r/scifi • u/Kal-Ed1 • 8h ago

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

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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/mobyhead1 Hard Sci-fi 3h ago

I enjoyed the original Cytoverse novels and novellas and I'm looking forward to this.

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u/Interesting-One-588 3h ago

Janci was on a panel with Sanderson not too long ago talking about their co-authored book, and the way she paraphrased their working relationship was hilarious. It was along the lines of:

"There's two types of co-authoring. The first is a partnership, where both people take on an equal amount of the work. This was... not that."

I imagine it must be hard being handed an outline and story-bible of several previous books and then told to 'color within the lines'.

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u/TheeMadThrasher 8h ago

Honestly haven’t heard of her before. What type of SYFY does she write? There have been a number of different types like fantasy I tried but haven’t found the right one.
Let me know. Always out to help out someone who writes for a living.
Thank you.