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The Dark Talent

The Dark Talent

Children's BooksFantasy
Pages
300
Published
2016
Language
English

Synopsis

Alcatraz and the Smedry crew infiltrate the Librarians' stronghold in the United States: the Library of Congress itself. As they pursue the Librarians' ultimate plans and confront what the Evil Librarians have been building toward across five books, Alcatraz faces personal costs he is not prepared to pay. The Dark Talent is notably darker in tone than its predecessors and ends on a significant unresolved cliffhanger — a cliffhanger that remained unresolved for six years until the sixth book was completed with coauthor Janci Patterson.

Prose complexity
2/10

Vibe

AdventurousTenseDarkEmotional
HeistSurvivalSacrificeComing of AgeBetrayal

Genres

Children's Books Fantasy Middle Grade Adventure Humor

About the author

B
Brandon Sanderson

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1975, Brandon Sanderson spent his early twenties working graveyard shifts at a hotel — writing novels at the front desk between guest check-ins. By the time his debut, Elantris, was published by Tor Books in 2005, he had completed thirteen novels in the drawer. His subsequent Mistborn trilogy and the ongoing Stormlight Archive series established him as the primary architect of the Cosmere, an interconnected fictional universe in which most of his fantasy series share...

Characters

Alcatraz SmedryProtagonist

Facing the Librarians at their most dangerous and discovering the full cost of the war he has been fighting.

BastilleSupporting

Alcatraz's closest ally, whose fate becomes central to the book's emotional stakes.

Grandpa Leavenworth SmedrySupporting

The family patriarch whose wisdom and eccentricity have guided Alcatraz across five books.

All characters in The Dark Talent

Frequently asked questions

  • Is The Dark Talent a standalone story or part of a larger series?

    The Dark Talent is the third novella in the Legion series, following Legion and Legion: Skin Deep. While each novella presents a self-contained mystery, reading them in order provides a more complete understanding of Stephen Leeds's character development and the evolution of his unique abilities.

  • How does The Dark Talent connect to Brandon Sanderson's other works?

    The Dark Talent, like the other Legion novellas, is a standalone story within Sanderson's bibliography and is not part of his Cosmere universe. It showcases his ability to craft compelling mysteries and unique magic systems outside of his epic fantasy settings.

  • Why does the series end on a cliffhanger?

    The Dark Talent was written as a penultimate book in a series Sanderson planned to complete, but personal and professional circumstances delayed the sixth volume by six years. It was eventually completed with coauthor Janci Patterson.

  • Is it safe to read The Dark Talent without the sixth book available?

    Yes — Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians (2022) resolves the cliffhanger. The series is now complete.

  • Is this the darkest book in the series?

    Yes. The Dark Talent is significantly more serious in tone than the first four books, with genuine consequences for characters readers have followed across the series.

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