What can readers expect from the second volume of The Stormlight Archive? Any tentative title or release date?
I originally had titled the second book Highprince of War . I’m not sure if I will keep that title, depending on who its central character ends up being. With the Stormlight Archive, I am playing with the form of the epic fantasy novel in a way that’s very exciting to me that I haven’t done since Elantris . If you read Elantris , the form of that book was very important in how it developed, with its chapter triad system. The books in this series also have a very specific form. Each book will focus on one character. That character will get flashbacks exploring their past, to show you how they arrived where they are. But the book will progress the narrative for everyone. For instance, this book was Kaladin’s book, and you got flashbacks for him. He will appear substantially in the next book, and you’ll have lots of viewpoints from him, but it will be someone else’s book and that character will get flashbacks. Each book will have one central character, with two or three major characters who have no flashbacks and not quite as much screen time—characters like Dalinar and Shallan in the first book, and to a lesser extent Adolin and Szeth.
The other thing that will continue is the interludes. I really enjoyed including those in the book; I’m not sure what people will think of them, but most of them are essentially going to be short stories set somewhere in the world, that enhance the main narrative and show different aspects of the world without forcing you to follow yet another plotline. They’re just quick one-offs. You’ll see those between parts in all of the other books.
Tentative release date? I have to finish A Memory of Light first. I don’t know how long that will take to write. In a perfect world, which is probably not going to happen, the ideal case is that I’m able to finish A Memory of Light by around August of 2011, whereupon it gets published in November 2011 and I start Stormlight Two January of the next year and it’s ready for publication in November 2012. That would be the ideal situation. I often do manage to hit the deadlines in ideal situations, but I’m not making any promises on this one. I’m thinking 2012 spring is more likely for A Memory of Light , but we’ll see.
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