Brandon Sanderson Q&A + Complete ‘The Reckoners’ Series
“I spend time thinking about a genre of stories, and try to find a take on it that feels fresh and original.”
Brandon Sanderson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stormlight Archive series, coauthor of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn trilogy. His recent Kickstarter campaign broke records, gaining more than $41 million from some 180,000 backers—and becoming the most-funded Kickstarter in the crowdfunding site’s history.
His Reckoners series presents a world that’s somewhat the opposite of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here, superpowers have turned people into villains and destroyers, and the world is now in a post-apocalyptic condition.
How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father?
If someone destroyed your city?
If everything you ever loved was taken from you?
“Another win for Sanderson . . . he’s simply a brilliant writer. Period.” —Patrick Rothfuss, author of the bestseller The Name of the Wind
“Action-packed.” —EW.com
“Compelling. . . . Sanderson uses plot twists that he teases enough for readers to pick up on to distract from the more dramatic reveals he has in store.” —The A.V. Club
“The suspense is relentless and the climax explosive.” —James Dashner, bestselling author of the Maze Runner series
“Snappy dialogue, bizarre plot twists, high-intensity action, and a touch of mystery and romance . . . leaves [readers] panting for the sequel.” —Booklist
“An absolute page-turner.”—Publishers Weekly
“A straight-up Marvel Comics-style action drama.”—Kirkus Reviews
Scroll down to find the books in the series—and to find questions and answers that Brandon shared in interviews.
Related: Harry Potter fans—21 series you should check out
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The Reckoners Series
Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)
Remember everything.
Forgive nothing.
How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father? If someone destroyed your city? If everything you ever loved was taken from you?
David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice. And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David, too.
Firefight (The Reckoners #2)
Vengeance burns.
Newcago is free. They told David it was impossible, that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet Steelheart—invincible, immortal, unconquerable—is dead. And he died by David’s hand.
Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life simpler. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And no one in Newcago can give him answers.
Babylon Restored, the city formerly known as the borough of Manhattan, has possibilities, though. Ruled by the mysterious High Epic Regalia, Babylon Restored is flooded and miserable, but David is sure it's the path that will lead him to what he needs to find. Entering a city oppressed by a High Epic despot is risky, but
David’s willing to take the gamble. Because killing Steelheart left a hole in David’s heart. A hole where his thirst for vengeance once lived.
Somehow, he filled that hole with another Epic—Firefight. And now he will go on a quest darker and even more dangerous than the fight against Steelheart to find her, and to get his answers.
Calamity (The Reckoners #3)
Heroes will rise.
When Calamity lit up the sky, the Epics were born. David’s fate has been tied to their villainy ever since that historic night. Steelheart killed his father. Firefight stole his heart. And now Regalia has turned his closest ally into a dangerous enemy.
David knew Prof’s secret, and kept it even when Prof struggled to control the effects of his Epic powers. But facing Obliteration in Babilar was too much.
Once the Reckoners’ leader, Prof has now embraced his Epic destiny. He’s disappeared into those murky shadows of menace Epics are infamous for the world over, and everyone knows there’s no turning back. . . .
But everyone is wrong. Redemption is possible for Epics—Megan proved it.
They’re not lost. Not completely. And David is just about crazy enough to face down the most powerful High Epic of all to get his friend back. Or die trying.
Mitosis: A Reckoners Story
Mitosis, a short story set in the action-packed world of the Reckoners series, is exclusively available in the digital format. Epics still plague Newcago, but David and the Reckoners have vowed to fight back.
Brandon Sanderson Interview
Q: What was it that inspired you to write a superhero series in which all the super-powered heroes had become so corrupt?
“I did it exactly because I hadn’t ever seen anyone do it! I’ve enjoyed the superhero genre quite a bit during my years, and as a writer I’m generally looking to do something similar to stories I’ve loved in the past. At the same time, something in me rebels at just doing ‘the same thing’ again. This is the conflict of fan against artist inside me—and the result is usually that I spend time thinking about a genre of stories, and try to find a take on it that feels fresh and original. It’s like eating my cake and having it too! I feel that I can add something to the genre, giving people a new story, yet also incorporate some of the things I love about the genre—the things that make it really work.”—Interview with Brandon Sanderson (Goodreads)
Excerpt from the Locus interview:
“I was doing a signing years ago and a concerned mom came to me and said, ‘No offense, but all my daughter will read is this fantasy stuff. I don’t get it. Why fantasy?’
“I tried to explain to her that you would have never gotten me to read Paradise Lost as a 14-year-old, but as an 18-year-old who loved books, I picked it up on my own and read it. If you teach someone to love reading, they might well find their way to the books that you think they should be reading.
“At the end of the day, the answer to ‘why fantasy’ for me is—why not? A fantasy story can do all the things other stories can. If you want great literary styling, pick up one of Jane Yolen’s stories and you’ll find it there—plus you’ll have this added dimension of worldbuilding that challenges your imagination.
“Fantasy lets you do everything you can in any other genre, plus you can have dragons. So why not write it? It seems baffling to me.”—Brandon Sanderson: Ever More Epic (Locus)
Q: How do you manage to keep track of so many works as well as the bits of inspiration that don’t have a home in a particular series yet?
“I use a personal wiki and my own bizarre mental methodology. Here’s something else about the way I work: new projects excite me. In fact, I’m often dangling the new project in front of myself as incentive to finish my current project. It’s part of what I like about my job, always being able to do something new. It keeps me productive as a writer.”—Brandon Sanderson Steelheart Interview (Fantasy-Faction)
Q: The main character in Steelheart, David, is out for revenge. At the beginning of the book, we see the event that led to that desire. Was it hard writing a character out for revenge in a young adult setting?
“Sometimes you write something and it just comes together, and that’s what the prologue was for me. It introduces David, his driving motivation, and was what gave me the passion and excitement to write the book. For those interested in the book, I really do suggest reading the prologue, which is free online. [link: http://brandonsanderson.com/steelheart-prologue/]
“I don’t think David being a teen made the revenge aspect of the story more difficult. In fact, it felt like a very natural fit because of the passions of adolescence. Yes, at its core, Steelheart is a vengeance novel. David’s passion for what he wants to do is a big driving force behind the whole story working.”—New Release Interview: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (Theoryland)
Q: Why are the Epics—the people with the power—evil?
“It is a story about what happens if people start gaining superpowers but only evil people get them. It’s kind of a post-apocalyptic action adventure thriller filled with evil super villains.
"The idea for this story came when I was driving along on the freeway and someone cut me off in traffic and my immediate instinct was, ‘You’re lucky I’m only super, I was gonna blow your car up right now.’
“This is what happens when you’re a fantasy writer, right? You have weird instinctive reactions like that. I was very frightened, though. I’m like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that's inside of me—it’s probably a good thing I don’t have superpowers, because I don’t know that I could be trusted not to blow people off of the road when they cut in front of me.’
“And that led me down the natural progression to what would happen if people really have superpowers. Would people be good with them or would they not? If my first instinct is to use them in this sort of awful way, what happens if everyone starts abusing these powers?
“And that led me down the road to the story of the the idea of there being no heroes—there being a story about a common man with no powers trying to assassinate a very powerful super power individual.”—Brandon Sanderson Steelheart exclusive interview! (Lytherus) Watch the whole video interview below!
Brandon Sanderson 'Steelheart' exclusive interview! (Lytherus)