Brandon Sanderson has written more than 50 books in his career to date, but none quite like Tailored Realities. This is the second short fiction collection Sanderson has released after 2016's Arcanum Unbounded, but unlike that book, this one consists entirely of stories set outside the Cosmere, the shared universe where nearly all of Sanderson's adult fantasy books are set.
Releasing on December 9, Tailored Realities collects all Sanderson's non-Cosmere short fiction from across his long career in one volume for the first time — as well as a few never-before-published works including the brand new novella "Moment Zero."
As a result, this book serves as both a solid story collection for die-hard fans, and a sort of retrospective look back on Sanderson's writing journey as a whole. If you're the kind of exceedingly loyal Sanderson fan that listens to things like the Writing Excuses podcast or his BYU lectures, this book is very much for you. And if you're not that deeply immersed in Sanderson's fictional worlds, this can still be a good way to sample some of his work without committing to such colossal reading endeavors as The Stormlight Archive or Mistborn.
All that said, Tailored Realities is a bit of a mixed bag. Let's get into a few spoiler-free details.
Book review: Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson
Tailored Realities consists of 10 stories total: "Snapshot," "Perfect State," "Defending Elysium," "Firstborn," "Mitosis," "Moment Zero," and three others. Those last three aren't named in the back-of-book copy so I won't name them here, but there's one in particular that chronically online Sanderson fans will no doubt be familiar with that I was surprised to see make an appearance.
The stories named are easily the highlights of the book, however; the others are more of accents to the collection. (One, as Sanderson revealed to us earlier this year in an exclusive interview, is his first ever piece of flash fiction, clocking in at under 500 words.)
Most of the stories stand completely on their own, and can be enjoyed whether you're familiar with Sanderson's other works or not. Two of them have ties to other series — that would be "Defending Elysium," which is part of the Skyward series, and "Mitosis," which connects to The Reckoners. I haven't read Skyward or The Reckoners, and had no problem enjoying these stories. "Defending Elysium" in particular was solid and easy to get lost in, because it was written before Skyward and therefore is accessible regardless of your familiarity with the series as a whole.
But the stories that really shine in this book are the ones where Sanderson abandons any connections to his broader catalog, and just tells a compelling, complete tale. "Snapshot," a story about investigators who use advanced technology to recreate specific days where a crime occurred, is one of those Sanderson novellas I'd been meaning to read for years but never got around to, and it did not disappoint. "Perfect State" is a mind-bending reverse Matrix story that was nominated for the Hugo Award in 2016, and is suitably compelling and thought-provoking to warrant that accolade. "Firstborn" is a sci-fi epic in the vein of Ender's Game that was originally published on Tor.com (now Reactor), and is just as solid as any other tale the popular short fiction publisher puts out.
By far the biggest highlight of the book though is "Moment Zero," a brand new story Sanderson wrote after he'd finished his fifth Stormlight Archive novel that comprises roughly a quarter of Tailored Realities' page count. The only detail about "Moment Zero" that Sanderson revealed ahead of time is that this is a heroic cop story — but the way it all goes down is classic Sanderson. I enjoyed this new story immensely. Before "Moment Zero," I was leaning toward a three star rating for Tailored Realities; afterward it was firmly in four star territory for me.
Tailored Realities is a book for the Sanderson completionist
Since we brought up stars, it's time to talk opinions on this book overall. As a longtime Sanderson fan who has closely followed not just his work but his overall career as a writer, it was pretty much a given that I was going to enjoy Tailored Realities. And I did; this is a fun, unique book in Sanderson's catalog, and well worth the time if you enjoy his books.
But if I was putting Tailored Realities up against a normal short fiction collection from authors who specialize in short fiction, I don't know that it would stack up well. Sanderson has long said on Writing Excuses that long-form novels are much more his speed and that he struggles to write shorter pieces, and I think that definitely bears out here. There are a few pieces in this book which are closer to writing exercises than something an author of less fame than Sanderson would typically be able to publish. They're fun and interesting to see, but even more interesting for those pieces is the postscript where Sanderson explains the story behind the story. The result is a book where some stories are genuinely great, others are solid, and some are so out there that you would never really recommend them to someone outside of this anthology.
Fortunately, in the places where Tailored Realities is good, it's really good. Sanderson's penchant for clever twists and frenetic pacing is on full display in a few of these tales, and they're nigh impossible to put down. I was a little torn on how I was going to rate this book until I hit "Moment Zero," and then that story was so enjoyable that it elevated the entire collection. It has a lot going on — almost too much, at times — but the format of the story is something I've never seen before and Sanderson executed on it spectacularly.
One last thing I'll note about this book: it is much more science fiction-leaning than I expected. Sanderson is primarily known as one of the best selling fantasy authors of modern times, and a large part of that is because nearly all of his adult fantasy stories contribute in one way or another to the overarching saga of the Cosmere. But because fantasy stories written by Sanderson tend to end up in the Cosmere, a lot of the more experimental pieces of short fiction that ended up in Tailored Realities are science fiction. I found that refreshing. It made for a different flavor of book than Sanderson's usual release, and kept me guessing every time I hit a new story. It's a definite strength of this book.
Verdict
Tailored Realities is a book that any die-hard fan of Brandon Sanderson will want to add in their collection, if only so that they can finally have all these stories in print, many for the very first time. This book has some exceptional and unpredictable work from Sanderson, as well as some pieces which don't quite land as anything other than a curiosity. Fortunately, the centerpiece story, "Moment Zero," is good enough on its own that it's worth taking the leap on Tailored Realities — and there are many other highlights to be found in this book's pages besides. As a retrospective look back on the non-Cosmere side of Brandon Sanderson's career, Tailored Realities is a wonderful read.
Tailored Realities releases on December 9 from Tor Books, wherever books are sold.