# The Stormlight Archive - Work: Book series - Date: 2010– (5 of 10 planned volumes published) - Made by: Brandon Sanderson (Author) - Houses: Tor Books - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-stormlight-archive/ > A storm-scoured world of spren, shardblades and oath-bound knights: Brandon Sanderson's ten-book epic is the biggest new fantasy series of its era, and a bridge between novels, crowdfunding and tabletop gaming. **Why it matters:** The Stormlight Archive is the flagship of 21st-century doorstopper fantasy and of Sanderson's Cosmere; its readership funded the largest Kickstarter in history and what was then the most-funded tabletop game on the platform. ## Quick answers **When was The Stormlight Archive first published?** The Stormlight Archive was first published in 2010– (5 of 10 planned volumes published). **Who created The Stormlight Archive?** The Stormlight Archive was made by Brandon Sanderson (author). **Who published or developed The Stormlight Archive?** Tor Books. **What kind of work is The Stormlight Archive?** The Stormlight Archive is a book series in the High / Epic Fantasy and Science Fantasy tradition. **Why is The Stormlight Archive important?** The Stormlight Archive is the flagship of 21st-century doorstopper fantasy and of Sanderson's Cosmere; its readership funded the largest Kickstarter in history and what was then the most-funded tabletop game on the platform. ## Overview On Roshar, great storms sweep across the continent every few days, scouring the land so thoroughly that grass retracts into the ground and animals hide in shells. The storms carry Stormlight, a luminous energy that can be trapped in gemstones and breathed in to power magic. Spirits called spren gather around emotions and natural forces, and a few bond with humans, granting them the Surges once wielded by the legendary Knights Radiant. *The Stormlight Archive*, [Brandon Sanderson](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/brandon-sanderson/)'s planned ten-book epic, is the most ambitious fantasy series begun in the 2010s — and, through its readers, one of the forces reshaping how fantasy is financed and played. ## Origins Sanderson drafted an early version of *The Way of Kings* in the early 2000s, before his first novel was published, and set it aside. After finishing [The Wheel of Time](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-wheel-of-time/) for Robert Jordan's estate — an apprenticeship in managing an enormous cast and world — he returned to it, and [Tor Books](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tor-books/) published *The Way of Kings* on August 31, 2010, as a 1,000-page hardcover. It was followed by *Words of Radiance* (2014), *Oathbringer* (2017), *Rhythm of War* (2020) and *Wind and Truth* (December 6, 2024), which completes the first of two planned five-book arcs; the novellas *Edgedancer* and *Dawnshard* fill gaps between them. ## The story The first arc follows three central figures. Kaladin, a surgeon's son turned soldier and then slave, is thrown into a bridge crew on the Shattered Plains, where Alethi highprinces fight an endless war against the Parshendi for gemhearts. Shallan Davar, a young scholar with a dangerous secret, apprentices herself to the heretic Jasnah Kholin to save her family. Dalinar Kholin, a brutal warlord turned reformer, is haunted by visions during highstorms. As the Knights Radiant return, the war on the Shattered Plains turns out to be one front in a much older conflict involving the enslaved parshmen, the Voidbringers and the gods of the Cosmere, the shared universe that links Sanderson's novels. Sanderson's signature is a [Hard & soft magic systems](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/magic-system/) with explicit rules — the ten Surges, the oaths each Radiant order swears, the costs of Stormlight — coupled with long-planned revelations; each volume ends with a sequence of converging climaxes that fans have nicknamed the "Sanderlanche." ## Reception & impact *Words of Radiance*, *Oathbringer* and *Rhythm of War* each debuted at No. 1 on the *New York Times* hardcover fiction list. Sanderson's relationship with his readers then turned into a publishing event: in March 2022 he launched a Kickstarter for four "secret" novels written during the pandemic, which raised $41,754,153 from 185,341 backers, the most ever pledged to a Kickstarter campaign. The result demonstrated what [crowdfunding](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/crowdfunding-tabletop/) had already shown the game industry — that a devoted audience could finance a project directly. The games followed. Riding the [fifth-edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-5th-edition/) tabletop boom, Brotherwise Games and Sanderson's company Dragonsteel developed the *Cosmere Roleplaying Game*. Announced in November 2023, its Kickstarter launched on August 6, 2024, and raised about $15.1 million, at the time the most for any tabletop game on the platform. Its first setting is Roshar: *The Stormlight Handbook*, a d20-based rulebook, was released digitally in 2024 and in hardcover in 2025, letting players swear the Radiant oaths themselves. ## Legacy Sanderson has said there will be a significant gap in the story's chronology before the second arc, and book six, which opens the second arc, is not expected until after the Mistborn Era Three trilogy that Sanderson has scheduled for 2028–30; as of September 2026 no publication date has been set. In January 2026 Apple secured film and television rights to the Cosmere after what was reported as a competitive bidding process, with *The Stormlight Archive* planned as a television series and Sanderson given unusual creative control. A world born as a shelved manuscript has become, within fifteen years, a reading community, a crowdfunding record and a tabletop game — the modern pattern of fantasy's traffic between books and play. ## Facts - The Way of Kings was published by Tor on August 31, 2010; Wind and Truth, completing the first five-book arc, on December 6, 2024. - Sanderson's March 2022 Kickstarter for four secret novels raised $41,754,153 from 185,341 backers, the most ever pledged on the platform. - Words of Radiance, Oathbringer and Rhythm of War each debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times hardcover fiction list. - Brotherwise Games' Cosmere Roleplaying Game, launched with a Stormlight setting, raised about $15.1 million on Kickstarter in 2024, then the most for any tabletop game. - In January 2026 Apple acquired Cosmere screen rights, with Stormlight planned as a television series. - Sanderson has said there will be a significant time gap before book six, which begins the second arc. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stormlight_Archive) - [Cosmere Roleplaying Game (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmere_Roleplaying_Game) - [Kickstarter creator spotlight: the Cosmere RPG](https://updates.kickstarter.com/creator-spotlight-brandon-sandersons-games/) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.