Jared,
I’m reading this out of Arcanum Unbound, the Cosmere collection of shorts, but this is actually available on Mr. Sanderson’s website for free. But you really shouldn’t read it until you’ve read Elantris first. Normally I don’t read, let alone review, short stories. In this case it’s Sanderson and Cosmere to boot.
Title: The Hope of Elantris
Series: Elantris/Cosmere; Short Story
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: UU, Medieval, Higher Magic
Synopsis: New Elantris, the faded imitation of a once great city. But for once the inhabitants don’t care. They have a purpose. When outside forces have designs of their own for this forgotten place, they’ll do what they can to keep hold of their humanity.
Recommendation: Adult or late teen. The events take place during the final events of Elantris, so there are some major spoilers.
It’s a short story, so there’s not much to say. As mentioned above, this takes place in final events of Elantris. It’s main purpose is to give us a view of what’s happening away from the main characters.
The main character is Matisse, an Elantrian, living in the filthy and ruin of the City of Elantris. She captures much of the hope and hopelessness found in the main book, but adds her own perspective and motivations to it.
In general it’s not bad, but it’s not very strong as a stand-alone outside the main story. But as a primer for reading the much anticipated sequel to Elantris, it’s perfect. (Now to wait a few years for that to be written.)
Robert
Reading Over The Shoulder 
I finally got my chance to read this in the Cosmere collection he released late last year. By itself it is not much, but yeah, it’s very sweet if you’ve read Elantris. I also love the background story about why he wrote this story.
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There are so many interesting facts in Arcanum Unbound, the back story on this really is awesome.
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