A Beginner’s Guide to the Cosmere

Spoiler-Free Beginner’s Guide to the Cosmere

If you like fantasy and science fiction, it is unlikely that you have not heard of Brandon Sanderson and his Cosmere. There are many books in this universe, so deciding where to begin can feel overwhelming.

Here is a beginner’s guide to the Cosmere, so you can dive right in and enjoy the incredible stories and characters Brandon Sanderson has created. 

Premise

The Cosmere is Brandon Sanderson’s fictional universe where many of his stories occur, taking place on different planets/systems. The systems we know of are:

• The Scadrian System
• The Rosharan System
• The Selish System
• The Nalthis System
• The Taldain System
• The Drominad system
• The Threnodite System

I’m not going to go into too many details because they contain possible spoilers about the nature of the Cosmere, something you might not want to know about until you have at least completed the Mistborn Era 1 trilogy.

The fictional universe is more complex still, but that can also not be revealed without spoilers. If you want to read everything about this, click here – but beware huge spoilers for Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive. 

Publications and Reading Order

For my personal suggested reading order for the Cosmere (including every book) – click here.

Another possible reading order would be the publication order, as this is how they came out originally.

1. Elantris (Elantris #1)
2. The Hope of Elantris (Elantris #1.1)
3. The Final Empire (Mistborn #1)
4. The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2)
5. The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3)
6. Warbreaker
7. The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1)
8. The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4, Era 2)
9. The Eleventh Metal (Mistborn #3.1)
10. The Emperor’s Soul (Elantris #1.2)
11. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2)
12. Shadows of Self (Mistborn #5, Era 2)
13. The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn #6, Era 2)
14. Secret History (Mistborn #3.2)
15. White Sand, Volume 1 (White Sand #1)
16. Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive #2.1)
17. Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive #3)
18. White Sand, Volume 2 (White Sand #2)
19. White Sand, Volume 3 (White Sand #3)
20. Dawnshard (The Stormlight Archive #3.1)
21. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4)
22. The Lost Metal (Mistborn #6, Era 2)
23. Tress of the Emerald Sea

Upcoming Books

After Brandon Sanderson announced that he had gone wild and written a load of books during lockdown, he revealed that they would be released in 2023. He launched an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign. 

There will be 4 books and we are all very excited!

Additional upcoming books include The Lost Metal, which is book 7 in the Mistborn series, book 4 of Mistborn Era 2. This will be released November 15, 2022. We have 2, untitled sequels to Elantris coming one day, and Nightblood, which will be a sequel to Warbreaker.

And, of course, we have 6 more books in The Stormlight Archive on the way, with book 5 coming, possibly, in 2024.

Relevant Links

Brandon Sanderson’s Website

Goodreads

Twitter

Similar to A Beginner’s Guide to The Cosmere

(Amazon links are affiliate links)