Welcome

Welcome to Brandon Sanderson's website! If you're unfamiliar with Brandon, he's a fantasy author known for his epic fantasy books published by Tor and his books for younger readers published by Scholastic.

We're glad you stopped by. There's a whole lot going on here, and the point of this page is to give you a brief overview of what kinds of things you can find on the website. This page contains information about Brandon's blog, followed by a description of his books for those unfamiliar with them, then talks about bonus features you can find on this site if you've already read Brandon's books. At the far bottom is a longer bio of Brandon.

Too BORED to read all that long-winded text to the left? Click these links instead!

CLICK HERE for some great sample chapters!

CLICK HERE for an essay about
writing magic systems!

Brandon's Blog

Brandon is an active blogger. He usually posts updates two or three times a week, and these run the gambit from stupid puns to his thoughts on the publishing industry. If you want to keep apprised of updates to the website, know that Brandon always links new articles, bonus material, or pretty much everything else he changes on the blog.

There are a lot of ways to read Brandon's blog. The most obvious is via the link on the front page of this website. However, Brandon's updates are also available via RSS to those who prefer that method. In addition, the entire blog's contents are mirrored to his blogger page, his LiveJournal, his Amazon author page, and his Facebook page. If you prefer using any of these services to visiting his main blog, feel free! You won't miss a thing.

More information about things Brandon likes to blog about can be found on the FAQ page.

Brandon also microblogs on Twitter and Facebook. His most recent status update can be found in the left column of his regular blog page as well.

Brandon's Main Blog

Brandon's LiveJournal

Brandon's Facebook

Brandon's Blogger Page

Brandon's Twitter Feed

Brandon's Books

If you're unfamiliar with Brandon's novels, and want to know more, then you're in the right place! For each of Brandon's books or series we have created a "Portal" which contains relevant links about that book. Each portal has an "About" link—click this one first! It leads to an information page where you can find a short summary of the book, along with quotes and links to various reviews as well. Each portal also contains links to sample chapters for that book!

If you've never read one of Brandon's books before, the following quick summaries might help you know which chapters to look at first:

Elantris: A one-volume epic fantasy with a focus on political intrigue and character relationships. Picked by Barnes and Noble as the best fantasy or sf book of 2005. Brandon's first novel.

Mistborn: First of a trilogy with a more action/adventure flair.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians: For all ages, but targeted at fifth to seventh graders. It's a more lighthearted fantasy book.

Go to the Elantris
Introduction Page

Go to the Mistborn
Introduction Page

Go to the Alcatraz
Introduction Page

Warbreaker

In 2006, Brandon began releasing a free ebook on his website as a thank-you to all those who bought his books. This book, Warbreaker, is not an old dusty work written before he got published, but something new that has since also come out in hardback from Tor. (The publisher was very gracious in letting him post it on the web even though they're putting it out in stores.)

Brandon's philosophy is that if people read his books, they'll want to read more! So, he has a complete copy of Warbreaker available for download. This PDF version has the same text and layout as Tor's hardcover first edition.

As a service to those who are aspiring writers themselves, Brandon has been releasing documents comparing older versions of Warbreaker with newer ones, showing what kinds of edits he made during the editing process. Those who are interested can download the various drafts and see what it takes to polish a novel to publishable form.

If you're unfamiliar with Brandon's work and don't mind reading a document on a computer screen, then this is probably the best place for you to start!

Go to the Warbreaker
Introduction Page

Download the PDF of
Tor's first edition hardcover!
(Right-click and save)

The Wheel of Time

Like many long-time fans of the Wheel of Time books, Brandon had been eagerly awaiting the final installment of the series. When he heard of Mr. Jordan's passing in September 2007, Brandon wrote this blog post talking about what Mr. Jordan's writing had meant to him.

Later, Brandon received a call from Harriet, Robert Jordan's wife and editor, who wanted to know if he'd be interested in completing the series. He agreed eagerly and was commissioned to take Mr. Jordan's materials, organize them, and then fill in the many holes to make a complete novel.

When it became clear that there was too much there to satisfyingly squeeze into one volume, everyone involved decided it would have to be split into three books. For more on this decision, please read Brandon's explanation. The first of the three volumes, The Gathering Storm, will be released October 27, 2009, with the final two volumes to follow in 2010 and 2011.

Go to the The Gathering
Storm Introduction Page

Bonus Material

Brandon's books can be expensive, particularly in hardback. He realizes you've got plenty of places to spend your hard-earned cash, so he tries to make sure his books give the biggest 'bang for their buck' that they can.

He's a big fan of directors commentaries on DVDs. So, in an attempt to imitate this for books, Brandon has written annotations for each book he releases. He posts these annotations at a rate of about two a week, and they're separated by chapter with the spoilers hidden.

So, if you're the type that wants to know behind the scenes information, you can look up any specific chapter from one of Brandon's books then read what he had to say about that chapter. You can read them as you go through the book the first time, or use them during a re-read to give the book 'replay' value.

In addition to the annotations, Brandon posts deleted scenes from his books along with essays about the worldbuilding and setting of the novels. Elantris has the most information right now, but Mistborn is catching up!

Some of my Favorite Bonus Materials:

Elantris Deleted Scenes!

Mistborn Annotations!

Scribbler Sample Chapter!
(I haven't even sold this book yet. I post this here as a thanks to you for reading this whole thing—or at least for scrolling to the bottom.)

Biography

Brandon Sanderson was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska and now lives in Provo, Utah. Unlike a lot of writers, he wasn't born wanting to write books. The bug didn't hit him until he was in junior high, when a teacher handed him a fantasy novel for the first time.

After that, he was a goner. He went to Brigham Young University as a chemistry major, but his secret passion was to become a fantasy novelist. He eventually changed his major to English, and started writing novels compulsively.

In 2003, he finally managed to sell a book (his sixth) to Tor. At that time, he was writing his thirteenth novel and working a graveyard shift at a local hotel so that he could have time to write while he put himself through graduate school. (He eventually got a Master's in creative writing.)

Brandon is a practicing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he served a mission for the church in Seoul, Korea. He married a wonderful girl named Emily in July 2006, and his first child was born in October 2007.