Shadows Beneath

The Writing Excuses Anthology

By: Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler

Narrated by: Full Cast, Terence Aselford, Colleen Delany, Richard Rohan, Eric Messner, Ken Jackson, Kimberly Gilbert, Dawn Ursula, Michael John Casey, Evan Casey, Nick DePinto, Mort Shelby

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Hugo Award-winning hosts of the Writing Excuses writing advice show comes a collection of all-new stories of the fantastic, with beautiful illustrations and a behind-the-scenes look at each story’s creation.

Brandon Sanderson’s “Sixth of the Dusk,” set in his Cosmere universe shared by the Mistborn books and the number one New York Times best-selling Stormlight Archive, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a lone trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him. 

Mary Robinette Kowal’s “A Fire in the Heavens” is a powerful tale of a refugee seeking to the near-mythical homeland her oppressed people left centuries ago. When Katin discovers the role the “eternal moon” occupies in the Center Kingdom, and the nature of the society under its constant light, she may find enemies and friends in unexpected places. 

Dan Wells’s “I.E.Demon” features an Afghanistan field test of a piece of technology that is supposed to handle improvised explosive devices. Or so the engineers have told the EOD team that will be testing it; exactly what it does and how it does it are need-to-know, and the grunts don’t need to know. Until suddenly the need arises. 

Howard Tayler’s “An Honest Death” stars the security team for the CEO of a biotech firm about to release the cure for old age. When an intruder appears and then vanishes from the CEO’s office, the bodyguards must discover why he is lying to them about his reason for pressing the panic button. 

For years the hosts of Writing Excuses have been offering tips on brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revision, and now they offer an exhaustive look at the entire process. Not only does Shadows Beneath have four beautifully illustrated fantastic works of fiction, but it also includes transcripts of brainstorming and workshopping sessions, early drafts of the stories, essays about the stories’ creation, and details of all the edits made between the first and final drafts. 

Come for the stories by award-winning authors; stay for the peek behind the creative curtain.

Performed by Terence Aselford, Colleen Delany, Richard Rohan, Eric Messner, Ken Jackson, Kimberly Gilbert, Dawn Ursula, Michael John Casey, Evan Casey, Nick DePinto, Mort Shelby, James Konicek, Dylan Lynch, Tim Getman, Thomas Keegan, Thomas Penny, Scott McCormick, Steve Wannall, Chris Davenport, Gregory Linington, Lily Beacon, Christopher Graybill, Andy Brownstein, Bob Payne, Todd Scofield, Nanette Savard, Jeff Allin, Paul Reisman, Patrick Bussink, Shanta Parasuraman, Yasmin Tuazon, Scott Graham, Bill Gillett, Dani Stoller, Chris Genebach, Lise Bruneau, Michael Glenn, Deidra Starnes, David Jourdan, Rose Elizabeth Supan, James Lewis.

©2014 Mary Robinette Kowal (P)2016 Graphic Audio, LLC

A valuable purchase

I'm glad I brought this! This gave insights to many genres that I would probably never read on my own, as well as the basic of brainstorming and workshopping. This is the first time I hear sometime like this, wow, Graphic Audio really outdid themselves.

Didn't love it.

The background music was awfully distracting in several stories, and I didn't often feel that the narrators were the right fit. The stories themselves were okay, I particularly enjoyed the last story but had to force myself to get through two of them. I might have enjoyed them more with different narrators.

A very interesting insight.

I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into when I started this anthology series. I expected a pretty straight forward collection of short stories, and while I did get that, I was surprised by the amount of behind the scenes, making-of co tent that was also included.
A very interesting insight to the writing processes of various authors.

Awesomeness

Not only were the stories interesting and entertaining, but learning about the writing process from brainstorming, to drafting, to editing and polishing was enlightening.

Surprised Me Twice

When I purchased this, I had two expectations: I would, it being the motivation to read this, enjoy Sanderson’s story most and that I probably wouldn’t enjoy or even finish the “writing” bits.

As it turns out, Mary Robinette Kowal’s story blew everyone else’s out of the water. While I enjoyed all four tales, “A Fire in the Heavens” absolutely enthralled me and will be a story I revisit. The entire book was well worth the cost for that story alone.

And the writing bits were fascinating! Hearing the feedback and drafts was interesting despite me having no desire to write whatsoever. I got invested enough to even find myself engaging in the discussion.

And GraphicAudios performance was, as ever, totally on point.

awesome stories and an awesome bts look

awesome stories and an awesome behind the scenes look at the writing process from 4 very excellent authora

A Must-Read for Anthology Lovers

These are some real top quality science fiction stories with a little fantasy vibe in each. What really makes this set stand out is the nearly unmatched quality of audio performance. The full cast and narration make them completely immersive and entertaining. It is a little difficult to understand the world's at first due primarily to their unique jargon and too original names but you get past it. It was also interesting to listen to the brainstorming sessions that lead to the stories after hearing them. I did however have very little interest in re-listening to the stories in their first drafts.

2 of the three stories not very good. Performance major letdown.

The other two authors’ stories (other than Sanderson) were just not good. The performances were not great either. Yes, this style of audio book is not my thing, but still these voice actors are just not good actors.

Fun Stories and a Great Look at the Process

I don't do many reviews but I really liked this product and would love more. Each story was unique and interesting but I especially liked the look at how each story evolved and became better through the help of positive, intelligent workshopping. I also liked hearing the time references-- the revelation that a good story, even a short one, could easily take a year or more to get right.

Two things I'd love to see different: first it'd be great if the Audible chapter stops actually aligned with the beginnings of brainstorming moments, first and second drafts, and followup notes. They don't and skipping ahead drops you into purely arbitrary places.

second, I'd love an option that allows me to hear each final story _after_ the process rather than before.

The sounds are and will always be the best

Hearing the stories and then them talking about them and then hearing the stories again… did not make it through the book!