Dreamer by Brandon Sanderson

Author:Brandon Sanderson [Sanderson, Brandon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Relato, Fantástico, Terror
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

POSTSCRIPT

This is a bit of a weird story. I originally wrote it for a horror anthology being put together by Charlaine Harris, a professional colleague (and all-around great person) best known for her True Blood vampire romance mysteries.

I was intrigued by the idea of writing a horror story, something I’d never done before. I’m always looking for new ways to stretch myself, for excuses to try new genres. I determined I’d try two things with this. First, I’d write it shorter than most of my pieces—I was shooting for a short story, and I managed not to go overboard with the length. It’s the shortest thing I’ve ever written as a full, complete story.

Second, I’d try to write a horror story. Now, my favorite horror stories aren’t the bloody knife, splattered guts type. They’re the type that, by the end, make you uncomfortable and worried. That try to deal with a concept that is horrifying. Not beasts and monsters, though they can involve that. The fear of the unknown, or better, the fear of something you do know—and can realistically apply to your life, no matter how fantastical.

After considering for a while, I settled upon something I found truly horrifying: the idea of a group of teens, with no sense of accountability, playing a Call of Duty-style game with people’s lives.

This story has an interesting distinction in that my editorial director, Peter Ahlstrom, doesn’t particularly like it. (I don’t often publish something if he’s not on board with it.) His dislike, I suspect, lies in the uncanny valley this story has. It’s almost a standard Brandon Sanderson story. Cool magic, a cool situation, and a promise that we’ll see someone playing with a familiar trope (body snatching) in an interesting new way.

Then, halfway through, it goes dark. A protagonist who doesn’t care about the lives of the people he’s around does not feel very Sanderson at all. That division, between the promise of what this story will provide and the actuality, turns out to be both a drawback and a limitation. For people unfamiliar with my work, the story was a success. Judging by the reviews, readers of the anthology (which was all themed toward horror mixed with games) enjoyed what they found here.

I expect, though I don’t know for certain, that a number of my readers reacted like Peter. This almost felt like a story they would have loved—a story about spirit detectives who can hop between bodies. Instead, it turned into callous teenagers playing games with people’s lives, which left these readers feeling that the rug was pulled out from underneath them.

I’m quite proud of the story, for forcing me to do something different with my writing. At the same time, I can’t deny that I’m happy that I was able to eventually write Snapshot, which is more like the fantastical detective story that my regular readers might have wanted.

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