Opening Arcanum Unbounded, the first collection of short fiction from Brandon Sanderson, I was struck by something rather quickly. No, not that “short” is a very relative term with regard to the size of Brandon’s non-novel fiction. No. Rather, it has been nearly three years since I read something by Mr. Sanderson, which is a relatively long stretch for me personally since I had been reading about one or two books a year he wrote between 2008 and 2014. Considering his prodigious output, that seems even more of an oversight. What reading Arcanum Unbounded did was to make me regret such a long absence from reading his fiction. So what is between the pages of this tome? Here’s the publisher blurb, followed by what I thought.
An all-new 120-page Stormlight Archive novella, “Edgedancer,” will be the crown jewel of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection, the first book 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 will also contain the 120-page Stormlight Archive novella “Edgedancer,” which will appear in this book for the first time anywhere. It is a story of Lift, taking place between Words of Radiance and the forthcoming Oathbringer. Finally, this collection includes essays and illustrations for the various planetary systems in which the stories are set.
For those who don’t know, a vast majority of Sanderson’s adult fiction is part of a multiverse he’s named The Cosmere, and all of the stories here take place in one of those universes. The collection opens with two tales set in Sel, the world of Brandon’s debut novel, Elantris – “The Hope of Elantris” and “The Emperor’s Soul.” “Hope” provides a peek into events surrounding the conclusion of the novel while “The Emperor’s Soul,” one of the longer tales in the volume, showcases a kingdom far away from the events of Elantris. It is a powerful tale that has some heist-like elements that are also present in the original Mistborn trilogy. “The Emperor’s Soul” tells the tale of Shai, a thieving practitioner of magic known as Forger. Cleverly, two of Forging’s meanings work in this story “making or shaping” as well as “producing a copy or imitation of for the purpose of deception.” When caught trying to use her skills to “procure” a prominent royal painting, she is first jailed then enlisted to “Forge” the emperor, who was wounded in a near-fatal attack. This is a brilliant piece of fiction, one of Sanderson’s strongest, which is why it received the Best Novella Hugo Award when it was published in 2013. I’ve had a signed copy of the novella published by Subterranean Press for a couple of years, but this was the first time I read the story. Great character development and fun plotting make this a worthy award-winner.
From the world of Elantris, the collection moves to Scadrial, the world in which the various Mistborn novels take place. This is the series that put him on the map and helped get him to finish Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. The first of these stories in the collection is “The Eleventh Metal,” a fun prequel about Kelsier, who led the crew against the Lord Ruler in the first Mistborn novel, The Final Empire. The second Mistborn entry is a pulpy metafictional story, “Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes 28 through 30.” The tale tells of the exploits of an Indiana Jones like character who might himself be fictional in Scadrial. Third, and lastly of the Mistborn stories, is the longest in the volume – “Mistborn: Secret History.” This was the story I enjoyed the most as it might be considered the Readers Digest or condensed version of the original Mistborn trilogy as seen through Kelsier’s eyes. Kelsier was a fascinating character so it was great to become reacquainted with him. It was particularly fun to see the events of the second and third novels (The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages) through his eyes.
Next up was something very atypical, but interesting because of it. “White Sand” takes place on the world of Taldain and the first of two entries in this collection is an excerpt of the first volume of the White Sand graphic novel. The art is by Julius Gopez, but the images are just the rough black and white uncolored images. I was inclined to read this graphic novel prior to reading this excerpt, I’m even more inclined at this point. Following the graphic excerpts is the prose short story which formed the basis of the “White Sand” story/world. This provided a nice “behind the scenes” look.
The majority of Sanderson’s output has squarely fallen into Epic Fantasy but “Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” is the closest he comes to horror, or at least dark fantasy. Thus far, this story is the only fiction Sanderson has published in the world of Threnody which, perhaps, gives him a bit more freedom to play with character, world, and story. To fight off enemies known as “the Evil” the people of this world arm themselves with silver. This was a darker and more moody story than readers have come to expect from Sanderson and it stands out a bit because of that.
“Sixth of Dusk” is the other story that appears from a yet unexplored world, First of the Sun. The setting is an archipelago where the titular trappers’ duty is to breed birds called Aviar which grant their owners magical powers. In addition to magic systems, Sanderson seems to delight in creating creatures and there are some terrifying creatures in this story. Each island of the archipelago has its own cadre of creatures and the one upon which Dusk settles may be the most terrifying. Although a pretty solid story, in every collection there’s one story that doesn’t connect with the reader as strongly as the other stories, and this is the story in Arcanum Unbounded that fills that role.
Closing out the tome is “Edgedancer,” a story which takes place in Roshar, the setting of The Stormlight Archives. The story follows the events of Words of Radiance and features the character of Lift. This is a fun, almost wistful tale that follows Lift through a library and as she eats a bounty of pancakes. This is a nice little story that shows both how Lift comes to her own identity and highlights some unvisited portions of Roshar.
It is always worth pointing out that not only are Brandon Sanderson novels excellent reads, the books themselves are beautiful. Frequent collaborator Isaac Stewart provided several interior illustrations for the book as did Ben McSweeney and the cover is a wonderful iconic image from David Palumbo.
In summary, this is a strong, single-author collection that showcases Brandon Sanderson’s imagination and storytelling powers extremely well. While this collection might work as a “sampler” for those readers uninitiated with the many fictional worlds Sanderson has created, Arcanum Unbounded will likely work best for readers who already have enmeshed themselves in The Cosmere. Each story is followed by a post-script from Sanderson providing some background on how each story came to be, which is a nice peek behind the curtain. About the only thing missing from this book was a list indicating exactly where each story first appeared. Had I read this in 2016, it easily would have made my best of the year list. In summation, this was an excellent collection that has me eager to dive into the unread Brandon Sanderson novels sitting on my personal Mount Toberead.
Highly Recommended.
© 2017 Rob H. Bedford
Post script: While I received a review copy of the book in November 2016, my wife gifted me a signed copy she purchased through Shawn Speakman’s Signed Page.
November 2016 | Tor Books
Hardcover | 672 Pages
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Tor
Images courtesy of Brandon Sanderson’s Web site
