The 2014 Hattie Awards!!! Or the Best Book of 2014 (That I've Read)

2014 was a busy year for me with lots of challenges at work and plenty of travel. Even though this blog was dormant nearly all of the year it was probably still one of my highest word count years when counting all of the reread posts done for Tor.com on The Way of Kings, a project I was proud to be part of and glad to have behind me. As many others out there know: Writing on a schedule is hard work, especially when you have other work to do.

I still managed to read quite a bit this year even though my overall numbers are still down. I miss reading 100+ books a year, but appreciate all the added time I spent with friends and family this year. Looking over my reading log I've read 81 stories though many this year are novellas and graphic novels. I've not counted most short stories unless I bought them for my Nook and there were only 2 or 3 like that, but the novella and novelette length really hit me hard this year with a dozen or so of those. There was just one anthology read being the all-star Dangerous Women. Here's how the numbers breakdown:

Graphic Novels: 12 (though I read many more and only list those I thought worth remembering)
Short Fiction (novellas, novelettes, short stories, etc.): 24ish (Not counting Dangerous Women)
Novels: 45

Now on to the Hattie Awards!

Best Fantasy

 Winner - City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Runner-up - Smiler's Fair by Rebecca Levine

Honorable Hat Tips -The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley, The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman, and Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Bennett's latest stole the show as far as I am concerned though Smiler's Fair took me by surprise. Sanderson's WoR was what I hope it would be, but only time will tell if it will all payoff. My money's on yes. The Mirror Empire leveled up Hurley's game though there was some shakiness in the first quarter. I think Hurley's best is still to come in this series since some beautiful ground work has be laid.

Best Science Fiction

Winner - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Runner-up: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Translated by Ken Liu)

Honorable Hat Tips - Lock In by John Scalzi, Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Red Rising by Pierce Brown, On A Red Station Drifting by Aliette de Bodard

Some will be surprised Andy Weir's The Martian isn't on this list somewhere. That's because I read it in 2013 with it winning in one category.  But North's story has stuck with me a long time and never wavered from being my favorite in this area though it is probably better labeled Science Fantasy it merits a top spot. The Three-Body Problem left me cold for the first half of the story to the point I almost put it down, but I'm glad I stuck with it as it is one of the most unique First Contact stories I've ever encountered. Lock-In is probably Scalzi's best novel since Android's Dream and I friggin loved AD. Koyanagi's Ascension hit me right in the Firefly spot while bringing a unique cast that I was just as quick to fall for. Red Rising is the real please-me-deal in the same way Ender's Game was only more brutal. de Bodard's novella lives up to the accolades to date and I look forward to delving into more into this universe.

Best Weird/Horror

Winner - The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey aka Mike Carey

Runner-up - Datura by Leena Krohn

Honorable Hat Tips - Truth and Fear by Peter Higgins, The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, and The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley and Kat Howard

Datura is the stuff that eerie nightmares are made of. I know because it kept giving them to me. Truth and Fear feels very middle-bookish, but the writing has a stark beauty and strangeness that captivated me. I'm still trying to wrap my head about Murakami's odd little novella. The design by Chip Kidd was worth the price of admission all on it own. The End of the Sentence gave us a dark a slightly creepy American fairy tale well worth checking out.

Best Finish to a Series

Winner - The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman
Runner-up - Shadow Ops: Breach Zone by Myke Cole

Grossman left me amazed throughout his Magician's series and he was able to close it out quite poignantly. It will be a series well worth re-reading. Cole's finish to the first Shadow Ops arc executed all the goals I had for the series with big screen action on a small page.

Best Urban Fantasy

Winner -  California Bones by Greg van Eekhout

Runner-up - New Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko 

Honorable Hat Tips - Skin Game by Jim Butcher, and Falling Sky by Rajan Khanna

van Eekhout is back in UF after a 5 year absence with a new series that re-imagines California as if ruled by powerful magicians who eat other magicians. Not nearly as dark as it sounds since van Eekhout plays to the lighter side of things more times than not and plays up the thief angle quite well. Who knew Lukyanenko wasn't done with the Night Watch series? At first I thought this was going to stretch a series too fair as the fourth book really did close most threads off well, but the author managed to dig up a story that is as good as the rest.

Best Other

Winner - Tigerman by Nick Harkaway

I wasn't sure where to put Harkaway's latest, but I knew it needed to be mentioned. The story involves a a superhero of sorts, an island scheduled for demolition, and a bevy of most likely disreputable men. Though it meanders as Harkaway works tend to do that's the joy of the story. And that twist at the end! OMG, Harkaway is truly l33t.

Best Overall Book of the Year - You guys have got to read this!

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Considering Bennett nabbed this spot in 2012 for The Troupe this shouldn't come as too much of a shock. Now who do I have to talk to about the sequel City of Blades getting in my hands ASAP? Don't make me send Sigrud... The Girl With All the Gifts and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August have also stuck with me. These three books are also the ones I keep giving or recommending to friends depending on how their tastes bend.

Best Books Published before 2014 (That I read this year)

This year a third of the novels I read were not necessarily published this year. It is hard to rank them so here are a few of my favorites: Foundation by Isaac Asimov (re-read and deservedly in print for more than sixty years), American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett (Bennett has to be the love child of Bradbury. Has to be!), Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire (Toby just stole my heart from Dresden), The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Action/Adventure with Aliens FTW), and The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig (Badass/drugs are bad/also blue apparently).

So what were some of your favorites this year?

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Cover Unveiled for Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardiner Dozois

Above is the cover for what to me is the most anticipated super-anthology of the year, Dangerous Women. I've already mentioned all the contributors, but seeing many of them listed there does give me goosebumps. Especially knowing how many of these will connect to the novel worlds of many of the writers. While I do like the general look, it looks a bit just too that--general, but then again so was Warrirors which this is a companion volume to. Maybe Tor was concerned with ending up with a chain mail bikini girl so they went safe. Still I would have thought this would have been a good opportunity to show a strong, dangerous woman on a Fantasy cover with out the awkward poses or unrealistic accouterments. Dangerous Women will be out in early December. Get your Christmas lists ready.

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NEWS | Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois gets a release date

News broke about George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois' next big anthology quite sometime ago, but a release date hadn't been set until just now. Dangerous Women will be released December of 2013, which should be just in time for Christmas. And what's better than original stories by Joe Abercrombie, Lev Grossman, and Brandon Sanderson to close out the the year? Well, only if we got a new Martin A Song of Ice and Fire story, which we do. It will cover the Targaryen civil war which has been mentioned a lot in the novels and Dunk & Egg stories, but little detail has been revealed. But don't confuse this with the Dunk & Egg stories as it takes place well before Egg was born. Here's part of Martin's announcement from a few months back that goes into more detail on some of the stories:

The Abercrombie is set against his RED COUNTRY backdrop, the Holland gives us Eleanor of Aquitaine, Jim Butcher returns us to Harry Dresden’s world, Lev Grossman contributes a tale of life at Brakebills, Steve Stirling revisits his Emberverse, Diana Gabaldon’s story features Jamie Fraser of OUTLANDER fame, the Spector is a Wild Cards story featuring Hoodoo Mama and the Amazing Bubbles, and mine own contribution… well, it’s some of that fake history I have been writing lo these many months, the true (mostly) story of the origins of the Dance of the Dragons. The stand-alone stories, not part of any series, feature some amazing work as well. For those who like to lose themselves in long stories, the Brandon Sanderson story, the Diana Gabaldon story, the Caroline Spector story, and my “Princess and Queen” are novellas. Huge mothers.

Here’s the table of contents…

• “Some Desperado” by Joe Abercrombie
• “My Heart Is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott
• “Nora’s Song” by Cecelia Holland
• “The Hands That Are Not There” by Melinda Snodgrass
• “Bombshells” by Jim Butcher
• “Raisa Stepanova” by Carrie Vaughn
• “Wrestling Jesus” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm
• “I Know How To Pick ‘em” by Lawrence Block
• “Shadows For Silence In The Forests Of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson
• “A Queen In Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman
• “The Girl In The Mirror” by Lev Grossman
• “Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress
• “City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland
• “Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon
• “Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherilynn Kenyon
• “Pronouncing Doom” by S.M. Stirling
• “Name The Beast” by Sam Sykes
• “Caretakers” by Pat Cadigan
• “Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector
• “The Princess And The Queen” by George R.R. Martin

December can't get here soon enough.

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Meet Tor.com's Newest Contributor: ME!

This is something I've been keeping under my hat for over a month. I'll be running The Way of Kings Reread for Tor.com! It is a gargantuan task that I hope I'm up to. This is one of the secret projects I've mentioned before. The intro post is up and my first chapter post should be going up on the 28th with a new one to follow every Thursday. So join me in the discussion as we try to make sense of Roshar and by extension the mind of Brandon Sanderson. It should be a hoot and a half.

Also, Tor is running a special on the eBook of The Way of Kings for $2.99 as well as a contest for print copies.

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GUEST REVIEW | A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

GUEST REVIEW | A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Two diplomas, three jobs, one marriage, one kid, three dogs, twenty years. Those are a few of the things that have happened to me since I read Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World for the first time. I've since read it a dozen times. I love it almost as much today as I did then. Rand's long walk from his home to Emond's Field, his father laid out on the horse cart clinging to life, still instills the same sense of dread and determination it always has.

I'll be the first to admit that as the Wheel of Time spun out new books over the years they got worse, and worse, and worse, until a time came that I hardly anticipated their release.  I challenge anyone to casually mention 'the Bowl of Winds' to any Wheel of Time fan. The reactions are almost assured to involve crude language. That isn't to say they were bad books, on par with Piers Anthony or Terry Goodkind, but they weren't the same kind of magic captured in first four, and to a lesser degree the first seven.

Much of that changed when Jordan passed and Brandon Sanderson took over the franchise. I write that not to condemn Jordan's writing, but to highlight that he had perhaps reached a point in the series where a new set of eyes was needed to finish it. First with Towers of Midnight, then with The Gathering Storm, Sanderson was able to put aside some of Jordan's pet projects and, for the first times in years, progress the story to the places it needed to go to complete the series. At the time, it was an incredible thing to witness; the seeds of Jordan's labors were finally bearing fruit.

While that continues in A Memory of Light, the final Wheel of Time novel, some warts are also exposed as Sanderson is forced to cut the cord on extraneous story lines in order to accomplish the necessary greater good of completing Jordan's opus. The result is a novel that finishes the mission, so to speak, but leaves me wondering about Jordan's actual vision.

Before I go any further let me assure everyone that A Memory of Light wraps up the stories of Rand, Mat, and Perrin entirely. It leaves nothing unresolved, or dangling. In almost every way, this fourteenth volume is the novel Wheel of Time fans have waited the better part of twenty years to read. The Last Battle comes. Rand confronts the Dark One. Taim is revealed. Loial turns into Chewbacca. And the great swordsman question is put to rest. I admit to a certain amount of sheer joy at watching these things unfold. I also admit to a certain disappointment that they all unfold in such expected ways, with only a few minor twists.

The largest among those twists, related to an often unseen but prominent villain, fails because it just wasn't properly foreshadowed and/or developed with a point of view character. I feel confident that had Jordan lived to finish his series, there would have been one. I say that on faith, but faith is an important part of a series of this length. I had faith that Moraine's eight book absence amid endless speculation would pay off in the end, and that Cadsuane for all the posturing would serve some significance. That same faith had me believing that the transposition of Padan Fain and Slayer/Luc within the narrative would tie together. Perhaps that faith was misplaced. While there is resolution to all those arcs, they are inadequate given the amount of time devoted to them.

I don't want to be misunderstood. There's almost nothing Sanderson could have done to fix these problems short of writing two more books, or rewriting the ones that came before his involvement. The record was too long and the future not tolerant enough for more exposition. Many of my frustrations are merely the cause and effect of a series that spans fourteen books, two authors, and twenty three years. I strongly believe that Brandon Sanderson wrote the best books that anyone could have written who wasn't Robert Jordan himself. He treated the material respectfully and brought the series to a satisfying conclusion. In so doing, he gave much needed closure to a rabid fan base that grew up with Rand, Perrin, and Mat. I'm one of them.

Because of that, what follows here was difficult to write, but I also cannot in good conscience not write it.

I'm often asked, "Is the Wheel of Time worth it?" In other words, should I invest the better part of a year's reading in the series? My answer for the last decade has been, "I don't know, I'll let you know when the series is finished." With the final novel now in my rear view mirror, I feel capable of answering it.

The answer has to be no. But, like so many things it isn't that simple. To anyone who's read deep into the series, and put it aside until it was finished, please make good on that promise. Sanderson's first two books in the series are iconic, full of huge moments and promised pay-offs. The third lacks those eye brow raising theatrics, but it provides the closure the Wheel's fans needed. But, for the reader just beginning, I believe there are better places to look. The miasma of the eighth through eleventh books is a slog I cannot wish on anyone, full of bloat and wasted words. The payoff, however good, can never overcome the frank and utter disregard for editorial oversight that those novels exemplified.

And still. . .

My inner fan says thank you Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. My memories of the Wheel of Time will be with me always. The series wasn't the beginning of my reading life, but it was a beginning. For whatever that's worth.
------ About Justin Landon

Justin Landon is the Overlord of the genre blog Staffer's Book Review (and occasional musings). When he's not writing things of dubious value to the world, he's at the gym or being a dad. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, which is strongly suggested lest you miss out on vital information that could someday save your life.

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NEWS | New Sanderson YA Novel

NEWS | New Sanderson YA Novel

Information on these projects is still sparse, but it is certainly good to know they're on the way. First Brandon Sanderson has signed with Gollancz in the UK and Delecorte in the US for his first official YA novel called Steelheart. This is a project Sanderson has mentioned in passing a few times generally called his Superhero apocalypse and originally written in 2010, but put on the& back-burner due to other projects. Here is the description taken from Gollancz's announcement:

The first novel of Sanderson’s new series, STEELHEART, follows David – a teenager in the city that was once called Chicago – as he searches for the extraordinarily powerful Epic named Steelheart, who killed his father. Steelheart possesses the strength of ten men and can control the elements. It is said no bullet can harm him, no sword can split his skin, no explosion can burn him. Nobody fights back… nobody but the Reckoners.

A shadowy group of ordinary humans, the Reckoners spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then taking them out. For the death of his father, David wants to be there for the kill. For years, like the Reckoners, David has been studying, and planning, and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. He’s seen Steelheart bleed.

STEELHEART takes an action-heavy plot, layers in complexity, and delivers twists and a breathtaking conclusion, as David and the Reckoners try to undo the dystopia the Epics have created. According to Sanderson’s agent Eddie Schneider, STEELHEART has entered preliminary negotiations for a major Hollywood deal.

Steelheart should be out in the Fall in both the US and UK. I have to reiterate that Brandon Sanderson is still a juggernaut of an author and is showing no signs of slowing. We've already talked about the shorter works he has brewing this year and next year we'll have the last Wheel of Time, Steelheart, and quite possibly the long awaited The Rithmatist, which is his chalk magic book. And I have a feeling he'll have at least one more surprise in store for us.

The next big tidbit is that I found a listing for John Scalzi's next book from Tor titled The Human Division. No other information is available, but it looks like it will be out in April. I can't judge by the title whether it is related to his other books. If anyone has insights feel free to chime in. I'm still hoping for a sequel to my favorite Scalzi, The Android's Dream. It is also worth noting this will be out less than a year after Redshirts. So Scalzi is no slouch either.

UPDATE: See John Scalzi's comments as the listing on Amazon is a snafu of some sort. This is hardly the first time I've run afoul with news from Amazon and it probably won't be the last.

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Brandon Sanderson is Still the Hardest Working Man in Fantasy

Brandon Sanderson has been regarded for a long time as one of the most consistent writers in Fantasy. Since his debut novel Elantris, came out in 2005 a year has not gone by without at least one novel being released. In some years as many as 3 have been published if you count his books for younger readers, which we really should. The man has been the work horse of Fantasy even taking on the Wheel of Time and writing them quicker than Jordan ever did. And Sanderson is not slowing down a bit.  True there is no full length novel coming out this year, but the last Wheel of Time will be out at the beginning of 2013. And get this: Sanderson is publishing two novellas before the end of the year.

Art by Jon Foster

First we have Legion which looks to be his longest Sci-Fi related work to date with the exception of The Alloy of Law. This is from a post by Sanderson on Fantasy Faction, which sums up the book pretty well:

Called Legion, it is the story of a man with a very interesting brain. He is a genius, and can master any topic of study in a very short time--however, the knowledge he gains manifests as a person only he can see, who acts as an adviser on that topic. Someone invents a camera that can take pictures of the past, and our hero--along with his band of genius delusions--must recover it after it is stolen.

Legion is coming out from Subterranean Press in late summer, but Sanderson is also self-publishing the eBook version. But wait there's more!

Coming from Tachyon Press in November is another novella titled The Emperor's Soul, which is definitely part of the Hoidverse and placed on the same world as Elantris. Here's the official blurb:

Shai is a Forger, a foreigner who can flawlessly copy and re-create any item by rewriting its history with skillful magic. Though condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor’s scepter, she is given one opportunity to save herself. Despite the fact that her skill as a Forger is considered an abomination by her captors, Shai will attempt to create a new soul for the emperor, who is almost dead from the attack of assassins.

Delving deeply into his life, she discovers Emperor Ashravan’s truest nature—and the opportunity to exploit it. Her only possible ally is one who is truly loyal to the emperor, but councilor Gaotona must overcome his prejudices to understand that her forgery is as much artistry as it is deception.

Skillfully deducing the machinations of her captors, Shai needs a perfect plan to escape. The fate of the kingdom lies in one impossible task. Is it possible to create a forgery of a soul so convincing that it is better than the soul itself?

Sanderson will also be self-publishing the eBook version.  Between his huge novels and recent attempts at short stories Sanderson is embracing the new age of publishing mixing with big publishers, small presses, and self publishing. Brandon Sanderson I salute you!

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VIDEO | Fan trailer for The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon "The Machine" Sanderson's latest novel The Alloy of Law was just released and it was accompanied by a well made fan trailer to boot. The Alloy of Law is placed in the same world as the Mistborn trilogy only pushed ahead into a more Western age.  Neth also did a great interview with Sanderson for those wanting to know a bit more about how this novel connects with the others and future plans for the Mistborn world.




I hope to get to Alloy before the end of year, but I'm not sure at this point as I'm trying to get to a few more debuts (Seed/The Night Circus) and long-awaited novels (The Magician King/The Iron Jackal) during that time. Plus Larry just set a challenge in my direction that I'll be answering. Right now I'm about a third through Mazarkis Williams' debut The Emperor's Knife and so far I'd put it in the near the top of Fantasy debuts of the year as it reminds me of Daniel Abraham crossed with Brent Weeks, but we'll see.

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NEWS | The Magicians Optioned for TV and a new Sanderson Novella

NEWS | The Magicians Optioned for TV and a new Sanderson Novella

According to Deadline.com Fox has optioned Lev Grossman's The Magicians for a TV series.  The co-writers on the project are Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz who previously worked on the Fox series Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles as well as writers on many comic book movies including X-Men: First Class and Thor.  Given The Magicians edginess and modern setting this could be a good fit for Fox, but I'll be curious how they handle the sexual aspects of the story. Plus special effects will only increase as the story goes on when the more fantastical elements kick-in.  I see the first season being mostly set at Brakebills with the season finale leading to the other world part of the story for season two.  As of right now the series is not green-lighted, but a pilot script is in the works and according to io9 Fox's contract has a penalty, which usually implies they'll at least film the pilot.

This week Brandon Sanderson released a surprised e-only novella called Infinity Blade: Awakening, which is also his first tie-in fiction. Infinity Blade is a video game that is one of the best-selling games on the iPad. I've played it quite a bit and though it is repetitive it does have gorgeous graphics and an interesting story line to start.  Sanderson's novella is supposed to bridge the first game and the sequel that will be coming out later this year. Sanderson wrote a long blog explain the reasons he agreed to the project:

This story was just plain FUN to write. I had a blast with it, and it turned out quite well. I got to play with the idea of blending entertainment media—the story is for sale in-game, and together with the game, blends storytelling with gameplay. I think our world is going to change in interesting ways as books, video games, and cinema meld together.

So, this story hit a sweet spot for me. I got creative freedom, the ability to work with fun people, a chance to work with some interesting limitations, a chance to dip my toes into video games (they also let me do a draft on the script for the second game), and a chance to play with transmedia.

...this story is intended to be accessible to all—but that said, it does rely a lot on things that happened in the first game while throwing balls up into the air for the second game to catch. (That was part of the challenge.) Much like THE ALLOY OF LAW, it is not intended to be the end-all of my career, but rather is me exploring new types of writing and trying to have fun along the way.

Also, Sanderson is amping up his short story output saying:

You'll see me releasing a handful of short fiction pieces over the next year. I've got some in anthologies, others I'm preparing to do directly as electronic downloads, and then a few other very special pieces.

So it looks like we'll be plenty more of Sanderson to tide us over between his Epic-sized novels.

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New York Comic Con: A Photo Essay (w/ Harry Dresden, Space Marines, and Yes the Elusive Yeti!)

The fifth annual New York Comic Con was this past weekend. I only attended on Friday despite it going on all day Saturday and Sunday for which my feet are eternally grateful, especially since Saturday was sold out to a capacity crowd of 80,000 people. I arrived during the relatively sedate Professional Hours, which gave me 3 hours of wandering time before the general public could enter. I had no luck getting a copy of The Heroes or Side Jobs, but I did see a real copy of the latter. I managed to meet Joe Abercrombie at his signing.  He was quite a nice fellow and I was surprised to learn he knew of Mad Hatter's Bookshelf. We took a picture together in which he was caught caressing my hat.  I hope it was as good from him as it was for me. Soon after entering I spotted this harry fellow.

Much later in the day I spotted the Yeti's North American cousin Bigfoot who was quite nice and not at all animal like.

But, man. I don't understand how someone could walk around all day in these outfits despite it being a relatively cool day. Next up are a couple photos taken right before the Fantasy author panel.

Priscellie from Jim-Butcher.com

The lovely Priscilla was dressed as Queen Mab from The Dresden Files. The next day she dressed as Molly, but I haven't found a picture. But look over her shoulder and you'll get an impossibility.

Yes, that is Harry Dresden with a cell phone of all things. Wizards can't use cell phones! How sparks weren't popping off him and that phone I'll never know, but he looked spot on with a hand that clearly is still healing and a rune inscribed staff.

Warhammer was promoting its online version with my favorite outfits of the show. This Space Marine was life size and clocking it at probably six and a half feet tall and his eyes friggin' glowed and a massively cool sword.

This is an Ork from Warhammer as well who was nearly as impressive as the Space Marine.

The next few pictures are from The Art of the Brick by Nathan Sawaya who does the most amazing things with Legos.  This was basically a mini exposition of his best work.

Han in Carbonite

This was as large as a  4 person breakfast table.

This is Sawaya's most famous piece "Yellow."

Next up are a couple photos I snapped at the Fantasy Author Panel, which should have been called: Giants of Fantasy what with the star studded panel. We had Joe Abercombie's (First Law) first American appearance as an author as well as Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), Naomi Novik (Temeraire), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn), Peter V. Brett (The Painted Man), and newcomer Deborah Harkness (A Discovery of Witches). The panel was housed in a room far too small to the point that fans were turned away.  I barely got in and I was there 45 minutes early. A lot of love was thrown around for George R.R. Martin and Tolkien and much of the discussion skewed to writing habits and influences.

Below is video for the event, but for those preferring to read the discussion visit this run down by Tor.com, but keep in mind the videos are much more complete.

NYCC Panel Video: Fantasy Authors from Suvudu on Vimeo.


NYCC Panel Video: Fantasy Authors Part II from Suvudu on Vimeo.

Video games are very important to the show as well and I was able to play Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (PS3), Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii), Redemption (X-Box), and Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii). Kirby's Epic Yarn will be a must for me when it is released and M v C 3 brought me back to the arcade version. I got in a couple games of Magic: The Gathering both against players and their online version, which was a bit clunky. I also managed to meet many of my favorite current comic creators including Bryan J.L. Glass writer for The Mice Templar, Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener creators of Atomic Robo, and David Petersen creator of Mouse Guard.  Signed copies of all their graphic novels were had by me.  I also went to a Marvel panel where I learned one of the Fantastic Four will be dying in their recently launched storyline.  It was weird seeing the FF logo with a 3 in it.  The issue with one of the character's dying will be sold in the famous death bag most famous from when Superman died. 

Plenty more went on while I was there, but you can only get a small taste. I'll definitely try to go back next year.

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The Brandon Sanderson Interview: A StompingMad YetiHatter Collaboration - Part 2 of 2

Brandon Sanderson has quickly become a juggernaut in the Fantasy genre with not only the successful Mistborn series behind him and carrying the torch for The Wheel of Time, but with his last two solo novels both making it to the New York Times list.  The Way of Kings has just hit its second week on the Times list as well.

This was a co-interview effort between myself and fellow blogger Patrick from Stomping on Yeti.  All in all Brandon laid out plenty of tasty morsels I was happy to learn about. Check out the first part of the interview over at the Yeti Homestead. The Way of Kings left me wanting more and Brandon has shed some light on what he has planned and why he did things a certain way. We talk about everything from influences on the world, Magic: The Gathering, and why The Gathering Storm wasn't the right title for him.

MAD HATTER: Weather is a major force in The Way of Kings since that is where they derive their magic powers from. Also, the mythology of the series most people believe they are descended from others who lived in another world similar to heaven, but were thrown out of because of the voidbringers. Reincarnation seems to be a theme as well. All these ideas follow along with Norse mythology to a degree. Was that intentional or just a byproduct of the evolution to this world?

SANDERSON: Half and half. I am steeped in mythology, and I enjoy reading about it. I’m absolutely in love with the idea of Valhalla and Ragnarok. But this was not me saying I’m going to copy Norse mythology. Whatever I’ve read can pop into my head. You’ll probably see a bunch of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism too if you look for it. But it was me drawing on various sources, and also just trying to make my own thing. Yes, there’s certainly a Norse aspect to a lot of the weather magic and things like that, but it’s more that I wanted to tell a story about a world that got hit by these magical hurricanes every few days. Weather being such a force is going to therefore be an aspect of the religion, the belief systems, and the day-to-day workings of the people who live in that world. So it was partially natural outgrowth and partially my love and fondness for things that I’ve read.

MAD HATTER. If you can tell us, what's the tentative title for Book 2? And estimated release date? I know you've plenty left to tackle with WoT 14 so we'll take anything you say with that in mind.

SANDERSON: Good. The tentative title was originally Highprince of War. I’m not decided on that yet, because it might be Shallan’s book, not Dalinar’s book. It depends on whose flashbacks I decide to tell, and which ones will complement the events of the next book. Though I have an expansive outline for the series, I really have to sit down and get a more detailed outline for the second book before I decide which title I want. If it’s Dalinar’s book, it will be Highprince of War. If it’s Shallan’s book it will not be. Tentative release date? I’m going to start on A Memory of Light January first, and it will be published probably about three months after I finish it. (Knowing how Tor’s publishing my books these days.) It will just depend on how long that takes to write. Then I will start on The Stormlight Archive 2 after that. I don’t anticipate that book being as hard to write as A Memory of Light, which is going to take a lot of time and a lot of work. Best case is that I finish A Memory of Light in August of next year, it gets published in November, and I write the sequel to The Way of Kings starting immediately after that and finish it in the middle of the next year so it can be published November 2012. That’s the best-case scenario. But it’s what I hope to be able to do; we’ll see.

MAD HATTER: Will we ever get to visit The Origin of Storms? And has the ending for the series already come to you?

SANDERSON: I know exactly what the ending of the series is. I’ve been tempted to write it down a few times. Things Robert Jordan has said make me not want to write it down yet because he felt that writing the ending down before he got there was the wrong move, and I think he might be right. But I do have it worked out. In fact, I’m going to have a big powwow with Peter, Isaac, and Emily where I sit down and explain all these things so that they can point out holes before I start the second book, which is going to be a very interesting thing--we’ll probably record that and then twenty years from now post it on the internet. But yes, I do know the ending. I will not say whether we’ll go to the Origin of Storms.

YETISTOMPER. All of your fantasy worlds exist in the same universe and share linked magic systems and at least one character. Can you speak to the overall vision of this shared Hoidverse? Why not create separate worlds?

SANDERSON: I started doing this early in my career before I got published, when I felt that writing sequels was not a good use of my time. Just look at the hypothetical; if I’m trying to get published and I write three books in the same, if an editor rejects book one, he or she is not going to want to see book two. But if an editor rejects book one but is optimistic about my writing, I can send them a book from another series and they can look at that.

During my unpublished days I wrote thirteen books, only one of which was a sequel. So I had twelve new worlds, or at least twelve new books--some of them were reexaminations of worlds. But I wanted to be writing big epics. This is what I always wanted to do; something like the Wheel of Time. So I began plotting a large, massive series where all these books were connected, so I could kind of “stealth” have a large series without the editors knowing I was sending them books from the same series. It was mostly just a thing for me, to help me do the writing I wanted to be doing. And then when publication came I continued to do that, and told the story behind the story.

Why not do separate worlds? Because it was more interesting for me this way. This is the story I want to tell. The big, overarching story that I’ve planned out. I’ve been talking recently about how my inspiration for this is the idea that in science people have for a long time been looking for a unified theory of physics, some theory that will explain all interactions of physics in a concise way. I wanted to tell about a universe where there was a unified theory of magic, where magic worked according to a unifying principle. Despite the magic systems looking very different and doing lots of different and interesting things, hopefully original for each book, there is an underlying rationale that is keeping them all together. I write what I find interesting, and that was interesting to me.

MAD HATTER: Besides "Firstborn" have you tried your hand at Sci-Fi any other time? By the same token will you ever dive back into short fiction?

SANDERSON: I did write two science fiction novels during the era that I was unpublished. Neither are particularly good, but they were experiments, with me trying to figure out where my talents and interests lie. I was just experimenting a lot during those days, so I did write two science fiction novels--I believe they were my second and fifth novels. I will go back to short fiction. I’ve said before that I don’t feel I’m as good at it as I am at the longer form, but I like doing new things and trying new things. You will see more short fiction from me, but we’ll have to see when it happens. I’m thinking of writing a short story to post on my website, during my break between Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light. And there’s also “Defending Elysium,” another science fiction story, which appeared in Asimov’s and is already on my website.

MAD HATTER: Glad to hear you'll be back in the short game.  Can you take us through a normal writing day? Do you have a word count goal?

SANDERSON: Yes. It depends on the day and the book, but generally 2,000 words is my goal. 3,000 to 4,000, probably around 3,500 is a really solid day for me. A basic writing day: I get up at noon or 1:00, depending on when I went to bed. I play with my son for about an hour, giving my wife a break. Then I go downstairs for four or five hours, check my email, write for a while, go up and have dinner, play with my son some more, then go back down and go back to work until I’m done for the night. The last couple of years have been pretty much a lot of me with my laptop on my couch or in my beanbag chair writing books.

MAD HATTER: Terry Brooks recently said he'll be doing more Shannara books and that he wishes he didn't use the title The Elfstones of Shannara already since his new arc is basically all about the Elfstones. Did your reticence to titling The Gathering Storm as such have anything to do with The Stormlight Archive? The Gathering Storm certainly seems like a perfect title for a book in the series.

SANDERSON: Yeah. I didn’t choose The Gathering Storm. If you know the story, it all happened while I was asleep, and they said this was the title they were going to use. There were a couple of reasons. Number one, I knew I was releasing a book soon afterward that was in a series called The Stormlight Archive. Perhaps I pay a little too much attention to making sure that I don’t feel like I’m repeating myself. Kaladin in The Way of Kings was originally named Merin, and one reason I changed his name was because it sounded too much like Perrin. He had been Merin for eight years or so, but when I was just a Wheel of Time fan, it was okay to have a name that sounded a little like a Wheel of Time character’s. But now I may be a little hypersensitive to that.

Honestly, the greatest reason I might have preferred The Gathering Storm to have a different title is that I felt it was just a little bit generic, more so than recent titles in the series have been. Recent Wheel of Time titles have been beautiful; I love The Crossroads of Twilight as a title, for example. But The Gathering Storm is a good title for a lot of other reasons, and it works very well for the first of that sequence. So I was satisfied with it even though it wasn’t the title I would have chosen.

MAD HATTER: Was there any physical inspiration behind the Shattered Plains, which features so prominently in The Way of Kings? Too many visits to the Grand Canyon?

SANDERSON: I’ve only been to the Grand Canyon once, but I do live in Utah, which has beautiful red rock formations and this wonderful, windblown stone formations scattered all across southern Utah. I’ve hiked there and spent a decent amount of time there. I would say that Roshar is partially inspired by that.

MAD HATTER: You're an avowed Magic: The Gathering lover. What is your color combo deck of choice? Also, preferred edition? I've always leaned towards Revised/Fourth as later editions focused on counters too much for my liking.

SANDERSON: I would say Black/Blue/White is what you find me playing most often, and usually Blue/White. Favorite editions? I’m going to disagree about the focus on counters. They’ve actually taken counterspells down a notch or two in recent years, which is nice. Besides, I play casual games, where I don’t run into a lot of counterspell decks, land destruction decks, or card discard decks--you know, the “un-fun” decks. My favorites recently--I really like Eldrazi, the set they released this year, which I’ve had a blast with. Other than that, probably Ravnica and Time Spiral were my favorite of the recent sets.

MAD HATTER: I haven't bought any new decks in a few years so I just may have to check out Eldrazi. You’ve obviously been indisposed the last few months with Towers of Midnight so I’m curious about what is on your nightstand to be read next?

SANDERSON: There’s a big stack. Peter Orullian’s book, which Tor is releasing next year is one I’ve wanted to read for a while. Spellwright, which a lot of people really loved and I got to read. There are a couple of Pratchetts I still haven’t read. I’ve been slowly working my way through Jim Butcher’s books, which I think are fantastic. I’ve also started reading through Brent Weeks’ works. So there are a lot of things to read. I still want to finish The Hunger Games. There’s so much to read, but fortunately during my two-week tour there will be a plane ride every day. Hooray.

MAD HATTER: To go along with my other obsession what is your favorite type of hat?

SANDERSON: I do have a fedora that I’m somewhat attached to, but I haven’t worn it in years. When I was a high school kid, I would wear my fedora around until I discovered that wearing a fedora was already cliché for a nerdy kid like myself, which I found annoying since I’d been doing it because I thought it was original. I still have that fedora, which sits in my closet, and someday perhaps I will wear it. But the problem is that Dan Wells, my friend who writes in my writing group and in my basement, already wears a hat around. So I would feel like I was just copying Dan. Maybe I need to get a fez or something.

MAD HATTER: Is there anything you’d like to add as we close this out?

SANDERSON: Thank you guys for the interview, and I hope everyone enjoys The Way of Kings. This was fun.

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