Lux (2021)

Lux is an Audio book special by Brandon Sanderson, which was released on July 22, 2021. It takes place in The Reckoners universe in Texas. The book is limited to audio book but a print version is planned. Lux is also part of Brandon Sanderson's Mainframe project.

Synopsis
When the great red star Calamity appeared in the sky, some believed the end had come. They were right. Calamity created the Epics: humans with incredible powers they didn't deserve.

They could have saved mankind. They could have lifted us into harmony and prosperity. Instead they burned. They slaughtered. They conquered. And then they ruled.

Jax has learned all of this the hard way. Orphaned at an early age, he's spent most of his childhood training to be a Reckoner – determined to find the Epics' weaknesses, unlock their secrets, and protect those of us who are still left.

But now, the mysterious High Epic Lifeforce has arrived with his flying city, Lux, to plunder what's left of Texas. So Jax and his ragtag team – the few who remain of the once-mighty Texas Reckoners – must take their battle to this floating fortress of riches – and defeat the invincible.

To avenge what has been lost. And rise anew.

Development
In 2019, Steven Michael Bohls mentioned that he was working with Brandon on an expansion to The Reckoners universe, and had been given quite a bit of autonomy on the project. It was conceived as both a spinoff and a sequel of the original trilogy, following a different team of Reckoners. Steven anticipated writing three novellas for the audio original format that would then be consolidated as a sequel in print.

Brandon mentioned a planned Reckoners project for Mainframe in 2020 and again referred to the project as a trio of novellas. In late 2020 and early 2021, Steven posted a few updates about the development process on social media; the working title was Deathrise. During the revision process, the team decided that the pacing of the three novellas worked better as a single novel. The novel is intended to stand alone; it has some time overlap with the previous Reckoners books, but reading them is not a prerequisite.