What is the BEST Book in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere? - The Fantasy Review

What is the BEST Book in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere?

I have written about this before and I am sure I will write about it again in response to the question, ‘What is the best book in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere?’…

The Way of Kings!

The first book in Brandon Sanderson‘s epic fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive, is consistently the best Cosmere book to date. That includes all the Mistborn books, the standalones, and even Mistborn Era 2.

I may be a little biased, but Kaladin is by far one of the best characters in The Stormlight Archive, perhaps in the Cosmere, and his incredible character arc in The Way of Kings is what makes me love it so much.

I have talked about this in my review so if you want to see what my initial thoughts were, take a look and see why I think it is the best book in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere.

Mental health in the fantasy genre is not talked about enough – or at least it never used to be. You wouldn’t see the heroes from the classics of the genre considering ending their own lives – they might happily die for a cause but not because of depression.

Brandon Sanderson has brought mental health issues to the forefront of his stories in the past. Vin obviously had a lot of problems and they were depicted very well, but I feel like Kaladin’s portrayal of depression is the closest I have come in the fantasy genre to being in the head of someone really struggling with despair.

When you get towards the end of The Way of Kings and Kaladin (for the thousandth time) pushes through his depression, finds something worth living for, and fights to survive not only the harsh world around him but himself, I felt a bubbling of excitement and thrill!

It is one of the best ending of a book I have ever read, not only because Sanderson has an incredible way of planning his books meticulously so it all falls into place at the end, but I was so emotionally attached to Kaladin’s storyline that I felt like I was experiencing what he was.

That is the reason I believe The Way of Kings is the best book in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. Yes, there are many other great books in the Cosmere, some I think come close to topping The Way of Kings – I wrote a post ranking all the cosmere books, so take a look at that if you want to know which books were close runners up!

Ranking the Cosmere Books

What is your favourite Cosmere book? Let me know in the comments!


Recent to The Best Book in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere

Owner and Editor of The Fantasy Review. Loves all fantasy and science fiction books, graphic novels, TV and Films. Having completed a BA and MA in English Literature and Creative writing, they would like to go on to do a PhD. Favourite authors are Trudi Canavan, Steven Erikson, George R. R. Martin and Brandon Sanderson.

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