Firstborn / Defending Elysium

by Brandon Sanderson

Included in the Humble Book Bundle: Brandon Sanderson bundle.

Firstborn

“I, Dennison Crestmar—brother of the great Varion Crestmar, cousin to kings and commander of fleets—am an idiot. Just like all of you have heard.”

Dennison has tried to follow in his perfect brother’s footsteps in the service of the Imperial Fleet, but has been met only with failure after failure. Why do his father and even the emperor himself still have so much faith in in his potential?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Ebooks, Novella, Science Fiction Fantasy

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2013

About the author

I’m Brandon Sanderson, and I write stories of the fantastic: fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers.

The release of Wind and Truth in December 2024—the fifth and final book in the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive series—marks a significant milestone for me. This series is my love letter to the epic fantasy genre, and it’s the type of story I always dreamed epic fantasy could be. Now is a great time to get into the Stormlight Archive since the first arc, which begins with Way of Kings, is complete.

During our crowdfunding campaign for the leatherbound edition of Words of Radiance, I announced a fifth Secret Project called Isles of the Emberdark, which came out in the summer of 2025. Coming December 2025 is Tailored Realities, my non-Cosmere short story collection featuring the new novella Moment Zero.

Defiant, the fourth and final volume of the series that started with Skyward in 2018, came out in November 2023, capping an already book-filled year that saw the releases of all four Secret Projects: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man. These four books were all initially offered to backers of the #1 Kickstarter campaign of all time.

November 2022 saw the release of The Lost Metal, the seventh volume in the Mistborn saga, and the final volume of the Mistborn Era Two featuring Wax & Wayne. Now that the first arc of the Stormlight Archive is wrapped up, I’ve started writing the third era of Mistborn in 2025.

Most readers have noticed that my adult fantasy novels are in a connected universe called the Cosmere. This includes The Stormlight Archive, both Mistborn series, Elantris, Warbreaker, four of the five Secret Projects, and various novellas, including The Emperor’s Soul, which won a Hugo Award in 2013. In November 2016 all of the existing Cosmere short fiction was released in one volume called Arcanum Unbounded. If you’ve read all of my adult fantasy novels and want to see some behind-the-scenes information, that collection is a must-read.

I also have three YA series: The Rithmatist (currently at one book), The Reckoners (a trilogy beginning with Steelheart), and Skyward. For young readers I also have my humorous series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, which had its final book, Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, released in 2022. Many of my adult readers enjoy all of those books as well, and many of my YA readers enjoy my adult books, usually starting with Mistborn.

Additionally, I have a few other novellas that are more on the thriller/sci-fi side. These include the three stories in Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, as well as Perfect State and Snapshot. These two novellas are also featured in 2025’s Tailored Realities. There’s a lot of material to go around!

Good starting places are Mistborn (a.k.a. The Final Empire), Skyward, Steelheart, The Emperor’s Soul, Tress of the Emerald Sea, and Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. If you’re already a fan of big fat fantasies, you can jump right into The Way of Kings.

I was also honored to be able to complete the final three volumes of The Wheel of Time, beginning with The Gathering Storm, using Robert Jordan’s notes.

Sample chapters from all of my books are available at brandonsanderson.com—and check out the rest of my site for chapter-by-chapter annotations, deleted scenes, and more.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew both of these could be read online, but I had no idea Mr. Sanderson was selling physical copies. I was ecstatic! I immediately dove into Firstborn, and loved it. Then put my book lovingly on the bookshelf for a later date, planning to savor this second story.

First, let me compliment the cover and book design. The stories are back-to-back, literally, rather than consecutive. You read one, flip the book over, and read the other. I love unconventional designs.

This review is for Defending Elysium.

Technology is limited...Only the mind is infinite.

The gist: The Phone Company has made contact with aliens who aren’t technologically advanced, or hostile. FTS travel is being withheld from mankind in hopes they’ll shake off their barbaric ways. There’s a murder to be solved, a scientist to recover, and...a coffee maker. As expected, there are also a few twists.

If only this story were longer, because I didn’t get enough.

Cytonics = Amazing Mindpowers. Traveling, fighting, communicating - all done with the mind. It’s very cool, but how did Sanderson pull it off so smoothly and in such limited space?

With the Sense, a person can see the world around them, but with better accuracy than actual vision. For Jason, who’s technically blind, it’s a series of vibrations that differentiate people and objects through color and intensity. He can see things others can’t, but he can’t see things others can. I know it sounds complicated, but Sanderson was able to pull it off without confusing the reader.

Mind blades. What? Want to rip a hole in the wall? Just send out some mind blades. Want to stop, kill, disable an attacker? Send out some mind blades. It’s that simple. This is one of the reasons the story should be longer. There are only so many scenarios where these would be exciting, but I wanted to dig deeper into these abilities, especially when they could end up in the wrong hands, and maybe have. How do you stop someone from using these on innocents who don’t know they exist and can’t see them?

I haven’t even touched on communication and travel. They present their own twists and backgrounds to explore.

Even though this a fully complete story with a relatively satisfying ending, there’s just so much packed into this novella and not enough time to explore these abilities or even the Varvax civilization. My curiosity is piqued.

I. Need. More.

I doubt we’ll see anything further, but I’d read a sequel. *fingers crossed*

[Oleg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Це дві прекрасні розповіді, які можна було б розгорнути у книгу, трилогії чи навіть цикл, якби автор лиш захотів. Обожнюю такого роду фантастику. Сандерсон неймовірний!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe these are stories by Sanderson ever before he honed his craft. I was expecting them to be a huge let down. First Born is the weaker of the too and it is almost a further twisted rendition of Ender's Game.
Defending Elysium however, amazing. Again if I was to make a comparison it would be to Blade Runner. I would love to read more tales of Jason Write in the future.

[Chris McGrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two great sci-fi novellas. They can both be read on Sanderson's web site for free, but I'm excited to have the hardcover edition in my collection.

[Manar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstborn was interesting and I suppose I liked it, but overall, it wasn't my cup of tea.

Defending Elysium, however, I absolutely loved. I would have gladly continued reading if the story were twice the length it actually is.

[Anthony Ciaravella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed both short stories a lot. I would really like to see more of Defending Elysium though. I hope Brandon revisits it at some point.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only complaint is that I want more

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very short story has an insane twist and I wish there had been more of it! It’s not part of the Cosmere but I’m pretty sure it takes place in the Cytoverse? A good fast paced short read

[José Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nota: 8

- Firstborn -

Una historia bien construida con un giro inesperado, bastante acción y una resolución muy buena. La historian a pesar de ser corta tiene suficiente profundidad. Cabe destacar los puntos de humor que hay que redondean la historia.


- Defending Elysium -

Precuela de Escuadrón, te da información sobre como empezó todo, te muestra la interacción con los alienígenas y las capacidades que pueden llegarse a adquirir con CITO. El personaje principal tiene mucha personalidad y hay un giro bastante inesperado. Aunque es corta de nuevo tiene profundidad y es capaz de contar mucho de la historia previa a la saga.


- Centrifugal -

Es básicamente una promesa, está interesante pero es caótico y es una historia muy corta que solo te plantea un situación y la resuelve.


- Heuristic Algorithm and Reasoning Response Engine -

Está bien, es una batalla contra máquinas en un planeta alienígena, los personajes no están muy desarrollados, la interacción con el traje es lo más interesante.

[John Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

#bookreview

Book: Firstborn
Type: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Themes: sibling rivalry and the search for meaning and purpose in life
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Date Released: 2008
My Rating: 4.3 ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

"Better to be the failure who nobly strived than the success who never really had to."

I liked that this novelette from the Cytoverse collection veers away from the usual themes of the entire series. This time, it talks about sibling rivalry and the search for meaning and purpose in life. There may still be a little touch of space opera but unlike in other Cytoverse books, this one focuses on family dynamic and imperial politics. Denisson is kind of weak and sometimes pessimistic child while Varion exemplify the kind of child parents in the higher echelon of society would rever. But just like any other siblings, each has his own strengths and weaknesses and this what makes the plot interesting. There's an extra layer affixed to the theme sibling rivalry and what happened in the end caught me off guard.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstborn: I think this was my favorite of the two in this collection. My only complaint was the resolution was very quick. The patented Sanderson "twist" happens but there isn't any resolution from it. I would have liked a little bit more there to feel that the story was more wrapped up.

Defending Elysium: I wish I had been able to read this in one sitting - I think it would have benefited the story. I think this had an interesting world and premise that you got dropped into but, similarly to the above, the end was a bit abrupt.

Both have the Sanderson's excellent writing and they were both stories I wish there had been more for - which I think marks success in short fiction - but they both fell short on the endings where they didn't quite wrap up in a conclusionatory way.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you like the Vorkosigan series?
Do you like Ender's Game?

If so, you'll enjoy these stories.


I maintain that Sanderson needs less didactic and exposition-ridden (ooh--I wish expositional was a word) dialogue. He should take a page out of Pratchett's book and give characters unique voices that reflect how humans really speak. Also, who actually calls each other "son" and "old man" at the end of every sentence in a professional setting? No one.

[Danny Pearman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed Firstborn, would like to revisit this path at some point, hope Mr. Sanderson does one for us. Murder Mystery at its best, although short and sweet it hits the spot.

Defending Elysium, also really enjoyed, just finished the Skyward series. The Phone Company, just love it. Would love to read more about Jason Write.

[Myriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This stand-alone novella was a good enough read but I usually like Brandon Sanderson's stories a lot more than this. The plot is all about war strategy and family dynamics and I didn't get that engaged with it all. The rhythm and coherence were there though, so that was good. I found the ending a bit easy. I don't think I would read a longer novel about it.

[Michael Mullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this concluding book of the series, we return to where it all began, following the exciting detour with "pirates" in the previous installment. The story wraps up with a satisfying ending. While "Defiant" might not be my favorite of Sanderson's works, it's still a great read—as expected from Sanderson. I might even consider revisiting the series in the future.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever science fiction concepts with strong characters. One features the younger brother of a Napoleonic starship admiral. The other is around a psychic phone company secret agent.

[Jonathan Franzone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure how Sanderson packed so much into such a small package, but there it is. Two very entertaining short stories.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, interesting, vintage Sanderson. They're both available for free online (I think) and worth a read for fans interested in deeper non cosmere canon.

[The_Bookfox_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstborn gefiel mir besser als Defending Elysium. Beides kommt aber nicht an die Qualität von Skyward ran. Beide Geschichten gibt es kostenlos im Internet zu lesen.

[Malissa Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed both of these novelettes! I love anything Brandon Sanderson puts out so I'm not surprised. These had some great little tie-ins to Skyward as well which was great!

[Peter Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing amazing amazing

[IM211 -Scattered thoughts- · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unpredictable, awesome tale!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good science fiction short stories. Nice action and build up to the conclusion.

[Cameron Reid Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very creative for a short, long, Novela.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more like 4.5 These are excellent little novellas. Defending Elysium is the better of the 2, but both are great reads. Sanderson can really build a world in very few pages.

[Letícia Anadias · Rating 4 out of 5]

agora skyward faz mt mais sentido ... pq eu n li isso antes????

[Mrshawn10100 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice story, but way to short to be a stand alone anything.

[Elan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any opportunity we have to see the progress of those we idolize, to humanize our creative deities, is a good thing. I’ve made no secret of my passion/obsession with Brandon Sanderson’s work both on and off the page. His contribution to genre fiction will surely go down in history as the most significant of our time. He’s our Tolkien, or our Bradbury. There are other authors who have made spectacular contributions to genre fiction, and I do not mean to minimize their impact, but I think Brandon Sanderson has made the biggest waves among them.

And yet, he constantly makes his fans feel special. Like each and every individual matters. Like those fans of his who are aspiring writers (like me) have every chance to become great too. A great example of this kind of encouragement comes in the form of Firstborn & Defending Elysium, two novelettes bound into a single tête-bêche volume, written by Brandon Sanderson before he was the superstar he is today.

The reason these matter is because he shares their origin, and the vulnerability of the creative process, and the occasional need we writers face of realigning ourselves to our chosen outlets.

I wasn’t enamored with Firstborn, the first of the two short stories I read. It was his first published short, and it’s a somewhat-lackluster tale of jealousy and betrayal. What it does for me is further humanize Mr. Sanderson. It gives the superhero his origin story. In Firstborn are the kernels of Sanderson’s creativity and sense of scale, his love of classic elemental stories told in far-out settings. Even if I didn’t love it, I’m glad for the opportunity to read it and, through that experience, gain a better understanding of the trajectory of his writing career.

Sanderson’s introduction to Defending Elysium describes a time when he was feeling particularly vulnerable and at odds with the craft. He’d been writing for years, finished a dozen novels, and hadn’t sold a thing. He was lost in the quagmire of writing, but feeling like he wasn’t writing stuff he’d want to read.

What he needed, he decided, was to write for writing’s sake. So while on vacation with a few writer friends in Monterey, he wrote Defending Elysium.

It is an excellent story. The ideas it puts forth are massive in scale, existing in the periphery of the story and giving the universe the feeling of enormity beyond he on-screen events. I always appreciate when a short story does this; it makes it much easier for me to jump into the events of the short story.

The writing is solid, but not the most interesting part of the Elysium reading experience. Brandon was in A difficult and very sensitive headspace while he wrote Elysium, whose protagonist, a blind man who is an agent for the Phone Company (which controls the secrets of FTL communication and is the only group that can freely talk with aliens), sees with the aid of technology.

The world he “sees” is vibrant, with colors as vibrations—which, incidentally, I saw in an interesting in TED talk a while ago—giving him a unique view of the world around him.

Maybe I’m projecting, but I get the impression that Elysium is a story into which Sanderson injected himself, consciously or otherwise. His character is misunderstood, not entirely honest with his peers, and blind. He is good at what he does, but is somewhat disillusioned with it.

Later in the story, he loses his sight for a time, and quickly descends into madness and terror. The visceral description of his horror at his renewed blindness, his fear of every sound around him that he’s unable to parse into an image of the world, is riveting. It swept me up, and my heart raced alongside the character’s. I felt his fear in a way I haven’t connected with a character in a very long time. Sanderson, in the depths of existential creative crisis, wrote a blind character who is nonetheless capable, who then rediscovers the horror of sightlessness, only to gain it back and become more powerful than before. Maybe it isn’t a representation of his issues with writing. Like I said, I could very well be projecting.

Firstborn and Defending Elysium are both short reads—I read both in a few hours—and are well worth getting if you’re a fan of Brandon Sanderson’s work. If you’re not, you can skip it.

[Ricky Ganci · Rating 3 out of 5]

These first of Brandon Sanderson's publications provide an excellent glimpse into the writing history of the fantasist who would write ELANTRIS, MISTBORN, and THE WAY OF KINGS. These two narratives, each about 75 pages in length and far simpler than anything else he's written, still bear all the hallmarks of the type of story structure and dialogue tendencies that make the Cosmere novels the best fantasy I've ever read, and are a good investment for completionists and those who enjoy the worlds that Sanderson creates.

FIRSTBORN (3.5/5)
The better of the two, FIRSTBORN channels the last 50 pages of ENDER'S GAME with a discussion about the fear of and ability to deal with failure. The story follows a pair of brothers--not altogether unlike Adolin and Renarin Kholin from THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE--whose separation is as near-total as it gets; twenty years apart in age, and further still in ability level, with opposite color hair and no real sense of each other. The elder, a commander of forces with a perfect record has left an impossibly high standard by which the other, a winless graduate harrowed by the family legacy, must live.

The characters are developed first and foremost through the efficient plot through the familiarly excellent climax and thematically solid resolution, and while all else is forsaken for the development of character, the story generates a significant conflict and resolves it satisfyingly, if a but abruptly.

DEFENDING ELYSIUM (2.5/5)
Sanderson's introduction to this short story clarifies its almost impossible pace: he tells us there that he did not reduce the density of the world, its conflict, or its history for the sake of its length.

This second, marginally weaker story shows Sanderson's early work as a writer of crime fiction, with a murder occupying the central conflict and its investigation providing all of the context for the eventual resolution of the story. It's really the first space opera piece that we've read by him, but the contains familiar and unfamiliar elements of the genre. Other hallmarks include the investiture of a superhuman power system that goes rather undefined, but plays a large part in the story's resolution.

That density and pace make it all happen a bit too fast, and the story ended before all of my questions were answered, but Sanderson gives a fascinating look at human motivation, spirituality, and healthy self-concepts that lead to wider heroic questions. Many of his protagonists that follow--Vin and Kaladin being the first two that come to mind--enjoy a similar road to their central place in their respective conflicts.

These stories show a rawer sense of language and story structure, but as they were conceived and written almost a decade and a half ago, this should come as no surprise. What they do illustrate are Sanderson's early thought processes and interests, and given the impossibly deep world-building and tight, detail-oriented plotting of each Cosmere installment that follow, fans should enjoy having a look at some of his earliest work.

[Britney (BookDrunkSloth) · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I'll start with Firstborn:

This novelette definitely had Brandon Sanderson's "signature" writing. The only difference was the SciFi setting. This setting is in both of the stories and it's the only reason why the rating is a 4 star instead of a 5 star. I'm not that into SciFi, but I absolutely love everything that Brandon writes so I had to read it.

Dennison is a high ranking commander type for a fleet, but try as he might, he cannot succeed at his position. This is difficult for him because he is constantly in the shadow of his perfect older brother who is amazing at what he does. He tries to convince his father and the emperor to just let him leave his position, but for some reason unknown to him they continue to refuse. He gets reassigned to another commander's ship and is told to put all of his efforts into studying his older brother's ways. From this point, Dennison learns a lot about his family, and his own strengths. The ending was great.

Last, we have Defending Elysium:

This novelette also was evidence of Sanderson's signature where everything that is confusing in the beginning sums up at the end with an exciting twist. The fact that Sanderson can accomplish this in such a short amount of story is pretty phenomenal. Honestly, for both this and Firstborn, I really felt like I got to know the character's personalities so well. It is pretty incredible what this man can do.

Summarizing this story is a little more difficult than Firstborn. Basically, Earth is now in contact with several different species of aliens. Because "The Phone Company" was the first to make contact and the only group to possess the technology to communicate with them, they negotiated peace for Earth and now are above the law. Jason works for the phone company and is on a mission to go to a space station type place. The mystery he digs up and figures out is pretty interesting. Jason is blind but possesses a power to "Sense" his surroundings, enabling him to "see". His abilities are also quite interesting.

Together these books were good to put into one book. They were great stories and took a very short amount of time to read. I think total I spent about 4 hours reading this. I would highly suggest Sanderson enthusiasts to read this, and anyone who is into SciFi. You would probably appreciate them more than I did.