I have been a lurker of the various Sanderson-themed subreddits. Unfortunately for me and my fellow introverts, there isn’t much here to lurk at (yet!). I thought maybe we could get things started by discussing how we all got into the Cosmere. I’ll go first!
In November of last year, a friend of mine recommended I read Mistborn. I had just barely started reading again after a long break and was in need of a new series. I was about to go on a long drive, so I borrowed the audiobook from the library so I had something to listen to. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. In the last six months, I have read every single Cosmere book I could get my hands on, and have absolutely loved each one. I finished it all off with Tress last month. My only regret is not getting into this sooner so I could have been a part of the Secret Project Kickstarter.
Here’s hoping we can get this community going!
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I was a big fantasy reader in my teens already, and read Elantris when it was the only book published by Brandon Sanderson.
I liked his style and over the years read his newest books not long after they were released. I was happy when he was chosen to finish Wheel Of Time, because that was another favorite series of mine, although I liked the writing style of Sanderson much better than Robert Jordan.
I somehow went through Mistborn, Stormlight, Warbreaker and even some of the novellas without connecting the Cosmere thing.
Then via subreddits it finally clicked and I chose to do a big reread of everything Cosmere. Almost done, only the last two Stormlight books are missing. And of course the newest secret novel.
A colleague recommended Way of kings to me and at that time the title sounded to me quite cheesy so I have put it on my todo list.
One day I did not have mood for reading anything so I just picked up Wok not expecting anything. I was hooked the moment Szeth son son volano wore white when he decided to kill the king.
My first exposure to the cosmere was reading Elantris in high school. I really enjoyed it, and went looking for more by the same author, but there wasn’t anything. I moved on with my life, and a decade later I had a couple friends tell me I had to read Mistborn. I did, recognized it as the same author, and was hooked. I’ve gone to several release parties, made a giant inflatable Doomslug costume with my wife, and gotten involved in the collector community and other online Sanderson communities.
Literally on a whim. I had a spare Audible credit. Brandon Sanderson is a name I saw a lot but had never read. Warbreaker was in my recommendations. Checked to make sure it was a stand alone novel. Bought it, Amazon proceeds to take lots more of my money, it was a good sell on their part.
I had a cheap paperback copy of the way of kings laying around for years before I finally jumped into it. Needless to say, I’m completely addicted and we are lucky Brandon is such a prolific writer!
I saw a large poster of the cover for The Way of Kings behind the register at a bookstore. Thought it looked cool and made a mental note to check it out.
A few years later I randomly remembered it and described it to a friend. He told me the title and said it was one of his favorite books.
I finally picked it up myself and really enjoyed it. Moved on to the rest of the Cosmere after that.
I saw a recommendation in a thread on /r/books over at reddit actually! I started reading around the time of Words of Radiance, and went through things pretty slowly in a relatively unintuitive order:
- Way of Kings
- Words of Radiance
- The Final Empire
- Warbreaker
- Oathbringer
- The rest of Mistborn Era 1
- Elantris
- Rhythm of War
- Mistborn Era 2 (Up to BoM)
- Arcanum Unbounded
- The Lost Metal (Went to Dragonsteel 2022 for this!)
Since I’ve caught up I’ve gotten probably a half dozen people to start reading, and have been carefully curating their reading order to avoid the nonsense I went through.
Dragonsteel was great! Are you planning to go again this year?
