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The Sunlit Man: A Cosmere Novel [Dramatized Adaptation]: Secret Projects 4
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 this standalone novel showing a rare glimpse of a future Cosmere universe.
Running. Putting distance between himself and the relentless Night Brigade has been Nomad’s strategy for years. Staying one or two steps ahead of his pursuers by skipping through the Cosmere from one world to the next.
But now, his powers too depleted to escape, Nomad finds himself trapped on Canticle, a planet that will kill anyone who doesn’t keep moving. Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones, he is instantly caught up in the struggle between a heartless tyrant and the brave rebels who defy him.
Failure means a quick death, incinerated by the sun… or a lifetime as a mindless slave. Tormented by the consequences of his past, Nomad must fight not only for his survival―but also for his very soul.
Adapted from the novel and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects and cinematic music!
Performed by Nick J. Russo, Torian Brackett, Wyn Delano, Taylor Coan, Elena Anderson, Stephanie Németh-Parker, Daniel Llaca, David Cui Cui, Yasmin Tuazon, Nanette Savard, Alexander Amado, Natalie Van Sistine, Chris Davenport, Christopher Walker, Shanta Parasuraman, Scott McCormick, Gabriel Michael, Eva Wilhelm, Colleen Delany, Kenneth Charles, Laura C. Harris, Bradley Foster Smith, Crystal Lee, and Richard Rohan.
Running. Putting distance between himself and the relentless Night Brigade has been Nomad’s strategy for years. Staying one or two steps ahead of his pursuers by skipping through the Cosmere from one world to the next.
But now, his powers too depleted to escape, Nomad finds himself trapped on Canticle, a planet that will kill anyone who doesn’t keep moving. Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones, he is instantly caught up in the struggle between a heartless tyrant and the brave rebels who defy him.
Failure means a quick death, incinerated by the sun… or a lifetime as a mindless slave. Tormented by the consequences of his past, Nomad must fight not only for his survival―but also for his very soul.
Adapted from the novel and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects and cinematic music!
Performed by Nick J. Russo, Torian Brackett, Wyn Delano, Taylor Coan, Elena Anderson, Stephanie Németh-Parker, Daniel Llaca, David Cui Cui, Yasmin Tuazon, Nanette Savard, Alexander Amado, Natalie Van Sistine, Chris Davenport, Christopher Walker, Shanta Parasuraman, Scott McCormick, Gabriel Michael, Eva Wilhelm, Colleen Delany, Kenneth Charles, Laura C. Harris, Bradley Foster Smith, Crystal Lee, and Richard Rohan.
1 pages, Audio CD
Published March 10, 2025
3 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Brandon Sanderson
403 books285k followersI’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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 16, 2025
Audiobook (10 hours) narrated by a full cast, including:
Nick J. Russo
Torian Brackett
Wyn Delano
Taylor Coan
Elena Anderson
Stephanie Nemeth-Parker
Daniel Llaca
David Cui Cui
Yasmin Tuazon
Nanette Savard
Alexander Amado
This is a fully scored, full cast narrated, Graphic Audio. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some award winning narrators in the mix, let's just leave it at it is awesome. They rightly call it a movie for your mind. Any novel that gets the Graphic Audio makeover that is an enjoyment for you, is worth picking up this version either as a first read, a re-read, or to listen to along with the print version. The work that they do is meticulous. The scoring is generally on point, builds excitement or sets the emotion, much like a movie. The characters generally each get their own voice.
The audio is dynamic, clear, clean, and stable, without high highs and low lows, so you don't have to worry about things getting too loud or too soft to hear while wearing headphones.
The Sunlit Man is the fourth book in the Secret Projects series that started out as a crowd funded series over/during the pandemic. Out of the four books that I have read thus far, the second book, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, has been my favorite with me giving it a full 5 stars, and this one is my least. I have to give it a 2 because I gave Tress of the Emerald Sea a 3, and Tress was significantly more enjoyable.
Sanderson has a decent writing range, and while I enjoy most of it, this isn't the first time that I have had a bit of a struggle through parts of the book. I am also currently working through The Stormlight Archive Series, which I absolutely love.
If you like or love Sanderson, don't let my low rating keep you from this one, it has absolutely zero to do with the writing and is simply my personal preferences and just not caring for this overall story line in this novel (I almost said novella, in the Sanderson world, 10 hours is a novella, trust.)
Nick J. Russo
Torian Brackett
Wyn Delano
Taylor Coan
Elena Anderson
Stephanie Nemeth-Parker
Daniel Llaca
David Cui Cui
Yasmin Tuazon
Nanette Savard
Alexander Amado
This is a fully scored, full cast narrated, Graphic Audio. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some award winning narrators in the mix, let's just leave it at it is awesome. They rightly call it a movie for your mind. Any novel that gets the Graphic Audio makeover that is an enjoyment for you, is worth picking up this version either as a first read, a re-read, or to listen to along with the print version. The work that they do is meticulous. The scoring is generally on point, builds excitement or sets the emotion, much like a movie. The characters generally each get their own voice.
The audio is dynamic, clear, clean, and stable, without high highs and low lows, so you don't have to worry about things getting too loud or too soft to hear while wearing headphones.
The Sunlit Man is the fourth book in the Secret Projects series that started out as a crowd funded series over/during the pandemic. Out of the four books that I have read thus far, the second book, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, has been my favorite with me giving it a full 5 stars, and this one is my least. I have to give it a 2 because I gave Tress of the Emerald Sea a 3, and Tress was significantly more enjoyable.
Sanderson has a decent writing range, and while I enjoy most of it, this isn't the first time that I have had a bit of a struggle through parts of the book. I am also currently working through The Stormlight Archive Series, which I absolutely love.
If you like or love Sanderson, don't let my low rating keep you from this one, it has absolutely zero to do with the writing and is simply my personal preferences and just not caring for this overall story line in this novel (I almost said novella, in the Sanderson world, 10 hours is a novella, trust.)
August 17, 2025
This is my 3rd Secret Project book and so far, only Tress of the Emerald Sea has lived up to Sanderson's quality. It is even worse with this book, because this is related to Stormlight in a closer way and the result was... nothing. NOTHING.
I don't really want to diss this book, but it honestly felt like nothing of value was added in this book. It might be that the sci-fi aspect did not appeal to me at all and there was no real lore and the characters were just not really interesting. The villain is more like a cartoon villain, which I believe it to be a conscious choice and I approve, but there was no surprise in it for me. The action was good, but when you aren't invested in anyone, it just goes over you. There was a single sad moment and that is because the best character in this book was involved.
There might be some kind of detail that will be important for the future, but it is so miniscule to really care. And Nomad as a main char is... not interesting enough? At some point he has to explain a choice of his and his reasoning was "I don't know why, it's a human thing, we just feel". Like, what does that mean? Feelings can still be reasons for your actions.
The story is basically what the synopsis says and maybe I'm a bit too hard on this, but I feel like I gained nothing after this book. Even the entertainment was low, unfortunately. For more than half of the book, I was trying to focus on what was happening and sometimes there were sooo many details about the planet's science and how aerodynamics work, that I just... didn't.
The dramatization was oncec again great, though. The one true positive about this book, along with Aux (and his AMAZING voice).
I don't really want to diss this book, but it honestly felt like nothing of value was added in this book. It might be that the sci-fi aspect did not appeal to me at all and there was no real lore and the characters were just not really interesting. The villain is more like a cartoon villain, which I believe it to be a conscious choice and I approve, but there was no surprise in it for me. The action was good, but when you aren't invested in anyone, it just goes over you. There was a single sad moment and that is because the best character in this book was involved.
There might be some kind of detail that will be important for the future, but it is so miniscule to really care. And Nomad as a main char is... not interesting enough? At some point he has to explain a choice of his and his reasoning was "I don't know why, it's a human thing, we just feel". Like, what does that mean? Feelings can still be reasons for your actions.
The story is basically what the synopsis says and maybe I'm a bit too hard on this, but I feel like I gained nothing after this book. Even the entertainment was low, unfortunately. For more than half of the book, I was trying to focus on what was happening and sometimes there were sooo many details about the planet's science and how aerodynamics work, that I just... didn't.
The dramatization was oncec again great, though. The one true positive about this book, along with Aux (and his AMAZING voice).
April 27, 2025
I loved every molten moment.
April 6, 2025
Absolutely Amazing!
June 14, 2025
3.5/5
This was alright. I thought the world and geography were really unique and cool, and I liked following Nomad as a main character. I also liked the science aspect of this book. Nomad has to do a lot of engineering which I thought was really cool. But I think of all the secret projects, this one relied way more on of knowledge of the Cosmere (specifically from Stormlight Archive).
I've read a lot of Brandon Sanderson's books, EXCEPT Stormlight (I'm working on it lol), so there were a bunch of terms and background info about Nomad that completely went over my head. I followed the plot of this book well enough, but I definitely felt like I was missing important details and context.
I would be interested in rereading this book after finishing the first 5 books and the novellas. I think I would enjoy it more. But of course the graphic audiobook was amazing and a great reading experience.
I'd rank all the secret projects as Tress, Frugal Wizard, Yumi, and then Sunlit (so basically release order lol).
This was alright. I thought the world and geography were really unique and cool, and I liked following Nomad as a main character. I also liked the science aspect of this book. Nomad has to do a lot of engineering which I thought was really cool. But I think of all the secret projects, this one relied way more on of knowledge of the Cosmere (specifically from Stormlight Archive).
I've read a lot of Brandon Sanderson's books, EXCEPT Stormlight (I'm working on it lol), so there were a bunch of terms and background info about Nomad that completely went over my head. I followed the plot of this book well enough, but I definitely felt like I was missing important details and context.
I would be interested in rereading this book after finishing the first 5 books and the novellas. I think I would enjoy it more. But of course the graphic audiobook was amazing and a great reading experience.
I'd rank all the secret projects as Tress, Frugal Wizard, Yumi, and then Sunlit (so basically release order lol).
April 15, 2025
If possible, stormlight archive should be read first
This was a slow beginning but an exciting ending
This was a slow beginning but an exciting ending
August 10, 2025
Awesome setting and short story about Sunlit Man. Can't wait to know more about future of the Cosmere.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews