ByDanielD
If you’re here, it’s because you want to check out Brandon Sanderson’s books, but don’t know where to start. So let’s get into it! First off, it’s important to know that the bulk of Sanderson’s work takes place in a shared universe called the “Cosmere” — and that’s what this article will focus on. Fortunately, you don’t have to even be aware of this fact to read and enjoy Cosmere novels, and you can theoretically start anywhere, even the middle of a series*.
But Brandon Sanderson is an incredibly prolific author, and looking at his publication list can end up feeling pretty overwhelming if you’re trying to figure out where to start. And in truth, there’s no perfect approach! With that in mind, this article will dig into a few different ways you can start reading the Cosmere, whether you want to start by dipping your toes and checking the temperature, or if you want to dive in head first. We’ve also got a full reading list for people who just want a suggested reading order.
*The author may or may not have accidentally read some of the books in Stormlight Archive out of order and still enjoyed them thoroughly.
This option is best for people who don’t want to jump into a complex narrative or a long series right away, and would prefer to see if they like Brandon Sanderson’s style in as few pages as possible. With that in mind, here are some good options for your first Cosmere book:
Mistborn is part one of a trilogy, but still may be the very best book to start with. It’s described very well by the official Brandon Sanderson site as “one part Ocean’s Eleven, one part Lord of the Rings, one part Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, one part My Fair Lady.” It feels a bit young adult at times — but the grittiest, scariest version of young adult you can find. This is my personal favorite of the jumping off points, as it encapsulates all of Brandon Sanderson’s strengths — and most of his weaknesses — as an author in a single book. The large cast of characters is fun, the magic system is one of his best, and the pseudo-medieval city of Luthadel is simultaneously familiar and completely alien.
Warbreaker is a standalone novel, and is like Mistborn in that it’s hard to describe it with just a label or two. In brief, two sisters from a minor kingdom become embroiled in the politics of the living gods who rule the nearby city state, and antics ensue. A combination love story, political thriller, and character drama, Warbreaker also offers a varied cast of characters — characters that manage to change and grow throughout the book.
The Emperor’s Soul is a novella, and a slower burn than the rest of the books in this section, but it’s arguably one of Sanderson’s best stories. A master of magical forgery, Shai is captured and sentenced to death. She is then offered her life and freedom if she uses her skills to recreate the soul of the Emperor, who is in a coma after a near-fatal attempt on his life. Most of the book sees Shai sitting around learning about the Emperor, and it should be a boring book, yet the conversations she has with one of her captors, and with herself, move the plot along nicely.
Elantris is the first novel Brandon Sanderson ever published, and is often recommended as the best book to start with because of how easy it is to get into. A prince contracts a magical illness and ends up in a prison city full of the similarly afflicted. He navigates the unique culture of the city while his bride-to-be battles against a religious extremist for the hearts and minds of the nation. I put this last on the list because I find it to be one of Brandon’s weaker works — he’s still finding his footing as a writer, and it shows. Still, it’s not a bad Cosmere novel, and the situation the prince finds himself in is a spicy one: without spoiling too much, imagine if every stubbed toe you got hurt… forever.
OK, but what if you want to get to the best parts of the Cosmere right away, or if you don’t really like the sound of any of the books above? Well, here are a few of the best ways to jump into the Cosmere deep end:
The Way of Kings is the first of a planned 10 Stormlight Archive books, and it does not hold your hand in introducing you to the world of Roshar. You have to be willing to not know all the proper nouns for the first few hundred pages, and willing to start a series that won’t be finished for many years to come. Still, I’d rate the Stormlight Archive as far and away my favorite Cosmere series, and The Way of Kings is the book that hooked me (I read Elantris a few years prior, enjoyed it, but didn’t bother looking into the author more). It’s another hard book to describe, but in short: TWoK follows a surgeon turned soldier turned slave, a young woman torn between the life she wants and what she believes is best for her family, and a battle-scarred warrior who has turned his back on his bloodthirsty youth. These three characters’ stories evolve as a war of vengeance draws the movers and shakers of the nation of Alethkar to the barren landscape of the Shattered Plains.
The Allow of Law is the second Mistborn series, and takes place centuries after the events of the original Mistborn books, in an era of industrialization. It’s a tighter, more focused book, part detective novel and part western shoot-em-up. While it’s a more light-hearted read than some of the other suggested entry points, it also ends up spoiling most of the major events of the first Mistborn series, and so is only a good place to start if you aren’t that worried about going into Mistborn era 1 blind.
Tress and the Emerald Sea is a very recent book that, while technically a standalone novel, includes a lot of connections to other Cosmere novels. While you don’t need to recognize them to enjoy the book, some characters and events will make more sense, and be a bit more exciting, for a reader more familiar with the Cosmere as a whole. Despite this, I still think it’s a great place to start, simply because it’s one of Brandon Sanderson’s best books. It’s a classic tale of a young person striking out from home for the first time, but the bog-standard narrative takes place in an incredibly unique setting. The seas of spores is a fascinating concept, and the sassy narration from Hoid is an effective device that makes the book a very fun (and often funny) read.
With the assumption that most readers won’t want to start with The Way of Kings, and that readers will want to read the stories in such a way that you aren’t taking breaks between books in a series, here is our recommended reading order for the Cosmere:
We’ll start with Mistborn, then take a break from reading a series and check out a few standalones — Warbreaker and Elantris are good to read at this point because both stories have connections to Stormlight Archive that you’d otherwise miss, and the same goes for the White Sands graphic novels. However, these are marked optional because it’s expensive to get 3 graphic novels, they aren’t particularly good graphic novels, and are arguably not as well written as the rest of the Cosmere. It’s also a very, very minor connection between White Sands and Stormlight Archive.
This is our Stormlight Archive arc, obviously. It’s a lot of Stormlight, but partway through we’ll take a break and read a bunch of great short stories in the Cosmere. While theoretically the stories in Arcanum Unbounded could be moved around on the list, it’s simpler for reading purposes (and easier if you have to purchase the books) to go through all the short stories at once, except for two. Allomancer Jack will be a bit weird if you don’t have the Mistborn Era 2 context, and Secret History will probably make more sense if you read it after Bands of Mourning — but that’s not chronological, and the confusion you’ll feel will mirror the protagonists, so we prefer reading it at this point.
Crucially, Arcanum Unbounded is placed where it is because it contains the Stormlight Archive novella Edgedancer, which takes place between the events of Words of Radiance and Oathbringer. You can skip all the non-Stormlight stuff for now if you’re eager to return to Roshar, but the stories in the collection are on the whole very good.
Dawnshard is another Novella, albeit one that isn’t part of a collection, but should be read between Stormlight 3 and 4. That said, if you don’t want to read two massive Stormlight books in a row, you can read some of the Arcanum Unbounded stories in between each Stormlight book!
We’ll take a break from series again to read a few more standalones, then begin Era 2 of Mistborn. Era 2 is 4 books (it was planned as a trilogy and then Brandon Sanderson accidentally wrote an extra), so if you aren’t someone who likes to read a long series all in one go, you can sprinkle Yumi, Tress, and Sunlit Man — all standalone stories — between each Mistborn book.
This reading order is a living document, and will be updated and rearranged as more Cosmere books are published. It’s also only an opinion, and we’d love to hear yours in the comments if you’ve got a different suggested reading order!
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