Brandon Sanderson has been asked by Robert Jordan’s widow to complete the 12th and final book in the epic Wheel of Time series. He is not an author I know much about and as I have also never read any of his books it motivated me to find out what I could about the author and his works.

Biography

Brandon Sanderson was born in 1975 and must be, at 32, classed as young for a succesfully published fantasy author. He was born in Nebraska and currently lives in Provo, Utah. Whilst researching on the internet he appeared on a website featuring famous Mormons, along with Runelords author David Farland so that, for a start, is a claim to fame.

What else is he best known for? His stlye of writing has been described as “epic fantasy, featuring unique settings and precise magic systems”. I thought that this sounded like just my cup of tea so I took a look at his bibliography to date. It appears that his most famous works are the Mistborn series and Elantris. He also writes books for children and Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians is a great title which is definately worth looking at when my daughter is a little bit older, we could both enjoy that one I think.

Bibliography

• Elantris (2005)
• Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006)
• Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (2007)
• Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians (2007)
• Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (2008)
• Alcatraz versus The Scrivner’s Bones (2008)
• Warbreaker (2009)

Brandon Sanderson is currently working on the third and fourth novels in the Alcatraz series.

In conclusion 

After this small bit of research I found this interview http://www.dragonmount.com/Books/Memory_of_Light/brandon_interview_01.php which was done following the Wheel of Time announcement and Brandon Sanderson came across as genuine, humourous and down to earth. He sounded like he was very eager to do justice to the Wheel of Time series and make the final novel, A Memory of Light, as good as he possibly can.

So, after my small bit of research I have decided to buy Elantris, due in no small part to the feedback from fellow fantasy authors, critics and readers. The positive feedback that the book received is probably the best that I have ever seen for any debut novel.

I’m glad that the news brough Brandon Sanderson to my attention as this may have given me many months of satisfying and enjoyable reading.

For more information you can visit the official Brandon Sanderson website.