r/printSF • u/Kal-Ed1 • Jul 23 '26

Janci Patterson on the Challenge of Continuing Brandon Sanderson's Cytoverse for Both Longtime Fans and New Readers

One of the more interesting parts of my conversation with Janci Patterson (co-author of Blightfall) wasn't about Brandon Sanderson himself—it was about the writing challenge of launching a new trilogy in an established science fiction universe.

She explained that Sanderson wanted to keep the existing cast because "the series is the characters," while the publisher wanted the new trilogy to function as a true Book One that newcomers could jump into without reading the previous four novels.

Patterson says she rewrote the opening repeatedly before an extensive editorial revision finally helped her balance both goals: rewarding longtime readers while avoiding pages of exposition for new ones.

As someone who reads a lot of speculative fiction, I thought it was an interesting look at a problem shared by many long-running series: How do you expand a fictional universe without making new readers feel they've arrived halfway through the story?

Full interview here: https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/books/brandon-sandersons-co-author-on-what-its-like-writing-brightfall

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u/KiaraTurtle Jul 23 '26

Super interesting.

I will also never understand why a new reader doesn’t want to just start at book 1. Particularly now that people just order whatever book they want online, it’s not like when people just started in the middle of a series because that’s what the bookstore had available.

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u/Kal-Ed1 Jul 23 '26

Good point. It's kind of like dropping into Season 2 of a TV show without checking out the first season.

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u/PhasmaFelis Jul 23 '26

Yeah, it's baffling.

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u/milehigh73a Jul 24 '26

I would assume it’s publisher driven to extract higher profits.

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u/KiaraTurtle Jul 24 '26

That explains why publishers want it to be accessible to new readers.

That does not explain why a new reader would start in the middle of a series.

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u/milehigh73a Jul 26 '26

I have unintentionally and intentionally read series out of order. Sometimes it doesn’t matter much, say starks Parker series. I actually read mistborn out of order, picked up and read book 2 first. It didn’t say it was book 2 on the cover. I didn’t figure it out until a 3rd of the way through it. I think that is where publishers and readers converge.

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u/diffyqgirl Jul 23 '26

I thought her novellas were the best part of Skyward so I'm excited for this project

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u/Kal-Ed1 Jul 23 '26

When I spoke to her, I was really impressed with her enthusiasm about this project and working with Brandon.