Introducing: Wandersail from Hoid's Storybook Collection

"A story doesn't live until it is imagined in someone's mind…”

Twelve days until Hoid's Storybook Collection launches on BackerKit! Welcome back to our series exploring each of the five books in this campaign. If you missed last week, we covered The Girl Who Looked Up.

The story we’re diving into today is one readers have carried for years. It's the story fans return to when they need to hear that they'll be warm again. It's the one with the line about storytellers giving you questions to think upon, not answers to accept. 

Now this beloved tale is getting the full Dragonsteel edition treatment: pulled from the margins of the Stormlight Archive and given the space, the art, and the care it's always deserved. Let’s take a look at Wandersail from Hoid’s Storybook Collection. 

Looking Back on Wandersail

Who is Hoid? Wit, Cephandrius, Midius, the Drifter. If you’ve read enough of Brandon’s epic fantasy, you’ve certainly come across him. Always mysterious and sometimes helpful, he’s got himself stuck in just about every relevant event going on in the Cosmere at some point. He’s a trickster, a worldhopper, a mentor, a troublemaker, and more.

I think if you asked him, he would tell you that he is a storyteller. That’s just the way it went down in The Way of Kings, when Kaladin chanced upon Hoid on a stormless night on the Shattered Plains. The first of Hoid’s storybooks is Wandersail, the story that Hoid shared with the budding knight radiant as Kaladin and Syl wrestled with the changes they had wrought in one another. Kaladin faced ever greater challenges as he became a leader among slaves, but he needed a push to become the hero that Bridge Four needed.

Wandersail recounts the adventure of Derethil, a military leader and sailor who traveled to the end of the world looking for “the origins of the voidbringers.” On his journey, he finds the lands of the Uvara, a people whose normally peaceful lives are punctuated by moments of great brutality at the behest of their Emperor, who “will not suffer failure.” As Derethil lives among them, he decides to take action to stop the brutality.

It is enough to provoke Kaladin, who sees in the story a lesson on responsibility, to ask what the story means. Hoid’s characteristic response is: “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” 

The tale is told with a musical accompaniment, played on a Trailman’s flute. This flute will also be included as part of the Hoid’s Storybook Campaign on BackerKit! You heard it here first. 🪈 “I expect you to be able to play it when next we meet.”

Watch the next episode of Hoid and Design’s journey followed by Sanderson Storytime, where Brandon reads Wandersail.

Cover Reveal

Wandersail is illustrated by Steve Argyle, who also illustrated The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England and many of the art pieces in The Way of Kings leatherbound. His credits include work with Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Legend of the Five Rings, and the Star Wars RPG. Argyle’s sweeping, emotionally grounded illustrations bring epic scope to Wandersail's intimate message of hope—you won’t want to miss it!

As shown in our previous post about The Girl Who Looked Up, the picture books that Backers will receive include stunning gold foiling on the covers. These editions are exclusive to the campaign, so if you want the elevated version of these gorgeous books, you’ll want to make sure and back before it ends! 

Coming Up

In Wandersail, Hoid does what he does best: he tells a story about why stories matter. It's the perfect centerpiece for a campaign built on that very idea.

The Hoid's Storybook Collection campaign launches March 3 on BackerKit. Follow the campaign now so you don't miss it!