20 books to read while you wait for The Winds of Winter
By Daniel Roman
8. The Cosmere Books
If you’re all about intricate magic systems, pulse-pounding action sequences and airtight plots, allow me to introduce you to your new favorite author: Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson is the anti-GRRM, putting out at least one book almost every year since 2005 — and in some cases two or three. This is the guy who, while writing one of his Mistborn novels, surprised fans by saying he’d actually written not one, but two books in the series at the same time, and would be releasing them months apart. If that’s not enough to make anyone who’s been sitting through the long drought between ASOIAF books salivate, then I don’t know what is.
The coolest thing about many of Sanderson’s works is that they all take place in a shared universe. And as as he gets deeper into it, they’re all starting to converge and have more and more references to each other. Each story can be read and enjoyed on its own terms, of course, but if you really like going through stories with a fine-toothed comb, then Sanderson is your man.
As of right now, there are several notable works in the shared universe he’s made, known as the Cosmere. One of the biggest is Mistborn.
Currently, Mistborn has two sets of stories: an apocalyptic Victorian-style fantasy trilogy (Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages), and the other a steampunk style quadrilogy set 200 years later. That second one is a work in progress — we’re still waiting on a fourth book — but given Sanderson’s track record it’s easy to remain optimistic about getting the final volume.
Mistborn has arguably the most well-developed magic system of any fantasy series, mainly centering around how people can use and ingest trace amounts of metals in different ways to give them various powers, like influencing others’ emotions, gaining super strength, or the ability to practically fly.
Beyond Mistborn, there are two standalone stories set in the Cosmere as well, each on a different world with a different magic system. Elantris is an Atlantean-esque tale about a utopian magic city that suddenly fell to an awful curse. It’s said that anyone can wake up one day and become an Elantrian, which was great until the curse made becoming an Elantrian the equivalent of getting leprosy.
The other standalone is a book called Warbreaker. This one is set in a Greecian-esque world and features a magic system that revolves around draining color from things for power. Warbreaker is a fast, tight read that has a resounding conclusion. But the absolute best thing about it is that it ties strongly into one of Sanderson’s other series (the crossover appeal is strong!), The Stormlight Archive.