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Fantasy. Fiction. Short Stories. HTML: An all-new Stormlight Archive novella, "Edgedancer," is the crown jewel of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection, the first audiobook of short fiction by #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. The collection will include nine works in all. The first eight are: "The Hope of Elantris" (Elantris) "The Eleventh Metal" (Mistborn) "The Emperor's Soul" (Elantris) "Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes 28 through 30" (Mistborn) "White Sand" (excerpt; Taldain) "Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell" (Threnody) "Sixth of Dusk" (First of the Sun) "Mistborn: Secret History" (Mistborn) These wonderful works, originally published on Tor.com and elsewhere individually, convey the expanse of the Cosmere and tell exciting tales of adventure Sanderson fans have come to expect, including the Hugo Award-winning novella, "The Emperor's Soul" and an excerpt from the graphic novel "White Sand." Arcanum Unbounded also contains the Stormlight Archive novella "Edgedancer," which appears in this audiobook for the first time anywhere. It is a story of Lift, taking place between Words of Radiance and the forthcoming Oathbringer. Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson The Cosmere The Stormlight Archive The Way of Kings Words of Radiance Edgedancer (Novella) Oathbringer The Mistborn trilogy Mistborn: The Final Empire The Well of Ascension The Hero of AgesMistborn: The Wax and Wayne series Alloy of Law Shadows of Self Bands of Mourning Collection Arcanum Unbounded Other Cosmere novels Elantris Warbreaker The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians The Scrivener's Bones The Knights of Crystallia The Shattered Lens The Dark Talent The Rithmatist seriesThe Rithmatist Other books by Brandon Sanderson The Reckoners Steelheart Firefight Calamity.… (more)
User reviews
I approached the collection with muted enthusiasm, as I am more invested in characters from his novels than characters from shorter stories and I
So I was surprised. The information about the different worlds was interesting, and I liked each story I read more than the one before. The two Mistborn stories I hadn’t read were amusing.
I really enjoyed the extract from the graphic novel White Sand - graphic novels are not my preferred medium but I want to read the rest of it now. “Sixth of the Dusk”, about a solitary trapper who lives on a dangerous island, was gripping. And Edgedancer, about a minor character from Stormlight Archive who I barely remember, was awesome.
(I didn’t reread the other three stories I’d read previously, but if the book hadn’t been due back at the library, I would have.)
This collection is probably not a great starting point to
However, if you’re already a fan of Sanderson’s work, you’re bound to enjoy Arcanum Unbounded! Even though I’d already read a number of the novellas included in the collection, it’s still nice to have print copies of them for ease of potential rereading. I also loved how it included introductions to each world contained in the series, written by the character Khriss.
The collection begins with the world of Sel, where the novel Elantris was set. This section contained the short story “The Hope of Elantris” and the novella The Emperor’s Soul. “The Hope of Elantris” is set within the same time span of the novel Elantris and follows a girl named Matisse as she tries to protect the children of Elantris during the invasion. It’s a sweet story (and one available for free on the author’s site), but it doesn’t pack much of a punch. I found it the weakest link in the collection.
On the other hand, I love The Emperor’s Soul. It’s probably one of my favorite things Sanderson has ever written. Since I’d already reviewed it separately, I skipped rereading this time around. But I know that one day I will want to come back to it.
The next world up is Scadrial, home of the Mistborn books. The story “The Eleventh Metal” gives some backstory to Kelsier, specifically his training right after he gained his Mistborn powers. It’s a fairly short story that was written for an RPG, to give unfamiliar players an introduction to the world. As such, it’s fairly simple.
There’s one other story about Kelsier in this collection – the novella, Mistborn: Secret History. It’s another one that I’ve read and reviewed separately, I won’t say a whole lot here. Except, this is one that’s full of spoilers for the Mistborn original trilogy, so new readers beware.
The last Scadrial story was also written for an RPG – “Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes 28 through 30.” In the Alloy of Law era books, the newspaper inserts contain fragments of a pulpy adventure serial about Allomancer Jak. This story is three of those serials, with snarky annotations from Jak’s Terrisman steward. The annotations were wonderful and probably made this the funniest story in the collection.
Roshar, the home of The Way of Kings, is the only other world with a full length novel to make an appearance in Arcanum Unbounded. The novella Edgedancer is exclusive to this collection and follows one of my favorite characters from the Stormlight Archive series – Lift! I was so excited when I heard Sanderson was writing a novella for her (and apparently she’s going to take a larger role in the novels to come!). She’s wonderfully witty, vibrant and all around spunky. In this novella, she leaves Azimir for the city of Yeddaw, where the mysterious Herald she knows as “Darkness” is now working. I enjoyed this novella so much, and if you love Lift as much as I do, you need to read it!
The world of Taldain is the setting of White Sand, which is currently being adapted into a graphic novel. Arcanum Unbounded contains an excerpt of the graphic novel and Sanderson’s original first few chapters, but I’ll admit that I skipped these. I don’t like excerpts. They just make me hungrier for the full story. Besides, I’d rather wait and read the full graphic novel in color instead of the grey scale excerpt in Arcanum Unbounded.
I also skipped Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, the only story as of yet set on the world of Threnody. I’d already read and reviewed this one, but I liked it a lot the first time around. It was originally written for George R. Martin’s Dangerous Women anthology, and it has a great female protagonist – Silence, a middle aged mother who’s very much the independent frontier woman.
Arcanum Unbounded contained one last story that was new to me. I’ve been meaning to read the novella Sixth of the Dusk forever but had somehow never gotten around to it. It’s set on the world of First of the Sun, which is being visited by spacefaring people from another world. There’s no word on who these aliens are, but I’m suspecting that it may be a future Scadrial. The story follows Sixth of the Dusk, a trapper on the dangerous island of Patji. The world is changing, and his traditional way of life is being threatened. This novella was simply lovely, and I hope Sanderson returns to this setting and characters.
To make a long review short, Arcanum Unbounded is a collection I would highly recommend to any fan of Sanderson’s work.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
The Selish System (Elantris)
The Emperor's Soul: 5 stars. Third favorite. The magic in this one was so, so lovely.
The Hope of Elantris: 3.5 stars. Sixth favorite. This one was really sweet, but also pretty corny and a little
The Scadrian System (Mistborn)
The Eleventh Metal: 3 stars. Ninth and least favorite. This was fine, but I didn't really care about it for some reason.
Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes Twenty-Eight through Thirty: 3.5 stars. Eighth favorite. This was funny in parts (mainly Handerwym's commentary), but that was about it.
Mistborn: Secret History: 5 stars. Second favorite. I need to do a Mistborn reread sometime and see what I pick up the second time around.
The Taldain System (White Sand)
White Sand: 3.5 stars. Seventh favorite. I'll be interested in actually reading the graphic novel, as the excerpt felt super short (and I'm not initially a fan of the art style). However, I really enjoyed the excerpt from the unpublished novel he wrote nearly twenty years ago.
The Threnodite System
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell: 4.5 stars. Fifth favorite. Threnody is thoroughly creepy, and the inspiration for the shades was so interesting.
The Drominad System
Sixth of the Dusk: 5 stars. Fourth favorite. I reaaaally want to see more from Drominad.
The Rosharan System (Stormlight)
Edgedancer: 5 stars. My favorite of this collection. I love Lift and Wyndle! The nahel bond is wonderful.
I started and finished this in the same day, constantly inching for the next page.
First, I’ll talk about the book’s structure. I thought it would just be organized like a regular short story collection, but it actually has more. There are in-universe write ups (written by Khriss, the same woman who writes the Ars Arcanum at the end of all Brandon’s other books) about each planetary system featured in the book and how the magic there works. I’ve read a lot of Cosmere theories and interviews by Brandon about the Cosmere, and there’s quite a bit of information in these that has not been covered anywhere yet. Also, there are gorgeous illustrations for each story, and postscripts by Brandon about how the story came to be.
There’s one new novella in this book that has never been published before – Edgedancer, which is set in the world of the Stormlight Archive and features Lift, who we’ve met in an interlude in Words of Radiance. The Stormlight Archive is probably my favorite series by Brandon, so I was particularly excited to read this story, and of course it did not disappoint. It offers great moments of character growth, and it seems like it will be important to understand how a particular character’s attitude changes between Words of Radiance and the upcoming third book. Plus, Lift is a great character and I’d love to keep reading about her. Also, we see a few new things about Roshar, I wasn’t expecting more worldbuilding and answers from such a short story. My only complaint is that now I really, really cannot wait a year for the next book.
There were two other stories that were new to me, although they have been published previously in the Mistborn RPG books – The Eleventh Metal and Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania. They were fun stories, I enjoyed The Eleventh Metal a bit more because it featured Kelsier, and who doesn’t love Kelsier? Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania was a nice homage to pulp adventure, though.
I did reread all the stories I’d read previously as well. I absolutely love The Emperor’s Soul, I think it’s a really great standalone novella, and the fact that it’s set in the same world as Elantris and that it ties into the Cosmere just makes it better. The Hope of Elantris is a very simple story, but it’s cute, and it’s nice to see some of the backstory of what secondary characters were up to during the climax of Elantris. Mistborn: Secret History is pretty cool, I think it’s one of the first ones to actually delve directly into what’s going on with the Cosmere a little bit. I don’t want to say too much about it because even the protagonist’s name is a spoiler.
I guess White Sand will be new to a lot of readers, but it’s one of Brandon’s unpublished books that you can email him to get a copy of, and I’ve done that. It’s being published as a graphic novel series now, and the book excerpts both the graphic novel and the beginning of the unpublished book. I was afraid that the excerpt wouldn’t be satisfying enough by itself, but I think it manages to tell a good and complete story.
I first read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell in George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois’ anthology Dangerous Women, and I love it. Threnody is a fascinating world, and the characters are different from the ones Brandon usually writes – darker and more serious. Sixth of the Dusk also has a very un-Brandon-like protagonist (someone who has trouble articulating himself), and the world is in a very interesting period as it evolves into the industrial age, prodded along by spacefaring humans. I think both of these stories are the most atmospheric in the book and I’d love to hear more from their world and characters in the future.
Overall, I’d highly recommend this collection. I think most of the stories would work for someone unfamiliar with Brandon Sanderson’s other work and the Cosmere just as well – the only ones I’d be iffy about are Mistborn: Secret History, which is set during the original Mistborn trilogy and probably doesn’t have much impact without reading it, and The Hope of Elantris, which is likewise set during Elantris.
(Sep. 2023)