How to read the Cosmere (2024)

I'm not gonna say you're doing it wrong reading in a different order. You're just not doing it right.
Full updated reading order below:

The RAFOO:
1 - Elantris
2 - The Hope of Elantris
3 - The Emperor’s Soul
4 - White Sand Omnibus
5 - Mistborn: The Final Empire
6 - The Well of Ascension
7 - The Hero of Ages
8 - The Eleventh Metal
9 - Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
10 - Sixth of the Dusk
11 - Warbreaker
12 - The Way of Kings
13 - The Alloy of Law
14 - Words of Radiance
15 - Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania
16 - Shadows of Self
17 - Edgedancer
18 - Oathbringer
19 - The Bands of Mourning
20 - Mistborn: Secret History
21 - Dawnshard
22 - Rhythm of War
23 - The Lost Metal
24 - Tress of the Emerald Sea
25 - Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
26 - The Sunlit Man

[MeldrikGrandcaster]

Hi, Someone who read Sunlit Man before Stormlight here. I would like to preface I was in the middle of reading Mistborn Era 1 after finishing Wheel Of Time and thinking to myself, "Man this Brandon Sanderson guy killed the ending of WoT, I wonder if he's any good." I bought Mistborn and then shortly after the 10thish chapter I bought the other two. When I saw that he was doing a Secret Project and that he was going to publish 4 books in super nice additions I went ahead and bought them because I was that big of a fan of his writing. Anyway when Sunlit Man came out I had mayber read 5 chapters of Way of Kings, and let me tell you what, having no idea what Aux was, having no idea who Nomad was, and not realizing that the book took place in the future of the Cosmere as a whole until the Scadrians we're brought up was INSANE. I honestly think that due to Sunlit man i am just more excited to read Stormlight, but need to finish Era 2 first. In short, I told my wife it was like the first scene in a movie that shows you the future before going to the past, and I'm keeping to that thought as I go to start Way of Kings over again.

[shrutibhandari]

I came into it completely blind. I randomly picked the Way of Kings, I had never heard of Brandon Sanderson and I had never seen any social media about the Cosmere... I completed the whole Cosmere in three months I was hooked.

[hockey]

You could make a case for Tress of the Emerald Sea being an introduction to the Cosmere since it's just such a great standalone story. You can read Tress FIRST then go through all of the Cosmere, then read Tress AGAIN and just smile at all the easter eggs you didn't even realize you missed the first time.

[MistbornTaylor]

Also if you watch the book club for Sunlit Man, on the panel the audiobook narrator had never read any cosmere books. It's about as funny as you would expect.

[darrenrowley]

I live in Utah, and, if you can believe it, I had never heard of this Sandreson guy (I was more of a syfy reader). Walked into a Barns&Nobel near his home town where there is a freaking Wall of Sanderson books. Decided to read his first book to see what the hype was all about. Soon after reading Elantris I went out and bought the entire Cosmere catalog. I found your video and will be doing the RAFOO.

[halyoalex]

much like your curiosity about "person who read sunlit man before stormlight", i'm the Fool who read Alloy of Law before Mistborn Era 1.

It was fantastic; Brandon did a great job explaining allomancy again without going into the nitty-gritty details unless it was new information, so i still got to enjoy stuff being revealed when i went back to Era 1, like Duralumin with a mistborn.

[MaxFidler]

Specifically I like:
1) Secret History immediately after Hero of Ages. Because I typically also read Mistborn Era 2 AFTER Stormlight the big reveal spoiled doesn't matter much because it sorta comes up in Stormlight.
2)I always recommend Warbreaker between WoK and WoR, again, I read Mistborn Era 2 after the Stormlight Archive. So Warbreaker gives me something to break up the first 2 SLA books while also preparing you for more than one point in WoR where Warbreaker matters - one very obvious and one that is less obvious but I caught pretty immediately because I had JUST read Warbreaker.
3) I read Emperor's Soul between The Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal. It maximizes the impact of certain things in The Lost Metal.

[denglongfist]

It was great meeting you at Dragonsteel this year. I did a reading order in which I stayed on planets until the stories wrapped up (Sel, Taldain, Scadrial, you know the drill). Included the three unpublished projects fans can get access to (White Sand Prose, Aether of Night and tWoK Prime)

Now that I am done, would like to try this order, but insert secret history as it happens

[eproductions]

Haven’t read everything yet but this is my approach: the MCU phases approach (minor spoilers to explain my wider cosmere narrative reasoning):

Phase 1: Getting to know key characters and the different worlds without actually understanding what’s going on yet.
- Final Empire,
- Elantris,
- Warbreaker,
- Eleventh Metal,
- WoK. Stormlight closes the phase because it’s the best series and with the most crossover material. Sort of how I view the Avengers movies.

Phase 2: this is when more Easter eggs start to appear and the series actually start developing more. Although you don’t yet know exactly what the Cosmere mechanics are in total but you learn more about what shards are (especially after getting a reveal that one is dead at the end of WoK and Elantris, and starting with the other two Mistborn books in era 1 actually helps you to understand more of those but still keeps the surprise of ‘Oh shit, there’s some bad guy out there slaying these gods!):
- WoA,
- HoA, (difficult to split the two, but Final Empire worked well enough as a standalone)
- Hope of Elantris, (so we don’t forget about them)
- Emp Soul, (introduces clearer concepts about the cosmere with the different realms)
- Whitesand, (introduces Kriss)
- WoR (Avengers like, great ‘post credits scene crossover stingers),
- the arcanum essays by Kriss for Scadrial, Sel, Taldain and lastly Roshar, leading directly into…
- Edgedancer as a pallet cleanser (similar to Antman)

Phase 3: Here’s when things actually start making more sens and the cosmere wide narrative starts becoming more of the forefront but not yet. This is basically the beginning of the second act of the cosmere in my opinion.
- Mistborn Secret History (stand in for the first trilogy since that is over now but era 2 should come later)
- Tress (haven’t read it but by what people have said, seems to be a good place to put it that’s not at the very end, and serves as a buffer between two very heavy reads.)
- Oathbringer
- Either Sixth of the dusk or Shadows for silence. Idk which since I haven’t read them
- Dawnshard
- Rhythm of War (have not read yet but seems like it would fit)
- Allow of Law
- Allomancer Jack (both set in Era 2 of Mistborn and sort of a buffer/pallet cleanser, but reading Secret History before keeps the cosmere intrigue in the back of your mind)

Phase 4: Getting to the cosmere midpoint, so this might be the most bombastic one. As of now Stormlight 5 hasn’t been released, but knowing Mistborn era 2 occurs after it makes me wanna do something like this:
- Stormlight 5 (opening with a bang!)
- Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning back to back)
- Shadows or Sixth, whichever one wasn’t read before, and the one later in the timeline)
- Lost Metal (also haven’t read it but assume there’s big stuff in it)
- Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
- Sunlit Man (last in the timeline from what I’ve heard and fits the bookend pattern that each of my phases had, also sets up the next releases the best, since it’s also the last published one with the exception of Stormlight 5)

Phase 6: The back half of the cosmere, and for this I’d probably follow release order

[Akatsuu]

As always, I recommend: If you are a plot-driven reader, start with Mistborn; if you are a character-driven reader, start with Elantris, Warbreaker, Tress, Yumi, or Emperor's Soul

[IAmSilverlined]

You should give the Sunlit Man Book Club episodes a watch if you haven't - they feature the voice actor for the audio book and he had never read Sanderson before. They often ask his unique opinion and it's exactly what you were looking for!

[kevinbrazee]

Sir. I wanted to thank you again for this video. I jumped into the Cosmere at the end of last year (after finishing WoT) and have followed your suggestion to a t. I have enjoyed every minute of reading. I am a little over a third of the way there (through Part One of The Way of Kings) and there is no turning back.

[trace_minerals]

So... I just finished my first full read. I picked up your bookmark at Dragonsteel. I have a plan for an art project using it. I want to start at the beginning, and do an illustration for every chapter of every book. I'll keep you posted.

[thewitiefling]

I started with Mistborn, then went into Warbreaker and Stormlight. The short stories and other eras had been sprinkled around those. My monthly reread is usually close to your RAFOO order, Steve!

[jaxboro]

I have randomly read half these books in no particular order without knowing about the Cosmere. I started Rhythm of War but didn’t finish. This gives me a good reason to start over with some progression in mind.

[greggsimmons]

I first read his first two Wheel Of Time books (when they came out) then was curious what his own epic fantasy would look like and waited for the paperback of Way of Kings (I kick myself now for not buying the hardcover as I have hardcovers for the subsequent Stormlight books). After that I went back and read everything else he had published (except Alcatraz which I got to later). So my order is Way of Kings, Elantris, The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero Of Ages, Warbreaker, and then publication order after than (as soon as I could get my hands on them).

With a year to go before Stormlight 5 comes out, I am contemplating a re-read of the Cosmere. But, as I usually read about 24 books per year, re-reading those would mean not making any kind of dent in my TBR pile. But I feel like a re-read is needed so that I can see the connections as I read future books. Hmmm.

Thanks for your, as always entertaining, thoughts and especially for the RAFOOO!

[PokeJoshNY]

Interesting, my only real gripe with this order is that I'm a big proponent for reading Secret History right after you finish Era 1. It works great as a capstone on everything you just experienced. That's what I did when I first read Era 1, and it was definitely to by benefit. It also helped me better understand the greater workings of the cosmere, especially when combined with what we learn in The Emperor's Soul.

[marzipandonkey]

Man, I feel like I've been reading in a messy haphazard order and I feel overwhelmed, but after wacthing this video is feels like a slightly more organized kind of overwhelmed? And I wanted to read Sunlit Man before the end of the year, but because I'm so far behind in the Stormlight Archives and haven't read any of those novellas, I think i'm going to wait. Thanks.

[joshuagibson]

Howdy. My mom, who hasn't read Sanderson before the secret projects, wanted to read Sunlit Man despite my warnings. She was very confused but still enjoyed it for the action.

[MrDman]

I just jumped into the deep end and started with stormlight. Im on oathbringer now and i havent even touched any of the novelas or other series. However im thinking after oathbringer ill start branching out