My Year With Sanderson
A note before we begin, I will work to attempt to keep this as spoiler-free, and even plot point devoid as possible as I talk about my year with Sanderson.
I have a number of clients who are nerds, I suspect because we can smell our own kind. This also means that there is a significant overlap in interests for me and those I work with. With that overlap, and with the relationship we build, that despite being therapeutic in nature, does require some give and take and back and forth, we exchange book series, TV shows, movies, and games that we think each other may like or appreciate. My bookshelf is ever-growing with the suggestions and recommendations I get from clients. However, in recent years, reading was not a top priority for me, which meant that as my bookshelves (and Kindle) became more and more full, I was not making any observable progress in reading those books. For roughly two years after one client adamantly suggested I read Brandon Sanderson’s Starlight Archive series, the first three books sat in their boxed set, unopened, on my shelf. Then, promising myself and my client I would read them, I bought the fourth as well. At the end of 2023, I realized I had not finished an entire book that year. Between social life, trying to run my business, raise kids, working out, and watching all the ever-growing list of TV shows and movies I *had* to see, reading had slipped away from me. The truth was, I had sort of burned myself out on reading non-fiction books, heavily focused on trauma, therapy, and business throughout 2021 and 2022. So, in the dwindling days of 2023, I finished a book that I had loved and only set aside with about two chapters remaining. I committed to read 20 books in 2024 and planned to include those Stormlight books in that number, especially as I had another client who began talking about this series and the impact it had made on them.
After a couple of months of tackling some other books that were part of a series I was already invested in, as well as a few other books I thought might be pertinent to my work and interests, I finally started the daunting task of the Starlight Archive series. The warning both my clients gave me was that there is a great deal of world-building in the early stages of the first book, but that sticking with it will be rewarded. Even without that warning, I knew I was going to stick with these books because I needed to see what about this series had resonated so deeply with clients. To hear them speak about the fact that they felt seen in these pages and the characters who struggled with real-world struggles brought that familiarity into the fantasy world. As I embarked on this journey, part of our check-ins during sessions was about where I was in the books, and there was a closeness that this brought to our relationships. I have always strived not to present myself as an expert in the therapy space, preferring to be more existential and human in our time together, acknowledging what are often universal (or close to it) problems. Me dipping my toe into this world gave them the chance to know what lay ahead for once, in some way it felt like. More than that, I think it communicated that I gave a fuck, about them, their interests, and their recommendations and that me saying I would check these books out was not just lip service, but genuine interest. At least, that was partly what I told myself along the way.
Almost immediately, I was hooked. I had no clue who these characters were, but I could see depression, anxiety, self-doubt, suicidal thoughts, and a bevy of other things we often confront in therapy present on these pages. Watching as characters lost and regained their humanity, seeing how some people were more concerned with connection than power or authority, and how what seemed like simple and small gestures had a significant impact on characters and how those interactions spider-webbed out to connect more and more people to that inciting act. As I trundled through page after page, my love for this universe, these characters, their story, and the connection it gave me to my clients grew. I have always loved using pop culture to frame the issues we face in our lives, and this gave me other examples of that, which I, of course, began using with these clients right away. I use the word trundle to describe my progress because these were not books I plowed through, both because of the scope, the sheer volume of book, and the fact I was still juggling all the other pieces of life along with this all while reading usually one other book in tandem (one physical book and one kindle book while on the treadmill).
As I progressed through the books, we discussed the scenes that had been so impactful to my clients and the moments they felt captured their feelings or experiences, I found out there was a fifth book to come out towards the end of the year. I became determined to be ready to start that book as it came out in early December. When I finished the fourth book, we began discussing more in-depth the story, the plot, and what we thought would happen in book five, as well as what we hoped would happen. By this point, I had discovered that several other clients were also fans of the series and Sanderson’s other work, and one other client was reading them in essence, at the same time I was. By the time the fifth book was released, I had started stockpiling other books in the same universe, the Cosmere, as he puts it, and was trying to make my plans for where I would dive in there as well. I devoured “Wind and Truth” in just under two weeks. Part of my motivation was to not have anything spoiled, but also because I had a trip coming up and did not want to be lugging a thousand-plus-page hardback around airports or a city I was visiting.
Sanderson accounted for five of the 60 books I read in 2024, and “Wind and Truth” was book 58. I debated diving right back into the Cosmere to start my reading the next year, but I wanted to work on a few other books. It did not take long before I dove back in, starting with the Mistborn series as my third book this year. At present, nine of the 27 books I have read this year all came from the Cosmere. Seven in the Mistborn series, Warbreaker, and most recently, Elantris. While the characters, storylines, and plots may change across books, I see common threads. Not just because they are set in the same universe and there are occasional cameos, but because I see universal struggles and triumphs in these stories. While many of us may seek fiction and fantasy as an escape from our real lives, there are often bits in these stories that hit close to home. I appreciate rooting for an underdog in a story, seeing good triumph over evil, and seeing redemption arcs as people change and grow over time.
Having read more than 10,000 pages from Sanderson over twelve months and fourteen books, it is safe to say I am a fan. More than a fan, though, really. Each of these books tells an entire story, even if it is just one arc of a greater story, and within those stories, there is such a sense of humanity and the importance of hope, growth, change, and connection. There are plenty of moments of despair where all feels lost, and there are moments when people who feel lost, empty, broken, and like they are the least of us, show us the power of caring. In the current climate of our country and our world, it is easy to give in. Whether that is doomscrolling, not caring enough to try, feeling trapped and not taking action because it feels pointless, or resorting to substances to numb us, the idea that there is hope and that there is inherent goodness in all of us is a balm to the spirit. Watching as people who seem insignificant become very significant, seeing someone who seems more comic relief and buffoonery become the hero (maybe my hardest cry of all the books to this point), and even seeing people we thought were too far gone, lost to evil or to maybe death who suddenly found an escape and altered the trajectory of their story and character arc gives me a sense of hope and optimism. It makes me believe that even though my voice and my platform are not substantial, and that my interactions are largely one-to-one, I can make a difference. It reminds me that none of our stories are finished, and that it is never too late to care and do the right thing. I would like to believe that even as things seem dire today, I would find the courage that so many individuals on these pages also found, and would stand resolute, despite my churning guts in the face of evil. Every day we can make a choice. Because of Sanderson and my clients, I will choose journey before destination, strength before weakness, and life before death.