Brandon Sanderson: I wouldn’t finish The Winds of Winter should something happen
By Ani Bundel
With all this talk about The Winds of Winter this past week, an exchange of note from last month has surfaced on fansite Los Siete Reinos. Author Brandon Sanderson was apparently asked point blank on Reddit whether he would consider finishing A Song of Ice and Fire should the unthinkable happen to to George R.R. Martin.
For those who might find this question bizarre, here’s a bit of explanation. Before A Song of Ice and Fire was the biggest thing in multi-tome fantasy, there was Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. Much like Martin, Jordan originally set out to write a trilogy, but “the tale grew in the telling.” By 2005, Jordan was up to Book 11, with little sign of a conclusion. In 2006, he was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis, and died about 18 months later. In the intervening time, he worked with Sanderson (who was already known for his own multi-tomed epic, the Mistborn series) on the final three novels. He gave Sanderson his outline, his already-finished chapters, and all of his notes. The final three installments were published between 2009 and 2013, “co-authored by Sanderson.”
Sanderson is a Reddit regular (he posts under the handle “Mistborn,” natch.) He weighed in with this information in a thread on the ASOIAF Reddit. The question, as put to Sanderson, was if he thought, as a Mormon, he would be able to be as violent as Martin if he were asked to step in and finish Martin’s series.
"….the point is moot, as I wouldn’t say yes to finishing ASOIAF, if asked. (And I don’t think they’d ask me.) I’d respectfully decline. I wouldn’t be right for the job for many reasons. I wouldn’t want to put in the content that the series has, and part of that is due to my religious faith, part of it is just who I am. I don’t shy away from difficult material, but I prefer not to get explicit."
He then gets philosophical on how Martin writes a fundamentally pessimistic view of humanity, one he does not share. He compares it to asking Spielberg to come in and finish a Tarantino movie. It’s not a bad answer to a kinda awkward question. (Lord knows that Martin finds these questions tacky. Imagine having to face him as a peer after being asked to answer this.) But for those who fear that 2016 will take one more artist too soon, consider this an avenue closed.