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    Sixth of the Dusk
    Sixth of the Dusk
    Sixth of the Dusk
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Sixth of the Dusk

    By Brandon Sanderson

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A fascinating new novella in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, the universe shared by his Mistborn series and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive.

    Sixth of the Dusk, set in a never-before-seen world, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where birds grant people magical talents and predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a solitary trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him. When he begins to see his own corpse at every turn, does this spell danger for his entire culture?

    --------------------

    A note from the publisher: For a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this novella, including brainstorming and workshopping session transcripts, the first draft, line-by-line edits, and an essay by Brandon, please see Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDragonsteel, LLC
    Release dateOct 20, 2014
    ISBN9781938570070
    Sixth of the Dusk
    Author

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon Sanderson grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He lives in Utah with his wife and children and teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. His bestsellers have sold 32 million copies worldwide and include the Mistborn saga; the Stormlight Archive novels; and other novels, including The Rithmatist, Steelheart, and Skyward. He won a Hugo Award for The Emperor's Soul, a novella set in the world of his acclaimed first novel, Elantris. Additionally, he completed Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time®. Visit his website for behind-the-scenes information on all his books.

    Read more from Brandon Sanderson

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    Reviews for Sixth of the Dusk

    4.5/5

    161 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is Sanderson's most impressive work of short-form world-building so far. The main character, Dusk, is a trapper who specializes in catching/raising magical birds who grant powers. Catching these birds requires navigating islands where literally everything is out to kill you, from plants to beasts to insects.

      Dusk's kind are becoming a dying breed, however, as science advances and more and more people want to find out just how these magical birds work, where they come from, why the magic is confined to this specific archipelago, etc. This relationship is made even more complex by the recent arrival of an advanced alien race (The Ones Above) who appear benevolent, but are unwilling to trade their technology until the native people become more technologically advanced themselves. Their motives, however, may not be quite that simple.

      I don't even have the words for how good this is. Just read it.
    • 4/5
      What interesting worlds. This is why I like fantasy. You can do so much with writing fantasy - build whatever world you want. It doesn't have to make sense. It just is here. And this world is pretty cool. There is so much more that could be built on this, but I'm satisfied with it as it is for the time being. It would be cool to see this world come up again though.
    • 5/5
      Well written short story with a well done "moral of the story". Not much link with previous cosmere books.
    • 4/5
      Wish it would have gone more into depth about who the Ones on High are, but it was an interesting read for sure!
    • 5/5
      Lots of syfy, but a nice short read with a great moral.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely amazing. I love Sanderson's writing. A brief novella set on a totally new world in the Cosmere that asks many more questions than it answers. I hope he gets around to fleshing out this new world with a longer story some day.
    • 4/5
      As this is a pretty short novella, you can't really expect a lot of story development, compared to the epic stories of the other, much longer sanderson books. Considering the length, there is a surprising amount of worldbuilding and character development going on here.

      My biggest gripe with this book is that it is supposed to be set in the shared universe of Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive. First, before reading the description of this book, I didn't even know they were shared (and I am not quite sure how that's supposed to work, considering the global events that take place in both books. Different times on the same planet? Different planets?).

      I can see how it would somewhat fit into the Stormlight Archive world, but... Well, having both stories take place in the same universe just seems to make everything a bit more complicated than it would have to be, and I have not found any obvious links between this story and the others.

      Beside that gripe, the book has an interesting premise (as we have come to expect from Sanderson). The execution is good, but as I said before, there is only so much you can put into such a short book. All in all, this was one of the weaker Sandersons, but still an interesting read.

    Book preview

    Sixth of the Dusk - Brandon Sanderson

    Sixth of the Dusk by Brandon Sanderson

    SIXTH OF THE DUSK

    BRANDON SANDERSON

    For a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this novella, including brainstorming and workshopping session transcripts, the first draft, line-by-line edits, and an essay by Brandon, please see Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology.

    Dragonsteel EntertainmentIllustration by Kekai Kotaki

    SIXTH OF THE DUSK

    BRANDON SANDERSON

    Death hunted beneath the waves. Dusk saw it approach, an enormous blackness within the deep blue, a shadowed form as wide as six narrowboats tied together. Dusk’s hands tensed on his paddle, his heartbeat racing as he immediately sought out Kokerlii.

    Fortunately, the colorful bird sat in his customary place on the prow of the boat, idly biting at one clawed foot raised to his beak. Kokerlii lowered his foot and puffed out his feathers, as if completely unmindful of the danger beneath.

    Dusk held his breath. He always did, when unfortunate enough to run across one of these things in the open ocean. He did not know what they looked like beneath those waves. He hoped to never find out.

    The shadow drew closer, almost to the boat now. A school of slimfish passing nearby jumped into the air in a silvery wave, spooked by the shadow’s approach. The terrified fish showered back to the water with a sound like rain. The shadow did not deviate. The slimfish were too small a meal to interest it.

    A boat’s occupants, however . . .

    It passed directly underneath. Sak chirped quietly from Dusk’s shoulder; the second bird seemed to have some sense of the danger. Creatures like the shadow did not hunt by smell or sight, but by sensing the minds of prey. Dusk glanced at Kokerlii again, his only protection against a danger that could swallow his ship whole. He had never clipped Kokerlii’s wings, but at times like this he understood why many sailors preferred Aviar that could not fly away.

    The boat rocked softly; the jumping slimfish stilled. Waves lapped against the sides of the vessel. Had the shadow stopped? Hesitated? Did it sense them? Kokerlii’s protective aura had always been enough before, but . . .

    The shadow slowly vanished. It had turned to swim downward, Dusk realized. In moments, he could make out nothing through the waters. He hesitated, then forced himself to get out his new mask. It was a modern device he had acquired only two supply trips back: a glass faceplate with leather at the sides. He placed it on the water’s surface and leaned down, looking into the depths. They became as clear to him as an undisturbed lagoon.

    Nothing. Just that endless deep. Fool man, he thought, tucking away the mask and getting out his paddle. Didn’t you just think to yourself that you never wanted to see one of those?

    Still, as he started paddling again, he knew that he’d spend the rest of this trip feeling as if the shadow were down there, following him. That was the nature of the waters. You never knew what lurked below.

    He continued on his journey, paddling his outrigger canoe and reading the lapping of the waves to judge his position. Those waves were as good as a compass for him—once, they would have been good enough for any of the Eelakin, his people. These days, just the trappers learned the old arts. Admittedly, though, even he carried one of the newest compasses, wrapped up in his pack with a set of the new sea charts—maps given as gifts by the Ones Above during their visit earlier in the year. They were said to be more accurate than even the latest surveys, so he’d purchased a set just in case. You could not stop times from changing, his mother said, no more than you could stop the surf from rolling.

    It was not long, after the accounting of tides, before he caught sight of the first island. Sori was a small island in the Pantheon, and the most commonly visited. Her name meant child; Dusk vividly remembered training on her shores with his uncle.

    It had been long since he’d burned an offering to Sori, despite how well she had treated him during his youth. Perhaps a small offering would not be out of line. Patji would not grow jealous. One could not be jealous of Sori, the least of the islands. Just as every trapper was welcome on Sori, every other island in the Pantheon was said to be affectionate of her.

    Be that as it may, Sori did not contain much valuable game. Dusk continued rowing, moving down one leg of the archipelago his people knew as the Pantheon. From a distance, this archipelago was not so different from the homeisles of the Eelakin, now a three-week trip behind him.

    From a distance. Up close, they were very, very different. Over the next five hours, Dusk rowed past Sori, then her three cousins. He had never set foot on any of those three. In fact, he had not landed on many of the forty-some islands in the Pantheon. At the end of his apprenticeship, a trapper chose one island and worked there all his life. He had chosen Patji—an event some ten years past now. Seemed like far less.

    Dusk saw no other shadows beneath the waves, but he

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