Brandon Sanderson is an American author of fantasy and science fiction, born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1975. He is best known for the “Mistborn” novels and “The Stormlight Archive”, both set in a shared fictional universe called the Cosmere, and for completing Robert Jordan’s series “The Wheel of Time”.
Sanderson studied at Brigham Young University, where he switched from biochemistry to English literature and took a master’s degree in creative writing in 2004. He wrote throughout his student years, partly during shifts as a night auditor at a hotel in Provo, and by 2003 had finished twelve novels without selling one. Tor Books editor Moshe Feder then bought his sixth manuscript, “Elantris”, which was published in 2005.
“The Final Empire” (2006) opened the Mistborn series, in which people known as allomancers gain powers by swallowing and burning metals. After reading it, Harriet McDougal, Jordan’s widow and editor, chose Sanderson in 2007 to finish “The Wheel of Time”. The three resulting volumes appeared between 2009 and 2013, and the first, “The Gathering Storm”, reached number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list. “The Way of Kings” (2010) began “The Stormlight Archive”, planned as a ten-book series. Its fifth volume, “Wind and Truth” (2024), closed the first arc.
Outside the Cosmere he has written for younger readers, including the “Alcatraz” series, the superhero trilogy “The Reckoners” and the “Skyward” science fiction novels. His novella “The Emperor’s Soul” won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 2013, and “The Way of Kings” won the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2011.
In March 2022 Sanderson revealed that he had secretly written several extra novels. The Kickstarter campaign to publish four of them through his own company, Dragonsteel Entertainment, drew 185,341 backers and 41.7 million US dollars in pledges, the largest total in the platform’s history. In January 2026 Apple TV acquired screen rights to the Cosmere, with “Mistborn” films and a “Stormlight Archive” television series planned.
His 2026 books include “Songs of the Dead”, written with Peter Orullian, and “Blightfall”, written with Janci Patterson, with the Cosmere novel “The Fires of December” due in bookshops in December. He lives in American Fork, Utah, and teaches a creative writing course at Brigham Young University once a year.
Publication Order of Mistborn Books
The Final Empire
2006
The Well of Ascension
2007
The Hero of Ages
2008
The Alloy of Law
2011
Shadows of Self
2015
The Bands of Mourning
2016
Mistborn: Secret History
2016
The Lost Metal
2022
Publication Order of The Stormlight Archive Books
The Way of Kings
2010
Words of Radiance
2014
Edgedancer
2016
Oathbringer
2017
Dawnshard
2020
Rhythm of War
2020
Wind and Truth
2024
Publication Order of The Wheel of Time Books
The Gathering Storm (With: Robert Jordan)
2009
Towers of Midnight (With: Robert Jordan)
2010
A Memory of Light (With: Robert Jordan)
2013
Publication Order of Alcatraz Books
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians
2007
Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones
2008
Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia
2009
Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens
2010
Alcatraz Versus the Dark Talent
2016
Bastille Versus the Evil Librarians (With: Janci Patterson)
2022
Publication Order of The Reckoners Books
Steelheart
2013
Mitosis
2013
Firefight
2015
Calamity
2016
Lux (With: Steven Michael Bohls)
2021
Publication Order of Skyward Books
Skyward
2018
Starsight
2019
Sunreach (With: Janci Patterson)
2021
ReDawn (With: Janci Patterson)
2021
Cytonic
2021
Evershore (With: Janci Patterson)
2021
Defiant
2023
Publication Order of Riftwake Books
Blightfall (With: Janci Patterson)
2026
Publication Order of Legion Books
Legion
2012
Legion: Skin Deep
2014
Lies of the Beholder
2018
Stephen Leeds: Death and Faxes (With: Max Epstein, David Pace, Michael Harkins)
2022
Publication Order of Infinity Blade Books
Infinity Blade: Awakening
2011
Infinity Blade: Redemption
2013
Publication Order of The Strata Wars Books
Songs of the Dead (With: Peter Orullian)
2026
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Elantris
2005
Warbreaker
2009
The Rithmatist
2013
Tress of the Emerald Sea
2023
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England
