The short answer is the one nobody wants to hear: late 2031. That is not a publisher announcement, it is Brandon Sanderson’s own conservative estimate of when he will get back to Roshar, and he has been careful to frame it as a floor rather than a promise. Wind and Truth arrived on December 6, 2024 and closed the first five book arc. Book six opens the second one, and there is a deliberate, planned gap in between.
The Stormlight Archive Book 6 release date, as it stands
Sanderson publishes an annual progress update on his own site, and the schedule there puts the back half of the Stormlight Archive after two other projects. The working expectation is that he spends 2030 and 2031 writing book six, with a release near the end of 2031, roughly a seven year gap from Wind and Truth.
Two caveats matter. Sanderson has said he expects to be faster than the projection and is deliberately quoting a cautious number, and no publisher has put a date in a catalogue. Treat 2031 as the honest planning assumption, not a countdown clock.
His actual advice to readers about book five was two words: “savor it.” Given the timeline, that reads less like a marketing line and more like practical instruction.
Why the gap is this long
The pause is structural, not a delay. The Stormlight Archive was designed from the start as ten books in two arcs of five with a jump between them. Arc one took about fifteen years to write, and Sanderson has described these novels as the most draining thing he produces. Stepping away is the plan working, not the plan failing.
A second pressure showed up in his most recent update: screen adaptation work is eating a real share of his calendar, and he flagged it as a reason he is hesitant to commit to the pace he guessed at a year earlier. We track that side of things in our guide to the Stormlight Archive adaptation.
What Sanderson is writing instead
The hiatus is not empty. Two Cosmere projects sit between you and book six.
Mistborn Era 3, the Ghostbloods trilogy. The plan is December 2028, December 2029 and December 2030. The first draft of book one was finished in early 2026, which is the strongest signal that this schedule is real rather than aspirational. Era 3 jumps roughly fifty years past Era 2 and moves Scadrial into an early computer age.
Two Elantris sequels. Sanderson has said he is close to the point where he writes the first one and would love to slot them between Ghostbloods novels. This is the least locked down item on the list, and the one most likely to move.
Both are self contained, and Sanderson has been explicit that you do not need either to follow the Stormlight Archive. If you do want them, our Mistborn reading order guide is the fastest way to be caught up before 2028.
Horneater: the Stormlight story that arrives first
One piece of Roshar arrives before book six. Horneater is a novella about Lunamor, the cook everyone knows as Rock, following him back to his homeland. Chronologically it sits around the events of book four rather than after Wind and Truth, so it is a side story, not a bridge into the second arc.
Timing is soft. Sanderson has grouped it with early book six work as something likely in the next few years, and fan trackers pencil in 2026 or 2027. No publication date is confirmed, so anyone quoting a specific month is guessing.
If it follows the pattern of Edgedancer and Dawnshard, expect a tight character piece that turns out to be load bearing for the main series about three books later.
The ten year time jump
This is the most important structural fact about book six, and it is confirmed rather than theorised. When the Stormlight Archive resumes, roughly ten years will have passed on Roshar.
The wrinkle is what happens everywhere else. Because of the time dilation at play in the wider Cosmere, Sanderson has indicated that seven or eight decades pass off world during that same stretch. Scadrial, Nalthis and the rest of the system will have moved on by generations while Roshar experiences a single decade. For a series that has been slowly converging its planets, that is a plot engine, not a footnote.
Practically, the cast you finished Wind and Truth with will be ten years older and dealing with consequences that have had a decade to compound. If you need a refresher on where everyone ended up, our breakdown of what happens in Wind and Truth covers it.
Who the back five books are about
Every Stormlight novel is built around one character’s flashback sequence. Arc one gave us Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Eshonai and Venli, then Szeth. Sanderson has confirmed the order for the back five:
- Book 6: Lift
- Book 7: Renarin
- Book 8: Shalash
- Book 9: Talenel
- Book 10: Jasnah
What Lift as the book 6 flashback character tells us
Quite a lot, once you combine it with the time jump. Lift has an unusual relationship with aging, and a ten year gap turns that from a running joke into a structural question the book has to answer. A flashback sequence also means going back before Edgedancer, into the period she spends her page time deflecting questions about. The character who refuses to be serious gets the book that makes her serious, which is the move Sanderson pulled with Szeth in book five.
There is also the Nightwatcher of it all. Lift’s boon is the least explained major magical event involving a named protagonist in the series, and a flashback book is the natural place to finally cash that in. Expect Cultivation to matter.
Two of the other four are worth flagging now. Shalash and Talenel are Heralds, so books eight and nine reach back thousands of years rather than decades. Whatever the back five is about, it does not stay inside one generation.
How to survive the wait
2031 is a long time and no reframing changes that. What it does change is what a reread is for: arc one is now a closed, complete story, readable that way for the first time. Going back to The Way of Kings knowing how the arc lands is a genuinely different book.
The other option is to stop treating the gap as dead time. Ghostbloods lands in 2028, the Elantris sequels float somewhere in there, and Horneater is the nearest term Roshar content. The Cosmere does not stop because Roshar does.
FAQ
When is Stormlight Archive Book 6 coming out?
The current working estimate is late 2031. Brandon Sanderson expects to write the book across 2030 and 2031, after finishing the Mistborn Era 3 trilogy and two Elantris sequels. No publisher has confirmed a date, and Sanderson has said he is quoting a deliberately conservative number and may well be faster.
Why is the wait for Stormlight Book 6 so long?
The gap is planned. The Stormlight Archive was always designed as ten books in two arcs of five with a time jump between them, and Sanderson scheduled other Cosmere projects into the pause. He has also cited screen adaptation work as an additional demand on his time in 2026 and 2027.
What is the next Stormlight Archive book to be released?
Horneater, a novella about Rock, is the next Stormlight release. It is set chronologically around the events of book four and follows Lunamor back to his homeland. There is no confirmed publication date, with estimates pointing at 2026 or 2027.
How much time passes between Wind and Truth and Book 6?
About ten years on Roshar. Elsewhere in the Cosmere, Sanderson has indicated that seven or eight decades pass during the same period because of time dilation, so other planets will have advanced by generations while Roshar advances by a decade.
Who are the flashback characters for Stormlight books 6 to 10?
Lift, Renarin, Shalash, Talenel and Jasnah, in that order. Book six is Lift’s, which makes her relationship with aging directly relevant given the ten year time jump, and books eight and nine belong to Heralds whose flashbacks reach back thousands of years.
The Way of Kings is the perfect entry point. Available in print, Kindle, and audiobook.
The Stormlight Archive audiobooks - narrated by Michael Kramer & Kate Reading - are 40–57 hours each. The best use of a commute in fantasy history.
