“Mustard?” Chaz replied. “Who puts mustard on a burrito?”

Sanderson recently posted the first two chapters of Snapshot online (1 / 2). CLIFFHANGER! Bought the whole thing. (It’s $3…)

Basically, in the future it’s possible to bring up a ‘Snapshot’–a virtual copy of the world as it was some number of days ago–and insert a pair of cops into it, who can then live out the day and find out what really happened. It’s a really cool idea. Once again, I would love to see the idea fleshed out even more, but even Sanderson’s prolific writing can only handle so many series.

Plotswise, the big twist is mostly expected, given the main subject matter and genre, but it’s still well done. And there are shades to it that I mostly definitely didn’t see coming. Well done there. There are a few points where something that the narrator knows is obviously left out so the reader doesn’t learn it early, but it’s not often enough to annoy.

Characterwise, there are really only the two main characters and a few smaller parts. I really both of them, especially watching how they both deal with the nature of a ‘fake’ world. The idea of someone thinking they are in a Snapshot in the real world is vaguely terrifying.

Overall, worth the read. It’s ~100 pages and $3 after all.

Side note: The ability to take things out of the Snapshot by way of eating them? Lots of bizarre possibilities there…