DEFINITIVE COSMERE READING GUIDE! 📚 

Way of Kings was my first Brandon Sanderson. It sold me. Now it's time to try to get the gf to read it😂 I was trying to get her to read Mistborn, but I dont own a hard copy.

READ BERSERK

Cosmerenaught

I’m a freshman just getting into Stephen king, right now I’m reading The Shining but I’m almost done and I don’t know what other books I should read as a starter, what do you recommend?

Dude! This is not a guide on how to read the cosmere! is a guide on how to start with it. I have started already, and want your input on what to read next☺️

I did the same

me too.

same

I did because I was a dummy who didn't know better.

@@elenafriese891 me too haha, I just saw stormlight was at the top of someone's list of favorite series' and that the books were super long, so I'd have tons to read ;)

Lmao well, once you get a good few series under your belt, read Malazan. You will become humbled again

Same bro juat finished wheel of time I too think to start stormlight archives

@@solidsnake11087 Seriously. I tried reading the first book and my eyes were glazing over not even 20 pages in. I had to put it down for the time being lol

Same too

Way of kings is the perfect entry point for people coming from WoT. Mistborn is somewhat YA, Stormlight archives approches epic fantasy rather better. (Also, you can amuse yourself counting the similarities to WoT, including and down to variations of the names of - quite many, characters)

Agreed

Same here, and i loved the mistborn series

Same

Same, friend. Same

I started with Way of the king's... I enjoyed it... Then comes Hoid and I was like, this guy's feels out of place... Cue massive spoilers after I look him up 😂

Hot take

100% agree. Looking for a way to convince a guy I work with (dude helped me through WoT and Dune) to give BSand a second chance. Think I'll try The Emperor's Soul next. (Mostly I think he really noticed the style change in WoT and got turned off.)

Jo Bo not very controversial but I agree

yeah but everyone should absolutely read warbreaker before words of radiance or at the very latest before oathbringer.

I’d say wait to read Stormlight because of the number of people we see popping in from other series. Especially Hoid

I discovered BS at a time when I was out of work, broke and bored as hell. Warbreaker was posted on his site for free (and I think it still is) so I gave it a read. Been hooked ever since.

It's also good to have read that before going into the later Stormlight books. :)

I won’t

I surrender

John Flemings wise choice

call me france on this one

No arguement on its excellence but just starting out?, only if you are a solid fantasy reader-if you are, you prolly already read the series.

I can completely understand that and I do agree to some extent. As a man in his 30's I did not relate that well to a teenage girl who had grown up on the street. I would however like to propose that the magic system is also a great part of what makes Mistborn such a great starter. In my opinion it is so great in that it is easy to understand and relate to in a way that most magic systems can only strive to do. Brandon Sanderson's systems in general are much like this, but I do think that this system is easier to get into, not just for newcomers to Sanderson's fantasy, but fantasy in general. It is easy to get into and understand the basics, while it certainly is expansive in its entirety when we get to see some of the more complex possibilities in Mistborn era 2. A lot of it comes from how it works, where upon first reading, I found myself thinking "Yes of course this is how it works... it makes perfect sense". I could relate to that magic system so well an thus the world and how it worked because of that. After reading the books, I actually felt like I could understand the system so well that I could become a semi good mistborn if I had that ability, purely from the descriptions alone. I am not saying that it is the best magic system out there since that is certainly up to personal preference, but it is one of the more relatable.

I of course love the SA. I am however hesitant to push people to start with Way of Kings because the series isnt done yet. I started with Mistborn and it hooked me. But I really loved Warbreaker, I ended up reading that after Mistborn and Elantris

If you have experience with epic fantasy then storm light is still a good place to start as any

I started with Mistborn and Vin is one of my favorite female protagonists in fantasy. As a young adult myself I related to her very easily.

Same here dude

Is the ending of mistborn era 1 indicative of the rest of Sanderson's work? Like, do all the books end with a depressing wet fart?

How's it going for you so far? Did you finish it?

@@mrblooper1994 thanks for asking. I just got the Oasis yesterday and started reading this book immediately. Only one chapter in but so far like it very much. Have you read any of Sanderson's books?

@@mdtaylor2274 considering he's my favorite author then yes. Currently going through the new skyward and it's quite enjoyable. I'm frothing from the mouth for when stormlight 4 comes out

I do t know you, but I have the slightest feeling you'll be reading the book just in the right moment

@@CarlosGFlores it's really great so far and I have a 3 day weekend. Going to be reading all weekend and can't wait. I've also been following Sanderson's Reddit community and I'm addicted 😁🇵🇹

Lol how many pages a day were you reading hahaha

I actually don't know haha, since I was listening to it usually in bed before sleep. Generally I planned to listen 15-30 minutes a day but usually was hooked and went for 1-2 hours at least. Sometimes when it was around the end of books or the more intense scenes I went up to 4-5 hours. Sometimes I also used to listen on train or while driving. It felt more like I was binge watching GOT when I found out about it at season 4 rather than normally listening to an audio-book.

Iriya aahhhyyyythats epic hahaha good for you friend

I managed to read book 1 in only 3 days. With resent events I could read basicly 12ish hours a day.

It was 100% worth it

i didnt read a fantasy book in like 10 years, the last one was either one of the harry potter books or the third book in philip pullmans his dark materials. but a year ago i started working very close to a book shop and started to think about rading fantasy again mostly because they had either the lord of the rings or a song of ice and fire book in some corner at the front. and one day i see a book called Elantris by an author that i remembered for being the one who finished the wheel of time. (i read the first 4 books of WoT when i was younger) so i opened the book and read the prologue. the moment i finished that prologue i knew i was going to enjoy that book.

same here read it a ltitle later in college when I decided to jump in again and boy its rekindled the fire and as long as he's still writing, it won't go out. It led me to First Law, Malazan, Robin Hobb, Jade City, Dresden, and even got me back into Sci-fi. So thats why I love Way of Kings so much, it just opened a door to so much deep fantasy outside of Tolkien and Martin, where I found stories that I just related to a lot more. (I still love LOTR, WoT, and SoIaF).

Same

I started with mistborn & that ending ruined it so bad I'll probably never touch another sanderson book (unless someone can assure me that the other books don't end so pathetically)

@@Rowan_A_Boat Cant assure you of anything when you make such a general statement. What didnt you like about it?

@@iveybullard8988 The part of the end where sanderson said "Rocks fell, everyone important died, & then god came & saved the day for everyone else" The part where after three books of buildup & then he throws the heroine in the trash & has the whiny bald nerd be the hero. The part where literally none of the political, ecological, monetary, or social problems that the series was ostensibly about were actually solved, & instead they got rebooted out of existence. Tbh, idk if I can even imagine a worse ending. I'm traumatized.

I started with Elantris too and LOVED it. I read The Emperor's Soul afterwards and then The Final Empire. I didn't like that last one as much as the other two, but it was still pretty good. I'm reading Warbreaker right now and once I'm done I might jump to The Well of Ascension. Btw I know this comment is five months old but I wanted to express my opinion to a random stranger on the internet.

i started with Elantris too and while sanderson has improved considerably. there is something about the atmosphere and sething in Elantris that is just amazing. i still have all of Mistborn to read tho.

I'd recommend reading warbreaker before you finish WoR. You get a nice surprise. But not absolutely necessary

@@TayNez63 Well, I couldn't put WoR down haha. I considered it, but just couldn't do it. I'll probably start it after I finish Oathbringer. I'm a binge reader so I struggle stepping out of a world when I'm immersed in it.

@@kaylahicks1355 understandable! Haha

Words of Radiance SO. GOOD.

IDK how anyone can fall in love with Mistborn. Sure the story is great, but that ending ruined everything so hard that I can't trust sanderson.

Andross Red you are a ‘bibliovore’ Devourer of books 📚

Well kinda expected since you got nothing else to do when you sitting in a dark room, plotting alone all day. As for me I started WOK 5 Months ago and I was like I'll read a bit of this until book 5 of Lightbringer comes out. Now I've finished SA, Warbreaker and I'm almost done with Mistborn's second book. Decided to wait for Graphic Audio version of Lightbringer to come out to give it a try and finish rest of the Mistborn meanwhile.

Andross Red lol your name is a Power Rangers in space homage, right?

@@kengillespie7797no, actually. It's a name of a character from lightbringer.

That's about how long my second read through took (well, first time reading Stormlight and second time for anything else).

You are either some kind of idiot or some kind of genius

I mean sure, you totally can because the books explain most of it at the start anyway so you will understand the story but then going back you might not get as invested in the 1st or 2nd era and the 1st era is amazing, 2ns is great too but waiting for that finish

Amateur, I'm already on Era Four

You mean the 1980s one

@@darkprinceofdorne honestly four sounds cooler than 3, space mistborn is in my opinion the best idea ever.

I did the same order.

Good choice

Its interesting! All the main characters are interesting. I am only half way into book 1 part 1 .but i can see the buildup .. slowly and steadily and i love it. I mean this is my first time reading a book in 10 years :D

Shame about that ending tho

Currently reading both Wheel of Time and stormlight. I am super impressed on both counts

Do you recommend that order? I'm currently reading Book 3 of Era 1 and just ordered Elantris and Warbreaker because I saw other videos that recommended to read them in the beginning.

@@hannahn.3388 I think its a good order. I don't know if you'll enjoy Elantris but I sure did. What are your thoughts on Era 1?

@@jordendarrett1725 I liked but didnt love the first one, I was struggeling a bit because english isnt my first language and Mistborn definitely isnt an easy book. The last 250 pages of the second book really did it for me and I loved all the character developement, everything felt really realistic . What about you

@@jordendarrett1725 I think Mistborn Era 1 is an awesome starting point to get into his stuff. Very unique and lots of fun. But after Mistborn - Stormlight is amazingly well done as well but the two aren't connected.

Mistborn ending ruined it tho.

Me too I think.

Maja Schachner yep! That’s generally considered the best look. Good guess!

Nothing wrong with that. I'm rereading The Final Empire now. I would make one small suggestion if I'm not too late. Read Warbreaker before tackling the Stormlight books. It's not required or anything it's just that it's a great read and will introduce you to several characters that make appearances in Stormlight. Plus if you don't feel like spending money on it, he has it posted for free on his website.

@@wingracer1614 Thanks! It's gonna take me a while to get there but I'll check it out!

I don't love mistborn era one as much as I like the whole stormlight archive. I think because mistborn era1 is more consistently in a low mood. And it kind of weighs me down. So, I want to tell you that era 2 was much more enjoyable for me, the mood is lighter, the relationships are done well imo. i also absolutely recommend it as an audiobook, because Michael Cramer does a fantastic job with the voice acting. Definitely get through era 1 first. But era 2 might be worth it if you're like me.

Thats crazy I am on the reverse, I strongly dislike Way of Kings.

I have read Mistborn more times than I can count......like I fall asleep regularly to it like a safety blanket 😂 I haven't read the other series.....🤷🏾‍♂️ I'm afraid to let go and take the plunge.... someone push me over the edge 😭

The Mistborn trilogy has kind of put me off of reading more by Brandon Sanderson. It wasn't bad by any means, but sort of went opposite to what I enjoy in fantasy. The characters felt a bit one-dimensional, the way story lines converged felt forced, and none of it resonated with me on an emotional level. The middle novel dragged on for a bit, and I also didn't dig the finale. Overall, the structure was also weird. The first novel introduced a pretty convincing adversary, only to be replaced by something way more vague.The things it did well, such as the creative Magic system and world building concepts, felt more like gimmicks and weren't enough to make me look past the things I didn't like. I will have to give his other series a second chance at some point and hope that they address some of the issues I had with Mistborn. Since it is one of his first published works, I can imagine that he has matured as an author since.

@@michalljubljanac312 I took the opposite stance I think. He explored slavery, though I think this was the most ham fisted aspect of the book, I would have liked to hear more from the ska as far as how their society was shaped and influenced. It felt like they were very one dimensional. With other characters though I think they were being seen through vins eyes a lot and that flattened them because she is not the most in depth when it comes to emotions ect, she's more concerned with harm/ others actions. I think after toppling the slave state they had to contend with the ideologies that made it legal and how the institution of slavery among other things changed their world but also was a response to the new necessities of the environment (that the colonizer/ruler destroyed). I think there were big themes that could have been handled better but I think it had a lot of great elements for a fantasy novel and tried to be more equitable in some subtext than I often see.

Yeah I recommend Mistborn to non-reading friends and Stormlight to friends that already read a ton or have read things like WoT or GoT.

Good points. Personally I read mistborn trilogy first, then Elantris. And I'm glad I did that. Elantris was really hard for me to get through at times. And tbh I may not have finished it if I didnt fall in love with Sanderson after Mistborn

Yep! I started with the way of Kings and absolutely fell in love with Sanderson. The stormlight archive books are my favorite but the mistborn books are still incredible

James Luke the biggest tie between two worlds in the Cosmere connects Warbreaker to Stormlight. If that makes you curious, keep it in mind. It’s a different planet a fair few years before Stormlight, and serves as backstory for a couple people you’ve met.

I started with Stormlight Archive audio books. Luckily all cosmere books are done by Michael Kramer with the exception of Elantris so it's easy to get into Mistborn on Audio book since you know the reader already.

@@Dresden0478 I was thinking of the Mistborn books next I tried listening to Empire of Silence but Michael Kramer is a much better narrator

I think I did Mistborn then Elantris then warbreaker

Mistborn era 1 is lotr level.SLA is better most likely.

Lena Montgomery totally agree. I’ve only read mistborn era 1, Elantris and Warbreaker, take that into account, but Warbreaker is by far my least favorite book by Brandon Sanderson, I wanted to skip the chapters that were from Vivennas’s point of view. Because of that, I avoided piking the book back up and I found that really weird as with his other books I couldn’t stop reading. Elantris is one of my favorite books by Sanderson and in my personal opinion is a great starting point with Sanderson. Although, I think the least controversial and possibly the best starting point is with mistborn era 1 (the final empire).

I too really enjoyed Elantris. But then I seem to be one of the few that also truly loves Warbreaker. Doomslug rules.

I read it in 2 days

KRS - He has a knack it turning two sentences into three paragraphs sometimes. Too many words for my brain today.