Brandon Sanderson Books Reading Order

[Escolastico Hall]

Thefirst Mistborn trilogy has it all. A balanced and relatable main character. A ragtag, quip-filled heist crew. A powerful tyrant. A well-defined magic system. A crisis of faith. Stunning action sequences. Horrifically deformed magical beings. A cute doggy.

Here, Sanderson offers a charcuterie board of sorts. Arcanum Unbounded includes various Cosmere stories spanning his many series. This is the ideal place to read Arcanum Unbounded because Arcanum contains spoilers for multiple books earlier in our reading order and set up for multiple books after.

This three-volume graphic novel series set in the Cosmere earns a preview in Arcanum Unbounded, which is why we place it here. If the excerpt from Arcanum proved interesting to you, pick up White Sand right afterwards.

Not that you asked, but if you were to read ONE non-Stormlight book to experience a cool reveal, I recommend doing Warbreaker before Words of Radiance. Again, not required, but can add some flair to the end of WoR.

great list. as someone who has only read the mistborn trilogy Elantris (which I actually loved), I reckon it would be good to , maybe at the bottom, add a straight list of book titles in the order you recommend just for ease of people not sure which books are in which series :).

Hey there Cole, thank you so much for putting this together! It has helped me plan my reading order for this year, as BS has so much to read. As of yet I have read Mistborn era 1, Elantris and am currently busy with Warbreaker.

Hey there, as someone who just finished the first three Mistborn books this is incredibly helpful, so let me thank you first! However, I think parts of this are outdated, right? The Lost Metal and Secret Project #3 are out by now if I am not mistaken, so how do they fit into this order (should be clear for The Lost Metal at least) and are there more books that we should know of? Thanks again!

Howdy! Both of those books are listed. The Lost Metal and Tress of the Emerald Sea (secret project 1) are both near the end of the reading order. There are spoilery reasons for their appearance so late in the list.

Howdy! Our main change in this update moved Mistborn Era 2 back so you could read it alongside The Lost Metal. If you were at Way of Kings in our previous order, I recommend you do Warbreaker next, then Words of Radiance. After that, you can resume the order as it is now.

I think people have previously posted about a recent change to the list. I get my books via Libby and often have 10+ week waits. Is there any way you can post the previous iteration of the list? Like others said I got confused by the order change but descriptions stayed the same.

Howdy and welcome to the Cosmere! Books 2.5 and 3.5 should absolutely be reserved for between the core novels as listed here (Edgedancer is part of Arcanum Unbounded but you could read it separately if you wish). Enjoy!

Thanks for the quick response and the welcome! For the info, as well. I plan to get Arcanum Unbounded when I get that far. Would you recommend listening to the whole thing at the listed location, or would it be more impactful to only listen to Edgedancer and listen to the other short stories at another time? If the latter is recommended, do you have an order for those as well? Thanks again for being so friendly!

Was it just a misprint or is there a reason why warbreaker is in two different spots in the alternative order and the updated order? It says the only difference between them is the placement of the wax and Wayne series, but I also noticed that as a discrepancy, and am confused. Does it only matter as long as I read warbreaker before Words of Radiance?

It has been a long debated topic on what Cosmere reading order is the best. Many have been proposed since the beginning of time till now. which order is the best? they all say it's one or another... But they are all wrong.

You see, the greatest Cosmere reading order is the one I have produced over long trial and error. Only I could create this spectacular and entirely amazing reading order. It took me an eternity. An eternity that lasted half an hour of thinking about this over the past two years. I have come up with one of the best, if not the best, reading order that brings together story cohesion and connections in a nice bow.

I have prioritized figuring this order out because my friends are reading the Cosmere. I, as the book dealer, want to give them the best quality order for the best quality of books to help their addiction- I mean... journey along. In the end, I have come upon two orders with only slight differences.

One where the short stories are almost all read together, in the other the stories are spread out. If you are borrowing Arcanum Unbounded, I recommend that you go with the first order. If you own Arcanum Unbounded, I recommend the latter. The best order is the latter, but the first one works just as well for enjoyment.

Hey, I had a lot of fun putting that together (despite the fact that I had to rewrite the whole list once because spoiler boxes can be ridiculous). I'd be glad for feedback, especially on where to put some of the short stories. otherwise, I think I did a good job, as my arrogant intro might suggest. I was doing my best Daniel Greene impression.

Those interested in a reread order with the most connections, @Treamayne suggested the following and its been great (currently in the middle of way of kings) note yumi and sunlit man aren't there so you can ask him were to fit those.

Hey, I had a lot of fun putting that together (despite the fact that I had to rewrite the whole list once because spoiler boxes can be ridiculous). I'd be glad for feedback, especially on where to put some of the short stories. otherwise, I think I did a good job, as my arrogant intro might suggest.

Despite the (presumed) humor-by-hyperbole, your lists are interesting. But I still maintain there is no one "perfect reading order" - especially for new readers. As @The flying spider mentioned above, the best bet is to make sure they are aware of the considerations that may inform their decision (my new reader list is here).

I eventually crafted my own epub (Cosmere Guide) that I send to friends to help them understand the Cosmere, introduce the major shard worlds and help them decide what best fits their preferences. Here's the summary of my Reading Order suggestion from that document:

As previously mentioned, this suggested reading order is a very personal preference and I doubt any two readers of the Cosmere would agree 100% on the things mentioned below. Therefore, this guide will simply suggest a starting point (or four) and you can reasonably assume that after those four items, remaining entries can be read in any preferred order. Possible spoilers will be noted for later works when those warnings may help inform your decision of what to read next.

I think that's why this book has so much resonance with my previous books. Or maybe it doesn't really, and I'm just seeing something that doesn't exist. A lot of my ideas in writing, however, come from seeing something done in a movie or a book (or even in one of my own books) and wondering if I could take it a new and different direction. I hope that doesn't make me feel like I'm repeating myself.

Also, please note that the Coppermind's White Sand Summary has since been updated for the Omnibus, for those that want to read the Prose, then read this summary to learn the "changes." Khriss' Journal (Ars Arcanum) has also been updated for the Omnibus. There is also a (slightly dated) Thread enumerating the changes from Prose to GN.

This makes sense to me because then you experience things in the same way the older fans have, but I think that most order have pros and cons. I kind of wish I could go back and do it again. I would read almost everything before I read Stormlight and then maybe I could figure things out on my own and I wouldn't have to have all the connections pointed out to me.

While this is normally a solid idea - and I cannot speak for anybody else - The main reason why I worked out reading suggestions is the large number of friends and coworkers that come to the Cosmere through one of the stories (which is almost never Elantris - the theoretical start point). Usually the conversation goes like this:

I've known people who's first Cosmere readings were Way of Kings, Sixth of the Dusk, Alloy of Law, Shadow of Self, Warbreaker, The Thrill (OB Excerpts from Unfettered II); not to mention Elantris or Mistborn:TFE. In the latter, it's usually fine - easy to explain. But many of the others require a bit more description and delicacy (to balance enticing details against spoilers).

So, I can agree that publishing order is rather valid in most circumstances (with some audience considerations) - it's just not always an option, and having a reference can help navigate those shoals. . .

And I think that would be a chronological order. That way you can see the things as they happen in the Cosmere, without temporal jumps, and it becomes more clear the causes and consequences of the Cosmere events.

That being said, a pure chronological order should start with... White Sand. Which is definitely problematic if we are looking for a reading order for someone who is new to the Cosmere. So, the pure chronological order should be readapt for someone who starts from zero.

The best novel to introduce someone to the Cosmere depends on that someone, what he likes to read, whether he enjoys more seeing magic combats unfold, or is more interested in characters relations and all that. But I think there are, basically, 3 possible first Cosmere books: Elantris, The Final Empire, Tress of the Emerald Sea.

Some of you might be asking about Tress. The thing is: the story is quite good, the narration is superb, and in a kinda subtle way it shows you that there are a lot of weird things in this universe (we see a kandra, a dragon, an Ire, a spaceship, and hear about Sazed/Harmony (I don't remember exactly), other planets, shards...). For a reader that is gonna be intrigued about all the mysteries in this fictional universe, Tress would be a great way of getting him interested.

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