The Stormlight Archive

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The Stormlight Archive is an ongoing epic fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson. Set on the planet Roshar, the series forms a core part of the cosmere sequence, and centers around Odium's efforts to escape the ties that bind him to the Rosharan system. The series is estimated to require ten books to complete.[1]

For a summary of the events thus far, see the individual summary pages for each book.

Structure

The novels of The Stormlight Archive follow a consistent internal structure. Each is split into five parts, and Brandon plots each novel as if it were an entire trilogy. The names of each part, when put together, form a ketek. Between each part is a set of interludes, set in different points of view, which show events in other locations on Roshar. Each novel has one character who gets multiple interludes, whose interludes effectively form a novella. The books also feature several pieces of in-world art on the endpages and between some chapters, and epigraphs from in-world documents at the start of each non-flashback chapter.[2][3] Each of the first five books begins with a prologue that shows a different character's perspective of the night of the assassination of Gavilar and ends with an epilogue from Hoid's point of view.[4][5] Each book also includes an Ars Arcanum.

Each novel will focus on one specific order of the Knights Radiant and feature flashbacks from a character tied to that order.[6][7] Brandon has made clear that a character can have flashback point of views, even if they are already dead, so the characters scheduled to have flashbacks in an upcoming book might still die before their book.[8] The series will be split into two arcs of five books each, with a time gap of about ten years between the two arcs.[9] The second arc will be written after Mistborn Era 3.[10] Brandon has said he also hopes to write novellas in between at least all the remaining arc one novels, though is unsure if he has enough time.[11] These novellas would fill in some details and show parts of the story that wouldn't have otherwise been seen.

Subject to the assumption that characters stay associated with their current order and assigning the Order of Dustbringers to Shalash's book by process of elimination, the following table summarizes these relationships and the order of books:

Arc 2
Year Published Book Title Radiant Order Flashback Viewpoint[fn 1]
Unknown Unknown Edgedancers Lift[16]
Unknown Unknown Truthwatchers Renarin Kholin[16]
Unknown Unknown Dustbringers Shalash[16]
Unknown Unknown Stonewards Talenel[16]
Unknown Unknown Elsecallers Jasnah Kholin[16]
Novellas - From the Stormlight Archive
Year Published Title Series
Chronology[fn 1]
Focus Character Word Count
2016 Edgedancer 2.5
(1173)
Lift 40,660
2020 Dawnshard 3.5
(1174)
Rysn 56,282
2026 (Tentative) Horneater[17] 4.5[18] Lunamor
  1. a b c d All years are from the Rosharan calendar. Years for the Series Chronology column do not include the prelude, prologues, or flashbacks; years for the Flashback Viewpoint column only include that character's flashback chapters.

Brandon has also talked about wanting to go back and do a novella set between The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance; he initially thought this novella might focus on Lopen,[11][18] but, after including Lopen in Dawnshard, said it would likely be someone else, possibly Teft.[19]

Back Cover Text

Each book has a back cover text that is written in-universe from the perspective of one of the Sleepless.

Keteks

The titles of the five parts of each book form a ketek which is revealed with context in the endnote of every book. The abbreviations of the first five books also form a palindrome of five parts, being similar in structure to a ketek: (t)WoK - WoR - O - RoW - KoW(t).[20]

Cover Galleries

Publication

  • US/Canadian rights (#1-4) with Tor
  • Bulgarian rights (#1-4) to Артлайн Студиос (Artline Studios)
  • UK rights (#1-4) to Gollancz
  • German rights (#1-3) to Heyne
  • French rights to Calmann-Levy
  • Polish rights to MAG
  • Turkish rights (#1) to Akılçelen Kitaplar (Arkadas)
  • Spanish rights (#1) to Ediciones B
  • Chinese rights (complex, #1) to 奇幻基地 (Fantasy Foundation)
  • Chinese rights (simplified) to 史诗图书 (Epic Books)
  • Japanese rights (#1) to 早川書房 (Hayakawa)
  • Czech rights (#1) to Talpress
  • Italian rights (#1) to Fanucci[21]
  • Israeli rights to אופוס (Opus)
  • Russian rights (#1-3) to Азбука Аттикус (Azbooka)
  • Romanian rights (#1-2) to Editura Paladin
  • Danish rights (#1) to Ulven og Ulgen
  • Hungarian rights (#1) to Delta Vision
  • Brazillian rights (#1) to TRAMA

Awards

  • Way of Kings #7 NY Times best-seller
  • Winner of the 2010 David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel
  • The Way of Kings hit the Times list in mass market, debuts at #25 on the chart
  • Named one of the Best of 2010 by Fantasy Faction
  • Named one of the Best of 2010 by Ranting Dragon
  • Named one of the Best of 2010 by SFF World
  • Named one of the Best of 2010 by Goodreads[21]
  • Words of Radiance #1 NY Times best-seller[22]

Statistics

The Stormlight Archive currently consists of four full novels and two novellas.

Word Count 1,792,008
Page Count 4,820 Tor hardbacks
Chapter Count 476 Including prelude, 4 prologues, 49 interludes, and 4 epilogues.
PoV Characters 54
PoV Count 851

Trivia

  • When Brandon initially wrote The Way of Kings Prime, he called the series Dawnshards.[23] By the time he pitched it to Tor two years later, he had changed the series name to Oathshards.[24]

Notes

  1. SF Book Review interview
    Arcanum - 2014-03-19#
  2. Stormlight Three Update #2
    Arcanum - 2016-01-19#
  3. Stormlight Three Update #8
    Arcanum - 2017-06-15#
  4. ICon 2019
    Arcanum - 2019-10-15#
  5. Idaho Falls signing
    Arcanum - 2018-12-29#
  6. Ad Astra 2017
    Arcanum - 2017-05-05#
  7. The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson
    Arcanum - 2018-10-25#
  8. Stormlight Three Update #4
    Arcanum - 2016-09-09#
  9. Reddit AMA 2022
    — Reddit - 2022-07-07#
  10. The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson
    Arcanum - 2018-10-25#
  11. a b General Reddit 2020
    Arcanum - 2020-03-21#
  12. r/books AMA 2022
    Arcanum - 2022-07-07#
  13. State of the Sanderson 2022
    Arcanum - 2022-12-22#
  14. Oathbringer London signing
    Arcanum - 2017-11-28#
  15. General Reddit 2019
    Arcanum - 2019-04-17#
  16. a b c d e Skyward release party
    Arcanum - 2018-11-06#
  17. State of the Sanderson 2023
    Arcanum - 2023-12-19#
  18. a b YouTube Livestream 6
    Arcanum - 2020-04-23#
  19. Cosmere.es Interview
    Arcanum - 2021-04-22#
  20. YouTube Livestream 5
    Arcanum - 2020-03-16#
  21. a b Brandon's Awful Agent page
    — Awful Agent #
  22. Words of Radiance debut 1st on NYT bestsellers
    Tor.com - MAR 12 2014#
  23. The Way of Kings Prime preface#
  24. YouTube Livestream 6
    Arcanum - 2020-04-23#
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