Brandon Sanderson’s Latest Sci-Fi Book has a Surprise Cosmere Connection

Published Sep 5, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT You never know where Hoid will pop up next Image: Howard Lyon/Dragonsteel Books Most of Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy books are set in the Cosmere, a galaxy where each planet has its own complex magic system connected by a common divine origin. Sanderson’s Cytoverse sci-fi series takes place in a different reality where Earth has vanished and the last remnants of humanity live on isolated planets, but the two worlds cross over for the first time in Blightfall, the latest Cytoverse book co-written by Sanderson and Janci Patterson. The immortal trickster and storyteller Hoid has appeared in so many of Sanderson’s books that some fans have accused the author of having a self-insert character. He even narrates his own series, Hoid’s Travails, which includes Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yume and the Nightmare Painter, and the upcoming novel The Fires of December. Hoid’s name and powers vary based on the world he’s visiting, and he makes an appearance in Blightfall as a psychic slug-like alien known as a taynix. You might assume this was part of some long-simmering plan from Sanderson to fuse the two universes, but Patterson tells Polygon that it happened completely on a whim. “There was a thread on the 17th Shard fan forums where everybody was talking about the book and somebody made a joke that we should name a slug Hoid,” the writer says. “I didn’t know if it would pan out, but then I put it in the book and [Sanderson] didn’t stop me.” Since the Cytoverse takes place in the far future of Earth, the characters can reference real world history and pop culture — including Sanderson’s writing. A taynix with the power to conjure illusions is named for “a wanderer from Old Earth mythology who performed illusions, traveled the stars, and appeared in the unlikeliest of places.” Patterson clarifies that the Cytoverse isn’t in the Cosmere, but the Cosmere is in the Cytoverse as a popular work of fiction akin to The Lion King or Hamlet. What’s it like to collaborate with Brandon Sanderson? Image: Delacorte Press Patterson and Sanderson are long-time friends who have been part of book critique groups together. Sanderson is one of the most prolific living authors, and he’s partnered with other writers for non-Cosmere projects like The Strata Wars, the urban fantasy series he launched with Peter Orullian in June. Patterson and Sanderson collaborated on three Cytoverse novellas — Sunreach, ReDawn, and Evershore — which were all released in 2021 ahead of Cytonic, the third book in Sanderson’s Skyward series. “Part of the purpose of collaborating for him is to be able to produce more books and have more of his ideas come to fruition without having to physically write more books himself, because he's kind of overbooked with things he wants to write,” Patterson says. “He tells me what the parameters of the project are, and then we brainstorm. We go back and forth, and I furiously take notes, and then I write an outline, and then he gives me feedback on my outline, and his feedback is always fantastic. Then I refine the outline, and write the draft, and he does the same thing with the draft.” Sanderson’s Skyward books followed Spensa, a teenage pilot with cytonic powers who went on her own adventure with some other characters at the end of his 2023 novel Defiant. Patterson said Sanderson is reserving their story in case he ever wants to write another solo novel in the series, leaving her to pen new tales based on the supporting characters that stayed behind. The goal was also to create a new trilogy that didn’t require readers to have read all the Cytoverse books that came before. Image: Random House Children’s Books “It was a lot of work trying to balance making existing fans happy and giving them what they want to see, and also making it so it's not off-putting to new readers,” Patterson says. “One thing that I do hear from existing fans is, ‘Why don't you talk about Spensa more?’ and it’s because it makes new readers feel like they're missing something.” Another big challenge was working with Sanderson’s magic system, where cytonics can transport entire starships across space as a form of faster-than-light travel. “When I was drafting Evershore, I remember saying to Brandon ‘This magic system is out of control,’ and he was like ‘Is it?’ and then he read Evershore and he was like, ‘This magic system is out of control. We have to limit it.’” Image: Random House Children’s Books They worked together to establish restrictions on teleportation set by the Delvers, extradimensional beings living in the realm that cytonics use to instantly cross great physical distances. Sanderson came up with the idea for an inhibitor that could further limit cytonic powers on the planet Blightfall, where the members of Skyward Flight are stranded after they encounter a new threat on a diplomatic mission. “It’s really hard to put pressure on people who can just teleport home,” Patterson says. “I was trying really hard to make it work. I put up all this nice wallpaper to cover all the flaws and Brandon just grabs the corner and rips it down and is like, ‘What is going on back here?’” Sanderson releases at least one new book each year, and Patterson is keeping to his schedule. She has already completed work on Songrise, the next book in the Riftwake Cytoverse trilogy, and is two-thirds of the way through the untitled final book in the series. “When I was a pretty new writer, Brandon was the only published writer that I knew,” Patterson says. “I looked at what he was doing and believed that I needed to be just like him in order to make it. I spent years trying to turn myself into somebody who can produce the ways that he does, and then later learned that nobody else does this. But those years gave me some really good skills. I may not be able to keep up with his output necessarily, but I can throw down some words in an efficient manner. I write and rewrite a lot just trying to get it to be the best that it can be.”