{"id":3252,"date":"2010-03-16T13:32:53","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T21:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/?p=3252"},"modified":"2010-03-16T13:32:53","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T21:32:53","slug":"an-aside-news-on-the-way-of-kings-by-brandon-sanderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/news\/an-aside-news-on-the-way-of-kings-by-brandon-sanderson\/","title":{"rendered":"An Aside | News on ‘The Way of Kings’ by Brandon Sanderson"},"content":{"rendered":"\"The<\/a>\n

With Sanderson’s focus on promoting (and writing) the Wheel of Time<\/em> novels, news on The Way of Kings<\/strong> has been few and far between. Now that The Gathering Storm<\/strong> is on store shelves, and the upcoming August, 2010 release of The Way of Kings<\/strong>, focus will begin to shift back to Sanderson’s original work.<\/p>\n

On his blog<\/a>, Sanderson spills some beans about the novel:<\/p>\n

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POINT ONE: This book is the start of a longer epic.<\/p>\n

KINGS stands at 425,000 words right now. I\u2019ll be trimming that down to (hopefully) 380\u2013390k when I do the next draft. (Which will be the final draft.) That will put it at roughly double the length of MISTBORN or ELANTRIS. The series is called the Stormlight Archive, and Tor purchased four books from me. I\u2019m not planning that to be the end, though I\u2019m cautious at locking myself into a certain number of books. (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\u2019t be as long as the Wheel of Time, but will be longer than anything I\u2019ve attempted so far.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Consider this: a novel is defined as a piece of fiction containing 40,000+ words. The average Fantasy novel is likely between 90,000 and 120,000 words. Sanderson hopes to cut up to 45,000 words. That’s a whole novel worth of material. Nuts.<\/p>\n

Won’t be as long as The Wheel of Time<\/strong>? Haven’t we heard that before? Just kidding. Sanderson’s shown himself as being more than capable of crafting stories and keeping them within the bounds he’s set. Mistborn<\/strong> was confined to a trilogy, Warbreaker<\/strong> and Elantris<\/strong> were stand alone novels.
\n<\/p>\n

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POINT TWO: It is not a replacement for the Wheel of Time.<\/p>\n

I will be sorry to see the Wheel of Time end, just like many of you will be. It will be difficult for me on two levels, both as a fan and as a writer. I\u2019ve been reading these books since I was fifteen. More than half of my life, now, has been spent with Rand and company. My career has been shaped by them, and several years of my life recently have been dominated by their stories.<\/p>\n

However, I don\u2019t intend to replace the series. I have to be my own person, approach storytelling in my own way, and write with my own voice. To intentionally set out to replace the Wheel of Time would be monumentous hubris. The Wheel of Time doesn\u2019t need replacing. It\u2019s still there, on our shelves, just like it\u2019s always been. Once it\u2019s complete, that will be (in many ways) even better. We\u2019ll be able to read it straight through, beginning to end, without waiting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As someone who hasn’t read Wheel of Time<\/em> since the seventh volume, I’m much more excited about Sanderson’s original work. I’m curious to see how he manages to balance finishing off Wheel of Time<\/em> and continuing work on The Stormlight Archives<\/em>. He’d potentially have to write 800,000 – 1,000,000 words a year (especially when one considers how much extra material he writes and then cuts during the editing process.)<\/p>\n

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POINT THREE: I think KINGS is one of the best books I\u2019ve ever written.<\/p>\n

I think the characters are incredible, the magic imaginative, the scope and history of the world impressive. I think the story is exciting, and has a depth beyond what I\u2019ve been able to do before. I\u2019m trying some new, exciting things for me\u2014some nonlinear storytelling, some great internal artwork, and layers of depth to the storytelling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Well, that’s encouraging. Still, one can’t expect him to air his worries before the novel’s release.<\/p>\n

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POINT FOUR: However, the book is just a book.<\/p>\n

My editor, bless his heart, compared THE WAY OF KINGS to DUNE and LORD OF THE RINGS in the catalogue copy that he wrote. He\u2019s a wonderful man, but I cringe when any new book is compared to masterworks like those. DUNE and LotR have proven themselves over decades, passing the test of time. They had monumental influences on their respective genres.<\/p>\n

No new novel has the right to claim such a comparison out of the gate. If you go into KINGS expecting the next LORD OF THE RINGS or DUNE, you will be disappointed. I am not Tolkien or Herbert. I am what I am\u2014a largely unproven writer still in the early days of his career.<\/p>\n

Early in my drafting process for this book, I fell into some traps by putting too much weight upon the future of this novel. I began to think that KINGS would be the book that would define my solo career, and I began to worry (with all of the recent eyes that have been watching me) that this book needed to be something incredibly jaw-dropping and earth-shattering, otherwise it would be a failure.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a bad way to be thinking as you write a book, and probably an even worse way to be thinking as you start reading a book. The Wheel of Time didn\u2019t start to really make its mark until book three or four; it was the same for Harry Potter. Series like this take time to build. Beyond that, you can\u2019t go into a series with the mind-set that it needs to be a huge blockbuster to be successful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what I want people to think about this book. I want them to read it, enjoy it, and say nice things about it. I want them to anticipate it and talk about it on blogs, waiting for the day it is released. But in the end, it\u2019s just a book. Let\u2019s not hype this thing to death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I have to smile at this one. Editors, Marketers and Publishers can be very trigger happy with the comparisons leading up to a book’s release. Sure, The Stormlight Archives<\/em> could light the genre on fire like Tolkien and Herbert. It probably won’t. I’m always impressed by Sanderson’s humble attitude towards his writing.<\/p>\n

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POINT FIVE: Have I mentioned that it\u2019s big?<\/p>\n

I started working on THE WAY OF KINGS fifteen years ago. I wrote the first version of the book in full back in 2003. It was always planned to be big. You don\u2019t grow up reading Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, and Melanie Rawn without wanting to do your own big epic. When I showed it to my editor back in \u201903, he thought it was too ambitious to be published, at least as my second novel.<\/p>\n

There are thirty magic systems in this world, depending on how you count them, and around six thousand years of history I\u2019ve mapped out. There are dozens of cultures, a continent of enormous scope, and a deep, rich mythology. However, when I say things like that, you have to realize that very little of it will end up in the first book. The best fantasy epics I\u2019ve read begin with a personal look at the characters in the early books, then have a steady expansion into epic scope.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent many years thinking about the epic fantasy genre, what makes it work, what I love about it, and how to deal with its inherent weaknesses. And so I\u2019m trying to make use of the form of the novel (meaning how I place chapters and which viewpoints I put where) in order to convey the scope without distracting from the main stories I wish to tell.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I don\u2019t jump between dozens of characters in this novel. There are three central viewpoints, with two or so primary supporting viewpoints. I intend the first book to be its own story, focused and personal. I don\u2019t want this to be the \u201cWow! Thirty Magic Systems!\u201d series. I want it to be a series about a group of characters you care about, with a lush and real world that has solid and expansive depth.<\/p>\n

In other words, I promise you a variety of magics, mythology, history, and cultures . . . but not all in the first book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thirty magic systems? Dozens of cultures? Six thousand years of history? I worry that Sanderson’s biting off more than he can chew (despite impressing in his previous work). Still, the mention of three central characters and the emphasis on focussed story telling is a good sign.<\/p>\n

I find it interesting that Sanderson leads with ‘There are thirty magic systems in the world, […] around six thousand years of history [and] dozens of cultures’<\/em>… and then goes on to say ‘I don\u2019t want this to be the \u201cWow! Thirty Magic Systems!\u201d series.’<\/em> Perhaps he should revise that elevator pitch?<\/p>\n

In any case, count me excited for The Way of Kings<\/strong>, even if only to find out how well Sanderson manages to pull together so many strings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Sanderson’s focus on promoting (and writing) the Wheel of Time novels, news on The Way of Kings has been few and far between. Now that The Gathering Storm is on store shelves, and the upcoming August, 2010 release of The Way of Kings, focus will begin to shift back to Sanderson’s original work. On… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n