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As the author of such popular and highly acclaimed works as Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, Brandon Sanderson is the biggest name in fantasy literature right now.
More importantly, Sanderson is one of the most prolific novelists out there, with more than 30 books to his name. Many of these books take place in a shared universe called the Cosmere, with a connected chronology that spans thousands of years, dozens of tales, and hundreds of characters.
You can already guess how much of a headache it is to approach the Cosmere and try to make sense of its narrative — what with all of these books building on top of one another in terms of lore and history — but there’s a method underlying Sanderson’s madness, and knowing the proper reading order can go a long way towards making sense of this elaborate maze of epic stories.
From Scadrial to Roshar and beyond, here’s a ranking of every Brandon Sanderson book in the order you should approach them.
The order of reading Cosmere books, explained
Some SanderSons (don’t roll your eyes just yet) might suggest going with The Stormlight Archive as your first series, and they’d be right for several reasons — including Brandon’s much more refined prose, for being in his element as a writer — but the truth is that The Stormlight Archive will end up spoiling certain aspects of the interconnected Cosmere for you, so the best way to approach the bibliography is still through the novelist’s second published book, Mistborn.
In fact, you could even start with the first book, Elantris, which is a standalone adventure set on the planet Sel in the Selish System of the Cosmere.
And if you find that Elantris isn’t for you with its unique storytelling style, then head straight for the acclaimed Mistborn trilogy, set on Scadrial in the Scadrian System and dealing the fight against an oppressive god-emperor who rules the Final Empire with an iron fist.
| No. | Title | Release year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mistborn: The Final Empire | 2006 |
| 2 | Mistborn: The Well of Ascension | 2007 |
| 3 | Mistborn: The Hero of Ages | 2008 |
After the first Mistborn trilogy, you can go ahead with The Stormlight Archive, a series of lengthy epic fantasy novels set on the planet Roshar. This is Brandon Sanderson’s most ambitious story to date, and will comprise 10 books upon completion. Four books have been released so far, with a fifth releasing later this year.
| No. | Title | Release year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Way of Kings | 2010 |
| 2 | Words of Radiance | 2014 |
| 3 | Oathbringer | 2017 |
| 4 | Rhythm of War | 2020 |
| 5 | Wind and Truth (forthcoming) | 2024 |
There are two additional novellas set in The Stormlight Archive universe: Edgedancer (2016) and Dawnshard (2020), with a third novella titled Horneater set for 2026. Reading these is not strictly necessary to understand the overall Cosmere lore, but they do include extra world-building bits and some vital information about mysterious characters like Lift and Rysn.
Sometime while reading The Stormlight Archive, and perhaps missing the world of Allomancers and Feruchemists, you could opt to read the second Mistborn era, consisting of four shorter novels set a few hundred years after the events of the trilogy.
| No. | Title | Release year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Alloy of Law | 2011 |
| 2 | Shadows of Self | 2015 |
| 3 | The Bands of Mourning | 2016 |
| 4 | The Lost Metal | 2022 |
There are several other novels in Cosmere. The first one is 2009’s Warbreaker, set on Nalthis and dealing with several characters from The Stormlight Archive. This one should be read between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War.
Three additional novels in the Cosmere came out in 2023 as part of Sanderson’s Secret Project initiative, and they are Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man. All have received critical acclaim, and they can serve as a break from Sanderson’s conventional grand-scale adventures.
The novelist has also worked on a tetralogy of graphic novels called White Sand set in Cosmere and released between 2016 and 2022.
Several other Cosmere novellas relating to one or another of the bigger offshoots can be found in an anthology book titled Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection. These stories include The Hope of Elantris, The Eleventh Metal, Mistborn: Secret History, and so on. The aforementioned Edgedancer is also part of this publication.
The rest of Brandon Sanderson’s published novels and stories
While Sanderson is mainly known for his work on the Cosmere, he rose to prominence thanks to undertaking the gigantic task of finishing The Wheel of Time book series after its original writer Robert Jordan passed away in 2007. Sanderson penned the final book in the saga, divided into three volumes: The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light.
The author has also published a series of short humorous novels for children called Alcatraz, centering around the character of Alcatraz Smedry.
| No. | Title | Release year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians | 2007 |
| 2 | Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones | 2008 |
| 3 | Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia | 2009 |
| 4 | Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens | 2010 |
| 5 | Alcatraz Versus the Dark Talent | 2016 |
| 6 | Bastille Versus the Evil Librarians | 2022 |
And, of course, let’s not forget the sci-fi young adult series known as Cytoverse.
| No. | Title | Release year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skyward | 2018 |
| 2 | Starsight | 2019 |
| 3 | Cytonic | 2021 |
| 4 | Defiant | 2023 |
While Cytoverse is your usual run-of-the-mill epic sci-fi story, Sanderson has also authored another series in the genre known as Legion, dealing with the mentally ill Stephen Leeds and his investigation of unexplained phenomena. You can read all three novellas in the collection published as Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds in 2018.
Lastly, we should shout out The Reckoners series, the only time Sanderson dipped his toes into the superhero genre. The Reckoners trilogy is essentially like The Boys, dealing with superheroes who become corrupt and tyrannical after they gain power.
| No. | Title | Release year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steelheart | 2013 |
| 2 | Firefight | 2015 |
| 3 | Calamity | 2016 |
| Spinoff short | “Mitosis” | 2013 |
There are additional works like The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England (2023) and The Rithmatist (2013) but we could go on and on and scour the internet for stuff written or contributed to by Sanderson. This list would, then, be endless. There are even rough drafts of Stormlight books out there for the most enthusiastic fans, so perhaps sticking with the official publications for the time being would be prudent, especially if you’re new to the SandoVerse.
The good news is that you can approach Sanderson one book at a time, and as his fans would tell you, all of these are a joy and a breeze to read through. Yes, I’ll cut this short and put it plain and simple: He is that good.