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Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian

from $11.99
Hardcover:

The only new Brandon Sanderson work releasing in 2026, and his first-ever co-written adult fantasy novel — Sanderson fans and newcomers alike have been waiting for this one for over a decade.

A London rocker dies — and wakes up to discover that music and light are the only things standing between the living world and a revolution of the dead.

Songs of the Dead opens in London's West End, where Jack Solomon — a struggling, scrappy musician — is killed, and wakes up somewhere he didn't expect. Beneath the streets of modern London lies an entire hidden world: layers of living history, era upon era, stacked all the way back to the beginning of recorded time.

These stratums are not peaceful. The dead who inhabit them are restless, angry, and increasingly organized — and their fury is being harnessed by a powerful society of magic wielders who traffic in light and sound. Jack finds himself caught between two worlds, with a choice that will determine whether the past swallows the present whole.

The magic system at the heart of the book is unlike anything Sanderson has built before. Music and light aren't just thematic backdrops here — they are the architecture of an entire magical order, built out by co-author Peter Orullian, a real-world composer, rock performer, and fantasy author who has spent his career making music and narrative inseparable.

What emerges is an urban fantasy with unusual depth and texture — fast-paced and propulsive, but also genuinely emotional, built around themes of forgiveness, loyalty, and what it means to fight for something when you have nothing left to lose.

The only new Brandon Sanderson work releasing in 2026, and his first-ever co-written adult fantasy novel — Sanderson fans and newcomers alike have been waiting for this one for over a decade.

A London rocker dies — and wakes up to discover that music and light are the only things standing between the living world and a revolution of the dead.

Songs of the Dead opens in London's West End, where Jack Solomon — a struggling, scrappy musician — is killed, and wakes up somewhere he didn't expect. Beneath the streets of modern London lies an entire hidden world: layers of living history, era upon era, stacked all the way back to the beginning of recorded time.

These stratums are not peaceful. The dead who inhabit them are restless, angry, and increasingly organized — and their fury is being harnessed by a powerful society of magic wielders who traffic in light and sound. Jack finds himself caught between two worlds, with a choice that will determine whether the past swallows the present whole.

The magic system at the heart of the book is unlike anything Sanderson has built before. Music and light aren't just thematic backdrops here — they are the architecture of an entire magical order, built out by co-author Peter Orullian, a real-world composer, rock performer, and fantasy author who has spent his career making music and narrative inseparable.

What emerges is an urban fantasy with unusual depth and texture — fast-paced and propulsive, but also genuinely emotional, built around themes of forgiveness, loyalty, and what it means to fight for something when you have nothing left to lose.

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster / Saga Press
    Title: Songs of the Dead
    Author: Brandon Sanderson, Peter Orullian
    On Sale Date: June 16, 2026
    ISBN-13: 9781668068144
    ISBN-10: 1668068141
    Format: Hardcover
    Retail Price: $30.00 USD
    BISAC: Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary
    Page Count: 464
    Dimensions: 9 in H | 6 in W | 1.5 in T
    Weight: 1.4 lb

  • Brandon Sanderson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author behind some of the most beloved works in modern fantasy, including the Mistborn trilogy and The Stormlight Archive, the first five volumes of which have sold over five million copies. His books have hit the New York Times bestseller list twenty-five times and have been published in forty languages. In 2022, he broke Kickstarter records by raising over $40 million to self-publish four novels, and he won the Hugo Award in 2013 for his novella "The Emperor's Soul." Songs of the Dead is his first co-written adult fantasy novel and the only new Sanderson work releasing in 2026.

    Peter Orullian is a fantasy author, composer, and performer who has toured internationally with rock and metal bands and recently founded his symphonic rock group Symphony North. He has novelized concept albums for Grammy Award-winning metal group Dream Theater and was shortlisted for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award in 2012. His fantasy writing — including The Vault of Heaven — consistently uses music as the foundation of worldbuilding and magic, making him the ideal creative partner for a project like Songs of the Dead. The two authors have been developing The Strata Wars series together since 2018.

  • Pre-release readers are calling it inventive, propulsive, and surprisingly emotional:

    • Early readers describe Songs of the Dead as a genuinely fresh premise — music, light, and layered eras of history beneath London's streets combining into something eerie, deep, and unlike anything else in urban fantasy.

    • Reviewers highlight Jack Solomon as an easy character to root for: messy, stubborn, shaped by his past, but willing to fight for what matters — with real heart in the themes of forgiveness and loyalty.

    • Readers note that the magic system, while softer than Sanderson's typical intricate structures, carries that familiar Sanderson architecture and benefits enormously from Orullian's deep musical expertise.

    • Those who finished it recommend it especially to fans of Percy Jackson and music-infused worldbuilding, calling it a fast, fun, and surprisingly moving urban fantasy with an underdog spirit and genuine stakes.

This book is for you if:

  • You're a Brandon Sanderson fan who has been tracking this project through his annual updates for years and are ready to finally hold it in your hands.

  • You love urban fantasy that builds its magic from the ground up — music-and-light-based systems, layered underworlds, and a fresh mythology rooted in real history.

  • You're drawn to underdog protagonists: Jack Solomon is messy, stubborn, and entirely human, and watching him navigate a world he never asked for is the engine of the whole book.

  • You loved Percy Jackson or Neil Gaiman's London-set work and want something that scratches that same itch with more complexity and a rock-and-roll heartbeat.

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