The art featured in The Way of Kings is very striking and has been well-received by readers. Do you have any plans to include more art in your future books—other books as well as The Stormlight Archive? Or maybe as bonus content on your website?
There will be more art in future Stormlight Archive books. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and I think adding a visual aspect to novels helps create a more complete and immersive experience. You’ll notice that art has been important to one extent or another in all of my books. Elantris had its map and the Aons; Mistborn had its maps and the Steel Alphabet. The Rithmatist , when it comes out in 2012, will have extensive magic system diagrams with every chapter.
Including a map in a fantasy book has become a bit of a cliché ever since Tolkien did it. But if you go back and look at what Tolkien actually did, the map that was in the book was an in-world artifact—it was something the characters carried around with them and used. So I’ve approached the art in my books in a similar manner. Each piece represents something that is made and used by the people in the world of the books. I think that helps give a richer feel to the world I’m creating.
One thing you probably won’t see me doing in future novels is including character art. I want to leave exactly how characters look up to the imagination of the reader. But I’m a big fan of the sequential art storytelling form as well, so you’ll likely see me do some completely graphic novels in the future.
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