Long Chills and Case Dough

Long Chills and Case dough is a short story by Acclaimed writer Brandon Sanderson. This was surprise 5th story from the secret project kickstarter campaign that as far as I know no one was expecting. And for Sanderson it really is a short story at 68 pages long

Going in I knew this was a detective story, the cover of the book certainly gives that much away at least.

This short story gives the feel of a classic Dixon Hill setting (picards favorite detective holo program for the trekkies out there)

This was fun quirky and quick read about a Detective in 2151 investigating a crime with all the classic 1920s chicago mob private eye detective story. From the old building he works out of, to the lack of clients and the secretary who answers the phones and does some sluthing work for him. For a fun simple story the setting is just fine and no issues there, but that is where the good stops imho

I can see why this was not published in tradional or even self pub format. In the preface Sanderson states he wrote this story back in 2002 but did not publish it then or since as he has not found the right outlett to do so.

This book just does not, I guess age well in the modern Era. Derrins is a a extremley misogynistic and sexist character who has adopted the classic 1920s private detective way of speaking and culture. Often refering to his secretary as doll, skirt, etc.. and commenting that her job is to answer the phone and do her nails. At one point he is appears surprised that she is not just a secretary but a doll or skirt with brains.

Our main character is only called out once on his misogyny, and barley at that. It's just hard to believe that his mindset and way he thinks is acceptable in the setting of this book. There is nothing in this future world that suggesst that this is part of the overall culture of the society he is in.

I don't have a inherent problem with sexist characters in books, or racist of any other ist, When those characters are done well and it fits with the story in a effective way, but in this case Derrins sexisty misogyny is treated as no big deal, and the one time he is called out felt like nothing more than an attempt to call it out to say "see I called it bad"

If you are new to Sanderson do not read this book, at least not until you have read the rest of his works. This is not who Sanderson inherentley is as a writer, this is just a bad book or bad story overall, it only gets points for being a quirky fun little story but otherwise just not what I would call a good story