The Fascinating Rise and Fall of Brandon Sanderson

With Wind and Truth comes a cautionary tale about Faustian bargains.

There were so many reasons to respect Brandon.

This guy managed to:

• write an excellent breakout standalone fantasy novel.

• share and make public all drafts of his fantasy novel Warbreaker, just to help newer writers learn (including myself).

• create a writing podcast (called Writing Excuses) with invaluable advice. (Fair warning: Only listen to the episodes that aired before Mary Robinette Kowal joined.)

• share recorded lectures of college-level writing courses for people to freely watch on YouTube.

• keep cranking out novels in an almost tireless manner, building up a shared universe between his books called the “Cosmere”, creating a large and formidable IP.

• deliver a heartfelt eulogy to Robert Jordan when he passed away from Amyloidosis, and then achieve the seemingly impossible task of completing the Wheel of Time in a way that satisfied the fans (myself included – Yes, the ending is good).
  
  This achievement cannot be understated – imagine being tasked with having to finish a series 11 books long, not including the prequel – some books clocking in at over 1,000 pages – and intimately learning the cast of thousands.
  
  Then imagine trying to please a fanbase that isn’t even yours.
  
  But he handled it with a reverence for the material that you simply don’t see today by any mainstream writer.

• managed to crowdfund four (which became five) “surprise” novels he’d written outside of his contract, proving he wasn’t dependent on tradpub and didn’t have to live under his publisher’s thumb. (I, and many others, were hoping he’d go indie after this, but alas he did not.)

• published over twenty books and has shown no signs of stopping.

He seemed like a genuinely good guy, a regular dude who had a Cinderella project land on his lap and actually delivered on it, and has become nothing less than a hero in my eyes as a result. And what’s more, he was paying it forward, sharing his knowledge with aspirant authors.

Of what I’d read, his solo books were quite good. None of them were truly great.

However, they were enjoyable enough. And given his history, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, believing he would continue to grow into an amazing author over time. Everyone loves an underdog story – especially when the underdog is friendly – That’s exactly who Brandon was when he was approached by industry heavyweight Harriet McDougal.

It sounded like the Stormlight Archive–particularly book 2–was when he started to shine as a truly great author.

That was exciting to me. The Stormlight Archive was to be Brandon’s attempt at a Wheel of Time epic in size and scope, and I had all the reasons in the world to be excited for it and believe he could pull it off. I’d already purchased the first book, which was getting dangerously close to the top of my TBR pile.

But, over time, cracks in Brandon’s persona began to show. There were subtle red flags here and there, like heaping too much praise upon (and taking the wrong moral lessons from) the overrated false binary short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, to editing his own YouTube video lectures in an effort to remove all mentions of the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl character archetype to appease a vocal minority.

And then he started introducing odd, immersion-breaking modernisms in his books and was quoted saying the types of things you always hope you’ll never say, should you ever land a book deal. From quotes that treated becoming a number one bestselling author as a matter of fact to throwing his own religion’s beliefs under the bus, it seems that somewhere along the line, Brandon had become Dark Brandon.

And that’s too bad. He seemed like a genuinely good guy, one of the last people I would have wanted to see corrupted. And I’m sure he was difficult to break. Yet, that’s exactly what seems to have happened.

This is a particularly interesting case study for three reasons:

1. He’s proven he can make even more money as an indie author than as a traditionally published author through crowdfunding. Therefore he had no reason to capitulate to his publisher’s demands, proved his independence, was allowed to have his own opinions, and could write whatever he wanted. Which makes his sudden heel turn all the more mysterious.

2. He was was ushering in a neopatronage model by becoming a patron for many indie projects.

3. He was a family man, devout in his religious beliefs and seemed unshakable.

“I do believe, however, that impulses of attraction between people of the same gender are something that can and should be resisted, in the same way that my impulses of attraction toward women who are not my wife can and should be resisted.”

-Respectable words from Brandon Sanderson circa 2007.

But now it’s 2025, and he went public with some … hot takes. It seems he has 180’d on his stance regarding his own church’s beliefs.

And then he released Wind and Truth, the fifth and latest book in the Stormlight Archive. It’s no coincidence that this book has been met with a near unanimous wall of disappointment and frustration from both sides of the political aisle.

“Navini tells me,” Rushu said, “that you are neither male nor female.”
“It is true.”
“Could you tell me more about that?” Rushu asked.

-from Wind and Truth

Sounds like a quote straight out of the widely panned Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Sadly, this means Brandon’s work won’t go down in history as legendary; It will not stand the test of time.

When you abandon morality, you abandon truth. And when you abandon truth, you abandon the ability to tell great stories that will resonate with the ages. (At best, you can manage a short-term zeitgeist until Current Year redefines itself.)

It’s not just the LGBT stuff. If the reviews are to be believed, it’s how he injects modernisms, sudden and awkward millennial dialogue (that didn’t exist in Stormlight before book 5), all the lecturing, the excessive introspection, the overindulgent length, and many poorly conceived and/or botched character arcs.

Say what you want about Robert Jordan, but the man knew how to write a damn good character arc and close it properly. He knew when a character was done growing and could move on to a mentor role.

But as for former fan-favorite Kaladin? Well…

Longtime fans are now not only abandoning the Stormlight Archive and the Cosmere, but they are abandoning Brandon entirely. His books are getting returned to bookstores in record numbers.

And this is at a time when people are already refusing to buy multi-volume fantasy epics until they are complete. They’re sick of getting burned and I can’t blame them. But despite their misgivings for the genre, they chose to trust Brandon anyway. And, with this book, he failed to deliver on his promises, burning them once again.

You were the chosen one, Brandon!

What he’s done has caused critical damage to an already faltering genre, and his Stormlight Archive is now in an arguably worse situation than Game of Thrones. While Thrones may never be finished, so long as you’re willing to separate it from the TV show’s final season, at least the books we do have are decent enough. And at least there’s still hope that the final book might one day come and deliver on its promises.

But the Stormlight Archive is ruined forever. There’s no putting this toothpaste back in the tube. And he’s already stated he’ll continue to double down.

“It’s a little bit nail-biting because you don’t want to misrepresent anything. Coming from my background, I wanted to be absolutely sure I got this right, so we had professional sensitivity readers, and one of my best friends, Ryan, who one of the characters is based on, has been guiding me along.”

-Brandon Sanderson

That quote is far from the most damning thing he’s said lately, but it illustrates his current point-of-view and proves he’s making concessions at the expense of the story.

If Brandon and Martin can’t competently finish their series, perhaps AI will one day step in and become the new “finisher of epics” that Brandon ironically used to be. Don’t blame me – This is the future that’s being created, and I admit it ain’t pretty.

Let’s treat this as a cautionary tale, indie writers: When you sign a contract with tradpub, you’re signing a Faustian deal.

No matter how unshakeable you think your resolve is, if you find any success at all in tradpub, they will almost certainly break you down, introduce handlers into your life, and have you dancing like a puppet on their strings.

In the meanwhile, Brandon could use our prayers.