Brandon Sanderson’s next Cosmere novel, *The Fires of December*, will expand his more accessible Hoid’s Travails series, whose standalone stories require little prior knowledge of the wider universe. The book follows December, a young woman carrying the memories of an entire lifetime, as she travels along a river of demon blood to warn a king about an approaching plague.

The novel originated in a Hoid’s Storybook Collection crowdfunding campaign that raised $11 million. It is reportedly due to arrive digitally on 6 October and physically on 6 December, with an excerpt showing December’s first encounter with a colourful, paint-like cat demon; it is also Sanderson’s only Cosmere release this year as he works on other projects.