DB Books and Reviews

For the month of February, I decided to dive into two of Sanderson's shorter works of fiction: FIRSTBORN , a short story/"novelette" about the officer of a space fleet, and SNAPSHOT , a futuristic detective story where the main characters are the only "real" people in the whole world. For my thoughts on each of them, just click the images below:    

This isn't CSI... INTRODUCTION  Detective dramas are nothing overly special to anyone who's a fan of contemporary novels, television, or film. Shows like CSI have formularized this kind of story to an extent where it sometimes feels like the genre that's all about mystery has very few surprises left to share. Brandon Sanderson takes some of these expectations and tropes and plays with them in some interesting ways in his novella, SNAPSHOT . HOW I RATED IT  5/5  Part cop drama, part science fiction, and arguably part speculative fiction as well, this piece of short fiction makes the most out of it's bizarre concept and toys with some interesting ideas about life and how our choices affect it. CHARACTERS Detectives Davis and Chaz are the only real people in a simulated world where all of the people and events of a particular day play out just the way they would have in real life unless the detectives create "deviations" through actions that they take...

5/5  A little bit of STAR TREK , a little bit of ENDER'S GAME , and some GAME OF THRONES style politics thrown in for good measure makes for a short story that's entertaining, bright, and to the point. Technically this would be categorized as a "novelette" (a story that is about 15,000-20,000 words in length), but I've always had a hard time recognizing this category of fiction just because it really feels like a longer short story whereas a novella distinctively sits between a story and a full novel. For all intensive purposes, what you really need to know is that this is a very brief read which is great if you're like me and try to balance reading time against a very busy schedule. There's a fair bit of substance packed  into this smaller package which I've found to be a trademark of Sanderson's shorter works of fiction which keeps me coming back for more.  The story stars a young officer named Dennison who, in spite of how hard he stud...