Winter 2021 (January);

Gosh. This is almost laughably subpar when compared with Sanderson's earlier works, but that's exactly what it's supposed to be. This is the first short story that wee baby!Brandon won a contest with when he was a teenager. It's disjointed and has a wince-worthy sharp edges, but you can already see glimmers of the writer he'll become: amazing vocab and really good decisions when to flip back and forth between the two timelines.

I really love that Sanderson puts these things up, as it helps aspiring writers see they aren't alone and it is a skill you can keep refining and growing. ( )

This is one of Brandon Sanderson's earliest writings, which made him win a writing competition in high school. It dates back to 1994 and can be read for free on his website; click here. It's a quick read, about 6 pages long, so if you don't have much time, but do want to read something, this is perfect.

The story's about a family that has been trying to harness energy from a supernova. It's costed a lot of money and taken several millennia to set up the project, hoping that by the time the star goes into supernova modus (at some point in the future), the technology would be available to harness that energy. But not all goes to plan, once the project is set up.

This little story is not fully developed, of course, and looks a bit disjointed, but it's promising and could be expanded into a full-blown novel. And why not? I'd read it. ( )

Even as an early work, it is still very good. Brandon Sanderson really knows how to end a short story. ( )