Breinthewild

Around the tail end of the pandemic when things were starting to get back to normal, one of my friends sent me a link to this video. In it, a well-known fantasy author I was familiar with (and moderately disposed toward) appeared to be making an apology. I shrugged, planned to watch it later, forgot, and moved on with my life.

Then, I got the text follow-ups. What did you think? Isn’t this crazy? Have you seen the kickstarter?

I must have missed something. So I went back and watched it. Turned out I missed ALL the things. It was an apology video… for author Brandon Sanderson secretly writing a bunch of books during the pandemic. And starting a kickstarter to deliver them to your house throughout the next year. And providing a bunch of swag boxes/other fun stuff as well.

Never has a marketing campaign so perfectly matched my interests. I signed up immediately.

The rest, of course, is history. The kickstarter ended up being the most successful of all time, with 41 million dollars raised. The books have since seen wide release (some to better reception than others) and Sanderson has, in general, stayed in the news for the bookish community since the announcement.

I’ve been wanting to talk about my experience with the campaign for a while but holistically. I wanted to see how it all ended up. Not each book as it was released, but all together. As one. How was the Year of Sanderson?

Initial hot take: it was well worth the money spent. (I know, I know, so controversial).

Disclosure: I only signed up for the four hardcover book deliveries. While I am a fan of many of Sanderson’s stories and trusted him as an author to create content worth paying for, I was less enthused about the t-shirt/pins/various other swag set in his universes. (Though I’m sure once I heal from my brutal breakup with the Star Wars franchise, there will be room in my heart for a new universe once more).

I expected reasonably enjoyable mass-market fantasy to be dispensed at my door. What I did not expect was for it to be beautiful. I mean physically beautiful. Regardless of how I felt about the stories within the pages, the hardcover books are all works of art. I found out through the delivery of the first book, Tress of the Emerald Sea, via a tiny note attached, that every book was meant to be an artist’s showcase in addition to a lovely story. Once I read it, I felt like I realized for the first time how much I had been craving an art/story collaboration like this, not knowing it was possible.

Disclosure II: I love beautiful books. Hardcovers, specifically. I’m at the point where I have a handful of books I don’t like that much on my shelves simply because of how nice they look. I have examined the Wheel of Time leather-bound dragon set adoringly from afar on more than one occasion. 

Once I received Tress I realized I had never stopped to consider the artists behind beautiful books. Not because I hate art. I just never thought of it as a collaboration. (And indeed from what I’ve heard, many authors don’t have a say in what their covers look like). It reminded me of the many children’s books I read growing up. Winnie the Poo, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Wizard of Oz, anything by Roald Dahl. All of these wonderful stories were accompanied by art that matched the tone of the books and added greatly to my overall enjoyment. To see such a thing in novels meant for adults was a delight.

Regardless of my feelings on the content of these books (reviews coming soon), my appreciation for the art in all four remains unparalleled. In that regard, all of them are a 10/10, and in some cases the quality of the art even raised my overall score for a book when I found the written story a bit lackluster.

TLDR; This experience has moved me firmly from the “casual Sanderson enjoyer” camp to “no, actually I’m a huge fan of this guy.” Book reviews forthcoming.