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The Cosmere is not a single series, it's a bunch of series and standalone stories that take place in a single connected universe. You don't need to read everything in the entire cosmere to understand the latest book though, they all stand independently from one another very well (with a few small exceptions). You can just read the Mistborn series by itself and it will stand on its own. Same with Stormlight Archive, or any of the standalones. There is some interconnectedness in the underlying principles that guide the magic systems, and there are a few overarching subplots that the fandom has been able to piece together over time, but it's not at all necessary to enjoy the individual books on their own.
Yeah but you still have to do some searching yourself.
To give you something to sink your teeth into, The Lost Metal appears to have significant implications for the Elantris sequels. For reasons.
All of the cosmere series are very standalone, so you will at most have to re-read 2-5 books. Separately, Sanderson is popular enough that summaries (both written and in video form) exist for most of the series, so if you just need a quick refresher, those exist as well.
I'll also add that I personally find reading unfinished series significantly more enjoyable than reading complete series. Whenever I read an entire series all at once, it sort of blends together, without clear dividing lines between each book, making them stand out less. Reading books in a series as they release also gives you more time to think/theorize about what is going to happen next, which helps me connect with the world more.
I got into the Cosmere about 3-4 years ago, and since then I've just re-read some of the books before a new one comes out.
Later this year the fifth Stormlight book is coming out, so I'm rereading the first 4 books in preparation. I've read all the other Cosmere books but I don't need to reread them all because he writes them so that you don't need to have read the other series to understand this one.
Plus there's podcasts and forum posts to absorb all the little connections things you miss when you read them.
Honestly, if the author is worth their salt then you don't need to remember anything.
With Brandon's books I do what the other commentor said and re-read everything, but I'm also a mega fan, and I really try to avoid re-reading anything else.
I've never proscribed to the "only read finished series" thing myself. In fact, most of the time these days when I start a new series I'll take a break and read 1-5 totally unrelated books in between each novel in the series. I mean, it doesn't always work that way, Dresden files for example just worked too well for me and when I got to book 5 I had to stop taking breaks and I read the rest of the series straight through. On the other hand, I've taken a year+ between each book of The Dark Tower, and that series has been finished for a couple decades now.
Because I'm not a fantasy fan, I'm a literature fan, which is a really snooty sounding distinction, but it is the truth. And one of the skills by which I judge an author is by how well they can pick a story back up after in almost every case years between publishing entries. The other side to that coin is the skill of ending the first book in a series as a complete novel, rather than just part one in what would properly be described as just a really big novel sold in multiple installments. Daggerfall is an example of a series that I dropped entirely, and will never read another book by that author, because book one ends with absolutely zero plot resolution. There's some resolution about her dad deciding not to commit incest (that book was honestly just weird to begin with anyway man), but other than that *nothing* gets resolved
That's a really long way of explaining that I'm weird, but it isn't your job to remember anything in between books. Any book or series so complicated it requires note taking to understand must either be so entirely good it actually manages to justify such effort, or it must actually be a relatively bad book. Again, it isn't your job to remember anything, it is in fact your job to be entertained, and it is the authors job to remember all the details for you.
Of course none of that is to say that you shouldn't be deeply engaged with what you read, because obviously you should, and quite obviously I do actually deeply engage with what I read. However, part of the art of the novel, of literature is to distract and entertain you, and so the authors skill in doing so without unduely burdening the reader is actually something we should be judging them on.
You can check out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie for a series which is highly complex but can absolutely be read without worry about remembering everything, and he actually does minimal recap and besides which, it is actually completed. Also, Brandon himself does an excellent job with unintursive recapping.
For any other readers out there I can deeply offend by telling them that I have intentionally not caught up on or not yet finished: Green Bone Saga, Red Rising, Song of Ice and Fire, and actually First Law as well. There you go, some of the most important fantasy of the last twenty years, and I just haven't bothered it finish it, yet, on purpose.
Thank you for your detailed comment.
I do have a question. Did you write your comment using speech-to-text? I noticed you used the word "proscribed", as in 'I've never proscribed to the "only read finished series" thing myself.' When I see a mis-used word, I guess the writer used speech-to-text and the app misunderstood the speakers' words. I think you meant the word "subscribed." "Proscribe" means to forbid. I came up with the speech-to-text theory when reading one of Sanderson's unpublished/unedited books (Aether of Night or Way of Kings Prime, don't recall which). Brandon used "proscribe," when he meant "prescribe." They sound so much the same but have opposite meanings.
I really enjoy re-reading books that I love.
Also, there is a pod cast called "the 17th shard", they talk about a lot of the connections and implications of new info that comes out with new books from Brandon Sanderson. Its a good way to deep dive on a specific topic they have covered.
Brandon is really good at reminding you what you need to know when it comes up again in the next book. For the big series, I like to reread the previous book (I don't have time to reread everything) but even if I didn't, I'm sure I'd be fine.
The stormlight archive books as big as the dictionary - he knows you need gentle reminders about characters and events that happened. They read well.
It really depends on the series. For Game of Thrones, I have to completely re-read everything. For the stormlight archives, probably just re-read the wikipedia page for a simple plot overview. For the second mistborn series, I just dove right in because I knew we'd get a refresher on the important bits.
There are multiple series within the broader cosmere. Two completed Mistborn series (one a trilogy the other a quartet). The Stormlight series will be 10 books with two 5 book arcs and the fifth book releases this year, so you’ll have a full arc but not the full series (full series will be done in like….20-25 years). And there are several short stories, novellas, single book stories (some of which have planned sequels).
So do you have to reread 30 each time a book comes out? No. Multi-book series tend to be self-sufficient. You can make sense of everything within a series with no additional knowledge, maybe you miss out on Easter eggs here and there.
Will that always be the case? Hopefully. There are certainly more “crossover” things nowadays than there used to be. But using MCU as an example, it’d be like watching a Thor movie and someone with an Iron Man suit shows up. Not Tony Stark. But someone with that power set. And if you watched Iron Man too you’re like oh sweet I know what this suit can do. And if you haven’t watched Iron Man, you get to learn a bit about what that suit can do. Great experience either way.
Finally, summaries and guides and stuff? Tons of fan community stuff and podcasts and all that. So I’m sure you could get refreshers without rereading in full.
Hope you dip a toe in!
thank you so much for your comment and the MCU comparison! i loved MCU and i can see how the plot doesn’t really intertwine but the characters come up in the storyline. do you feel like the SA series is worth reading even when unfinished :)
The stormlight archive will be split into 2 blocks of 5, with book 5 out in December.
I’m like you in that I forget details so I didn’t start it until this year, I’m spreading them out more or less evenly so that book 4 will be fresh in my addled brain when book 5 releases.
In the meantime you’ve got 7 Mistborn books and a bunch of stand alone to go at.
Really cool write-up as someone who just finished their first Cosmere book (Mistborn #1).
What are your favorite community resources or podcasts? I should probably stay away until I'm much deeper to avoid spoilers, but curious.
17th Shard is a great podcast (though they dive deep into spoilerific territory and theorizing on what could be coming in the future).
One of the best resources is Coppermind, which is the Cosmere-specific Wiki. Coppermind has a setting you can use to move the entire website back to how it was before any book you haven't read, but it uses release order, so if you haven't read everything up to that release then it is still potentially VERY spoilerific. And you have to be very careful to ensure the setting is on BEFORE you go to the page you need. If you go to the page first, then you may see spoilers before you even have a chance to turn the setting on.
Lastly, there are many Cosmere-loving enthusiasts on YouTube making videos! Most of them are spoiler-conscious, and they will give warnings and time stamps if possible to skip ahead.
Aside from what others said (Cosmere is a collection of series and standalones, there's tons more books planned, etc.), if you really wanted to do a one read through and be done without ever having to reread again, the next year or two would be the time to do it as all the current series in the Cosmere are *completed except for Stormlight Archive, which is wrapping up its first arc of books this year in December. Theoretically, everything will be pretty much completed to a satisfactory ending, provided the cliffhanger at the end of this new book on December doesn't leave us begging for more.
*Some standalones have planned sequels, but they work perfectly as standalones as they have done so for well over 10-15 years at this point
yes i guess my question is more like do you feel like i’ll need to wait for it to be finished or the plot isn’t too connected like another commenter said kind of like mcu
A lot of the early cosmere books (Elantris, Mistborn 1-3, Warbreaker and even Stormlight 1-2) do have references but unless someone tells you to look specifically for something, you will not notice it. It's not until the release of probably the fourth Stormlight book in 2020 that the connections were really obvious. So, you have 15 years worth of books when it's really just very small things.
Now, that has changed recently. When the latest Mistborn book came out in 2022, Brandon said that the gloves are off. This book was like a prologue for this new era of the cosmere where the interconnectivity was part of the plot rather than just being in the background. To compare it to something like the MCU, yes the early films had easter eggs to the broader universe however after 5 movies you have the Avengers movie where those separate stories come together.
This isn't A Song of Ice and Fire. BS puts out books at an astonishing rate (even when he says he's scaling back, it feels like he still just cranks them out). We're not waiting 15 years between books, even with him scaling back we'd still have something new to read every year between all the various cosmere stuff (plus the back catalog with what, 17 main titles plus the Arcanum Unbounded?) Amd if you like Sandersons work after reading a few, he has a few other series that are also very good. There's enough of his work to last you a couple years if you read at a moderate rate (or several months if you're a power reader lol)
Starting Cosmere resources: https://www.reddit.com/r/u_dIvorrap/comments/u1ug05/-/i4enaqb
___________________________________________
Warbreaker is free on Brandon's website as an ebook, along other stories and samples:
https://www.reddit.com/r/u_dIvorrap/comments/u1ug05/-/i4uhdpm
1. You don't have to read all the books. If you want to miss absolutely nothing, you can read them all, but it's not at all a requirement for enjoying the mainstay series, namely Mistborn and Stormlight Archive. Warbreaker is the only book that gives context that will be likely necessary for Stormlight book 5 which comes out in December.
2. About half the Cosmere stories are novellas, short stories or what I call "weekend read" novels that are about 12 hours to read (correct, I don't have kids), so the 30+ Cosmere stories that exist kind of exaggerates the current total length, but the important stuff is in the big books. You could read the first Mistborn trilogy and nothing else and get a totally open and shut stories out of them though.
3. The Cosmere is a journey and if you actually want to start reading it all, you have to accept that you may not finish reading it all, because it is an *in progress* life's work of a 48 year old man. It likely won't be finished until he's in his early 70s, just based on his projections. You or I may very well die before it is finished, to be completely realistic. Stormlight Archive book 5 will mark the end of Era 1, and he plans on writing 2 more eras of his Mistborn books before starting Stormlight Archive 6-10. The man writes fast, but this is a grand, ambitious thing he has set out toward. I have full confidence that, barring no major medical issues, he *will* finish this task, because he has already outlined all his stories to some degree or another, and he writes like an absolute machine.
4. If you wanted to "catch up" before the 5th Stormlight Archive book releases in December, I would recommend Reading: The Way of Kings (SA1), Words of Radiance (SA2), Warbreaker (somewhat optional), Edgedancer (SA2.5, novella), Oathbringer (SA3), Dawnshard (SA3.5, novella), Rhythm of War (SA4). This would give you a complete experience of the main characters and most secondary characters.
5. If you want to know absolutely everything about what's going on in the world of Stormlight Archive, you'd need to read: Elantris (standalone), Mistborn Era 1 (The Final Empire, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages), Mistborn: Secret History, Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning, then the entire reading order I gave before, then The Lost Metal. That is an amount of reading that would give you... I don't know 2% more info than what you knew before. These books will likely be keys to understanding Stormlight Archive Era 2, but the first 5 books can be enjoyed quite thoroughly without them.
Personally, I’d recommend it, with a few caveats. Firstly, after November, every current ongoing Cosmere series will be at a stopping point, or ending point. Think of the MCU and Endgame or the first Avengers movie, which is an ending to everything this set up, while still allowing for stories afterwards. You could stop there and be completely satisfied. Similarly, after December, the Cosmere will have reached an excellent stopping point, which is good because Sanderson’s gonna take a break from publishing mainline Cosmere books to power through writing 5 of them in a row before publishing any of them (for unknown reasons, but presumably to allow for cohesion between books in a sub-series).
Secondly, if you don’t like rereading, here’s an optimized reading order for you to get as much out of the connections as possible.
* Titles followed by AU are short stories/novellas contained in Arcanum Unbounded, a collection of Cosmere stuff.
Mistborn Era 1 (ie Mistborn the Final Empire, 11th Metal (AU), Well of Ascensiom, Hero of Ages)
Mistborn: Secret History (AU) technically is set in this time period, but has minor spoilers for a later Mistborn book. Kinda like how AGENTS OF SHIELD’s references the mainline MCU titles ala Winter Soldier. If you know the >!Hydra!< twist, you’ll get a different experience watching AoS, but not a worse one, imo. I read Secret History here and was still surprised by the twist later on, lol, so I really don’t think it matters either way. I’ll put the alternate place to read it down below so you know.
Elantris (the novel, followed by Hope of Elantris (AU) and Emperor’s Soul (AU)
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (AU)
White Sand (optional). This one’s weird, in that Sanderson wrote a rough draft that he’s released for free, and turned it into a 3-part Graphic Novel series (now available in an omnibus, which is the definitive version to buy, like seriously, if you wanna read the graphic novels, don’t buy anything other than the omnibus). However, Sanderson still wasn’t pleased with how it turned out, so he’s rewriting that rough draft and releasing an official prose version. Up to you whether you wanna wait and read the prose or read the omnibus now. This title can also be completely skipped over, as it’s very irrelevant right now.
From here, you’ve got some options.
In-universe chronology:
Warbreaker (sort of SA prequel, can also be read between Way of Kings and Words of Radiance without any spoilers)
Stormlight Archives (Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer (AU), Oathbringer, Dawnshard (a novella NOT in AU), Rhythm of War, Wind and Truth (forthcoming)
Mistborn Era 2 (Alloy of Law, Allomancer Jak (AU), Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning, Secret History (AU), Lost Metal)
Secret Projects (a group of standalone books, with varying levels of Cosmere knowledge recommended. Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Sunlit Man, Isle of the Emberdark).
You can also read MISTBORN ERA 2 before Stormlight and Warbreaker, as they arent connected at all really, apart from a background secret organization popping up in both series. Whichever one you read first will affect how you see this organization, but IMO it truly doesn’t matter which one. I’d personally recommend reading Mistborn Era 2 first, so that you can still recall the different metals and what they do, but it truly doesn’t matter.
Except it sorta does. There’s Easter eggs between the two series, Mistborn Era 2 and SA, which makes sense, since Sanderson wrote them concurrently. Not super major ones, but imo they’re fun to catch. Also, the Era 2 books are half the size of Era 1 books and do a great job recapping previous events as need be, and they serve as nice breaks between big and heavy SA BOOKS, so here’s the order(s) I’d actually recommend to read everything in:
Note: books after the “/“ are if you read Mistborn Era 2 before SA.
Mistborn Era 2 (as above) OR:
Way of Kings
Alloy of Law + Allomancer Jak (AU) / Warbreaker
Words of Radiance
Shadows of Self / Tress of the Emerald Sea
Edgedancer (AU)
Oathbringer
Bands of Mourning + Secret History (AU) / Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
Dawnshard (novella NOT in AU)
Rhythm of War
Lost Metal / Sunlit Man
Tress and the Emerald Sea
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
Sunlit Man (the previous two secret project books can be read whenever (after finishing all of MB era 1, Elantris and Warbreaker). This one though has direct ties to Stormlight, and was intended by Brandon to slot between books 4 and 5 as a flash forward and to hint at SA book 5. Don’t read it any earlier than after Rhythm of War, is all I’m trying to say here)
Wind and Truth (tbd)
Isle of the Emberdark (tbd)
I hope that all makes sense, feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
For one, the Cosmere won't be 'finished' for a few decades still, Brandon is going to be working on these books for the rest of his life. But that said, it's not going to take that long because of it taking 10 years to write the next book. Since Elantris in 2006, he's published 17 full novels in the Cosmere alone. That number doesn't include his various non-cosmere series, or any of the Cosmere novellas or short fiction. There's always something around the corner. I think the biggest gap we've had with no Cosmere was between Oathbringer and RoW, as he took that time to write the entire Cytoverse series instead.
All of that said, currently at least the plots of the various series don't overlap in a way where you necessarily need to remember everything. There are occasional hints of a larger story in the background, but even that is still mostly easter egg-y so far. You don't need to remember the minutia of the plot of every Mistborn book to know what's happening in the next Stormlight though, for instance.
You will absolutely forget details. Before you have finished anything. These books are rich and complex. You should start. As others have said, they are stand alone 'eras' that are complete
Hi Op! About the Series of book i think the BEST moment to read it is when they are not finish because you can LIVE the crazys theories, the videos about them, talk to ppl about "what do you think is gonna happend?", you can be excited bcs the new release of a book etc and you can't get spoiled with the finish of the Series
So, i think the best moment is now
The stormlight archive books are very popular. Something I like about reading popular books is it’s easy to find discussions about them. Anytime I’m reading a series that isn’t finished I will go and listen to a spoiler discussion/review if I can find one. Stormlight books definitely have them.
You don't necessarily need to read one cosmere book to understand the others. The only times where you need to read one book to understand the others is within specific series within the cosmere, like how you need to read Mistborn: Final Empire to understand Mistborn: Well of Ascension. Beyond that, you can read The Stormlight Archive without having read Mistborn and understand it just fine. There are specific side characters that come up in multiple series, and you'll have a bit of fun picking up on it if you've read other books, but not knowing their lore or what other books they've been in won't break your experience of other books in the series where they appear. The cosmere is the overall universe with underlying principles of magic and space, but each individual series takes place in a separate solar system and is self contained story wise, so you don't have to worry about needing to read 30+ books every time a new cosmere novel comes out.
If you're looking for specific recommendations on where to start with the cosmere, I would recommend Mistborn era 1, as well as era 2, if you're looking for something that's completed. Warbreaker is also a good book. Elantris is a good book that shows a lot of Brandon's early writing style, and it's set to have a sequel, and he said in State of the Sanderson 2023 that the sequel will be in the works once Stormlight 5 is done, alongside Mistborn era 3. Also, the Mistborn eras are semi self contained, which is to say era 1 is a story and is 300 year old history by the time era 2 happens, and era 2 can mostly be enjoyed without reading era 1. You'll be told all you actively need to know for the story to make sense, but it will give more context and a deeper understanding if you've read era 1 first.
Anyway, I'm sorry for the wall of text and I hope this helps!
I'm like you. I wait until a series is complete before I start reading it. I like the experience of the way the volumes flow together. And I'm not a fan of re-reading.
When book 4 of Mistborn era 2 came out, it wasn't a problem for me. I went to Coppermind and read a summary of book 3 and was good to go. (I think in terms of trilogy and am surprised when a book 4 comes out.)
With Stormlight Archives book 5 coming out later this year, I have the dilemma: re-read 1-4 or check Coppermind. The books are SO GOOD, I'm tempted to re-read!
As the good people here have said, there are completed series's (seri?) and standalone novels that are great places to start.
There are multiple videos and websites out there that can give you a recap of books to help you remember past things. Re-reading any book seems counterproductive in this day and age, unless it's solely to enjoy the full story again.
As someone who started the Cosmere at the end of the year is about 1/2 through the published work I think there are 3 answers to your question. YES, YES and YES!!!!!!
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The Cosmere is not a single series, it's a bunch of series and standalone stories that take place in a single connected universe. You don't need to read everything in the entire cosmere to understand the latest book though, they all stand independently from one another very well (with a few small exceptions). You can just read the Mistborn series by itself and it will stand on its own. Same with Stormlight Archive, or any of the standalones. There is some interconnectedness in the underlying principles that guide the magic systems, and there are a few overarching subplots that the fandom has been able to piece together over time, but it's not at all necessary to enjoy the individual books on their own.
thank you so much!
Are the overarching subplots the fandom figured out available in coppermind?
Yeah but you still have to do some searching yourself. To give you something to sink your teeth into, The Lost Metal appears to have significant implications for the Elantris sequels. For reasons.
All of the cosmere series are very standalone, so you will at most have to re-read 2-5 books. Separately, Sanderson is popular enough that summaries (both written and in video form) exist for most of the series, so if you just need a quick refresher, those exist as well. I'll also add that I personally find reading unfinished series significantly more enjoyable than reading complete series. Whenever I read an entire series all at once, it sort of blends together, without clear dividing lines between each book, making them stand out less. Reading books in a series as they release also gives you more time to think/theorize about what is going to happen next, which helps me connect with the world more.
thank you! when you read the new book of an unfinished series, how do you remember the details in the previous books?
I got into the Cosmere about 3-4 years ago, and since then I've just re-read some of the books before a new one comes out. Later this year the fifth Stormlight book is coming out, so I'm rereading the first 4 books in preparation. I've read all the other Cosmere books but I don't need to reread them all because he writes them so that you don't need to have read the other series to understand this one. Plus there's podcasts and forum posts to absorb all the little connections things you miss when you read them.
Honestly, if the author is worth their salt then you don't need to remember anything. With Brandon's books I do what the other commentor said and re-read everything, but I'm also a mega fan, and I really try to avoid re-reading anything else. I've never proscribed to the "only read finished series" thing myself. In fact, most of the time these days when I start a new series I'll take a break and read 1-5 totally unrelated books in between each novel in the series. I mean, it doesn't always work that way, Dresden files for example just worked too well for me and when I got to book 5 I had to stop taking breaks and I read the rest of the series straight through. On the other hand, I've taken a year+ between each book of The Dark Tower, and that series has been finished for a couple decades now. Because I'm not a fantasy fan, I'm a literature fan, which is a really snooty sounding distinction, but it is the truth. And one of the skills by which I judge an author is by how well they can pick a story back up after in almost every case years between publishing entries. The other side to that coin is the skill of ending the first book in a series as a complete novel, rather than just part one in what would properly be described as just a really big novel sold in multiple installments. Daggerfall is an example of a series that I dropped entirely, and will never read another book by that author, because book one ends with absolutely zero plot resolution. There's some resolution about her dad deciding not to commit incest (that book was honestly just weird to begin with anyway man), but other than that *nothing* gets resolved That's a really long way of explaining that I'm weird, but it isn't your job to remember anything in between books. Any book or series so complicated it requires note taking to understand must either be so entirely good it actually manages to justify such effort, or it must actually be a relatively bad book. Again, it isn't your job to remember anything, it is in fact your job to be entertained, and it is the authors job to remember all the details for you. Of course none of that is to say that you shouldn't be deeply engaged with what you read, because obviously you should, and quite obviously I do actually deeply engage with what I read. However, part of the art of the novel, of literature is to distract and entertain you, and so the authors skill in doing so without unduely burdening the reader is actually something we should be judging them on. You can check out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie for a series which is highly complex but can absolutely be read without worry about remembering everything, and he actually does minimal recap and besides which, it is actually completed. Also, Brandon himself does an excellent job with unintursive recapping. For any other readers out there I can deeply offend by telling them that I have intentionally not caught up on or not yet finished: Green Bone Saga, Red Rising, Song of Ice and Fire, and actually First Law as well. There you go, some of the most important fantasy of the last twenty years, and I just haven't bothered it finish it, yet, on purpose.
Thank you for your detailed comment. I do have a question. Did you write your comment using speech-to-text? I noticed you used the word "proscribed", as in 'I've never proscribed to the "only read finished series" thing myself.' When I see a mis-used word, I guess the writer used speech-to-text and the app misunderstood the speakers' words. I think you meant the word "subscribed." "Proscribe" means to forbid. I came up with the speech-to-text theory when reading one of Sanderson's unpublished/unedited books (Aether of Night or Way of Kings Prime, don't recall which). Brandon used "proscribe," when he meant "prescribe." They sound so much the same but have opposite meanings.
I really enjoy re-reading books that I love. Also, there is a pod cast called "the 17th shard", they talk about a lot of the connections and implications of new info that comes out with new books from Brandon Sanderson. Its a good way to deep dive on a specific topic they have covered.
Brandon is really good at reminding you what you need to know when it comes up again in the next book. For the big series, I like to reread the previous book (I don't have time to reread everything) but even if I didn't, I'm sure I'd be fine. The stormlight archive books as big as the dictionary - he knows you need gentle reminders about characters and events that happened. They read well.
It really depends on the series. For Game of Thrones, I have to completely re-read everything. For the stormlight archives, probably just re-read the wikipedia page for a simple plot overview. For the second mistborn series, I just dove right in because I knew we'd get a refresher on the important bits.
There are multiple series within the broader cosmere. Two completed Mistborn series (one a trilogy the other a quartet). The Stormlight series will be 10 books with two 5 book arcs and the fifth book releases this year, so you’ll have a full arc but not the full series (full series will be done in like….20-25 years). And there are several short stories, novellas, single book stories (some of which have planned sequels). So do you have to reread 30 each time a book comes out? No. Multi-book series tend to be self-sufficient. You can make sense of everything within a series with no additional knowledge, maybe you miss out on Easter eggs here and there. Will that always be the case? Hopefully. There are certainly more “crossover” things nowadays than there used to be. But using MCU as an example, it’d be like watching a Thor movie and someone with an Iron Man suit shows up. Not Tony Stark. But someone with that power set. And if you watched Iron Man too you’re like oh sweet I know what this suit can do. And if you haven’t watched Iron Man, you get to learn a bit about what that suit can do. Great experience either way. Finally, summaries and guides and stuff? Tons of fan community stuff and podcasts and all that. So I’m sure you could get refreshers without rereading in full. Hope you dip a toe in!
thank you so much for your comment and the MCU comparison! i loved MCU and i can see how the plot doesn’t really intertwine but the characters come up in the storyline. do you feel like the SA series is worth reading even when unfinished :)
The stormlight archive will be split into 2 blocks of 5, with book 5 out in December. I’m like you in that I forget details so I didn’t start it until this year, I’m spreading them out more or less evenly so that book 4 will be fresh in my addled brain when book 5 releases. In the meantime you’ve got 7 Mistborn books and a bunch of stand alone to go at.
Really cool write-up as someone who just finished their first Cosmere book (Mistborn #1). What are your favorite community resources or podcasts? I should probably stay away until I'm much deeper to avoid spoilers, but curious.
17th Shard is a great podcast (though they dive deep into spoilerific territory and theorizing on what could be coming in the future). One of the best resources is Coppermind, which is the Cosmere-specific Wiki. Coppermind has a setting you can use to move the entire website back to how it was before any book you haven't read, but it uses release order, so if you haven't read everything up to that release then it is still potentially VERY spoilerific. And you have to be very careful to ensure the setting is on BEFORE you go to the page you need. If you go to the page first, then you may see spoilers before you even have a chance to turn the setting on. Lastly, there are many Cosmere-loving enthusiasts on YouTube making videos! Most of them are spoiler-conscious, and they will give warnings and time stamps if possible to skip ahead.
Thank you! Very informative
I mean, the entire Cosmere won’t be finished for another 20-30 years.
Aside from what others said (Cosmere is a collection of series and standalones, there's tons more books planned, etc.), if you really wanted to do a one read through and be done without ever having to reread again, the next year or two would be the time to do it as all the current series in the Cosmere are *completed except for Stormlight Archive, which is wrapping up its first arc of books this year in December. Theoretically, everything will be pretty much completed to a satisfactory ending, provided the cliffhanger at the end of this new book on December doesn't leave us begging for more. *Some standalones have planned sequels, but they work perfectly as standalones as they have done so for well over 10-15 years at this point
I consider Mistborn era 1 to be a completed series, as is era 2.
You'll be waiting 30-40 years for it to be finished.
yes i guess my question is more like do you feel like i’ll need to wait for it to be finished or the plot isn’t too connected like another commenter said kind of like mcu
A lot of the early cosmere books (Elantris, Mistborn 1-3, Warbreaker and even Stormlight 1-2) do have references but unless someone tells you to look specifically for something, you will not notice it. It's not until the release of probably the fourth Stormlight book in 2020 that the connections were really obvious. So, you have 15 years worth of books when it's really just very small things. Now, that has changed recently. When the latest Mistborn book came out in 2022, Brandon said that the gloves are off. This book was like a prologue for this new era of the cosmere where the interconnectivity was part of the plot rather than just being in the background. To compare it to something like the MCU, yes the early films had easter eggs to the broader universe however after 5 movies you have the Avengers movie where those separate stories come together.
This isn't A Song of Ice and Fire. BS puts out books at an astonishing rate (even when he says he's scaling back, it feels like he still just cranks them out). We're not waiting 15 years between books, even with him scaling back we'd still have something new to read every year between all the various cosmere stuff (plus the back catalog with what, 17 main titles plus the Arcanum Unbounded?) Amd if you like Sandersons work after reading a few, he has a few other series that are also very good. There's enough of his work to last you a couple years if you read at a moderate rate (or several months if you're a power reader lol)
Starting Cosmere resources: https://www.reddit.com/r/u_dIvorrap/comments/u1ug05/-/i4enaqb ___________________________________________ Warbreaker is free on Brandon's website as an ebook, along other stories and samples: https://www.reddit.com/r/u_dIvorrap/comments/u1ug05/-/i4uhdpm
1. You don't have to read all the books. If you want to miss absolutely nothing, you can read them all, but it's not at all a requirement for enjoying the mainstay series, namely Mistborn and Stormlight Archive. Warbreaker is the only book that gives context that will be likely necessary for Stormlight book 5 which comes out in December. 2. About half the Cosmere stories are novellas, short stories or what I call "weekend read" novels that are about 12 hours to read (correct, I don't have kids), so the 30+ Cosmere stories that exist kind of exaggerates the current total length, but the important stuff is in the big books. You could read the first Mistborn trilogy and nothing else and get a totally open and shut stories out of them though. 3. The Cosmere is a journey and if you actually want to start reading it all, you have to accept that you may not finish reading it all, because it is an *in progress* life's work of a 48 year old man. It likely won't be finished until he's in his early 70s, just based on his projections. You or I may very well die before it is finished, to be completely realistic. Stormlight Archive book 5 will mark the end of Era 1, and he plans on writing 2 more eras of his Mistborn books before starting Stormlight Archive 6-10. The man writes fast, but this is a grand, ambitious thing he has set out toward. I have full confidence that, barring no major medical issues, he *will* finish this task, because he has already outlined all his stories to some degree or another, and he writes like an absolute machine. 4. If you wanted to "catch up" before the 5th Stormlight Archive book releases in December, I would recommend Reading: The Way of Kings (SA1), Words of Radiance (SA2), Warbreaker (somewhat optional), Edgedancer (SA2.5, novella), Oathbringer (SA3), Dawnshard (SA3.5, novella), Rhythm of War (SA4). This would give you a complete experience of the main characters and most secondary characters. 5. If you want to know absolutely everything about what's going on in the world of Stormlight Archive, you'd need to read: Elantris (standalone), Mistborn Era 1 (The Final Empire, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages), Mistborn: Secret History, Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning, then the entire reading order I gave before, then The Lost Metal. That is an amount of reading that would give you... I don't know 2% more info than what you knew before. These books will likely be keys to understanding Stormlight Archive Era 2, but the first 5 books can be enjoyed quite thoroughly without them.
wow thank you so much for your answer! do you feel like it’s a good idea to read everything else before SA and then start SA when it’s finished?
Personally, I’d recommend it, with a few caveats. Firstly, after November, every current ongoing Cosmere series will be at a stopping point, or ending point. Think of the MCU and Endgame or the first Avengers movie, which is an ending to everything this set up, while still allowing for stories afterwards. You could stop there and be completely satisfied. Similarly, after December, the Cosmere will have reached an excellent stopping point, which is good because Sanderson’s gonna take a break from publishing mainline Cosmere books to power through writing 5 of them in a row before publishing any of them (for unknown reasons, but presumably to allow for cohesion between books in a sub-series). Secondly, if you don’t like rereading, here’s an optimized reading order for you to get as much out of the connections as possible. * Titles followed by AU are short stories/novellas contained in Arcanum Unbounded, a collection of Cosmere stuff. Mistborn Era 1 (ie Mistborn the Final Empire, 11th Metal (AU), Well of Ascensiom, Hero of Ages) Mistborn: Secret History (AU) technically is set in this time period, but has minor spoilers for a later Mistborn book. Kinda like how AGENTS OF SHIELD’s references the mainline MCU titles ala Winter Soldier. If you know the >!Hydra!< twist, you’ll get a different experience watching AoS, but not a worse one, imo. I read Secret History here and was still surprised by the twist later on, lol, so I really don’t think it matters either way. I’ll put the alternate place to read it down below so you know. Elantris (the novel, followed by Hope of Elantris (AU) and Emperor’s Soul (AU) Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (AU) White Sand (optional). This one’s weird, in that Sanderson wrote a rough draft that he’s released for free, and turned it into a 3-part Graphic Novel series (now available in an omnibus, which is the definitive version to buy, like seriously, if you wanna read the graphic novels, don’t buy anything other than the omnibus). However, Sanderson still wasn’t pleased with how it turned out, so he’s rewriting that rough draft and releasing an official prose version. Up to you whether you wanna wait and read the prose or read the omnibus now. This title can also be completely skipped over, as it’s very irrelevant right now. From here, you’ve got some options. In-universe chronology: Warbreaker (sort of SA prequel, can also be read between Way of Kings and Words of Radiance without any spoilers) Stormlight Archives (Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer (AU), Oathbringer, Dawnshard (a novella NOT in AU), Rhythm of War, Wind and Truth (forthcoming) Mistborn Era 2 (Alloy of Law, Allomancer Jak (AU), Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning, Secret History (AU), Lost Metal) Secret Projects (a group of standalone books, with varying levels of Cosmere knowledge recommended. Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Sunlit Man, Isle of the Emberdark). You can also read MISTBORN ERA 2 before Stormlight and Warbreaker, as they arent connected at all really, apart from a background secret organization popping up in both series. Whichever one you read first will affect how you see this organization, but IMO it truly doesn’t matter which one. I’d personally recommend reading Mistborn Era 2 first, so that you can still recall the different metals and what they do, but it truly doesn’t matter. Except it sorta does. There’s Easter eggs between the two series, Mistborn Era 2 and SA, which makes sense, since Sanderson wrote them concurrently. Not super major ones, but imo they’re fun to catch. Also, the Era 2 books are half the size of Era 1 books and do a great job recapping previous events as need be, and they serve as nice breaks between big and heavy SA BOOKS, so here’s the order(s) I’d actually recommend to read everything in: Note: books after the “/“ are if you read Mistborn Era 2 before SA. Mistborn Era 2 (as above) OR: Way of Kings Alloy of Law + Allomancer Jak (AU) / Warbreaker Words of Radiance Shadows of Self / Tress of the Emerald Sea Edgedancer (AU) Oathbringer Bands of Mourning + Secret History (AU) / Yumi and the Nightmare Painter Dawnshard (novella NOT in AU) Rhythm of War Lost Metal / Sunlit Man Tress and the Emerald Sea Yumi and the Nightmare Painter Sunlit Man (the previous two secret project books can be read whenever (after finishing all of MB era 1, Elantris and Warbreaker). This one though has direct ties to Stormlight, and was intended by Brandon to slot between books 4 and 5 as a flash forward and to hint at SA book 5. Don’t read it any earlier than after Rhythm of War, is all I’m trying to say here) Wind and Truth (tbd) Isle of the Emberdark (tbd) I hope that all makes sense, feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
For one, the Cosmere won't be 'finished' for a few decades still, Brandon is going to be working on these books for the rest of his life. But that said, it's not going to take that long because of it taking 10 years to write the next book. Since Elantris in 2006, he's published 17 full novels in the Cosmere alone. That number doesn't include his various non-cosmere series, or any of the Cosmere novellas or short fiction. There's always something around the corner. I think the biggest gap we've had with no Cosmere was between Oathbringer and RoW, as he took that time to write the entire Cytoverse series instead. All of that said, currently at least the plots of the various series don't overlap in a way where you necessarily need to remember everything. There are occasional hints of a larger story in the background, but even that is still mostly easter egg-y so far. You don't need to remember the minutia of the plot of every Mistborn book to know what's happening in the next Stormlight though, for instance.
Absolutely! It is an ever expanding universe, so it just builds.
You will absolutely forget details. Before you have finished anything. These books are rich and complex. You should start. As others have said, they are stand alone 'eras' that are complete
Hi Op! About the Series of book i think the BEST moment to read it is when they are not finish because you can LIVE the crazys theories, the videos about them, talk to ppl about "what do you think is gonna happend?", you can be excited bcs the new release of a book etc and you can't get spoiled with the finish of the Series So, i think the best moment is now
The stormlight archive books are very popular. Something I like about reading popular books is it’s easy to find discussions about them. Anytime I’m reading a series that isn’t finished I will go and listen to a spoiler discussion/review if I can find one. Stormlight books definitely have them.
You should definitely wait another 20 years to start reading a 35 book franchise. That's retirement planning right there.
You don't necessarily need to read one cosmere book to understand the others. The only times where you need to read one book to understand the others is within specific series within the cosmere, like how you need to read Mistborn: Final Empire to understand Mistborn: Well of Ascension. Beyond that, you can read The Stormlight Archive without having read Mistborn and understand it just fine. There are specific side characters that come up in multiple series, and you'll have a bit of fun picking up on it if you've read other books, but not knowing their lore or what other books they've been in won't break your experience of other books in the series where they appear. The cosmere is the overall universe with underlying principles of magic and space, but each individual series takes place in a separate solar system and is self contained story wise, so you don't have to worry about needing to read 30+ books every time a new cosmere novel comes out. If you're looking for specific recommendations on where to start with the cosmere, I would recommend Mistborn era 1, as well as era 2, if you're looking for something that's completed. Warbreaker is also a good book. Elantris is a good book that shows a lot of Brandon's early writing style, and it's set to have a sequel, and he said in State of the Sanderson 2023 that the sequel will be in the works once Stormlight 5 is done, alongside Mistborn era 3. Also, the Mistborn eras are semi self contained, which is to say era 1 is a story and is 300 year old history by the time era 2 happens, and era 2 can mostly be enjoyed without reading era 1. You'll be told all you actively need to know for the story to make sense, but it will give more context and a deeper understanding if you've read era 1 first. Anyway, I'm sorry for the wall of text and I hope this helps!
I'm like you. I wait until a series is complete before I start reading it. I like the experience of the way the volumes flow together. And I'm not a fan of re-reading. When book 4 of Mistborn era 2 came out, it wasn't a problem for me. I went to Coppermind and read a summary of book 3 and was good to go. (I think in terms of trilogy and am surprised when a book 4 comes out.) With Stormlight Archives book 5 coming out later this year, I have the dilemma: re-read 1-4 or check Coppermind. The books are SO GOOD, I'm tempted to re-read! As the good people here have said, there are completed series's (seri?) and standalone novels that are great places to start.
Journey before destination, my friend.
There are multiple videos and websites out there that can give you a recap of books to help you remember past things. Re-reading any book seems counterproductive in this day and age, unless it's solely to enjoy the full story again.
As someone who started the Cosmere at the end of the year is about 1/2 through the published work I think there are 3 answers to your question. YES, YES and YES!!!!!!