Brandon Sanderson fans can rest easy: A new Cosmere novel is coming in 2026.
The fantasy author announced his newest novel, “The Fires of December,” during his annual fan convention, Dragonsteel Nexus, on Thursday — and the surprise announcement was met with deafening cheers and applause from the audience of fans at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City.
“For a number of years now, we’ve had a Cosmere novel every year,” he told fans. “And people started to ask me, ‘Brandon, well, 2026, where’s the Cosmere novel?’
“We’ve got one,” he said, before displaying the new novel’s cover art to the audience.
According to Sanderson, the standalone novel will be part of his “special projects” line and fits into his Cosmere universe. Here’s everything we know about “The Fires of December.”
What is ‘The Fires of December’ about?
Sanderson told fans during Thursday’s announcement that “The Fires of December” fits into a sort of “series” with some of his previous novels that are connected to the character Hoid.
“I really enjoyed writing ‘Tress of the Emerald Sea’ and ‘Yumi and the Nightmare Painter,’” Sanderson said. “And I thought, ‘There are more terrible things that have happened to Hoid in the Cosmere.’
“And so this is now a series. This is the stories of Hoid’s travails, in which terrible things happen to Hoid, and he tells you a story about it.”
During the Thursday event, Sanderson read aloud to fans from the book’s first two chapters, which center around the title character, December. He told the audience that the text from the reading would be made available to fans at a later date, in his newsletter and on his website.
When will ‘The Fires of December’ be released?
Sanderson hasn’t announced an official release date yet for “The Fires of December,” but he did say the book would be available to fans in a couple of different ways next year.
The novel will be part of his “secret projects” line, and he said it will be added to the next crowdfunding campaign that will be happening in March.
For those who choose not to participate in the crowdfunding campaign, “The Fires of December” will be published by Tor next year “in time for the Christmas season,” according to Sanderson.