Today's recommendations are by Brandon Sanderson! Best known as the man who finished Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Sanderson has written a number of books including Elantris, the Mistborn trilogy, The Alloy of Law, Warbreaker and The Way of Kings. He's also written several books for younger readers, including his newest novels, The Rithmatist and the forthcoming Steelheart. Along with several other authors he hosts the Parsec Award winning and Hugo Award nominated podcast, Writing Excuses.
[Note: this message was transcribed from a recording by Mr. Sanderson specifically for this post.]
People often ask me to recommend books I feel deserve more attention than they're getting. This is hard to do for two reasons. First, I have trouble deciding whether I should recommend the old standbys I've been recommending forever, or if I should recommend the new voices. And two, I just don't know which books the everyday readers are chatting about. Before I was a writer, I was more in tune with what my friends would talk about. Nowadays, most of my friends are industry professionals, so I know what the industry professionals are talking about, but not what the average fan is reading. With that preamble in mind, here are a few book recommendations, though perhaps people are talking about these books, and I just don't realize it.
- I really do feel that Guy Gavriel Kay — his new work and his old — still doesn't get enough recognition. He's one of the great writers of the genre, and he's amazing. His writing is beautiful, interesting, fun and exciting, but also lyrical. He has a series out right now. The first one is called Under Heaven, and the second one, River of Stars, just came out. If you've never read Guy Gavriel Kay, his classic Tigana is one I often recommend.
- I think N.K. Jemisin is doing some very fascinating things in fantasy right now. She's a great storyteller. I do know that people in industry are talking about her a lot. I don't know if your everyday fans are noticing her books enough, but certainly if you haven't heard of her, look up The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It is a fantastic novel. I will put a slight content warning on both Tigana and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, for those who are concerned about those sorts of issues.
- And one more recommendation. For a long time, my standby was Daniel Abraham, but I think everybody's reading him now because he's got these cool series coming out that everyone loves, so I'd like to point out a new author, Brian McClellan. He's a former student of mine, who just had the first in a series come out with Orbit. The book's called Promise of Blood, and it's quite good. It's a flintlock fantasy, where people are using magic mixed with gunpowder in really cool ways.
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