His debut novel, The Blade Itself, was featured as a New York Times Editor's Pick and named one of Esquire Magazine's 5 Best Reads of 2007.

[4] In March 2013, Sakey sold the screen rights to his then-forthcoming science fiction thriller Brilliance to Legendary Pictures for $1.25 million.

[6] A potential film adaptation had Will Smith attached to star, David Koepp to write, and Joe Roth to produce, but never made it out of development.

[6] Sakey has licensed the Brilliance franchise to Kindle Worlds, a commercial venue for fan fiction, as The Abnorm Chronicles.

[6] Sakey has been contracted to write the screenplay for the film adaptation, which will be produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Erica Huggins, and Shane Salerno.