calamity , was published. In June 2016, Sanderson's first graphic novel White Sand —written with Rik Hoskin—was released. The series is planned as a trilogy. The graphic novels are based on an original manuscript by Sanderson. On September 6, 2016, the fifth Alcatraz book
2450-490: Was published on November 6, 2018. The second book in the series, Starsight , was released on November 26, 2019. In September 2020, a collaboration project with author Mary Robinette Kowal called The Original , was released. Rhythm of War , the fourth Stormlight novel, was published on November 17, 2020. In 2020, Sanderson's agency updated his number of copies sold to over 18 million worldwide, and in early 2021, to over 21 million. In March 2021, Brandon Sanderson announced
2500-613: Was published, called Alcatraz Versus the Dark Talent . DMG Entertainment optioned the Cosmere in 2016 for film and television. On November 22, 2016, an anthology of Cosmere short stories and novellas was published, titled Arcanum Unbounded: A Cosmere Collection . The third book in The Stormlight Archive , Oathbringer , was published on November 14, 2017. The first book of the Defiant series, Skyward ,
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