Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
    Ebook80 pages1 hour

    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

    By Brandon Sanderson

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Originally appearing in the Dangerous Women anthology and now available as a solo ebook, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is a chilling novella of the Cosmere, the universe shared by Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive.

    When the familiar and seemingly safe turns lethal, therein danger lies. Amid a forest where the shades of the dead linger all around, every homesteader knows to follow the Simple Rules: "Don't kindle flame, don't shed the blood of another, don't run at night. These things draw shades." Silence Montane has broken all three rules on more than one occasion. And to protect her family from a murderous gang with high bounties on their heads, Silence will break every rule again, at the risk of becoming a shade herself.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDragonsteel, LLC
    Release dateMar 4, 2015
    ISBN9781938570087
    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
    Author

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon Sanderson is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling fantasy author, who writes for both adults and younger readers. Amongst others, he's known for his Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series, the latter including The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance. He's also completed the final books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, based on Jordan's notes and material. Sanderson teaches writing at Brigham Young University and lives in Utah.

    Read more from Brandon Sanderson

    Related to Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      10 Literary Diss Tracks

      Apr 9, 2018

      10 Literary Diss Tracks
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Library of Gromma

      Jul 10, 2023

      Zac was sweating and panting as he reached the top of the hill. The crooked beams of the library loomed over him. He dropped the buckets of water, swore at the few drops that spilled, and escaped the piercing morning sun in the shade of the library.

      22 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Dan Sinykin

      Dec 11, 2023

      I’ve been squatting in the firebombed (was it?) city of Bellona with Samuel Delany in spare pockets of time for what feels like years. (It’s been weeks.) The post A Year in Reading: Dan Sinykin appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      CREATING Corpse

      Oct 9, 2022

      There are a few must-have ingredients for a spooky story. You need villains that will make the reader’s skin crawl – think people who can shed their skin like a snake, or monsters with teeth where eyeballs should be. Next, you need cliffhangers! Chap

      2 min read

    • Article

      Murder Most Fowl

      Mar 12, 2023

      Murder Most Fowl
      2 min read

    • Article

      Drawn to THE MOORS

      Feb 8, 2022

      Drawn to THE MOORS
      11 min read

    • Article

      Four Things You Hear

      Jan 1, 2023

      THE HOLLOW OF the oak tree wasn’t dark enough. Zoia squeezed her head between her knees, letting her wool dress mute the sunlight, the sounds of the forest, and the angry knife of grief that found her heart every time she thought about last night. Zo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Restless Souls

      Mar 6, 2018

      Restless Souls
      8 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jul 1, 2018

      Without the adventof Stockholm Syndrome,how could I havelearned to love myself so much? I’m asking Godand New York, can anyonehelp me? (An all-but-audible “or else.”) The captain’s chair:it’s beginning to smella little too much like me. Again.But the

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Dogs Say No

      Feb 8, 2023

      HERE I am standing in our home field getting soaked yet again. I am wearing pyjamas, wellies and the first hat I grabbed as I came out, my Great-Uncle Martin’s giant pith helmet, a sort of wearable umbrella, if a shameful reminder of my family’s colo

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Library Of Gromma

      Feb 10, 2021

      Zac was sweating and panting as he reached the top of the hill. The crooked beams of the library loomed over him. He dropped the buckets of water, swore at the few drops that spilt, and escaped the piercing morning sun in the shade of the library. He

      22 min read

    • Article

      Going Gothic How To Tell The Goth-iest Story Ever

      Oct 1, 2021

      WHAT DO DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, AND YOUR SISTER’S LACE-UP COMBAT BOOTS ALL HAVE IN COMMON? If your answer was “they’re super cool,” you’d be right! But if your answer was “they’re all part of the gothic’tradition,” you’d be even righter. Being gothic

      3 min read

    • Article

      Sam Delaney Is At Home

      Oct 24, 2022

      I received an unsolicited package in the mail. It was a padded envelope, pretty crumpled, my name and address scrawled in Sharpie. Maybe I’ve watched too many police procedurals, but I immediately analysed the handwriting as being that of a psychopat

      2 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Guide

      Jan 2, 2022

      Summer Reading Guide
      6 min read

    • Article

      Nothing to Declare

      Jun 15, 2019

      All the senior partners were having a laugh about a movie they’d seen. Forty-Five Years. Something, something about the movie taking forty-five years to sit through. The woman McGuinness thought he recognized was in it with them at the far end of the

      24 min read

    • Article

      Favourite Things

      Nov 4, 2021

      Juno Dawson has many strings to her bow as a bestselling novelist, screenwriter, journalist and activist. Having already penned Clean and Meat Market — which won the 2020 YA Book Prize — she has just published her Christmas rom-com, Stay Another Day.

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

    4/5

    164 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Another good short story of Sanderson. I don't usually read short fiction because I always want more than the short story has allowance for. In this case, at least I know that sometime in the future, Sanderson might turn his writing to something along these lines again. He's got so many ideas and plans for books already, and all these short stories fit into his Cosmere one way or another so it is highly likely they will turn up somewhere else in his writing as well. Anyways, this was a good story about a strong woman and mother.
    • 4/5
      There are few times that I am willing to purchase and read novellas, but of course Sanderson is the exception! Shadows for Silence is a great novella that just made me want a full book in the world because it was so interesting. Silence is definitely a dangerous woman and the shades of the Forests of Hell were freaking creepy. I must know more!
    • 4/5
      Ever realize you've been missing out on something? I just did. I have read zero books by Sanderson, and his Wheel of Time takeover discouraged me from trying any. (Not a Jordan fan.) However, this is a great story. An innkeeper in a dangerous, shade-haunted forest is secretly a notorious bounty hunter. No one knows the lengths she goes to to keep herself and her children alive in a hostile world.
    • 5/5
      Silence - I am loving this character! Oooooh! How I wish the author would expand on this world in the cosmere.
    • 4/5
      Another awesome Sanders short story/novella. It always boggles my mind how much he manages to pack in so few pages. Also how he is able to crate unique worlds that still make sense and interconnect.
    • 4/5
      I loved Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. Dark, gritty, and grim, the tone of the story is not my typical fare. And, to be honest, I feel a little guilty admitting how much I enjoyed it--after all, Brandon Sanderson is one of the biggest names in fantasy, and expressing admiration for his work is like admitting that one likes to drink water.

      But trust me: Shadows is one of his best, yet. As an added bonus, it's one of Sanderson's few works that weighs in at less than the weight of a small child (okay, so it's an ebook, which means it's electronic and so the weight is negligible...but you get my point: it's only novella in length). As with all of his stories, Sanderson lays out rules for a system of magic, or supernatural power, and then proceeds to put his characters into a conflict wherein each of the rules will be necessary to the outcome. Because Shadows is shorter than is typical for Sanderson--except for his juvenile fiction--the language tight, the setting more narrow, the plot quick to unfold.

      The world of Silence Montane is peopled by what seems reminiscent of 16th century Protestants, from the names to the kinds of weapons that the characters rely upon. Silence is an innkeeper with a secret, alone in the world, but somehow managing to stay independent in a dangerous world. When a dangerous criminal passes through her inn, an opportunity, and a threat, emerges. But any who cross Silence underestimate her at their peril.

      Sanderson is adept at setting up and introducing elements that will emerge later as a twist at the story's end, and Shadows is no exception. More, the story is replete with twists as Sanderson takes his characters through one conflict after another, piling them up, before finally resolving each with satisfying and redemptive completeness.

      Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is only available as an ebook. I recommend it for a quick and satisfying read to any of Sanderson's fans, as well as to anyone looking to experience Sanderson for the first time.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Test test test teste fly fgh gym the ghh
    • 4/5
      A grimdark Cosmere world? Would love to see this planet get revisited again.
    • 4/5
      Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is a fifty page novella that originally appeared as part of the Dangerous Women anthology but has now been released separately.To most travelers, Silence Montane appears nothing more than a simple innkeeper, but she keeps ownership of her inn and maintains her family’s independence by doing bounty hunting on the side. When debts come calling, Silence must go after a notorious killer and his gang to keep everything she holds dear.As always, Brandon Sanderson has intriguing world building. Silence and the others live in the forests of the dead. They must follow simple rules to avoid rousing the spirits’ wrath: don’t run after nightfall, don’t kindle a flame, and most importantly, don’t shed another’s blood. We see only a glimpse of the world in Shadows for Silence, but I would be happy to return to it.I think the best thing about this short is the protagonist. Silence was very much drawn from the mold of the independent, frontier woman. She’s single mother focused on building a life for herself and her daughter. She’s trying to give her daughter the childhood that she didn’t have, but she worries that as a result her daughter won’t have the survival skills she needs.While Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell isn’t my favorite Brandon Sanderson novella (try The Emperor’s Soul), it is a solid story with a well drawn female protagonist.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

    Book preview

    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell - Brandon Sanderson

    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon SandersonShadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

    a Cosmere novella

    BRANDON SANDERSON

    Dragonsteel Entertainment

    PREFACE

    When George R. R. Martin approached me to ask if I’d be willing to contribute a story to Dangerous Women, I was ecstatic. George is known best for his Westeros books, but he is also an excellent editor, having put together many anthologies. His recent themed anthologies with Gardner Dozois have become something of a Who’s Who in the fantasy and science fiction world. It was a real honor to be invited.

    After he told me the theme was dangerous women, I at first thought of Perfect State, another novella of mine. I had a very rough draft of that done, but hadn’t yet submitted it anywhere for publication. I sent that to George and Gardner, and they felt it wasn’t on theme enough, and asked if I had anything else.

    I didn’t, not yet, but something had happened recently that had planted a seed in my mind. I had been involved in some genealogy work, and had run across the name of a Puritan woman named Silence.

    That intrigued me. Who would name their daughter Silence, and for what reason? Charity I can get. Faith totally makes sense. But Silence? Perhaps she was late in the birth order, and her parents were really hoping to sleep through the nights this time.

    Either way, the name stuck with me.

    I’d had the idea for Threnody, the Cosmere world where a group of pilgrimesque people fled the Old World because it was overrun by a terrible evil long ago. It was actually a very early Cosmere world, developed somewhere around 1999 or 2000. (Though the name didn’t get assigned to it until Isaac gave a suggestion upon reading this novella.) Having an intriguing Puritan name and a world that took inspiration from early American history seemed a ready-made match, but then I had to ask myself, how was Silence going to be dangerous?

    I was worried that the anthology was going to be stuffed full of women either in the femme fatal vein or the I wear black leather and kick demon butt vein. I’ve often felt that we, in fantasy, sometimes do a poor job of representing people (both male and female) who are powerful and capable in ways other than their ability to stand in a fight. Yes, giving a woman a sword is one way to make her dangerous, but I resist making every powerful woman into one who has become so by forcing her way into a traditionally male-dominated realm of face-to-face combat.

    The world was mostly formed in my head, though over the years I’d added the idea of the shades for various reasons. One was to show off a few hints regarding the Cosmere afterlife, and another came during my initial research for the Stormlight Archive, where I read a lot about classical Hebrew life and philosophy. The original idea for Threnody was to make a system of magical rules with their roots in the Law of Moses and Jewish tradition. (Not mixing meat with milk, not kindling flames after nightfall on the Sabbath, etc.) Many of those rules transformed over the years, leaving their roots behind in the same way that the Stormlight magic system left behind its roots in the fundamental forces of physics. But you can see those hints still having an influence on the tone and setting of this story.

    The intersection of these ideas developed into this story, one that soon became one of my favorite Cosmere tales. I hope you enjoy it! (And no, for those searching, Hoid does not make an appearance. Unfortunately, he needed to be somewhere else in the timeline at this point.)

    Brandon Sanderson

    Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

    "The one you have to watch for is the White Fox, Daggon said, sipping his beer. They say he shook hands with the Evil itself, that he visited the Fallen World and came back with strange powers. He can kindle fire on even the deepest of nights, and no shade will dare come for his soul. Yes, the White Fox. Meanest bastard in these parts for sure. Pray he doesn’t set his eyes on you, friend. If he does, you’re dead."

    Daggon’s drinking companion had a neck like a slender wine bottle and a head like a potato stuck sideways on the top. He squeaked as he spoke, a Lastport accent, voice echoing in the eaves of the waystop’s common room. Why . . . why would he set his eyes on me?

    That depends, friend, Daggon said, looking about as a few overdressed merchants sauntered in. They wore black coats, ruffled lace poking out the front, and the tall-topped, wide-brimmed hats of fortfolk. They wouldn’t last two weeks out here in the Forests.

    It depends? Daggon’s dining companion prompted. It depends on what?

    On a lot of things, friend. The White Fox is a bounty hunter, you know. What crimes have you committed? What have you done?

    Nothing. That squeak was like a rusty wheel.

    Nothing? Men don’t come out into the Forests to do ‘nothing,’ friend.

    His companion glanced from side to side. He’d given his name as Earnest. But then, Daggon had given his name as Amity. Names didn’t mean a whole lot in the Forests. Or maybe they meant everything. The right

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1