Brandon Sanderson has, since taking over from Robert Jordan, developed somewhat of a cult-following in the world of fantasy fandom. Peter V. Brett, Patrick Rothfuss and Mark Lawrence are all authors whose fans seem to go that extra mile to impress them (fan art, cosplay, tattoos), but Sanderson’s fans seem to go just that little bit further to impress him. I think a lot of it has to to with Sanderson’s cosmere – the fact that he welcomes readers to dig deep into his books to find hidden links and meanings means that they invest a huge amount of time into his work.
Anyway, regardless of why, the fact is that some very, very cool stuff has come out of these super-fans celebrating the release of Words of Radiance and today I’d like to celebrate my top 3.
3: The Custom ‘The Book of Endless’ Pages Jacket
Some of you might remember that the second book in the Stormlight Archive series had the working title of The Book of Endless Pages (Sanderson has stated each book in the series will be named after a book within the series – this one was named after the book Shallan is given at the end of The Way of Kings). Sanderson and his publishers though decided against it based on how long the actual book is – worrying that the unintentional pun might suggest a humour element to the novel, perhaps.
Well, not everyone agreed and super-fan Tracy decided that he wanted The Book of Endless pages and if the publisher wasn’t going to run with that title, he’d have to make his own dust-jacket. Of course, he couldn’t make it and not show Sanderson the mistake he’d made not choosing the title and so turned up with the book at one of his signings… here’s Sanderson’s reaction to the custom-made jacket:
2: The Shattered Plains Battles Recreated Through Lego:
I’m not sure whether this is a custom ShardBlade or an Honourblade, but either way it is awesome. What I love about this story is that the fan who made it travelled all the way from Mexico to Scottsale, AZ to show it to Sanderson… that’s an incredible 1072 Miles / 1726 KM.
1: The Shattered Plains Battles Recreated Through Lego:
We’ve seen official Lord of the Rings Lego and customised The Game of Thrones Lego before, but I feel that this scene created by a Brandon Sanderson fan has just the right mix of non-professional-ness and obvious love of the genre that we can all appreciate:
Have I missed anything? Have you seen some Sanderson celebration that I’ve not included? Do let me know in the comments!
Jennie Ivins