How did I end up with a rare ARC of Elantris, Brandon Sanderson’s first book in the Cosmere universe? 

Sanderson is a juggernaut in science fiction and fantasy. His work is so popular that when he announced four secret book projects in February 2022, he raised over $41 million from over 185,000 people.

I’ve done crowdfunding for work (never at that scale, jees) and that kind of audience response is no joke!

So why do I have this book? It’s a long story. 

How I got a rare ARC of Elantris in 2005 

If you know my background, you may know that at point I thought I’d be a science fiction and fantasy academic. I loved reading and academia, and SFF was my favourite genre.

Slam dunk, right? (Well, except for the part where I needed a job and money. But I digress.)

While pivoting into a career in marketing, I went to a few conferences with the Science Fiction Research Association and gave papers (circa 2003-05), including the original paper that became my TedxTalk on why we need new stories about female superheroes. That paper later led to my work on The Xenthian Cycle when I realized I wanted to address the problems I’d identified through my own writing.  

Las Vegas’ Tropicana Hotel hosted the 2005 meeting. The late and great Ursula LeGuin was the guest of honour (she’s the reason I went). 

It was also the year that Elantris, Brandon Sanderson’s first novel, was published.

Ahead of publication day, publishers and indies give away advance reader copies (known as ARCs) to hype the reading audience. People from TOR Books, Sanderson’s publisher, were also at this conference. I vaguely remember finding a pile of ARCs in the middle of a table for the academics to pick up (and, presumably, read and write papers about). 

Perhaps because it was bright yellow, I randomly picked up this copy of Elantris. On the inside, someone has written the number 13 in pencil, so there must be at least 12 of these books in existence (maybe more).

I did a little research via the Sanderson Collectors Guild, the discord server for Sanderson’s fans who collect his work. One of the moderators reached out and kindly told me ARCS of this book with cover art run in the $1000+ range.

The yellow version has, to his knowledge, never come up for auction. The only copy he knew of with certainty is on a shelf in Sanderson’s office, though I did see a Reddit post where someone talked about finding a copy at a yard sale.

There’s a weird little white mark on the cover, but otherwise my copy is in pristine condition.

And I’ve never read it. 

You never read your rare ARC of Elantris?!? 

Nope. It may seem hard to believe, but for a long time, I low-key forgot I had this copy of Elantris.

It moved from my room in my parents’ house to our first apartment to our first house and to our current home in Toronto. 

When I get an ARC I’m not looking for, it doesn’t hold the same priority as books I’ve actively requested. 

For example, that happened with Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory. I got a copy at ComicCon 2022 when I bought a copy of Tochi Onyebuchi’s Riot Baby from the TOR Books table. The sales clerk was like, “oh, take one of theses,” and handed Tesh’s book to me. It went on to win the Hugo, which is awesome.  

(Have I read either of those books yet? No, I have not. This is a peril of being a book dragon.)

I want to be clear that I have read other Brandon Sanderson books.

I’ve read and enjoyed the two Mistborn trilogies. The Way of Kings is on my TBR (along with, like, 700+ other books). I prefer to read Sanderson’s work in audio format, largely because I adore Michael Kramer and Kate Reading as narrators. They did the original Wheel of Time audiobooks, which is how I fell in love with their voices. 

I’m currently reading Skyward, which I started with one of my kids and kept reading when they ditched out (they have outgrown our ‘read together’ sessions).

I intend to read Elantris one day. And when I do, I won’t be reading this ARC because doing so would ruin it (the type inside is very close to the margin). 

I’ll definitely go audiobook when the time comes.

Will Chaos Calling‘s ARC ever be that popular?

Ha!

The odds are extremely long and I have no illusions about that, but it’s fun to dream that someday that they could be. After all, dreaming is why writers do what we do.

I’m happy for all the fans and readers who are attending Dragonsteel Nexus this weekend. There’s something so joyful about being in person with people who love the things that you love. And my husband is among the readers looking forward to cracking Wind and Truth open this holiday season.

Some day, I’ll get around to reading it and the rest of The Stormlight Archive, too.

For now, I’ll keep working on getting Book II of The Xenthian Cycle out for next year.