We live in an era where fantasy readers are utterly spoiled for choice, with so many new books and series coming out each year that it is literally impossible for even the most voracious reader to read them all. But if you want to immerse yourself in an expansive fantasy realm that can keep you busy for years on end, there's no better choice than Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere.
Sanderson is famed for his consistency when it comes to publishing books; there's always another new one on the horizon, meaning fans are never left wanting for long. The Cosmere is an interconnected universe that encompasses all of his adult fantasy fiction, including his most well-known series like Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive. Many authors create unique fantastical worlds; Sanderson created an entire galaxy filled with different planets, each with their own cultures, flora, fauna, and magic systems.
As of this writing, the Cosmere includes more than 20 books spread across four different series and a number of standalones. It can be hard to know exactly where to begin, which is why we've put together a guide that's extensive enough to match. Bookmark this page for reference, pull up your Goodreads, Storygraph, or an old-fashioned pen and paper, and let's chart your course into the Cosmere.
Table of Contents
- What series exist in the Cosmere?
- Every book in the Cosmere, in publication order
- Where should you start reading the Cosmere?
- Recommended reading orders
What series exist in the Cosmere?
There are two main series that stand as pillars of the Cosmere: Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive. Beyond that, the Hoid's Travails series is a newer one which includes several of Sanderson's more off-beat standalones. And beyond that, there are a number of important standalone Cosmere stories that aren't currently part of a series at all, like Elantris and Warbreaker, some of which have sequels planned while others don't.
Mistborn takes place on the world of Scadrial, and features a magic system inspired by ancient alchemy where characters ingest trace amounts of metals to utilize their various powers. This series is broken down farther into multiple sub-series, or "eras," as the world of Scadrial advances toward modernity. The original trilogy is an epic fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The second series, Wax & Wayne, follows a pair of lawmen in the equivalent of Scadrial's steampunk-western time period. Sanderson is currently working on a third Mistborn series titled Ghostbloods which is a spy thriller set in this world's version of the 1980s. It's the next major Cosmere work coming down the pipeline.
The Stormlight Archive is an epic fantasy in the very classic sense, where each installment is a door-stopping tome filled to the brim with deeply realized characters, magic with secrets to be uncovered, a conflict of the most grand scale, and storytelling that spans thousands upon thousands of pages. It's set on the world of Roshar, which has a unique ecosystem based around intermittent storms that scour the rocky landscape with deadly ferocity. In addition to the core novels, there are a number of tertiary novellas which expand the Stormlight story.
Hoid's Travails is the newest Cosmere series, and by far the most different. It was not originally planned as a series, but after writing three different standalone novels which feature Hoid, the worldhopping character who appears in some capacity in basically every single mainline Cosmere book, Sanderson decided to make it official. The Hoid's Travails books require no knowledge of each other or even the rest of the Cosmere to enjoy, so you can check them out in any order.
Every book in the Cosmere, in publication order
- Elantris (2005)
- Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006) — Mistborn trilogy #1
- The Well of Ascension (2007) — Mistborn trilogy #2
- The Hero of Ages (2008) — Mistborn trilogy #3
- Warbreaker (2009)
- The Way of Kings (2010) — The Stormlight Archive #1
- The Alloy of Law (2011) — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #1
- The Emperor's Soul (2012)*
- Words of Radiance (2014) — The Stormlight Archive #2
- Shadows of Self (2015) — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #2
- The Bands of Mourning (2016) — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #3
- Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection (2016)*
- Edgedancer — The Stormlight Archive #2.5 (2016)*
- Mistborn: Secret History (2016)*
- White Sand — graphic novel (2016-2019, all issues collected in an omnibus in 2024)
- Oathbringer (2017) — The Stormlight Archive #3
- Dawnshard (2020) — The Stormlight Archive #3.5
- Rhythm of War (2020) — The Stormlight Archive #4
- The Lost Metal (2022) — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #4
- Tress of the Emerald Sea (2023) — Hoid's Travails #1
- Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (2023) — Hoid's Travails #2
- The Sunlit Man (2023)
- Wind and Truth (2024) — The Stormlight Archive #5
- Elsecaller, co-written with Dan Wells (2025) — The Stormlight Archive Lost Tales #1
- King Lopen the First of Alethkar, co-written with Isaac Stewart (2025) — The Stormlight Archive Lost Tales #2
- Isles of the Emberdark (2026)
- The Fires of December (2026) — Hoid's Travails #3 (Forthcoming on December 8, 2026)
*A note about Arcanum Unbounded: This 2016 short fiction collection compiled all of Sanderson's shorter works set in the Cosmere up until that point, including those that got their own standalone printings, like Mistborn: Secret History and the Stormlight novella Edgedancer, as well as others which aren't readily available elsewhere, like The Hope of Elantris, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, and The Eleventh Metal.
For simplicity, you can read all of these stories in Arcanum Unbounded in one go, as the collection is presented in a way that makes reading them together an ideal experience. If you're on a mission to read the entire Cosmere in strict order including those shorter works, check out our publication and chronological reading orders below.
Where should you start reading the Cosmere?
Brandon Sanderson's recommendations
It should come as no surprise that Sanderson has gotten asked quite a lot where the best places to start the Cosmere are. After all, many of these books are set on different worlds, and can serve as their own discreet entry point.
In response, Sanderson released his own official recommendation for where to start the Cosmere. What, you thought he was going to leave you high and dry after writing a shared universe of more than two dozen books?
He gives four options. The first three are: Mistborn: The Final Empire, which is the first novel in his original Mistborn trilogy; the standalone book Tress of the Emerald Sea; or the standalone novella The Emperor's Soul, which takes place in the world of Elantris. Together, these three books have received a unique new printing from Sanderson's company, Dragonsteel Books, which is dubbed the Sanderson Starter Set. You can learn more about it here.
The fourth book Sanderson recommends as an entry point is The Way of Kings, which is the first book in The Stormlight Archive. It's a massive book, which in the author's words, makes it perfect for seasoned epic fantasy readers who "just want something enormously epic."
You can't go wrong when the author himself recommends these books as the place to start. However, as a longtime reader of Sanderson's Cosmere, I do have some opinions as well.
Our recommendations
While I completely agree with Sanderson's recommendation of Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Emperor's Soul, and The Way of Kings, personally, I wouldn't recommend a new reader start the Cosmere with Tress of the Emerald Sea.
Tress is a fun, whimsical book inspired by William Goldman's The Princess Bride. It isn't a bad place to start the Cosmere, since it's a fun, quick read, but it's not indicative at all of Sanderson's usual style. His books typically utilize a much more standard sort of modern epic fantasy prose, rather than Tress's cheeky, fourth-wall breaking narration. If you want to get an idea of whether the Cosmere and Sanderson are for you as a reader, then Tress of the Emerald Sea really isn't the best way to judge it. It was the 20th book published in the Cosmere, after all, and Sanderson was in one of his most experimental phases as an author during that time.
Instead, I would recommend Elantris. Sanderson has tried to downplay this book as a starting point, since it was his first published novel and he's improved dramatically as a writer since then. However, if you're the sort of avid reader who's a purist about reading in publication order — and if you're reading an article like this, I imagine there's at least a decent chance that's the case — then Elantris is worth considering because it is the true beginning of the Cosmere, at least in terms of its publication. The mythos may stretch further back in Sanderson's sprawling lore, but Elantris is the novel which served as its introduction to readers. It's a standalone story that still serves that purpose well, even if the prose have their occasional rough spots, comparatively speaking.
To sum up: start with Mistborn: The Final Empire if you want to begin a completed epic fantasy trilogy that will give you the clearest snapshot of Sanderson's capabilities as a storyteller; The Emperor's Soul if you want a short read with cool magic that hints at the more philosophical side of the Cosmere; The Way of Kings if you want to immerse yourself in a massive fantasy epic; or Elantris if you want to start in publication order and experience the Cosmere in the way it was originally released into the world.
Recommended reading orders
Complete publication order
We've already laid out the publication order of Sanderson's mainline books above, so that's the way to go for general publication order. But if you want to get really granular about it, we can break things down even further by charting out when he published each of the shorter works contained in Arcanum Unbounded. As such, if you want to go for a complete publication order read, you'll need to get the short fiction collection near the beginning so you can sprinkle its tales throughout.
For the purposes of this reading order, we are not using Dragonsteel exclusive publication dates, such as the earlier release dates that were fulfilled as part of Kickstarter rewards or exclusives at Sanderson's Dragonsteel Nexus Convention. All publication dates are for the broader releases when these books became widely available.
- Elantris (2005)
- The Hope of Elantris (2006) — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006)
- The Well of Ascension (2007)
- The Hero of Ages (2008)
- Warbreaker (2009)
- The Way of Kings (2010)
- The Alloy of Law (2011)
- The Eleventh Metal (2011) — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- The Emperor's Soul (2012) — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (2013) — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- Words of Radiance (2014)
- Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Altania, Episodes Twenty-Eight Through Thirty (2014) — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- Sixth of the Dusk (2014)* — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- Shadows of Self (2015)
- The Bands of Mourning (2016)
- Edgedancer (2016) — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- Mistborn: Secret History (2016) — collected in Arcanum Unbounded
- White Sand — graphic novel (2016-2019, all issues collected in an omnibus in 2024)
- Oathbringer (2017)
- Dawnshard (2020)
- Rhythm of War (2020)
- The Lost Metal (2022)
- Tress of the Emerald Sea (2023)
- Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (2023)
- The Sunlit Man (2023)
- Wind and Truth (2024)
- Elsecaller (2025)
- King Lopen the First of Alethkar (2025)
- Isles of the Emberdark (2026)
- The Fires of December (2026) — Forthcoming
*A note about Sixth of the Dusk: This novella forms the basis for Isles of the Emberdark, which was published years later when Sanderson revisited and expanded the tale. The entirety of Sixth of the Dusk is included in Isles of the Emberdark as flashbacks, so you can safely skip the original novella unless you want to compare and contrast how it evolved from its first publication to the later novel.
Series order
If you want to go roughly in order through the Cosmere, but still want a bit more consistency in your reading experience by tackling one series at a time, it can be a great way to experience this journey. In fact, this would be my preferred way for a Cosmere read-through, now that so many of these books are out in the wild.
A few of these books can be shuffled around, but the main thing is to keep the larger series more or less in order. For the purposes of this read-through, the stories of Arcanum Unbounded are grouped together for a proper read of the short fiction collection, timed for maximum impact.
- Mistborn: The Final Empire — Mistborn trilogy #1
- The Well of Ascension — Mistborn trilogy #2
- The Hero of Ages — Mistborn trilogy #3
- Elantris
- White Sand — graphic novel omnibus
- The Way of Kings — The Stormlight Archive #1
- Warbreaker*
- Words of Radiance — The Stormlight Archive #2
- Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection
- This is an ideal placement for two important novellas in the collection: Mistborn: Secret History, which acts as a bridge between the first and second eras of that series, and Edgedancer, which is volume 2.5 of The Stormlight Archive and ties directly into Oathbringer.
- Oathbringer — The Stormlight Archive #3
- Dawnshard — The Stormlight Archive #3.5
- Rhythm of War — The Stormlight Archive #4
- The Sunlit Man*
- Wind and Truth — The Stormlight Archive #5
- Elsecaller — The Stormlight Archive Lost Tales #1
- King Lopen the First of Alethkar — The Stormlight Archive Lost Tales #2
- The Alloy of Law — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #1
- Shadows of Self — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #2
- The Bands of Mourning — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #3
- The Lost Metal — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #4
- Tress of the Emerald Sea — Hoid's Travails #1
- Yumi and the Nightmare Painter — Hoid's Travails #2
- Isles of the Emberdark
- The Fires of December — Hoid's Travails #3 (Forthcoming)
- White Sand —graphic novel omnibus
- Elantris
- The Hope of Elantris — Takes place during Elantris
- The Emperor's Soul
- The Eleventh Metal
- Mistborn: The Final Empire — Mistborn trilogy #1
- The Well of Ascension — Mistborn trilogy #2
- The Hero of Ages — Mistborn trilogy #1
- Mistborn: Secret History
- Warbreaker
- Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
- The Way of Kings — The Stormlight Archive #1
- Words of Radiance — The Stormlight Archive #2
- Elsecaller — Stormlight Lost Tales #1, takes place during Words of Radiance
- King Lopen the First of Alethkar — Stormlight Lost Tales #2, takes place during Words of Radiance
- Edgedancer — The Stormlight Archive #2.5
- Oathbringer — The Stormlight Archive #3
- Dawnshard — The Stormlight Archive #3.5
- Rhythm of War — The Stormlight Archive #4
- Wind and Truth — The Stormlight Archive #5
- Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Altania, Episodes Twenty-Eight Through Thirty
- The Alloy of Law — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #1
- Shadows of Self — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #2
- The Bands of Mourning — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #3
- The Lost Metal — Mistborn Era Two: Wax & Wayne #4
- The Fires of December — Hoid's Travails #3, (Forthcoming)
- Tress of the Emerald Sea— Hoid's Travails #1
- The Sunlit Man
- Yumi and the Nightmare Painter — Hoid's Travails #2
- Isles of the Emberdark
*A note about Warbreaker: This standalone novel is set on a different world from The Stormlight Archive, but features several important elements that cross over. If you want the full Stormlight experience, reading it before Words of Radiance is highly recommended.
*A note about The Sunlit Man: This standalone Cosmere novel is Stormlight-adjacent. It was published before Wind and Truth, but takes place after it on the timeline. In my opinion, it is optimal to read it before the fifth book of The Stormlight Archive on your first read-through, because that is the way the mysteries inherent in both books naturally unfold best. But if you'd rather stick with Stormlight and read The Sunlit Man after, that's fine as well. It's a completely different book once you know the story of Wind and Truth.
Chronological order
For whatever reason, you've been called to read the Cosmere in chronological order, a feat that will surely tie your mind in knots. Are you sure you're not a scholar secretly from Roshar, or a Feruchemist with a secret Coppermind you're looking to fill?
Look stranger, your reasons are your own, but just know that I would not recommend this for a first time read of the Cosmere. However, a chronological read can provide some interesting insights for the seasoned worldhopper, especially now that Sanderson has completed roughly half of his grand arc for the overall universe. The author has never released an official chronological ordering, but at this point there's enough context clues in his books that we can roughly chart one out. So steel yourself, and try this one out for size.
With this guide in hand, you're ready to tackle Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere no matter how you want to read it. Strap in, and prepare to enjoy one of the greatest fantasy sagas of modern times. Journey before destination!
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