Brandon Sanderson, or Writing in Someone Else's Universe 101

[sparafucile]

I'm a big wot fan. though I haven't really read the books more than one time (I keep fizzling out around book 6!) I've been playing a WoT MUD off and on for years. Great fun

Anyways, Sanderson seems to have his head in the right place as far as writing in someone else's universe. I'm here to post this article I found on dragonmount.com (wot fansite): http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=615

Pay particular attention to this paragraph:

"Personally, I’ve taken a slightly different road when talking to Harriet. I don’t want to see the Wheel of Time turn into an eternal franchise. I said this last weekend at my signing in Montreal. Part of the value of a great work of art is, in my opinion, the ending. An ending loses power if it isn’t allowed to be…well, the END. Beyond that, Robert Jordan was very uncomfortable with people writing in his world. If we were to turn this into “Book of the Month, McWheel of Time” I think it would be dishonoring his memory."

Brandon Sanderson: secret Orthodox Herbertarian? Someone should pass this on to the hacks twain (still love that name).

[GamePlayer]

"Personally, I’ve taken a slightly different road when talking to Harriet. I don’t want to see the Wheel of Time turn into an eternal franchise. I said this last weekend at my signing in Montreal. Part of the value of a great work of art is, in my opinion, the ending. An ending loses power if it isn’t allowed to be…well, the END. Beyond that, Robert Jordan was very uncomfortable with people writing in his world. If we were to turn this into “Book of the Month, McWheel of Time” I think it would be dishonoring his memory."

This would make for an excellent quote in a manifesto

[Sev]

Sanderson might not want to turn 'The Wheel of Time' into an ongoing franchise, but the publishers, Tor (what a shock!) seem to be giving the impression that they do. I wonder who'll win out?

Favourite fantasy for me includes Steven Erikson, R. Scott Bakker and Guy Gavriel Kay (all of them Canadian, coincidentally). The Black Company books, while very good, seem to be populated with characters of varying shades of black! Waiting for 'Song of Ice and Fire' to conclude before I read it, figure it'll be close on another decade. From the pulps Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft are always highly readable.