#Brandon Sanderson fans help

[mostly-ghostie]

Okay so I haven’t started reading The Stormlight Archive novels yet but I asked a cute NB friend what their fave fantasy sword is and they said Mayalaran. I just started my interpretation of her shardblade form based on the wiki and the little bit of art I’ve seen on here. Okay so far? Their birthday is at the end of next month and I wanna give them a lil painting of their favorite sword with their favorite flowers, and I think the dichotomy of life and death between the flowers and Mayalaran will be especially beautiful and also *hopefully* impress this babe of a person that I’ve had such an intense instant connection with

[only-lonely-stars]

ok as someone who just read Elantris, my first Sanderson book... can someone just please explain the Cosmere to me??? I'm incredibly confused and have zero idea which book to read next!

Elantris was a fantastic novel though. 9/10, give Raoden and Sarene some more romance and I'd be over the moon.

[beansie-mcgee-writes]

Project Worldbuilder

okay, so the tags say it, I don't like Sanderson (the annoying reference in many genres as the worldbuilding hero) for my own reasons and I just need to get the worldbuilding out of my head. I mainly use Campfire because it is a nice organizational tool for people like me with neurodivergence. So starting today, this will be like a sort of... big long "How To" for world-building that people can follow along with their own writing or just watch me struggle or ignore. It's all good. I'm doing this for my own benefit. I'll add sources to a list here as a master list of things I use for worldbuilding.

I guess a good reason why I'm doing this is... I'm depressed. I have little inspiration to write despite the plethora of time being unemployed right now has given me... This is something important to remember as a writer and just a human: my own mental health. So I gave myself a deadlineless project. A fun thing to do in between attempts at writing. And a way to use my own degree to help others who seek help. 🤷🏻‍♀️After all worldbuilding was a major feature of my Creative Writing emphasis.

Where to find the project: here

[onlycosmere]

The Kickstarter goes live tomorrow!

When Brandon Sanderson began working with Brotherwise Games on the first adventure for The Stormlight Roleplaying Game, he considered how it could help him fix holes in the narrative of his bestselling fantasy series. He settled on a mystery from the first Stormlight Archive book, The Way of Kings, that will have big implications for the fifth book in the series, Wind and Truth, which will be released in December.

The Stormlight Archive is set on the planet Roshar, where 10 heroes known as Heralds spent millenia protecting humanity with the help of highly magical swords dubbed Honorblades. All of them abandoned their duties except Taln, the Herald of the Common Man. Despite Taln’s best efforts, the forces of the vengeful god Odium have returned. Taln was left maddened by his ordeal and soon after he first appears in the books, his Honorblade goes missing. Its whereabouts remain unknown.

“The adventure is answering that question,” Sanderson told Polygon. “What happened? Where did it go? What’s going on? And you get to be part of the story. We were looking for an adventure you could do that would intersect with the canon of the books in an interesting way, and allow you to fill in a hole yourself.”

The Kickstarter for the d20-based game goes live on Aug. 6 along with a beta preview of the rules and a first level adventure meant to walk players and game masters through the setting and core mechanics. The hardcover Stonewalkers Adventure, where players encounter Taln and learn what happened to his honorblade, will be released in 2025 along with the Stormlight Roleplaying Game Handbook and World Guide.

...

Players will hunt for Taln’s honorblade across Roshar, from the Shattered Plains where much of The Way of Kings is set, to the magical forest of the goddess Cultivation, where bold souls can receive both a boon and a curse. There are a mix of dungeon crawls, puzzles, chase scenes and prison breaks. As they choose how to approach the problems they face, player characters will be able to attract the attention of spren, spirit-like beings who can bond with like-minded people to bestow them with incredible abilities. Completing the mission can allow them to join the newly re-founded ancient order known as the Knights Radiant.

...

The PCs can meet major antagonists from the books, including the twisted Herald of Justice Nale and the traitorous General Meridas Amaram, and learn how the talking sword Nightblood first featured in Sanderson’s 2009 book Warbreaker wound up on Roshar. As they move through key moments from the series, like the emergence of a raging storm that brings Odium’s most powerful lieutenants back to the world, Sanderson welcomes players to reshape his narrative.

...

“There’s a lot of cultural details being filled in, but at the same time, we dig a little bit further into what each order of Radiants’ oaths, spren, and motivations are,” Sanderson said. “There’s some new stuff there that I think fans will really enjoy.”

[sixth-light]

the thing that fascinates me about the whole Brandon Sanderson episode 2x08 meltdown is that, look. he is EXTREMELY popular with a certain very specific subset of SFF fan who loves 'Magic A is Magic A' type magic systems where it's really sci-fi in fantasy dressing and part of the fun of the exercise for him and his readers is interrogating it to find all the logical loopholes and cool shit that you can do while still being within the rules of the system and so on. and that's perfectly legit.

but it's also...even though WoT does have aspects of this, in that channeling is a very rules-based magic system compared to e.g. magic in LoTR (which is the classic 'no rules only vibes' high fantasy magic) it also co-exists along magic which is MUCH more vibes-based (whatever Min does, Ogier Treesinging, Wolfbrothers). RJ was also never interested in writing the sort of edge-case rules-lawyering that BS obviously loves; it's pretty clear he wanted channeling to have rules to give himself rails to run on when incorporating it into the plot, not so he could logically deconstruct the thing. (like, how exactly did Mierin Eronaile and Beidomon use the One Power to drill into the Dark One's prison the first time when the Dark One is outside the Pattern? we have no idea because it doesn't matter, it just matters that they did it.) there's also plenty of inconsistencies and weird notes in the earlier books because he hadn't fully settled on how things worked yet - famously, Moiraine's staff.

and none of that matters really, because ultimately the internal logic and ability to be gamed out of your magic system is not a sign of writing quality, it's an artistic choice about how you want to depict magic in your SFF setting and also about what helps you as an author to write an internally coherent story. there's a lot of very good fantasy where the magic is EXTREMELY handwave-y and it's fine because that's not the point of the thing.

so to see that BS apparently seems to think that it IS a sign of writing quality and furthermore that the show is bad if it doesn't meet *his personal standard* of magic system logic, which he is somehow 'qualified' to have because...he likes to write magic systems with lots of rules a lot...is just. wild. sir, you have identified a very specific niche of nerd who will give you lots of money for your very specific books, that's great for you but the world of SFF is much bigger and weirder and cooler than that and that's okay.

[beautifulmakkaris]

If you're missing Lockwood and Co, don't despair! Here are some recommendations from fans of the show and books to help fill the void while we fight for season 2 - please share far and wide <3

All recs are from responses to this post, myself and things I've seen floating around the internet (ie, Goodreads suggestions/lists). Recs may be based on specific characters, ships, tropes, genres, worldbuilding or just general ~vibes.

Please make sure to check all content warnings before reading/watching any recommendations on this list.

Books (standalone)

Spellbound by F. T. Lukens

The Agency for Scandal by Laura Wood

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams

This May End Badly by Samantha Markum

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood

The Hidden Dragon by Melissa Marr

Trouble by Lex Croucher

Books (series - *ongoing)

Shades of Magic by V. E. Schwab

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir*

Virals by Kathy Reichs

The Shades of London by Maureen Johnson

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Jackaby by William Ritter

Charlotte Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro

The Checquy Files by Daniel O'Malley

Alex Stern by Leigh Bardugo*

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerry Maniscalco

Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

The Diviners by Libba Bray

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Mokee Joe by Peter J. Murray

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens*

Letters of Enchantment by Rebecca Ross*

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

Dreadwood by Jennifer Killick

The Empyrean by Rebecca Yarros*

The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud

Ankh-Morpork City Watch (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett

The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Scarlett & Browne by Jonathan Stroud

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Books (graphic novels)

Locke & Key by Joe Hill

Television series (*-ongoing)

School Spirits*

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Shadow & Bone

Wednesday*

Stranger Things*

CW's Nancy Drew

Shadowhunters

Locke & Key

The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself

Spooksville

The Midnight Club

Teen Wolf

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Grimm

Please feel free to keep sending recommendations my way and I'll update this list as often as I can! Also let me know if you enjoy anything you found from this list, I'd love to know if you found it helpful :)

[thewritersalchemist]

Brandon Sanderson did make smart career choices, but they might not be what you think.

(originally posted on a different writing blog in March 2022)

This is NOT another post breaking down “what you can learn!” from Sanderson’s massive Kickstarter earlier this month. Well, it kind of is, but it’s the opposite of some of the others.

Buckle up, it’s unpopular opinion time.

On March 1, 2022, fantasy author Brandon Sanderson announced a Kickstarter: pledge to help him publish four standalone novels he’d secretly written during the pandemic. He and his team set a goal of one million dollars, and he estimated they would get two to four million total.

In three days, the Kickstarter had reached twenty million dollars, and it currently (as of March 27, 2022) sits at thirty-three million dollars.

The publishing world was—and still is—staggered.

In the last three weeks, I’ve seen a dozen indie authors and marketers try to break down that massive success and what lessons others can take from it for their own careers. Most of them write to various Amazon markets. Some of them made good points. One thing everyone keeps repeating is that Sanderson has made “smart career choices.” But every time, I’ve walked away from those articles shaking my head. Most of the articles seem to be missing the biggest and most important point. It's hard to talk about taking lessons from Sanderson’s marketing before you talk about lessons from his WRITING career.

A few facts:

The four novels Sanderson will be publishing with the Kickstarter money are already written. He wrote them for his wife (and because he wanted to explore new stories) during the pandemic.

He will be publishing them through his own company: Dragonsteel Books. He created the company to publish special editions of his books, carry his book swag*, and have an alternative option for people to buy his books if Amazon ever stops selling his books again.**

Sanderson has a reputation for being reliable with his book publishing. If he says he’s going to publish something, he does it, and he tries to keep fans updated as he goes.

*Book swag / book merch = special items created for fans of books. **Years ago, Amazon briefly stopped selling his books because of contract disputes. You can read more about it here.

And some facts about Sanderson himself, if you’re not familiar with his work:

His first book to be published—Elantris—came out in 2005. It was the sixth novel he wrote, and it was published by Tor. It took eighteen months for someone to read the book and then call him about it.

Before Elantris was published, he’d written thirteen novels.

He now has so many novels out that Wikipedia has a separate article for his bibliography.

He was handpicked by Robert Jordan’s wife to finish the Wheel of Time book series, and he was on the writing team for the Wheel of Time TV series.

So what were Sanderson’s “smart career choices” as a writer?

He didn’t write to market. This is going to be the most unpopular opinion of all, but hear me out, please. Sanderson tried it. Back before Elantris was published, after a lot of people told him his books weren’t being accepted because they were too long and didn’t have the popular format and tropes of the time, he tried writing to market. He’s said those were the worst novels of his writing career. So he stopped. He went back to writing what he loved. That love and passion kept him writing books that have resonated with fans for almost twenty years now. If we’re going to talk about why his fanbase loves his BOOKS so much, let's start with how much HE loves what he wrote and how much that love spills over in how he talks about his books.

He constantly pushes himself to improve. He knew from the beginning that he needed critique, and he got it. Since college, he’s been in critique groups and had alpha readers, and they keep pushing him to be better too. He himself says that some of his earlier books (yes, the published ones!) aren’t his best. He’s honest that he keeps wanting to do better and looking to improve.

When he made plans about publishing, he didn’t just think about it like a writer. He thought about it like an author. He figured out his writing pace and he tried to be consistent with that. You can talk for hours about how he finishes books and how that “makes him better than Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin,”*** but I don’t see many people talk about how Sanderson learned from them and others and FIGURED OUT what he had to do AHEAD OF TIME so he wasn’t doing that to his fans, intentionally or accidentally.

He also approached his published author career like a reader. He treated his fans like he would have wanted to be treated as a reader. He used social media to connect with them and to keep them posted. He was and still is actively involved in his fandom.

He’s given back to the community. He’s taught at university for years; he’s talked at conferences; he’s free with his advice on his writing podcast; he’s given fans advice for years at cons and book signings and through his website, and he always has a smile for his fans.

***I’m not going to discuss Rothfuss’s or Martin’s choices; I don’t know what’s going on in their lives, and I think there’s a difference between authors having a responsibility to finish a series and authors ‘owing’ fans the way their particular fans claim. This is only about Sanderson and his decisions.

THESE were his smart career choices. THESE are the reasons his books are so popular and why his Kickstarter got to twenty million in three days. Sure, finishing Wheel of Time helped get his name out there to some readers, but the majority of Sanderson’s fans don’t talk about Wheel of Time like they talk about his own books. Wheel of Time fans (some of them) talk about being grateful he finished the series, yes. But Sanderson fans talk more about Elantris, Mistborn, and the Stormlight Archive.

If we’re going to break down Sanderson’s success, we have to go back further than his marketing. We have to look at his foundation and be honest about why and how he is where he is.

If you write to market, three things sell your books:

your ads

your other marketing (but mostly your ads)

and how well you followed the recipe for that market

Whether your plot and characters are objectively well written doesn’t matter as much. (I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all.) Why? Because the recipe is what the ads sell. So if you’re good at following the recipe, readers will keep coming back after their first few from you. Not so much if you like to change recipes a lot or can’t follow one well. You might get other readers, but you won't get that particular market's readers.

I’m not dissing writing to market. If you DO mostly write to market, you won’t be able to take many lessons from Sanderson’s Kickstarter success (or his career in general) because Sanderson’s marketing isn’t what keeps his fiction selling. His writing is. His fan interaction is another huge part.

A note on consistency.

Sanderson is a prolific writer. He can sustain a publishing pace that many people can’t. I can’t, for sure. I would LOVE to be that prolific, but I’m not there, at least not right now. Being consistent doesn’t mean you have to publish every year or write every single day. It means finding what pace works for you and then being consistent with that. If that means publishing once a year, good for you. If it means once every three years, go for it.

Building a fanbase takes time. Sanderson has been publishing for almost twenty years, if you count how long the process took for Elantris. He’s been writing for twenty-five years. No one likes to hear that something they want right now takes time, but it’s the truth. Building a consistent fanbase takes time, and it does tend to take more time for indie authors than traditionally published ones.

I've worked with a lot of competitive write-to-market indie authors. I know exactly how unpopular this opinion is. But for all the authors wanting to really understand the writing craft and find the path that helps them build their own consistent career of putting out good stories, this post is for you. If you're asking “Why is Sanderson so popular that his Kickstarter reached twenty million in three days?” and wanting to know what you can learn from it . . .

This is why. And this is what you can learn.

[highladyluck]

For the fan theories ask, can you go down the list of Nakomi theories on the wiki? (Or, if that’s too much, just Nakomi is the Creator (or an agent of the Creator))

Ok, before we get into detail on this, if any of you tell me who Brandon Sanderson says Nakomi is, I will be genuinely annoyed. I don't want to know and I hope to go to my grave blissfully unaware of the actual truth. I engage in this for the pure love of unhinged speculation and bitchy judgement. I'm including the 7 theories that @anyboli tells me are on the wiki, and then 3 bonus ones.

1) Aes Sedai From Age of Legends - this is just silly, and frankly after [specific chapter in AMOL when a long-debated fandom question was finally answered] the fandom as a whole should have stopped making theories like this. THERE IS NO PURPLE AJAH!!! I debated shoving it further into 'worst idea' territory but unfortunately it is an undeniably fun premise, and we do canonically have Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends hanging about (they're just evil) which is why everyone keeps trying to make it happen. The placement just into worst idea territory is a compromise.

2) Agent of the Creator/Pattern - this is deeply unlikely- the Pattern doesn't care and the Creator's only agent is Rand- but I like it a little better than the previous option. I also think this is the Bela option, which also nudges it slightly more into 'extremely compelling'.

3) Bubble of Good - I don't think this is the author intent, but on the other hand, it's a random positive encounter that moves the action along, and a Bubble of Evil is a random negative encounter that moves the action along. Functionally, Nakomi ACTS like a Bubble of Good, so I think this sits squarely on the border between likely author intent and definitely not author intent. I enjoy the lampshading of Nakomi as Plot Device so this is somewhat compelling to me.

4) A Hero of the Horn, or Amaresu - Ok, this actually strikes me as somewhat likely and I think if it were an RJ thing this is almost the likeliest option. As a Sanderson thing it seems a little less likely but still pretty plausible. I enjoy the specificity of it and the Heroes do seem to break their own rules about meddling a lot. Maybe Amaresu is vibing with Aviendha because Avi's going to give birth to her reincarnation or something; that's not particularly plausible but I like the emotional implications.

5) A Jenn Aiel - This seems like the most likely of the wiki options. I think the Jenn Aiel still exist, canonically, and probably they'd be in the area and have opinions. It's not the most interesting theory to me because I don't get the mystery aspect at all in this case. I'd rather just know up front that Nakomi was Jenn, then I could get a reaction from Aviendha, which would have been super interesting. It's still pretty neat but the execution could have been improved if this is really the answer. (I actually think this would be AWESOME as part of #10, but without either the use of a specific known character or a reason for the obfuscation, this is not peak cool to me.)

6) Verin - No. I don't even get why people are saying this and I don't care to be informed, either. Verin's great but we don't have to make everything about her.

7) A Wise One - Sure, maybe? But this premise is so deeply uninteresting without specifics. This is the Wheel of Time. I need any random character that shows up once and has a speaking part to have a backstory three pages deep. It doesn't all have to be on the page, but you better convince me that it exists.

8) any Cosmere character - This is my worst fear because it seems so horribly plausible. I know it has been officially denied, but like Taimaindred, it makes too much sense and you can't convince me this wasn't the original intent.

9) Lanfear - This is my personal theory and it sparks joy. Nakomi is a moon-related name like Lanfear's "Selene" moniker, Lanfear constantly goes around in disguise helping protagonists even though it makes no fucking sense, AND Lanfear is apparently still at large even after she appeared to have died? At this point, Lanfear could be doing anything for any reason, we just can't know. The only way we can truly know Lanfear is her vibes--that's why her punishment from the Dark One was to be put into a body that was perfectly good but not her aesthetic--and this whole business has Lanfear Vibes so strong they can be seen from the Age of Legends moonbase.

10) Tigraine - This is @asha-mage's theory and it's the best one I've ever heard. The only reason it's not higher on author intent is because I'm going by Sanderson intent and I don't think this was on his radar, but it absolutely seems like something RJ would have done, so I split the difference. It fits the hints I vaguely remember- someone we haven't met directly in the books but not a totally unknown character either- and it's just so cool, the idea of Tigraine surviving after all, maybe throwing in with the Jenn, and giving advice to her son's lover/a future leader of her adopted people. I want to write a series of 3 vignettes about Tigraine and the concept of legacy: Tigraine at the Tower, dealing with being the legacy kid with no magical skills. Tigraine abandoning Galad and contributing to his complex about his family legacy. Tigraine (as Nakomi) after talking to Aviendha about the legacy of the Aiel as complicated by her son. It would be so satisfying!!! This should be the answer!!!

Again, DO NOT SPOIL THIS FOR ME. I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE CANONICAL ANSWER.

[stormblessed95]

Stormy - I have been wanting to start reading Brandon Sanderson's cosmere? books, but I can't figure out where to start.

I have seen conflicting arguments. Some say to start with "Mistborn" (which is my default thinking, as it was the first), some say to start with "The Way of Kings".

Several posts and videos have suggested that no matter where you start you don't read them in chronological order?

Help a girl out? 🙏

-From Fantasy girl who is getting really tired of TikTok trying to convince her ACOTAR is the greatest thing since Tolkien. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Friend, if all booktok is giving you is ACOTAR then you need to expand your algorithm! Lol I'm MORE than happy to talk cosmere and reading order!

SO it's important to know that there really isn't a right or wrong way to do this. Everyone will have their own preferred reading order, or the way they did it. As for the chronological comment, it's because each series takes place at a different point in time in the universe.... It can get a little confusing, and I wouldn't necessarily worry too much about it. Lol if you get really into the cosmere and want all the lore, the timeline of each story on each planet, the 17th shard or coppermind websites do a great job and you could spend DAYS going through it all. Lol but it's also spoiler galore, so I would stay away until you read through the books.

Sanderson himself does say that he breaks a ton of rules of writing/in fantasy in the way he starts The Stormlight Archive. That's his center piece of the cosmere really and he personally recommends reading that one after he has earned your trust as an author. And that's fair because boy does that series have a long, slow and confusing start. But DAMN does it pay off. It is my FAVORITE cosmere series. I named my BTS blog after it 😂😂

The cosmere is an multiverse made up of multiple different book series taking place on multiple different planets, each planet is ruled by different shards (their "gods") and they all, in some ways interconnect, mostly right now in smaller ways, but things are coming together more and more. Finding Easter eggs from different series is one of my favorite things. You also have one character, who is a world hopper (there are lots but he is the main one we see) who appears somewhere in every single series. You can read by series.... You can read in publication order.... You can read in phases.... Lol truly, you can't go wrong!

Mistborn is a great start if you want to try that. It's one of his most well known, but it is not his first published work in the cosmere! It's set on the planet Scadriel. It's a solid series, super strong AND it's a great way to *ease* into it, especially if you are newer to fantasy. Which is sounds like you are not! But still. It's the classic fantasy tropes with Brandon's own take/twist on it. Prophecy chosen one hero, an immortal evil god-emperor, a plucky found family band of misfit rebels, with book 1 being a heist story with magic. It's got a metal based magic system that's one of the most unique hard magic systems I've read

Mistborn starts with the Era 1 trilogy, which includes:

- The Final Empire

-The Well of Ascension

- The Hero of Ages

- The Eleventh Metal (novella)

- The Traveler (short story, only found online)

Era 2, which includes:

- The Alloy of Law

- Allomancer Jak (short story)

- Shadows of Self

- Bands of Mourning

- Mistborn: Secret History (novella)

Mistborn will continue into 2 further eras as well in the future on Scadriel. They haven't been published yet, all we know about it is that Era 1 was your classic epic fantasy trilogy world set up for the most part, Era 2 is set 300 years after the end of era 1 and has a steampunk western feel to it. (It also has lesbians with guns as a side couple/character, and one of my FAVORITE cosmere couples in the main pairing). Era 3 will be set more modern fantasy/magic, he said think 80s/90s, and Era 4 will be a scifi/fantasy feel set in space!

You could also start in publication order with Elantris. His first book ever published, and you can low-key tell. It's still a great book, but it's not as strong as the others and so I tend to rec this one as definitely please read it, but maybe not as an intro to Sanderson as an author. Elantris is a standalone and set on the world of Sel. This world has two other novellas set in it, which are Emperor's Soul (one of the best novellas I've ever read in my life) and the Hope of Elantris. Emperor's Soul is the story of a prisoner tasked with reconstructing the mind of the Emperor to save her own life. Elantris is based on a magic system that broke, triad narrative structure and heavy political intrigue that is told in a way that won't go over my head

If you want to ease into the world by way of Graphic Novel, check of White Sand. It's set on the world of Taldain, takes place timeline wise WAY EARLIER than most of the other cosmere and is just pretty fun honestly. There are 3 volumes total.

Warbreaker is one i used to recommend to my friends all the time as an intro to Sanderson as it was super fun, super colorful, a standalone and a fantastic read with a great romance subplot. Since it's a standalone, alot of people find it less daunting to pick up and it hooks a lot of people in to wanting to read more of his stuff. It's set on the planet Nalthis and has one of the more obvious crossovers in the cosmere into another book series. Characters (and a sword) from this book, also appear as side characters in the Stormlight Archive. Brandon Sanderson also gives a download of Warbreaker for free as an ebook on his website. This is a story of two princesses (sisters) who grew up knowing their lot and fate in life, and then suddenly they have to switch. It's got romance, politics, intrigue and crazy twists and a color based magic system.

My husband started with Stormlight Archive and has zero regrets. Lol and lots of people do start here and love it. Because again, no wrong way to do this! When I mentioned earlier that it really throws you into the deep end, it does. The first boom has a prelude that shows events 5000 years ago, then a prologue with events 5 years ago, then ch 1 with events 6 months ago, then you finally get to present day with the MCs and have no idea how they got to where they are or what's happening at first. Lol but it's got horribly broken characters who are just desperately trying to save themselves and then the world. It's the most badass fantasy world with epic anime level fight scenes, an intricate and so cool magic system and a truly unique world that you are fully emersed in. The video above is like my favorite trailer make people watch to say "read this!!"

Stormlight is set on Roshar and includes:

- The Way of Kings

- Words of Radiance

- Edgedancer (novella)

- Oathbringer

- Dawnshard

- Rhythm of War

- Wind and Truth (releasing Dec 2024)

And the latest release will conclude the first arc of the Stormlight Archive. He plans to have another arc in this series as well with another 5 books and a few more novellas.

You could also start with a few of his newer cosmere related standalones as well! This are all newer releases that he did as secret projects and could all be good entry points into the cosmere as well with a good fun standalone read!

Tress of the Emerald Sea is set on Lumar. It's like pirates of the Caribbean meets Princess's Bride

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is set on Komashi. Two people find themselves switching bodies, have to solve a mystery to save their respective people's and slowly fall in love along the way (inspired by Your Name)

And The Sunlit Man, I wouldn't read this one as an intro to the cosmere personally, but you could! Its main character is actually one of the side characters from the Stormlight Archive and is set way in the future from that time as well as on a different planet, Canticle.

You can also just jump into some novellas instead if you would rather. There are two novellas out now that have no connection to a series (yet) but are part of the cosmere and set on different planets.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is my other favorite cosmere novella and is INCREDIBLE and is set on Threnody

Sixth of Dust is set on First of the Sun

This is old, so missing some of the newer books, but still a great resource:

And if you've made it through all that and are still a little like okayyyy but where do I start??? Some extra resources....

Brandon explaining what the cosmere is himself

Brandon recommended where to start:

If you want the closet to chronological, I'd go:

Publication Order can be found here, the cosmere books are in Green:

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Bibliography

And personally? I'd start Mistborn or Warbreaker. Unless you are fully ready to dive deep into trusting him with a story lol then full send it with Stormlight Archive.

AND if you are reading these, please feel free to DM me to chat about it or send your reactions or anything at all!!

Good luck! Hope I didn't just confuse you more!! Lol

[duckngk]

I’m a huge Brandon Sanderson fan — how do I start Stormlight Archive — like what do I need to have read first? (I’ve read Mistborn, reckoners, Alcatraz, Rythmatist, a bit of Skyward, currently working on WOT but that’s not Cosmere so doubt that’s relevant)

the order of the main books go the way of kings, words of radiance, oathbringer, and rhythm of war. theres also two novellas, one in between words of radiance and oathbringer (edgedancer) and another in between oathbringer and rhythm of war (dawnshard.)

my recommendation is if you havent read warbreaker, read that first. you can also read it between words of radiance and oathbringer, but i struggled with that because i was so into stormlight it was hard to pick up another book (the info and story from warbreaker is good to have before oathbringer.)

but if you just wanna start stormlight, just jump in with the way of kings! thats what i did and it was awesome. warbreaker just kinda explains some things

sorry if this is real confusing! the novellas and warbreaker just add to the worldbuilding and explain stuff. i hope this helps a bit lol

[thephilosophersapprentice]

Having now read The Final Empire, I'm really impressed with it. It holds together really well as a whole and unlike some other books I've read I don't recall any parts that seemed particularly weaker than the others. It's a hefty book but it has the same quality throughout, and then when the climax hits... it's like a season-long final battle with twists and turns that keep you engaged through the whole thing.

At least the last 3 hours of the 24-hour audiobook were all final battle. Naturally that's not possible for an 8-hour audiobook (a lot of YA is I think around 8-12 hours in audiobook form, though I could be wrong), but holy moly. I think a reason the audiobook is that long is partly because Sanderson's style is dense. There's a lot of character in the writing and I appreciate that a lot. One of Sanderson's strengths, in my opinion, is that he has a talent for showing you what the viewpoint character sees and only that, leaving the reader to guess and work out what's going on in their heads along with the character. It's an excellent use of limited point of view that keeps the story moving forward and the uncertainty works well to keep the reader engaged.

Also it has a fantastic magic system. I know Brandon Sanderson basically (as far as I know) created the theory of hard vs. soft magic systems but this is a masterclass in balance; what allomancy can do, particularly physically, is limited but can be leveraged in dozens of ways, which helps maintain the sense of awe and wonder. I am a huge fan of magic systems with hard limits, but this has to be one of my favorite solidly fleshed-out systems, up there with bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender and alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist. It also has one of the best introductions to a magic system; it introduces the hard limits first, makes the magic finite and dependent on a specific source, which can run out... and then later on you find out that there's more complexity to it. In my opinion, that's one of the best ways to do it; first show the core functions and tenets, and then gradually introduce the ways that the assumptions surrounding that system are wrong, or technically correct yet misleading... much like advanced science courses.

[rhetoricandlogic]

The Sunlit Man – Burning Bright

And just like that, we come to the end of Brandon Sanderson’s secret project slate. The Sunlit Man plunges us once again into the Cosmere, this time in a far future and with a familiar character headlining the story. 

Nomad is running. Running from the Night Brigade, a shadowy cabal chasing him for something he has…or had. A seasoned worldhopper, Nomad flees to a planet with a strikingly bright sun that sets the surface ablaze as the world orbits the star. As if the murderous world itself wasn’t enough, he soon encounters a powerful local who seems intent on Nomad’s destruction. Our intrepid protagonist must use his wits and his unique magical abilities to learn the world’s ways and escape. As he uncovers the planet’s mysteries, he becomes increasingly embroiled in the political struggles and the desperate need for the people of the planet to survive. 

My favorite thing about Sanderson’s secret projects set in the Cosmere is how they spell out the future of this vast, interconnected series. I always knew he planned for the stories to extend into the future, and I worried the advent of Cosmere technology would dilute the whimsy and fun of Sanderson’s deeply realized magic systems. The Sunlit Man and Yumi And The Nightmare Painter both handily dispelled any worries to that effect. This book in particular feels like a core Cosmere book set many years beyond the current series such as The Stormlight Archive (and this book is closely related to that series). 

Fortunately, I liked The Sunlit Man for many other reasons. First of all, it’s action-packed and streamlined. At about 450 pages, it’s relatively short for a Sanderson book. It feels lean and polished, like a fast-paced action movie. In fact, I felt pretty strongly that this book would make an incredible adaptation, should the Cosmere ever come to screens. The setting is brutal and vibrant; the fight scenes are tight and riveting; the magic would pop in a visual format. The book is a slam dunk if you like high-octane scenes and lethal stakes. 

The characters in The Sunlit Man grew on me. I loved Nomad from the start (I knew his original name from the get-go, which helped, but others may be entranced by the mystery). His journey is as much internal as it is physical. He reckons with trauma from his past and questions his reasons for running. He feels like he abandons the people he meets in his travels. Rebeke—one of the locals he befriends—and her compatriots build a society in a hellish environment. They find love and compassion despite struggling to survive every day. 

I bring up this last point strictly as a “your mileage may vary” thing. I know some Sanderson readers prefer the Cosmere connections to remain easter egg-ish instead of front and center. If that’s you, then The Sunlit Man won’t be a hit. I, however, love Cosmere connections, and I see it as a reason to keep reading where others may see it as a burden. The Sunlit Man doesn’t overdo it in my opinion, but anyone struggling with Cosmere fatigue may want to reconsider adding this book to their TBR. Again, that’s not me, and I imagine it’s not most of you, but I’m making this point for those who might feel differently. If that’s you, The Sunlit Man might not be your bag. It may become required reading in the future, but for now, it’s easy enough to shelve. 

The Sunlit Man made me smile. It had me on the edge of my metaphorical seat (I read on the treadmill, and being on the edge of such a device is strongly discouraged by the manufacturers). I enjoyed the characters, the setting, and the futuristic look at the Cosmere. I suspect many Sanderson fans will feel similarly. 

[wot-tidbits]

So... any news about the films?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

Surprised? No. Annoyed by (in case of Hollywood being Hollywood) and/or in an unfortunate place timing wise because of the strike? Yes.

I'm happy to see the writers standing their ground, but it WILL slow us down. Beyond that, Hollywood is scared right now. D&D flopped despite being excellent. Many other big budget films are under performing. Streaming is not the golden goose they hoped, and things like LOTR (which is turning out to be more expensive than the returns are providing) amateur people gunshy.

I'm sure it will happen, but things are slow in Hollywood right now. So we might need to revise expectations of when.

SOURCE

Brandon Sanderson recently updated the situation with the adaptation of his books which... ok, fair.

But I am not putting this only for that puprose.

What caught my attention was this phrase:

Streaming is not the golden goose they hoped, and things like LOTR (which is turning out to be more expensive than the returns are providing) amateur people gunshy.

At first glance as being a WoT fan nothing to see her. Yes, exactly. Nothingness that screams loudly. *CRICKETS*

Let me remind you that Brandon Sanderson is the writer of three books in a fantasy series which is currently running its own TV show on a streaming platform.

Brandon Sanderson put streaming and LOTR in one sentence and completely omiss to mention that other big budget fantasy TV show who many people demand that is extremely successfull on streaming platform of Amazon Prime. This show is so successful in wider audience's mind that a person, who is deeply involved with it, don't bother to put it on the table for discussion about big budget fantasy adapations on streaming platforms...

BIG YIKES.

And this is not the first time Brandon Sanderson forgets to mention that TV show in certain context. If I was involved in sucessful TV project which helps my other works to be picked on by Hollywood, I would boost that on every single opportunity.

Or may be I do not know how to think as a Mormont.

[fandomsandflyingstingrays]

Top 5 underrated (or maybe just want to highlight) media recs?

Oh that's such a fun question, thank you!! I'm going to use this opportunity to recommend some of my favorite books, since I don't talk about the lesser-known ones very often.

I just finished the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson, and it is so much fun. I laughed out loud at least once per chapter, and every single one of the plot twists completely blew me away. None of them felt like they were just there for shock value, though, which was nice. It was refreshing to read a series that was surprising without feeling disjointed.

I've mentioned the Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Bracken before, but it bears repeating. It's more than ten years old, so it does have its flaws, but the character interactions are gold and it takes the characters' trauma very seriously in a really helpful and meaningful way.

The Camelot Rising series by Kiersten White is probably my all-time favorite Arthurian retelling. Every single character is gold, and it takes the whole catty-noble-girls-competing-with-each-other trope and dances on its grave.

If you have any fondness or even mild curiosity about Padmé, I can't recommend the Queen's Shadow trilogy by E.K. Johnston enough. It expands on how she rose to queen, transitioned to Senator, and found her place in the Clone Wars, and it also fleshes out all of her handmaidens and gives them a delightful dynamic.

Speaking of Star Wars, the Servants of the Empire series by Jason Fry is a must-read for any Rebels fan. It deals with the story of Zare, the cadet Ezra met at the Imperial Academy who stayed there looking for his missing sister, and it adds so much lore to the saga as a whole.

[onlycosmere]

Cosmere/Magic the Gathering

'What IP do you most want to see in Magic the Gathering?' Thunderwoodd: Stormlight Archive!

thyfoolish1: Brandon said they reached out to him and he was excited and ready to go but they haven't gotten back to him. I think this was Dragonsteel last year. So there is hope.

Egi_: Even after the shitshow with the free book he gave them on the condition it wouldn't be commercialized and then WotC commercialized it?

Brandon Sanderson: I knew what I was getting into working with a big corporation. Like the proverbial frog giving a ride to a scorpion, I don't see justification for complaint regarding the eventual sting. I love the game, and the designers, so that's really my metric. As a note, everyone I worked with on the narrative team was wonderful.

I don't want a passing secret lair of five cards; I am interested in a full-blown set, so with that constraint, I wouldn't foresee a Stormlight or Mistborn crossover until one of several things happens:

1) They burn through the bigger properties that match MTG's vibe like LOTR did. Fantasy, or science fantasy, properties that feel legit as a big expansions. As mentioned in this thread alone, there is a pretty deep mine there. Dune, Witcher, Elder Scrolls, Arcane/LoL, Westeros (if they're feeling spicy.) A hobbit set is all but inevitable as well.

Considering they'd be unwise to put these sorts of things out too quickly, and should really give them time to breathe, we're looking at ten years easily before they're out of larger fish to fry. Stormlight is big for a book series, but without any shows/films/games, I'd suspect it doesn't have the casual word-of-mouth reach their marketing team looks for to justify the extra expense of licensing fees.

2) Said bigger properties decide they aren't interested, leaving things popular but without media representation. If they ever decided to experiment with a book-only series, I suspect I'd be very high on the list to approach.

3) Cosmere gets one of said media properties, something I'm actively trying to accomplish--but it is slow going, as I'm in the fortunate position of being able to be very picky about partners, and prefer to take my time.

I've made it clear to them that if a large-scale set were in the, ahem, cards, I'd be willing to make frequent trips to Seattle to be part of the design team on said set.

awakenedjunkofigure: If any author deserves the pick of the litter for production companies, it's absolutely you. Can't wait to see what your books would look like on-screen!!

Brandon Sanderson: Well, the answer to what they'd look like on screen is "Expensive," which a part of the problem...

schloopers: Any large consideration in your mind for spoilers versus fully representing a world or story?

Stormlight you’d of course want all 10 Orders, so spoilers are far as those are concerned are a given.

But maybe a legendary creature “Iron Eyes” instead of any spoiler specific proper names?

I ask because I have so far gotten one friend in the playgroup to start reading, and a couple full sets would for sure help in garnering interest, but I would worry for the story beats getting too greatly revealed out of context.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just unavoidable. I’ve had several Dr. Who episodes “spoiled” for me through that set.

Brandon Sanderson:  This is something I haven't given a lot of thought toward, but I perhaps should be mulling it over. You make a good point.

Thunderwoodd: Woah! Can’t believe you responded. Huge fan! And I loved your commander cube! Saw it on Game Knights right after I finished Rhythm of War.

Curious, do you think the Radiant orders could correspond to guilds or color wedges?

Brandon Sanderson: Yes, I've done thought experiments on that, and think guilds could actively work for them without too much trouble. Problem is, would we want a Stormlight set or just a Knights Radiant set, because ten guilds for ten orders is already a high demand. It might be better to make a wedge set, but the problem there is that the Radiants are actively all colors, so it would be hard to cut out any save black. (Willshaper individuality and artistic expression could be green red instead of red black, for example.) So maybe five four-color wedges? I think the lore could support this, and be something that MTG has had trouble conveying without the expansive worldbuilding an entire book series could provide.

Radiants and sapient spren (all but black, to indicate the inherent selfless Radiant cause)

Human Nations (all but green, to indicate triumph over nature, which is an antagonist on Roshar.)

Singers (All but blue, to indicate the lack of ability to plan for the future, dearth of scholars, and onset of madness in the fused.)

Non-sapient Spren and wildlife (All but white, to indicate lack of overriding societal structures.)

Secret Societies (All but red, indicting the deliberate and conscious planning of these groups.)

Four color signpost uncommons would be WILD, even with hybrid mana. So I can see the design team balking. This (four color guild set) is almost certainly something they've explored and specifically decided not to do.

mediocreattbest: It’s crazy coming onto this post to say “any cosmere set!” And then see you actually replying. Out of curiosity, would you prefer just a stormlight set or a cosmere-wide set? I’d love to see characters through their stories (like we had with the LotR set)

Brandon Sanderson: I'd prefer Stormlight or Mistborn alone, as the planets themselves are so much a part of the stories.

[cosmerelists]

True Confessions of a Cosmere Blogger

[There's a Stormlight spoiler in here! For Oathbringer specifically]

Followers, friends, people who ended up here through tumblr's broken search function: it is time. Time for me to lay bare all of my most terrible secrets as a Cosmere blogger. I am ready, and I hope you are too, for these very honest and real confessions.

1. I don't fucking know how to spell Gavinar Galivar Gavilar's name

Real talk: I had to look up the spelling to make this joke because I couldn't remember which was the right spelling and which were the wrong spellings. It's the grandson, I think. It's not fair to have Gavilar (I had to look at the wiki again) and Gavinor (I had to look this up too) have such similar names, not to mention Dalinar (I'm good there) making me forget whether it's the L or the V first in that dude's name. Seriously, this guy's name is the hardest part of writing any Roshar list.

2. My wife came up with my most popular list

I think my very first post is still my most popular: "How Other Cosmere Characters Would Convince The Stick to Become Fire." And who came up with this awesome idea? My wife! I was hemming and hawing about whether to actually start this blog, and she was like, "Hey, what about a list where everyone tries to convince the stick to become fire?" and let me tell you, that list wrote itself--I couldn't type fast enough. The jokes may be mine, but the idea, which is the funniest part, was all her.

My wife had another really good list idea that I still haven't written, since I haven't found a way to do it justice, but when I finally write it, I bet it'll do great.

3. I don't watch Brandon Sanderson's videos

I don't know. I just have trouble watching Videos On The Internet. I had to FORCE myself to watch the Secret Projects announcement since nobody would say what it was, and that was super hard.

4. I don't read fanfic

I think my blog would classify as fanfic, so it would be fair to say that I write it but I don't read it. I've only read like two fics in my life, and they were both because the girl I had a crush on at the time ordered me to (and yes...it was Wincest). No real idea why I don't read it; just something about my brain, I guess. It does mean that I am trying to understand shipping dynamics and fan preferences through tumblr osmosis, which is why my shipping-based lists may occasionally just leave out some huge pairing I was entirely unaware of (like Navani & Ialai, apparently! Whoops)

5. This is my third list blog

I like to pretend that "list blog" is a genre. It actually worked for a while! I had atlalists first--I joined tumblr because I was writing lists for my own amusement and my roommate at the time told me they thought it would do well on tumblr-- and then bleachlists. Bleachlists was the height of my success; I got so many asks & list requests that I had to create a whole separate blog, askbleachlists, just to handle them. I wrote three lists...A DAY. And some other people made their own "list blogs" inspired by bleachlists, which was wonderful. People made art--I still have some of the bleach art people made hanging in my office. It was fun! Then I left tumblr for a while, and now I'm back with cosmerelists.

6. I thought about making this blog a LONG time before I did it

It just felt really scary! The Cosmere has so much lore and so many characters and so many magic systems and I do NOT have a handle on it all. I read Stormlight Archive 2 1/2 times in preparation, hoping to at least have a handle on that part. But what helped, actually, was going to the Cosmere DragonCon panel last year, listening to the questions, and realizing that nobody really understood the majority of what was going on. So that made me feel better. And in the end, it was just something I wanted to do, and it's my way of enjoying a fandom, so I thought I'd give it a try.

7. Sometime I forget major plot points (Oathbringer spoiler)

I put Demid in a poll as a Bondsmith candidate and people were like, "isn't he dead?" I still don't remember him dying. I'm so sorry, Demid.

At least I can spell your name...right?