Tor, making good use of their new(ish) web site, has just published a new short story by Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn trilogy and the upcoming final volume of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Here’s what Brandon has to say about the story (via Brandon’s web site):
The big news is that Tor.com has published one of my short stories. As they have noted, this story–called “Firstborn”–was the first sf story I ever published. Though, ‘published’ is kind of a loose term here, as the story originally appeared in The Leading Edge, a BYU publication with a very limited print run. (This was after I’d graduated. The magazine asked me if I’d donate a story to one of their anneversary issues, and so I sent them this one, which I’d actually just finished writing.)
I’ve long been looking for a place where the story could reach a larger audience (when I was at BYU, The Leading Edge–despite having some very high quality fiction in it–had a distribution of under a hundred copies.) So I sent the story over to Tor.com, asking if they’d consider it even though it had appeared before in a small publication. Patrick enjoyed the story, and said he might be interested in it if we put it through some editorial work. Moshe, my editor, gave it a very strong edit (something it really, really needed.) A few months later, here it is! With an illustration by Donato, no less. I’m flattered.
I’m very pleased with how the story turned out. You who visit the blog frequently may have heard me say that I don’t think much of my short story writing skills. I think I’m best suited to long-form fantasy epics, but when I do turn my attention to short stories, they almost always come out as classic-style space operas. This story, and the one that appeared in Asimov’s earlier, are both good examples of this. (They also happen to be the only two good short stories I’ve written to date.)
I did an audio reading of “Firstborn” for Tor.com as well, though I don’t know when they’ll be posting that.
You can find the story HERE.
