The best ‘Cosmere’ reading order, aka Brandon Sanderson’s literary MCU

For a lot of book enthusiasts, approaching Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere is not challenging due to the chunky nature of the novels, or the fact that there are almost two dozen of them to read through. That’s the easy part. For these newcomers, however, the problem is usually not knowing where to start.

Cosmere refers to Sanderson’s fictional, interconnected universe. Works like Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, Elantris, and Warbreaker all take place in this shared universe, and some of them share overarching characteristics. In essence, Cosmere is the cosmic backdrop where all of these stories take place. For instance, The Stormlight Archive takes place on the planet Roshar in the Rosharan System, while Mistborn takes place on Scadrial in the Scadrian System, and so on.

So, how do we approach this behemoth of a series and read it correctly? Some people might opt to just go with the publication order, but that may lead to a lot of confusion. Besides, it’s not as if there’s any particular chronological order underlying these different book series, so your main criterion shouldn’t have anything to do with either publication or the Cosmere timeline.

Even Brandon Sanderson seems to agree with that opinion. So, if you’re looking for a Cosmere reading order that takes the author’s thoughts into account, we’ve got you covered.

Where you should start with Cosmere according to Brandon Sanderson

Due to the sheer number of new releases in the Cosmere, not least of which was the recent secret projects initiative featuring books like Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Sanderson is always trying to help fans “navigate” his Cosmere in a reasonable fashion.

In a video posted recently on his YouTube channel, Sanderson explains why you should ignore the publication order.

“I generally do not recommend publication order,” He explained. “Why is this? Well, that’s because I feel like my first book, Elantris, is one of my weaker novels. I do think it holds up moderately well but it’s not up to the caliber of what I write now.”

Sanderson continues by saying that if you’re coming into this relatively blind, you should probably start with:

• The first Mistborn trilogy of books, consisting of: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages.
• And follow that up with two standalone books: Warbreaker and Tress of the Emerald Sea.
• From there, you can begin reading The Stormlight Archive, or rather its first book, The Way of Kings.
• Make sure to read the two novellas Edgedancer and Dawnshard between reading the Stormlight installments. Edgedancer should be read after the second book, Words of Radiance, while Dawnshard should be put off until after the third book, Oathbringer. The standalone novel titled The Sunlit Man should come after the fourth book, Rhythm of War.
• You can also read some of the other standalones like Elantris and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter sometime between the massive Stormlight entries.
• Lastly, readers can approach the second Mistborn era consisting of four novels: The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, The Bands of Mourning, and The Lost Metal.
• There is a collection of short stories within the Cosmere released under Arcanum Unbound which you can check out after reading all the other books.

To make it simpler for you, what follows is essentially the best Cosmere reading order according to Sanderson:

• Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006)
• Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (2007)
• Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (2008)
• Warbreaker (2009)
• Tress of the Emerald Sea (2023)
• The Way of Kings (2010) (Stormlight #1)
• Words of Radiance (2014) (Stormlight #2)
• Edgedancer (2016)
• Oathbringer (2017) (Stormlight #3)
• Dawnshard (2020)
• Rhythm of War (2020) (Stormlight #4)
• The Sunlit Man (2023)
• Elantris (2005)
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (2023)
• Mistborn: The Alloy of Law (2011) (Era 2)
• Mistborn: Shadows of Self (2015) (Era 2)
• Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning (2016) (Era 2)
• Mistborn: The Lost Metal (2022) (Era 2)

As of 2024, there are two forthcoming novels in the Cosmere. The first and most important is the fifth Stormlight Archive book, which will end the first major story arc of the series. Titled Wind and Truth, this book will be released sometime in the winter of 2024. The second book is another secret project titled Isles of the Emberdark, and it will be released on an unspecified date in 2025.

Brandon Sanderson has written and published many other works besides Cosmere-related novels, so make sure to check them out in our other article detailing the prolific author’s bibliography.