Tailored Realities Review: Brandon Sanderson’s Hidden Gem You Need to Read

Fantasy and sci-fi writer Brandon Sanderson is beloved on this website and one of our favorite authors. His novels are must reads and when we found about his latest release, Tailored Realities, we knew we had to read it and review it. So, keep reading to find out what we thought of this book and if you should read it too!

Tailored Realities is a collection of short stories by Sanderson written over the past 25 years. Many of the short stories have been published somwhere before but there is a new sci-fi novella that hasnt been published before. I haven’t read any of Sanderson’s short stories before so all of them were new to me and I was happy with all the new works by Sanderson to read!

Tailored Realities Summary

The book contains a variety of short stories including works such as Snapshot, Mitosis, Defending Elysium, and Moment Zero. As you might realize, some of these short stories revisit other books and universes that Sanderson has written about.

The novel starts off with one of my favorite works in the whole book called Snapshap. It is about two detectives named Anthony and Chaz who travel back to the past via a virtual snapshot.

They are sent to gather clues for past crimes but uncover a mass murder that the department is hiding from them. Now, Anthony will try to catch the serial killer in the Snapshot and find out why the case was hidden from him in the first place.

Every short story in this book is great and I enjoyed revisiting old worlds. As someone who read Reckoners before I was a big Sanderson fan, it was fun revisiting that world. I will say, that short story might be the weakest out of all of them.

That is because the other stories are really good. I loved Firstborn was really good and a standout for me. It is also on Tor’s website and I might review it in the coming days because of how much I loved it.

Lastly, the short story that wasn’t previewed before was Moment Zero and it is the highlight of this book. Honestly, I am happy with the length of this novella because it doesn’t try to drag it on any longer than it needs to.

I love zombie/vampire/apocalypse novels and seeing Sanderson try his hand at is was exciting to see. The brilliance of this short story is the creative angle that Sanderson uses. And it shouldn’t work. But Sanderson is just that good of a writer that he pulls it off flawlessly.

This is an amazing novella and one I will definitely review on its own in the coming weeks. I won’t spoil the short story and I recommend reading it if you love great storytelling and writing. Novellas like this is what will always make me love zombie novels. Authors like Sanderson will have a new and creative angle that gives this subgenre a breath of fresh air.

Conclusion

After each short story, Sanderson shares an anecdote about it and how the short story came to be. That was one of my favorite parts of the book. Getting to hear the stories about how these stories came to be is like being told a secret that you didn’t think you would be told.

Even if you haven’t read a Sanderson novel before, I recommend reading Tailored Realities. Snapshot alone is worth reading this book in my opinion. You get to see Sanderson try his hand at other genres and you get to see just how talented of a writer he is. He proves that he would excel at other genres if he really put his mind to it. Until next time, happy reading!

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook