This story was actually amazing, and I think this concept needs to be turned into a full-length novel for all the word lovers out there like me.
Skip’s knack, or special ability, is that he smells good to dragons. But he’s tired of being dragon bait for all the hunters. What he really wants to be is a lexicographer because his other knacks are the ability to hear spelling and the ability to hear punctuation when people talk. He wants to compile all the words in the world into a book so everyone knows how to spell them right. A dictionary! He wants to make a dictionary!
I love the idea of a fantasy world like this that has magic in it but also has a protagonist who’s focused on words and grammar. I love words myself and the making of dictionaries is a really fascinating concept to me. I need to see this story played out in a longer novel because I know it would be perfection.
I enjoyed this short little story, although of course I wish it were longer. It’s hard for me to rate short stories very high because of the lack of world building, characterization, plot, etc. present in the story, but what we were given with this one was good; although, I’m not a fan that the dragons talk here, but that’s a minor detail. I do hope someday Sanderson or someone else takes the idea behind this story and expands on it to create a rich fantasy world where the main character is creating that world’s first dictionary. I can’t tell you how much I love that idea. Plus, we need more of this story anyway because I need to know what happens after that cliffhanger!
“Did you know that fourteen thousand people died last year because of a misspelling? It was in a peace treaty. The scribe wrote the word ‘peace’ as ‘piece.’ ‘We will continue to dwell in freedom, and you will continue in piece.’ It started a war. They thought he meant ‘continue in pieces.’ Fourteen thousand died before they found the problem.”
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