Brandon Sanderson has been lying to fans for years

Brandon Sanderson is about as prolific an author as they come. Aside from his work finishing Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, Sanderson has penned more than 25 fantasy and science fiction novels of his own along with numerous shorter works, many of which are set in a shared universe known as the Cosmere. He has a reputation for being some kind of writing cyborg who churns out books to help him deal with churning out books.

But yesterday, Sanderson took to his YouTube channel to share an important message with his fans. He’d been a bit cagey in the days leading up to it, leading many to worry about the author’s well-being. And I’ll be honest, when I clicked it, I was definitely in that camp…but it was something else. If you want the full effect, watch the video before reading on.

Brandon Sanderson is releasing four secret novels in 2023

Okay, so the big news is that Brandon Sanderson wrote an extra five novels in secret over the course of the past few years. As much as I was totally fooled by the very serious tone of the reveal video, I can’t help but feel that we all should have seen this coming. It calls to mind when he announced he’d secretly written an extra Mistborn novel back in 2014.

Prior to the pandemic, Sanderson was traveling almost a third of every year to promote his work, but with COVID throwing everything into lockdown, that meant that he was stuck at home like the rest of us. What he spent his time doing was writing other books. This began as a way for him to do something for his wife; the first of these “Secret Projects” was a book he only showed to her, but after reading it she pushed him to share it with others.

That was in 2020, practically another lifetime ago. He repeated the process four more times, pounding out secret novel after secret novel until yesterday’s video announcement. To go along with the video, he and the team at his small press Dragonsteel announced that they were going to be running a Kickstarter to fund the distribution of these books.

Sanderson is keeping a lot of the details about these new books to himself, but here’s what we know so far. One of those books is a middle grade novel he wrote for his kids, and may eventually surface in graphic novel format. That one is not part of the Kickstarter, and plans for the release will be announced at a later date. Of the other four, three of them are set in the Cosmere on “new worlds,” and one is a total standalone with no connections to that universe at all. One of those Cosmere books focuses on a character we’ve already met in one of the author’s other books, but who has never had their own story.

The Kickstarter is running through the end of March, and looking at it is kind of mindblowing. Within its first 24 hours it has surpassed $15 million, making it the second highest funded Kickstarter of all time on only its second day of activity. (The Pebble Smartwatch currently holds the record at $20.3 million.) There are various tiers, but the main thing to know is that you can either get just these Secret Project books, which will be released quarterly throughout 2023, or you can subscribe to “A Year of Sanderson,” which includes various merchandise boxes. There are all sorts of ways to tweak your pledge to include different book formats or specific merch boxes.

Brandon Sanderson’s reveal video inspires mixed reactions

While this is amazing news for any Sanderson fan, the reveal video in particular has provoked some mixed reactions. The vast majority of readers are rejoicing at the unexpected news, which seems to be exactly what was hoped for. Yet others have claimed the video minimizes the difficulties of people who have suffered tragedies and more intense hardships during the pandemic. Personally, I was in the former camp and just happy to hear we’d be getting more books — this is very characteristic of Sanderson, who loves to surprise his readers. But on rewatching it, it’s easy to see how it could have upset people as well, given that it led people to believe that Sanderson was going through a difficult period. All that said, it was the highest trending video on YouTube during the day of its release and has already amassed over 850,000 views, so from a marketing perspective it clearly did something right.

Sanderson said he may reveal some details about these books in the coming months, but will also be heavily marking those spoilers in case people want to get a true surprise experience every month when the novels arrive on their doorstep or E-reader. Rest assured, we’ll be keeping a sharp eye out for any details.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels