Secret Mistborn Novella – Jan 30th!

This post has been updated as Brandon Sanderson has released further details about Mistborn: Secret History following the launch of The Bands of Mourning.

The story begins a few weeks ago when Amazon accidentally leaked the last few pages of The Bands of Mourning online. Within these final pages was a Postscript from the author. It read:

“To tide you over until Oathbringer, I have just released a special digital-only novella that is intended to be read after The Bands of Mourning, though it takes place during the events of the original Mistborn Trilogy. Ten years in the making, Mistborn: Secret History might answer a few of your questions. There’s always another secret.”

We decided not to post about this leak at the time, because it was quite obvious that Brandon wanted to keep it as a surprise. However, with the early release of The Bands of Mourning, the majority of readers ended up hearing about the intriguing postscript through social media and Brandon decided to come out and make a few comments – so we feel comfortable discussing it.

Through Reddit, Brandon told fans that this novella “is a companion story to the original Mistborn trilogy, and is intended to be read after The Bands of Mourning.” Brandon adds that it can also be read after Hero of Ages (not before!) even if you’ve not read the new Mistborn books (it contains only a very minor spoiler for Bands). A few fans have since said that although this is true they REALLY recommend you read the new Mistborn books first in order to get the full effect of it.

Shortly after Brandon coming out and telling us all this about the novella, the release date on Amazon was moved forward from early February to January 26th and then moved back a few days to January 30th. We’re not entirely sure why this happened, but we know that some readers have used platforms which honoured the 26th release date in order to obtain the novella already (I’m told iBooks and Kobo Books are included). Those who have read the novella are already discussing some VERY interesting revelations and have confirmed suspicions that entities from other areas of the Cosmere play a part in the story. Here’s the official blurb just added to Amazon:

Mistborn: Secret History is a companion story to the original Mistborn trilogy.

As such, it contains HUGE SPOILERS for the books Mistborn (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages). It also contains very minor spoilers for the book The Bands of Mourning.

Mistborn: Secret History builds upon the characterization, events, and worldbuilding of the original trilogy. Reading it without that background will be a confusing process at best.

In short, this isn’t the place to start your journey into Mistborn. (Though if you have read the trilogy—but it has been a while—you should be just fine, so long as you remember the characters and the general plot of the books.)

Saying anything more here risks revealing too much. Even knowledge of this story’s existence is, in a way, a spoiler.

There’s always another secret.

Here is the Amazon US link:
http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Secret-History-Brandon-Sanderson-ebook/dp/B01B0NS93U

Here is the Amazon UK link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01B0NS93U

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The following was written prior to any details being announced. The vast majority of it is/was…. wrong! 😛 😀 🙂

The cover shows a man with white/grey hair wearing a Mistcloak and the word ‘secret’ in the title of this novella immediately has online speculation pointing towards Hoid. For those unfamiliar, Hoid is a mysterious world hopper about which very little is known and he has appeared in almost every cosier novel/novella that Sanderson has released. We don’t know Hoid’s motives, but he always seems to be working away in the background, operating from within the shadows.

Another possibility is Alendi – the character murdered by Rashek before he could harness the powers of the Well of Ascension (he is reported to have gone grey at a young age in  Kwaan’s inscription).

Although Alendi wasn’t alive during the events of the last novel, it would make sense if he was the focus in some way. The fact it is called ‘Secret History’ could mean that it features original Mistborn characters looking back on his live and the file size of the Kindle file seems to suggest there will be a few maps/images/diagrams (despite it being a novella it is around the same file size as The Bands of Mourning, which is a 450 page book with multiple broadsheet images).

It could, of course, be nothing to do with Hoid or Alendi too… Spook was mentioned quite a bit in Bands and this novella is said to relate. We saw a flash of a character at the end of Bands (no spoilers, so won’t speculate as to who), but the ‘read after’ bit of the postscript would make sense if he is the focus. Maybe it’s a relative of Alendi’s? A character we’ve never met before? I know there is a character said to be older than even Hoid called ‘Frost’, could the white hair be a clue that we will finally get to meet him?

We really don’t know… and we will end our speculation here.

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