Brandon Sanderson is one of the most widely recognized names in modern fantasy, and a large part of that is the fact that for the past 21 years, he has put out books with staggering consistency, winning over fans in a way few figures in the genre ever have. Sanderson has published dozens of books, many of them set in a shared fantasy universe known as the Cosmere; if you enjoy his work, it's safe to say that this vast fictional tapestry will always hold another secret...which you will always be able to discover in another Sanderson book, coming soon.
For fans of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, it's easy to look at Sanderson's prolific career and weep tears of bitter envy. Sanderson's first published novel, Elantris, released in 2005, which is the very same year as Martin's fourth A Song of Ice and Fire book, A Feast for Crows. Since then, the only mainline novel set in Westeros has been A Dance with Dragons, released in 2011 — though of course there have been many supplementary works, like The World of Ice and Fire, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and Fire & Blood.
By contrast, the entirety of Sanderson's Cosmere to date has come out in that timeframe, including five massive tomes comprising the first arc of The Stormlight Archive, two full sequences of Mistborn books clocking in at seven volumes total, and standalones galore like Warbreaker, Tress of the Emerald Sea, and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. That's not even touching on all the other books Sanderson writes, like his Reckoners and Skyward YA series.
Yet while it might be easy to get down on Martin by way of comparison thanks to the 15 year long wait for his penultimate Game of Thrones novel, The Winds of Winter, Sanderson is urging fans to do the opposite, and find their sense of compassion.
"Absolutely. I implore people, in this discussion, to remember the person," he said in a recent interview with IGN, when asked if he sympathized with Martin's plight. "George R. R. Martin is one of the greats of our genre, and in my every interaction with him, he's treated me with kindness – even when I was a nobody. He truly is the great patriarch of the fantasy genre, and has done a great deal of work fostering new talent, helping the community, and offering advice and support when needed."
"At the same time, writing can be a lonely profession, and we all know the difficulty of a book that just WILL NOT work," Sanderson continued. "I've been fortunate that books like that have always been side projects for me, ones I can abandon without it causing too many ripples in my career. The only thing that will lead to A Song of Ice and Fire being finished is our support, patience, and effort to remember what makes books special: the fact that they are one of the few mass media art forms that are still largely created by individual human beings."
Brandon Sanderson is right about George R.R. Martin and The Winds of Winter
I love this response. Sanderson has become an almost larger-than-life figure in many nerdy circles, but as someone who's watched his career grow from more or less the beginning, he's always come off as a writer who is very focused on the craft and community of the genre — as well as paying it forward to help others. This is absolutely an attitude that he shares with George R.R. Martin, and both authors have discussed their desire to help foster the next generation over the years. When Sanderson says Martin was kind to him when he was still a nobody, he means it.
These days, George R.R. Martin has become one of the most famous and recognizable fantasy author of our time, and while that's probably been wonderful in terms of books sales, it's also come with an immense amount of pressure. Tens of millions of people all over the world are eagerly awaiting his next book, and that kind of attention is rarely gentle; Martin can scarcely post on the internet or appear at public events without the threat of being heckled by impatient "fans" who want him to just shut up and go finish the book. It's very easy to imagine how being treated in that manner would poison the creative experience in a way that makes it hard to find the spark to finish a book, especially one as sprawling and ambitious as The Winds of Winter.
Does George R.R. Martin owe fans The Winds of Winter?
Another interesting question came up when Sanderson was asked if he believed Martin owed his readers the final two books of A Song of Ice and Fire. Eloquent as always, Sanderson came to his fellow author's defense in a thoughtful way.
"This is an interesting question, but I think you're asking it in a slightly wrong way. (Though it is the way people often ask it.) George doesn't owe people books, as he cannot actually make that promise — none of us can," Sanderson replied. "I can't promise the end of the Stormlight Archive, because who knows if I'll come down with a sickness tomorrow. I am literally incapable of making promises about the future in that way, the same as any person is. That said, I do think we, as authors, are making a contract with readers when we start a book series – and that contract implies a certain responsibility on our part. The promise to work on the project, to give it due attention, to try our best to get the books done in a timely way. However, this is an art."
Sanderson admitted that he is "as guilt as anyone of, now and then, making light of the fact that we don't have a conclusion to Game of Thrones," but that he can't be too harsh about it because he himself has his own long-running stories that fans have been asking for new installments in for years. "I live in a glass house, as I have a book (The Rithmatist) that I've promised fans a sequel to for as long as people have been waiting for George's next volume. I feel terrible I haven't been able to deliver, but the artistic process can be a whimsical one."
"Regardless, I don't know that George owes anyone books as much as he owes them real, dedicated effort in producing those books, which might seem like semantics, but I'm an author. That's the job," Sanderson continued. "It's not, however, my job to determine if George has made that effort or not. My gut says that he has – and the fact that we're where we are indicates that this is one of those times when the rest of the world has to wrestle with a terrible fact we as authors face every day. That from the outside, this seems like a trade (like making cabinets) when in reality it's an art, much like making music… and sometimes, you lose that music. [Let's] just hope it's not forever."
At the end of the day, George R.R. Martin is creating one of the great artistic masterworks of our time, and being constantly reminded of how upset people are at him will not help him in that effort. Here's hoping that Sanderson's words bear out, and that Martin finds that music again that will help him cross the finish line for A Song of Ice and Fire.
Brandon Sanderson's latest book, Blightfall, is available now wherever books are sold.
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