Epic fantasy readers can now get a deep look at what Brandon Sanderson’s creative process was like before he became a published author!

Before fantasy author Brandon Sanderson debuted on book shelves with 2005’s Elantris, he wrote several novels. Some of them were practice; novels not meant to see the light of day. Some of them were rough drafts of the books that eventually became Elantris, Mistborn, and White Sand, and some of them are non-canonical tales that contain the seeds of what would eventually grow into Sanderson’s all-encompassing Cosmere.

Aether of Night is one of those early non-canonical novels, and it’s now available to read for free through Sanderson fan forum The 17th Shard.

All you have to do is sign up for an account on the forum and request a copy here:

Getting it will be simple. Simply head on over to the Aether of Night Manuscript Request topic, and post that you want it (for this, you will need to register a 17th Shard account, but that’s all you’ll need). Then, one of our staff members will PM you the document.

Sanderson fans may recognize elements in Aether of Night that eventually show up in Sanderson’s published works, and ponder over Cosmere-related elements that may or may not show up in future published works!

It’s also a great peek at how Sanderson’s styles of plotting and prose developed as he continued to work on launching the Cosmere. We can witness Sanderson’s growth as a writer going from Elantris to The Way of Kings to Oathbringer, for example, but this is a rare glimpse at a draft created before Sanderson became a published author, a developing state that many Sanderson readers find themselves within.

Happy reading!