Brandon Sanderson has a reputation for being one of the most consistent and prolific authors in the fantasy field, churning out books with clockwork regularity. This year alone, Sanderson is slated to release two Cosmere books — the Tor edition of Isles of the Emberdark in February, and The Fires of December in December — as well as two co-written novels, Songs for the Dead with Peter Orullian, and Blightfall with Janci Patterson. Given his track record, it's wise to never bet against Sanderson finishing projects on time...but in the case of his latest update, I fear he may be biting off more than even he can chew.
Sanderson took to his YouTube channel today for his usual weekly update, and it was an exciting one for readers of The Stormlight Archive, the author's epic fantasy opus set on the storm-wracked world of Roshar. He announced that a progress bar for Stormlight book 6 will soon be added to the active projects section on his website, as he's just begun the process of outlining the novel.
"My goal is to start writing Stormlight 6 not this January, but the January after [in 2028]," Sanderson said. "So, next year I'll be off and on working on the outline for that, and for book 6 through 10, so that I can hit the ground running starting writing on Stormlight 6 in a year from January."
Sanderson went on to explain that by then he should "theoretically" be done with his current project, the new Mistborn trilogy, titled Ghostbloods, saying, "My big write for next year is to try to finish Ghostbloods 2 and 3."
Can Sanderson write two Mistborn books in a year while outline another Stormlight novel?
The Stormlight Archive has been on a hiatus since the release of its fifth volume, Wind and Truth, in late 2024. That novel served as the culmination of the series' first major arc; when it returns for book 6, a 10-year time jump will have occurred in-world, launching readers into a bold new chapter for the saga.
Sanderson initally predicted that book 6 of The Stormlight Archive would release in 2031, following the publication of the Ghostbloods trilogy, as well as two sequels to his debut novel Elantris and a Stormlight novella titled Horneater. Obviously, that plan has already changed quite a bit. Sanderson wrote both Isles of the Emberdark and The Fires of December in the time since, and signed an extensive deal with Apple TV to develop his work for the big and small screen, which he's extremely involved in as the writer penning the script for the Mistborn film and as the co-showrunner for The Stormlight Archive television show.
Clearly, all those unforeseen developments have altered the timeline somewhat. We've known for a while now that Sanderson was delaying the Elantris sequels following the Apple TV announcement, and he's been very quiet about Horneater (which he initially predicted for a late 2026 release), but it seems Sanderson is utterly determined to stay on track with Ghostbloods and the mainline Stormlight Archive books.
If Sanderson can manage to finish his 2.0 revision for his Mistborn screenplay by the end of 2026, that means he'll roll into 2027 aiming to write two Ghostbloods novels, while simultaneously outlining the second arc of The Stormlight Archive and finalizing the Mistborn script through any subsequent revisions. And of course, he'll likely still do plenty of public appearance for things like the FanX convention and Dragonsteel Nexus.
Sanderson often takes on ambitious amounts of writing at a time, but this latest workload seems intense even for him. It's not totally unprecedented — the closest parallels I can think of are when he wrote the second and third Wax & Wayne books, Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning back-to-back, because they were originally planned to be one book, or how he juggled finishing the final three books of The Wheel of Time while completing work on his own doorstopping tome of an epic fantasy book, The Way of Kings. In both instances Sanderson succeeded, but he's been open about how challenging they were, especially the latter example.
However you slice it, 2027 is going to be a very busy year for Brandon Sanderson. Here's hoping the writing treats him well, and he encounters no major pitfalls during his sprint through the rest of Ghostbloods and beyond as he gears up for book 6 of The Stormlight Archive. We'll be watching for more updates.
Add us as a preferred source on Google