A recent arrival in the awards calendar, the Legend award is three years old now, and is decided by popular vote rather than by a jury. There are three categories – for best newcomer, best artist and the Legend award itself, which is given to the best fantasy novel.

We are absolutely delighted for Brandon and publisher Gollancz who have done a really wonderful job with this thwacking great novel. And Brandon is hard at work on the second volume. Let’s hope the arrival of the very large “Snaga” axe he just won doesn’t distract him!

“WARBREAKER by Brandon Sanderson is #24 on the NY Times Hardcover Fiction list for the week ending June 13, 2009.

This is the second straight book from Brandon’s to make the NY Times list following THE HERO OF AGES (Mistborn #3) which was #21 in November.  The performance of WARBREAKER is in some ways more impressive because it’s a single-volume stand-alone fantasy in a series dominated market, while the previous book was the concluding and eagerly-awaited final volume of a trilogy.

WARBREAKER is published by Tor in the US.  It is a Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club and is forthcoming in audio from both Recorded (unabridged non-dramatic) and Graphic Audio (abridged dramatic).  It sold in the Czech Republic (Talpress) and Poland (MAG) ahead of publication, and with other books by Brandon selling in some 16 languages we look forward to many more sales for WARBREAKER in upcoming months.

Warbreaker received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly (‘extraordinary and highly entertaining’) and Library Journal (‘essential reading for fantasy fans’) and was a 4 1/2* Top Pick for Romantic Times (‘compelling, superb, highly entertaining’) and other good reviews have come in from Booklist, The Onion/AV Club, The Deseret News and all the major sf review sites.”

We hope to have some news on Brandon’s UK dealing before too long! Watch this space!! And watch the space  underneath to see Brandon discussing WARBREAKER and hinting about his nest solo project (via SFSignal).