Good news for fans of author Brandon Sanderson who have been waiting since mid-2024 to get their hands on his next Secret Project novel, Isles of the Emberdark: you'll be getting it even sooner than previously announced!
Isles of the Emberdark is the fifth Secret Project novel Sanderson is releasing, which was available as part of his Words of Radiance leatherbound crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit. That campaign wrapped up all the way back in March 2024, raising over $23 million against its $2 million goal from 102,089 backers. Emberdark has taken a while to get out for a number of reasons, not least of which is that Dragonsteel had to get the Words of Radiance leatherbounds printed and fulfilled first, but at last, we know when Isles of the Emberdark will ship out!
In a recent update to backers, the Dragonsteel team confirmed that premium hardcovers for Isles of the Emberdark will begin shipping to backers on July 1, 2025. The ebook of the novel will also begin distribution that same day.
"Last time we checked in, we let you know that we were just waiting for the Isles of the Emberdark covers to get approved and fully foiled before they moved to the binding stage. Guess what! They are approved, foiled, and are being bound as we speak," wrote the Dragonsteel team. "They’ll be shipped to us very soon and that means that we’re gearing to start shipping July 1. That’s way ahead of what we initially anticipated. We are SO excited to get these books into your hands (and e-readers… and headphones)."
The one catch is the audiobook version of Isles of the Emberdark, which still doesn't have a firm release date set. "The advanced timeline for receiving the books caught both us and Audible by surprise," the Dragonsteel team wrote. "That means that New Secret Project audiobook rewards may be slightly delayed. Audible has to create codes for each of their distribution regions, so this takes a little extra time. However, we will be distributing them—as well as your MP3 and M4B rewards—as soon as we receive the codes."
Will Isles of the Emberdark get an earlier wide release?
That's the good news for the people who backed Sanderson's Backerkit campaign last year, many of whom have been understandably antsy to get their hands on Isles of the Emberdark. But what about everyone else? Does this update mean Isles of the Emberdark will also be getting an earlier broad release for the general reading public?
In late April, Sanderson announced in a video update that Isles of the Emberdark is now available for preorder for non-backers, both as an ebook through all the usual retailers and as a premium hardcover edition via the Dragonsteel website. "We are going to ship [preorders] as soon as we finish shipping to backers," Sanderson said in the video. In the comments, a member of his team added that, "We'll have the preorders to you by the first of November at the latest, which will be after Backers receive their copies, but we're hoping to get them to you all sooner than later."
As of this writing, the release date is still listed as November 1 on the Dragonsteel website, as well as on Amazon where you can order the ebook. But the nice thing about Dragonsteel is that since they do a lot of this distribution themselves, they have more flexibility. Sanderson hasn't confirmed one way or another if preorders will ship out earlier than November 1 for those who didn't back the crowdfunding campaign, but it did sound like the goal was to get them out as soon as those Backerkit rewards had been fulfilled. I think it's fairly likely that Isles of the Emberdark preorders may start showing up on people's doorsteps earlier than November, even if the official release date remains the same.
Beyond all that, Tor Books is releasing their own hardcover version of Isles of the Emberdark, just like they did for all of Sanderson's other Secret Projects. That one is still slated to release on February 3, 2026. Since big publishers have a lot more moving parts to deal with, I wouldn't expect that date to change.
Update (June 17, 1:37 p.m.): Brandon Sanderson confirmed in a Weekly Update video that regular preorders for the hardcover editions of Isles of the Emberdark will begin shipping as soon as crowdfunding backer orders have all shipped out. He also confirmed the ebook will go on sale to the general public on July 10, ten days after it is sent to those who participated in the Backerkit campaign or preordered. The audiobook will follow a similar pattern, releasing for general sale 10 days after it is sent to those who preordered or backed the crowdfunding campaign.
What is Isles of the Emberdark about?
Isles of the Emberdark is an expanded version of Sanderson's 2014 novella Sixth of the Dusk. This version is much larger than the original, basically making it an entirely new book even if it's built on the same bones. In a TikTok video, Sanderson confirmed that this is a science fiction novel, rather than a traditional fantasy, which shouldn't be a huge surprise given that his fictional universe, the Cosmere, has grown into its space age.
"It mashes two things together," Sanderson said of the book. "Explorers from the future who are using science fiction tech to explore, and an explorer who's using traditional methods based off of Polynesian Wayfinding trying to explore the same area at a lower tech level, and kind of the crash between the old ways and the new ways, and what we can learn from the new ways, but what we can learn from the old ways."
Sanderson added that the book has two main characters. "One of them from this kind of older in technology-level culture, who has just recently discovered that there's an entire galaxy of people out there, and this galaxy full of people may want things from them that they don't want to give...mashed up with someone who is trying to lead her own starship for the first time, and all the foibles that come with being a new captain and being thrust into something she isn't expecting. And it is their two worlds colliding."
At this point there are over 20 books in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere. That's a lot to catch up on, and while Sanderson does say he designed this book to be accessible whether you've read any of the Cosmere or not, "there's a lot more fun Cosmere connections in this than you get in most of my books."
For long-time Cosmere readers, that last bit is music to the ears. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does in this book, and sooner rather than later! For more about the Cosmere's space age, make sure to check out our exclusive interview with Sanderson, where he discussed what's in store for his long-running fictional universe:
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