Dragonsteel and other unpublished works?

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom he/him]

Hey! So, I've seen quite a few references to Dragonsteel, especially in posts about Hoid. And although I know it isn't published, it would seem that some people on the forum have read it. Is there a place where I can get my hands on a copy of some of these unfinished/unpublished Cosmere works?

[Calderis he/him]

You can find sample chapters of Liar of Partinel. Brandon actually advises against people reading them though. As far as I know the only way to read Dragonsteel is to check it out from BYU's library. 

And I as far as Dragonsteel is concerned, I'm pretty sure the few who have read it, aren't actually allowed to talk about it. 

Most references I've seen to Dragonsteel just consist of "happens pre-Shattering and tells the story leading up to that event."

I think that's about as much as we're going to get until it's rewritten. The few bits I've heard beyond that say that the story that existed has been canabalized into the canon books so much, that what does get rewritten is going to be a very different story, and we're probably better off not reading it. 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Calderis

[StrikerEZ he/him]

Actually, not many people have read it. There's only a few copies out there, and Brandon doesn't like giving out copies to people. Even if he did, we wouldn't be allowed to talk about what happens in the books.

But we know from Brandon that Dragonsteel is gonna be about Hood's backstory, is set on Yolen, and I believe includes the 16 original Vessels. Someone fact check me on that.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Calderis. He basically summed it up pretty well.

Edited June 23, 2017 by StrikerEZ

[Andy92]

Just to add to what @Calderis said, we know the Shattered Plains was originally written as a part of Dragonsteel, and Brandon moved it over to Stormlight Archive. While it would be an interesting read, it probably wouldn't be the most accurate towards the current Cosmere canon because he's cherry picked certain aspects of the original book and moved it into other words. 

As far as other unreleased works, there is a draft of the White Sand novel version you can get by signing up for Brandon's newsletter. (The graphic novel is the canonical version, but it's being released in 3 parts. The unreleased novel tells the whole story.) There's another one called Aether of the Night that I haven't read personally. I think you can ask for that one through the contact link on Sanderson's website. 

[Weltall]

Brandon has also released a sample chapter or two each from Mistborn Prime and Final Empire Prime, which were the biggest sources of cannibalization for what we know as Mistborn: The Final Empire. And you can read the entirety (up to the point where Brandon stopped writing it) of Mythwalker, which also got bits of it cannibalized into Mistborn and The Way of Kings but is most important for being the place where Brandon first tried out what would ultimately become the core plot of Warbreaker. As with the others, nothing in it is canon but it's an interesting look inside Brandon's writing process and there are a couple ideas in there which could potentially be cannibalized for a future book (like its bloodline magic). A selection of chapters from Way of Kings Prime focusing on the character who became Kaladin in the published version can be found in the anthology Altered Perceptions.

As noted, you can get Aether of Night by asking Brandon nicely (he recently changed his stance on this from 'I might rewrite it one of these days' to 'I will rewrite it one of these days' so we have that to look forward to) and White Sand's prose version can be obtained the same way, or in the most recent newsletter.

 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Weltall