Brandon Sanderson has what his fellow Utah author Janci Patterson calls “a lovely problem”: He has too many ideas and not enough time to write them all.
“Even though he writes so many books, he’s still got more,” Patterson told the Deseret News.
So that’s where Patterson steps in.
When Sanderson — bestselling author of the fantasy series “Mistborn” and “The Stormlight Archive” — reached out to her several years ago to ask if she would be interested in collaborating on a series of novellas set in his sci-fi “Cytoverse” universe, she jumped right in. And now, the pair are embarking on a whole new trilogy, with their first full-length “Cytoverse” novel together, “Blightfall,” coming out on Tuesday.
Patterson, who’s written novels in a variety of genres from fantasy and science fiction to YA to romance, noted that co-writing with another author is a very different process from writing novels on her own, but said that she’s enjoyed writing in Sanderson’s sandbox.
“It feels to me kind of like I bring my bucket and I fill it up with his toys, and then I take them home to play with them,” she said. “It’s awesome.”
Ahead of the release of “Blightfall,” Patterson shared with the Deseret News what to expect from the new novel, as well as how she and Sanderson worked together to create it — and what’s coming next in the series.
Jumping into the ‘Cytoverse’
Patterson isn’t a stranger to the world of science fiction, having previously written the YA sci-fi series “A Thousand Faces.” But she’s written in a number of other genres, too, because she likes trying new things.
“Right now, I’m in my science fiction era,” she said.
“It feels to me kind of like I bring my bucket and I fill it up with his toys, and then I take them home to play with them. It’s awesome.”
— Janci Patterson
Though Sanderson is perhaps better known for his epic fantasy series, “Blightfall” is set in the sci-fi “Cytoverse,” which began with his 2018 novel “Skyward.” The “Skyward” series, which is marketed as young adult, follows a teenager named Spensa, who lives on a world that’s at war with an alien race and who dreams of becoming a pilot.
“With ‘Skyward’ specifically, he wrote himself into this corner because, in his words, he made the side characters too interesting,” Patterson said. “So he wanted somebody to take those side characters and give the readers experiences with them without him having to add more books to his plate.”
That was when Sanderson reached out to Patterson about the possibility of collaborating with him on novellas set in the “Skyward” universe.
They ended up co-writing three novellas, collectively called “Skyward Flight,” with the first, “Sunreach,” released in 2021. It’s set in between the second and third books in the “Skyward” series and follows a secondary character of that series, FM, in an adventure of her own while Spensa is away. The next two novellas also follow more minor characters and slot in between the “Skyward” novels.
Patterson and Sanderson also collaborated on “Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians,” the final novel of his middle-grade series “Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians,” which came out in 2022.
But Patterson said that after the conclusion of the “Skyward” series and the series of novellas, it still felt like there was more to do in that universe — leading to “Blightfall.”
“Brandon, as he writes, he has just so many ideas,” she said. “The books just burst with ideas. You can’t follow up on all of them. So there’s still lots of threads and things to pick out of there and move forward with.”
Collaborating with Brandon Sanderson
“Blightfall” will follow two “Skyward” characters, Arturo and Sadie, in the years following the war. Arturo heads up a team escorting diplomats to a newly discovered planet, Blightfall; but they end up uncovering an old enemy and a new threat.
Patterson and Sanderson both remained involved throughout the book’s writing process. She said that they typically begin their collaborations with a brainstorming call, where they’ll bounce ideas off of each other. From those ideas, Patterson will create a story outline that she revises based on Sanderson’s feedback, and then delves into writing drafts that Sanderson reviews, critiques and gives suggestions to at every step of the process.
Though Patterson said that it can sometimes be challenging to write in a world that Sanderson originally created, she said that she likes that it gives her “somewhere to start.”
“It’s really awesome to be able to dig in and be like, ‘What do I want to do with this? Well, what do we have that hasn’t been used yet that’s in the setting?’” Patterson said. “It’s kind of a menu of choices.”
Patterson’s collaborated with other authors as well as writing on her own, and she said that in many ways, she prefers collaboration.
“With my own stuff, I have writer friends who will like brainstorm back and forth or bounce ideas just because it helps inject some energy into a process that otherwise can be really draining and lonely sometimes,” she said.
“But there’s a different kind of magic when both people are equally invested. They care, they have a stake in it. And that energy of being able to work on it with somebody else is really fulfilling to me.”
What’s coming next for ‘Blightfall’ series?
“Blightfall” will be the first in a trilogy, the “Riftwake” trilogy, with the plan being for each book to be released a year apart from each other.
The second book, “Songrise,” is currently on track to be published next September, Patterson said.
“There’s a different kind of magic when both people are equally invested. They care, they have a stake in it. And that energy of being able to work on it with somebody else is really fulfilling to me.”
— Janci Patterson
Although the “Riftwake” trilogy ties into the previous “Cytoverse” books, Patterson said they worked hard to make “Blightfall” accessible to both new and old readers.
“It will be just as accessible to somebody who read before and wants to see all their friends again,” Patterson said. But for new readers, “they can jump in here and be just as oriented as somebody who’s read before.”
And “Cytoverse” fans will have even more to look forward to soon, as it was announced earlier this year that “Skyward” will be adapted for a TV series, Deadline reported.
For Patterson, she hopes that “Skyward” fans enjoy returning to the characters and world that they loved in the novels and novellas.
“The novellas did very well, and people really love those stories,” she said. “And as I was writing these, my goal was to give the people who love them that experience again.”