The Well of Ascension

If you’ve enjoyed The Well of Ascension – and I certainly hope you have – you don’t have long to wait for the conclusion of Vin and Elend’s story. The Hero of Ages is set for publication in October. You can find a free sample of it on my Web site at www.brandonsanderson.com.

While you’re waiting, I think you might enjoy the work of a colleague of mine, someone I think is doing great things for fantasy and deserves more attention.

Daniel Abraham is one of the field’s brightest new talents. His series, The Long Price Quartet, is beautiful. It has everything I love about a good fantasy story: an intriguing magic system, deep and complex characters who deviate from fantasy cliches, and an unexpected plot. Daniel’s works are thoughtful, inquiring and – most important – just plain fun to read.

So it is my pleasure and privilege to present to you a chapter from An Autumn War, the third book of Daniel’s Long Price Quartet. Enjoy!

Brandon Sanderson

Daniel Abraham A chapter from An Autumn War

“Because they haven’t yet chosen to. That’s all. They might. Or they might turn against each other. They could make everything into wastelands just like those. Acton, Kirinton, Marsh. Every city, every town. It hasn’t happened yet because we’ve been lucky. But someday, one of them will grow ambitious or mad. And then all the rest of us are ants on a battlefield, trampled into the mud. That’s what I mean when I say this is needed. You and I are seeing that it never happens,” he said, and his words made his own blood hot. He was no longer uncertain or touched by shame. Balasar grinned wide and wolfish. If it was pride, then let him be proud. No man could do what he intended without it. “When I’ve finished, the god-ghosts of the Khaiem will be a story women tell their babes to scare them at night, and nothing more than that. That’s what Little Ott died for. Not for money or conquest or glory.

“I’m saving the world,” Balasar said. “So, now. Say you’d rather drown than help me.”