Book Review: Long Chills and Case Dough by Brandon Sanderson
Long Chills and Case Dough by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Series: Standalone
Genre: Mystery, Detective noir
Pages: 67 pages (ebook edition)
Published: 19th December 2023 by Dragonsteel
If The Sunlit Man was the final book to end the Year of Sanderson, Long Chills and Case Dough is the epilogue to it.
I knew it. Since the record-breaking Kickstarter announcement, I knew Sanderson would not let the Year of Sanderson end without preparing a little surprise in another form of an unreleased book. And that’s where this short story came in. Long Chills and Case Dough is a previously unpublished short story written just before Sanderson published his first book. This was released to celebrate the finale of the 2023 “Year of Sanderson,” and it is published exclusively by Dragonsteel as a “Sanderson Curiosity.” You can get the ebook for free from the Dragonsteel website. In a way, Long Chills and Case Dough is similar to Defending Elysium novelette in the Cytoverse universe. It was written before the release of Elantris, and I was worried about this. Defending Elysium is the weakest title I read this year. But thankfully, although Long Chills and Case Dough might not end up proving memorable as a title, I must say I did find myself quite compelled by this detective noir story.
Do not expect anything mindblowing from this less-than-one-hour short story. As Sanderson said, this is a little gift for readers to peek at Sanderson’s pre-Elantris writing days. The pleasant surprise from Long Chills and Case Dough for me is to read the seeds of ideas and Sanderson’s writing that eventually appeared in The Frugal’s Wizard and also even Mistborn: Wax and Wayne series. The writing is not as well-polished, and the characterizations and dialogues need improvement. But for its purpose as a gift to backers and as a quick and engaging read, and absurd and corny one, I think Long Chills and Case Dough did its job.
This year, I read more than ten titles by Brandon Sanderson. Not including word count into the equation, it is the most I’ve ever done in a year for Sanderson. The four secret project novels, three novels in Skyward, three short novels in Skyward, and then Defending Elysium and Long Chills and Case Dough. This quantity does not certainly equate to Sanderson’s usual high-quality Cosmere books due to the experimental nature of the books, when they were written, or the target market, but I am blessed to have read them all. Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter definitely became the spotlight of The Year of Sanderson for me. And I want to, once again, thank Sanderson and the Dragonsteel team for making 2023 more exciting.
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