An interesting short story. It brings some thoughts to the nature versus nurture debate in a sci fi setting. What was it in the way the first man was brought up that made him a megalomaniac? How did the nurture of the second copy produce the effect it did? Also it talks about the value of learning to lose. Learning to lose and getting back up and trying again.

For those who think it isn't real or valuable science fiction because it is light on science, that's not the point. Space opera can be the bones on which to hang a whole lot of speculative fiction that speaks to human values without the constraints of current reality.

( )

Nice!
Not surprised by the ending. A little lie to end the big problem.
Very enjoyable story. Also - cloning is no panacea.

I'm definitely sampling some other things by Sanderson.

RECOMMENDED

FINAL VERDICT : READ IT! ( )

This was my first acquaintance with Brandon Sanderson's writing, even though the [book:Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set|6604209] has been waiting for a few years now to be read. I'll get to it eventually.

But as Firstborn is a short story (for free at Tor.com) and such stories are always convenient when you don't have much time to read or just want something quick in-between... why not, right?

The story is set in space, it's SF-themed, though there's not much science involved. There's a war going on. Two brothers were formed in the military Academy to be the new generation to take over from the old generation. However, one of two brothers (Varion) became so good at commanding and waging war, that he turned against his people. Or, he must be stopped, obviously. That's where the younger brother, Dennison, comes in.

Dennison is not Varion. While he too is a commander, it's not what he's good at. He's good at analysing, not executing tactics. So, failure upon failure, as you could have guessed. His crew, or at least one man (Brell), criticises him for not being able to do a proper job. This one quote is brilliant: "If I'm an idiot, then you must be pretty damn incompetent yourself; otherwise they would never have wasted you by sending you to serve under me."

In any case, Dennison's/Varion's father (Sennion, High Duke) calls him back, to place him aboard another ship, under the command of High Admiral Kern. But that's not what Dennison wants, he wants to be relieved from the job. It seems many people see that only Dennison can defeat his brother. They're not really brothers; Dennison is a clone of Varion, but it wasn't a 100% success, as the ending of the story indicates.

Dennison has to study Varion's way of waging war and find a way to counter that. It comes to a serious battle between the two, of course. Sanderson managed to keep the tension high and find a way for Dennison to come up with an idea (a light touch of psychological warfare, I'd say) that could defeat Varion. I realise that the two brothers were at the center of the story, but with all those commanders, wasn't there anyone else who had an idea of how to handle the situation?

Firstborn is of course one of Sanderson's early writings. In itself, it's quite all right. But if you compare it with other, similar stories, it's mediocre. Nevertheless, if you want a quick-paced, light SF-themed story, this is one of those. ( )

This is a very short science fiction novella by Sanderson. It was well written and somewhat ironic. I am always impressed by Sanderson’s ability to weave a believable world and engaging characters in such short page space.

This book lets us follow Dennison Crestmar as he is forced into combat against his extremely capable brother. There was a lot of irony to it and I enjoyed the setting and characters.

Overall this was a good quick science fiction story with some intriguing twists. I would recommend if you are a Sanderson fan. It’s a fun ironic story with good characters and some action. I enjoyed it. ( )

Sanderson is like James Cameron in ink. Shut off your mind, sit back, grab popcorn, and enjoy!

Somehow Sanderson has sneaked-up as the most-read author in my bookshelves, or so Goodreads.com tells me he is.

So, I can say with a little authority: This is not a good Sanderson story. A rare miss for him. In his defense, Sanderson is so consistent that if he didn't falter sometime, I would start suspecting he's an author robot with prose-machine-guns for hands... or some similar and totally believable & reasonable metaphor. ( )