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- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- Behind the scenesWritten twice
Sanderson finished a first draft in 2003. Tor felt something wasn't quite right and passed. Years later he threw everything away and started again from page one. The old version, now called The Way of Kings Prime, went up on his website in 2020.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesBridge Four started in college
Bridge Four characters and scenes began in Dragonsteel, Sanderson's honors thesis at BYU, finished in 2000. It's the only undergrad thesis in BYU history that had to be rebound because it had been read so much.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesAward right away
The book debuted at No. 7 on the New York Times best seller list and won the 2011 David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Novel, voted on by fantasy readers.
source ↗ - SetupWatch the epigraphs
Some parts of the book open with strange lines spoken by dying people, each one dated and timed. They look like decoration, but someone is writing them down for a reason.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe king's fool
Wit, King Elhokar's jester, is Hoid, the traveler who turns up in disguise across the Cosmere, Sanderson's shared universe. Mistborn readers have met him before.
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- Behind the scenesThe Book of Endless Pages
Sanderson planned to call it The Book of Endless Pages. His editor asked if he was sure he wanted that name on a very long, very thick fantasy book. He changed it.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesDelayed by the Wheel of Time
It was due in 2012, but Sanderson was finishing A Memory of Light, the last book of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. It finally came out in March 2014.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe biggest book Tor had printed
At 1,087 pages, it was the largest book Tor had ever printed at the time. It still debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times hardcover fiction list.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesShallan's turn
Michael Whelan painted the endpapers showing Shallan sketching on the Shattered Plains. He said the story had become as much Shallan's as Kaladin's.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe girl who steals food
In one interlude, a girl breaks into the palace in Azir just to steal food. That's Lift, who later gets her own novella, Edgedancer.
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- Behind the scenesBorn in a collection
Edgedancer first came out in November 2016 inside Arcanum Unbounded, a collection of Cosmere stories. Only later did it get its own hardcover.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNearly all Lift
It runs about 40,000 words: 19 chapters from Lift's point of view and one from Hauka's. The first draft was written in May 2016.
source ↗ - ReferenceBonus interlude
The standalone edition includes Lift's interlude from Words of Radiance, so you can revisit how she entered the story.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe hunter is back
The man chasing Lift, whom she calls Darkness, already showed up in Words of Radiance. Here you get a closer look at how he thinks.
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- Behind the scenesIt was meant to be Szeth's book
Early titles were Stones Unhallowed, then Skybreaker, with the focus on Szeth. The plan changed and the book became Dalinar's.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesHalf a million words
The first draft ran 461,000 words and the third hit 514,000. The final version was cut to about 450,000. Tor had to switch printers and binderies to handle the size.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesJasnah on the cover
Michael Whelan's US cover shows Jasnah Kholin defending a city. The endpapers show four of the ten Heralds, painted by Howard Lyon and Dan dos Santos.
source ↗ - ReferenceOne character per book
Each first-arc book has flashbacks for one character: Kaladin in book one, Shallan in book two, and now Dalinar. His show the warrior he was in his youth.
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- Behind the scenesBackers got it first
Dawnshard came out as an e-book on November 5, 2020, for backers of the leatherbound Way of Kings Kickstarter. Everyone else got it days later, and print followed in 2022.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesIt was almost Wandersail
The planned title was Wandersail. Sanderson changed it to avoid confusion with the story Wit tells and to save the name for a possible picture book.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesIt had to come first
Sanderson wrote it before Rhythm of War because the island of Aimia matters to the story, and Rysn, with her new ship, was the right character to get there.
source ↗ - ReferenceAn old acquaintance
Rysn first appeared in an interlude in The Way of Kings, back when she was a merchant's apprentice. Lopen, Bridge Four's joker, shares the spotlight with her.
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- Behind the scenesThe Song of Changes
The working title was The Song of Changes. Sanderson said it was never meant to be the final title.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesTurned in July, on shelves in November
Sanderson started writing in January 2019 and turned in the manuscript on July 12, 2020. It runs about 460,000 words, a bit longer than Oathbringer.
source ↗ - ReferenceTwo-voice flashbacks
This time the flashbacks belong to the singers. The plan was Eshonai alone, but Sanderson ended up alternating between her and her sister, Venli.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesAn award for the audiobook
The audiobook, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, came out the same day and won the 2022 Audie Award for Fantasy.
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- Behind the scenesTen days
The whole book is a countdown: ten days remain until a contest that decides Roshar's fate, and the story moves day by day.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesToo big for the appendix
It runs about 488,000 words, 147 chapters and 18 interludes. It's the first Stormlight book without an Ars Arcanum, the magic appendix, because of size limits.
source ↗ - ReferenceA recycled title
Before it was Wind and Truth, the book was called Stones Unhallowed, a name once floated for Oathbringer, and then Knights of Wind and Truth.
source ↗ - ReferenceSzeth's turn
The flashbacks finally belong to Szeth, the assassin in white who opens The Way of Kings. Twenty chapters cover his past.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesEnd of the first half
The book closes the first half of the planned ten-book series. Sanderson will write the second half after Mistborn Era Three and two Elantris sequels, aiming to finish near the end of 2031.
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