Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson on December 9, 2025
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
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Source: NetGalley
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson-creator of the Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy-comes Tailored Realities, a new short fiction collection including the never-before-published novella Moment Zero.
Spanning the genres of fantasy and science fiction, this collection features stories from beyond the bounds of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe.Along with the never-before-seen novella "Moment Zero," Tailored Realities will include "Snapshot," "Perfect State," "Defending Elysium" (a novella set within the world of Skyward), and five other stories that were originally published individually elsewhere-never before collected into one volume, and many never before available in print.
The collection will also include a stunning black and white illustration for each story.
I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I requested Tailored Realities. There are two wolves inside of me: The one that hates short stories and the one that loves Brandon Sanderson and wants to read all of his work. The second wolf came out on top, so I requested the ARC. Was Tailored Realities enjoyable with Brandon’s signature world-building and magic systems? Yes. Did it make me like short stories? No.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed a lot of the short stories in Tailored Realities. Unfortunately, the inherent truth is that I personally hate getting invested in a story and its characters and then it coming to an end much sooner than it would in a book. As someone who lives for character development and tension, I feel like short stories just don’t have enough time to let things marinate or build, in my opinion, which naturally leads to less of an impactful read. Though I found these stories enjoyable (definitely some more than others) I had the problem that the moment I felt like things in the story were cooking, so to speak, it was over. I feel like much of the pacing has to go into setting up the characters, world, and magic systems quickly, and then it gets to the actual story events, resolves them in one fast-paced sequence after another, and then it’s on to the next work. Though this was less of an obvious issue for me in the longer works.
“I believe Nazeem’s experiment ripped a hole in reality and opened a portal to another dimension—a dimension where the rules of physics are different.”
Personally, I just find that frustrating, like one tease after another. Though for readers who don’t have a lot of time or prefer shorter reads (god knows Sanderson’s normal full-length novels are intimidatingly large), Tailored Realities could be a really great starting point to dip one’s toes into Sanderson’s work. Be forewarned, the lengths of each work in this collection greatly vary, which made it even more jarring for me, personally. When I started the next story, I wasn’t sure if I was sitting down for a couple of pages, or over 100. There were stories where I literally did a double take and said, “wait. It’s over?”
But if a work’s biggest downfall is that there simply isn’t more of it, then how can I really complain? And Tailored Realities has stories spanning Sanderson’s career. I could definitely see the experience and growth in his craft in his later works, as there was more description and even more showing versus telling. Something that Tailored Realities does that is really cool is that it provides an author’s note at the end of every work. Reading author’s notes is one of my favorite parts of reading any book, so this was something I really enjoyed and don’t think I’ve experienced in other collections. I love getting a glimpse inside of how an author’s mind works and where they get their inspiration or ideas and why they decided to take the story in the direction they did. So even when I wasn’t necessarily a big fan of the particular short story I had just read, knowing I got to read Brandon’s notes about it kept me excited.
Like all of Sanderson’s stories, they all take place in very original worlds with normal characters doing extraordinary things. I found that most of these works really leaned more science fiction than fantasy, which admittedly, disappointed me a bit as a reader with a fantasy preference. But for familiar fans, there are stories taking place in worlds we’ve visited in the past, with one story relating to the Skyward universe. and another to The Reckoners (the latter of which I haven’t read in years and feel like I might be due to reread after enjoying the short story, Mitosis, so much). Another work pays clear homage to Ender’s Game in Sanderson’s own interesting take on the drama. There’s also plenty for new readers to enjoy, as Sanderson explains his worlds deftly every time, meaning if you aren’t already familiar with the world or its magic system, you will be. Plus, there’s stories that are truly standalones too.
“In here they were the only ones with rights. In here, they were gods.”
One of the standouts for me was Snapshot, the very first short story in this work. I wish I could have read a full length novel of this book. Both the world building and its concept are so interesting and unique. Snapshot follows two police detectives who enter a recreation (the eponymous “snapshot”) of a day and are able to investigate crimes. However, the main characters end up stumbling across mass murders that the police department doesn’t seem to want them to solve. It was really interesting to read a mix of a crime/police procedural story mixed in with science fiction and Sanderson’s superb world building. The twist basically blind sided me and I can only imagine the impact this story would have had if the story and characters had even more time to build tension. (I think in the author’s note, Sanderson mentioned this work is being optioned for a movie or TV show and it’s very easy to see why.)
Several of these stories have twists, which admittedly, I have a love/hate relationship with in all forms of media (definitely wasn’t traumatized by the last season of Game of Thrones or anything). Though Sanderson does a good job of setting up these pivots in this collection, I felt a little betrayed by them. I would get attached to what I thought was the reality of the characters or a situation to only be jerked in another direction in what feels like a, “well, actually” moment. I think this feeling was exacerbated by the fact that most of the stories ended right after the twist was revealed. I was happily surprised when Sanderson commented on the nature of twists in one of his own author’s note, saying:
“Sometimes I worry that with twists, we writers need to be a little less preoccupied with whether or not we can do something, and a little more focused on whether that’s good for the story.” I couldn’t agree more. Readers can decide for themselves how they feel about the twists in this novel and whether they were done for pure shock value or not.
There is another police procedural story in Tailored Realities, called Moment Zero, which involves some good ole fashioned time travel, with one partner, Lisa, in the past and another, Dane, in the dystopian present. This was one of the longer works of Tailored Realities, and actually reminded me of one of my favorites of Sanderson’s other works, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter but with less of its charm and emotional payoff. Similarly to Yumi and Painter, Lisa and Dane are connected to each other despite different worlds. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of my investment when Lisa and Dane, View Spoiler »
I felt like the wind was completely taken out of my sails after the short story went in this direction. My investment in their relationship was pretty high. Sanderson did a great job hinting at their past history, with Dane being a father figure to Lisa’s daughter and beating the shit out of her actual father, and Lisa internally commenting on the messy socks strewn about at his apartment again. So readers found out about their connection piecemeal, making each next discovery more interesting. With Dane leaving the force to join SWAT, and Lisa clearly disheartened by his departure, I was curious how their last investigation together would work out. I wasn’t expecting time travel, quantum stuff, zombies, and two exes stumbling around trying to save the world. I was thrilled when it seemed a reconciliation was on the horizon for Lisa and Dane, View Spoiler »
“But deep down, there was something in all of them. Something about wanting to fix the world.”
Though Tailored Realities didn’t render me a fan of short stories (honestly, an insurmountable task), it was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had reading a collection of them. I really enjoyed the glimpse into Sanderson’s mind, especially when he was reflecting on what he was thinking about when writing his past work and how he would portray it differently if he was writing now. As someone who is interested in more than just the final draft, I wish all authors would give us this window into their world. The stories themselves are all pretty enthralling, and a must-read for fans of Sanderson who want to know every little bit of lore of returning worlds and to see the new ones Sanderson has managed to write on top of all of his Cosmere novels, which require less artistic freedom. It was fun to see him tackle stories that at first glance appeared to be police thrillers, only for the fantastical elements to get thrown in or enmeshed so deftly.
The different stories and genres—including but not limited to brain shopping, simulations, police investigations, starship battles, cytonic powers—show off all of the hallmarks of Sanderson’s works—his humor, his originality, and relatable characters who find themselves in realities unlike what. Those looking for reads that suck you in from the very first page and keep you guessing or returning fans of Sanderson will love Tailored Realities.
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