Calamity by Brandon Sanderson
A moment later, I was back in the other world. I’d returned once already. Just after we’d landed the space station, I’d popped in to let them know that my visit before hadn’t been the end—but I’d stayed only for a moment. Megan had been tired.
Before I’d left though, I’d arranged this meeting place. My father stood on top of a building. Sharp Tower, which hadn’t been destroyed in his world. I walked up to him, noting his fluttering cape. Look what those comic books have done to you. Wearing a symbol and everything? Sparks, he was such a nerd.
Like father, like son, I guess.
He saw me, and turned around with a wide smile of his own. I stepped toward him, hesitant. Eleven years—a long time to catch up on. How did one begin?
“Um,” I said, “Megan feels she’s getting better at this, and the darkness is gone, so she can last longer. Now that she’s rested, and isn’t in the middle of a catastrophe or anything, she thinks she can give us a good fifteen minutes. Maybe as long as a half hour.”
“Good, good,” Father said. He shuffled awkwardly. “Uh, Firefight tells me that you and I share a power set.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Power blasts, invulnerability. Oh, and turning stuff into steel. Not sure how useful that last one will be.”
“You’d be surprised,” he said.
“It’s still going to take some getting used to. And by the way, flying is kind of kicking me in the face.”
“Flying is tricky at first.”
We stood in front of one another, uncertain, until Father nodded toward the railing. “Do you…maybe…want me to teach you?”
I smiled, feeling a sudden warmth deep inside. “Dad, I can think of nothing I’d like more.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing the acknowledgments tends to be the last thing I do for a book. As I sit here, late in the night in November, I’m left reflecting on the series as a whole. Steelheart has one of the most random origin stories among my canon of fiction, conceived—almost in its entirety—during a long drive on the East Coast while on tour for one of the Mistborn novels.
That was 2008. It’s now 2015, seven years later, and the journey of bringing this series to you has been exceptionally satisfying. The people listed below have had no small hand in that. But I also want to take a special moment to thank all of you for following me along this crazy journey. Readers—both old and new—who took a chance on this series, you have my most sincere thanks. You give me the means to keep on dreaming.
So let the thanks roll on, my own personal team of Reckoners who make my life awesome. Krista Marino was the editor at Delacorte Press on this project, as she was on the other two books. You owe the success of these novels to her, one of the very early proponents of the series. I’d also like to thank Beverly Horowitz for her wisdom and guidance; she has been an advocate for these books at the publisher.
Other people at Random House deserving my thanks are Monica Jean, Mary McCue, Kim Lauber, Rachel Weinick, Judith Haut, Dominique Cimina, and Barbara Marcus. The book’s copy editor was Colleen Fellingham.
My agent Joshua Bilmes was the first one who had to sit through an excited rendition of how cool this series was going to be when I finally got around to writing it. He has been very patient. My other agent, Eddie Schneider, handled the negotiations on these books and has represented them valiantly. Also at the agency deserving of thanks are Sam Morgan, Krystyna Lopez, and Tae Keller.
I’d also like to give a shout-out to my UK agent, John Berlyne of the Zeno Agency. My UK editor on the book was Simon Spanton, an excellent individual and the first person in UK publishing to give me a chance.
My own team includes the ininsouciant Peter Ahlstrom, company VP and editorial director, who handled a lot of the continuity and proofreading on this book, as well as doing a lot of in-house editorial. As always, Isaac $tewart was here to help with art, and my executive assistant was Adam Horne. Kara Stewart deserves thanks for handling our website store (which, by the way, has lots of cool swag for sale).
My writing group on the project included Emily Sanderson, Karen & Peter Ahlstrom, Darci & Eric James Stone, Alan Layton, Kathleen Dorsey Sanderson, Kaylynn ZoBell, Ethan & Isaac Skarstedt, Kara & Isaac Stewart, and Ben Olsen, destroyer of worlds.
Special thanks go out to our on-location team in Atlanta, Jennifer & Jimmy Liang, who scoped out spots for us like superspies, and offered commentary on anything having to do with the city. Beta readers on the project were Nikki Ramsay, Mark Lindberg, Alyx Hoge, Corby Campbell, Sam Sullivan, Ted Herman, Steve Stay, Marnie Peterson, Michael Headley, Dan Swint, Aaron Ford, Aaron Biggs, Kyle Mills, Cade Shiozaki, Kyle Baugh, Justin Lemon, Amber Christenson, Karen Ahlstrom, Zoe Hatch, and Spencer White.
Our community proofreaders included many of the above, plus Bob Kluttz, Jory Phillips, Alice Arneson, Brian T. Hill, Gary Singer, Ian McNatt, Matt Hatch, and Bao Pham.
And, of course, moral support was provided by Emily, Dallin, Joel, and Oliver Sanderson. The three little boys especially provided me with plenty of commentary on superheroes and how to treat them.
It has been a wild, incredible journey. Thank you again for joining me for it.
Brandon Sanderson
BRANDON SANDERSON is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Reckoners series—which includes Steelheart, Firefight, Calamity—and the internationally bestselling Mistborn series, and he was chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. His books have been published in more than twenty-five languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide.
Brandon lives in Utah with his wife and children and teaches at Brigham Young University. To learn more about Brandon and his books, visit him at brandonsanderson.com, and follow @BrandSanderson on Twitter and BrandSanderson on Facebook.
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Brandon Sanderson, Calamity
(Series: The Reckoners # 3)