HemalurgyIsMessy

I was just about to finish my pharmacy residency and would finally have free time to pursue hobbies that interested me. I have always enjoyed video games for their fantastic stories and fantasy worldbuilding, and had always like the LOTR movies so I wanted to get into fantasy books. Unfortunately, as a complete outsider to reading in general and fantasy specifically I had no idea where to start, and I knew that fantasy could sometimes be a cheap genre filled with crap (like sci fi). As one of the last duties of my residency, I had to help with the next year's resident interviews, and that always involved the interviewees coming to lunch with us where we can talk openly and candidly about the program. One of the applicants was a HUGE fantasy fan, and when we started talking about it he would not shut up about this guy named Brandon Sanderson and how he finished the Wheel of Time series. He suggested I pick up Mistborn and see if I like it. In about 1-2 weeks I had read the original Mistborn trilogy and was starting Elantris when I realized that I really dig this guy. LOTR is way too fantastical, and ASOIAF is very dark and shocking almost just for the lulz, but Brandon has a way of combining fantastical worldbuilding with gritty realism in a way that makes me feel like I don't have to take a shower after. Blew through Elantris, Warbreaker, Alloy of Law (new when it came out) and then read Way of Kings and just blew my mind. Bought Words of Radiance on release day (or soon after), and then to kill the time between books I read the Wheel of Time just so I could get to the Sanderson books. He has ruined me for other fantasy authors, nobody does it like Sanderson and so I am totally ok with just spending the rest of my life reading and waiting on his new books.

I'm what you would consider a mega-lurker. I don't really post, mostly because everyone else really, really knows their cosmere stuff. From my perspective, a ton of what you are reading is theory and guesses. Unless something is published in a print/electronic copy by Brandon himself, it's not really cannon. Even in the interviews that he has given, I doubt he will contradict himself because he's genius and has a mega plan for all of his books, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does something different in his books vs. what he's said in interviews. So no worries, just join the rest of us lurkers and enjoy the Cosmere.

Heck yeah, that's the best thing I've ever heard.Whenever I try to let people know about Sanderson I just tell them how awesome the stories are. Usually works but not always. Their loss, in my opinion.

I have yet to read Way of Kings so the last 3 or 4 posts (mentioning characters I don't know yet) I blew threw so hopefully I don't repeat what they said. Obviously you have finished the book and come to your own conclusion but I honestly didn't mind Vivenna. Pampered, highly educated, no common sense princess from middle of nowhere small country/town gets sent to the largest city in the world with the most opposite culture possible that she has been bred to hate and distrust....yeah, she has some opinions. I liked the way BS threw her out of her comfort zone, and we got to watch her rise to the challenge. Honestly, at the very beginning it was Siri that I found annoying, but by about 50-100 pages it was fine. Lightsong alone kept me going til the wee hours of the morning wanting to find out what happens next. BS definitely set it up for a sequel with the ending, and I hope that eventually he writes it.

I thought the "belief" part of it just related to physical appearance, not necessarily hiding their huge Returned breath.

Welcome! I am new myself, started reading the Mistborn trilogy and have been devouring all of his books as fast as I could possibly read them. Pretty much every book he's written is great so far, and the people on this website are super friendly and fun to talk with.

I've been reading all of the Cosmere books, jumping from Mistborn to Elantris and now Warbreaker. Every single time I finish one of his stories I think to myself, "Man, I just want to re-read these, I'm not sure I'm ready to move on to the next story." Yet every time I start the next book, I instantly get wrapped up in how amazing the world/magic system is. Warbreaker is, by far, the most unique and refreshing fantasy book I've read in a while, and I'm only 100 pages in! Just wanted to have my nerdgasm in front of everyone and get off my chest how incredible I think BS is as an author, and how I CANNOT wait to finish this so I can read WoK and REALLY get to the Cosmere meat and potatoes (I'm still very confused/shaky on a lot of stuff).

I don't want to read too many Q & A sessions yet just because I don't want to accidentally get spoiled for future books. I'm really weird about finding out about something before I "should" while reading the books. I read the prologue to Warbreaker just now and I think I'm going to read that next. I will probably read Emperor's Way then WoK.......then probably re-read every book, haha.

So I just finished Elantris (haven't read Emperor's Way yet) for the first time after reading the Mistborn trilogy and, thanks to this site, I am cosmere aware. One thing that I noticed while reading this book that I would not have noticed had I not known about the cosmere is that in the early parts of Raoden's research of the AonDor, he finds many books that refer to "frequencies" and "pulse lengths". I laughed out loud when I read this because that is EXACTLY the way Marsh teaches Vin to use bronze to detect allomantic pulses, and how different metals burn at different pulse lengths and frequencies. I wonder if the Dor exists beyond just Elantris's world and that is a what Ruin and Preservation (or Harmony depending when Allomancy was created) use to fuel Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy? I am sure this has come up multiple times before, but I just get a kick out of how Brandon Sanderson started building the Cosmere (of which I know very little, something about shards and three different planes of existence, and some dude named Hoid who pops up in weird places?) very early on in his career. What do you guys think, should I read Emperor's Way next and try to get more Realmatic knowledge (I feel like I am waaay behind/out of the loop), or read Warbreaker next? (I have only read Mistborn trilogy and Elantris to date. I own Warbreaker and will read that or Emperor's Way before Way of Kings).

I just love how BS added all this extra stuff into his world. I actually looked through HoA last night for the chapter where Vin has a chance to talk to Hoid and internally is like, "this doesn't feel right". Just kinda creates this creepy atmosphere. I haven't even begun to look at the theories out there and already I'm intrigued.

Guess I'll just have to read everything and catch up, get on here and join in with you conspiracy theorists, then re-read everything again..........awesome!

Also, by no spoilers I just meant that I'm the type of person who wants to figure stuff out on their own, ya know? I don't want things spoon fed to me, but I also need to know that an entire sub-story about a cosmere, a mystical dude named Hoid, and shards of some god-power exists so I can find it in the books!

Hmmm....well I looked at the cosmere 101 and skimmed it a bit once I read that BS doesn't explicitly mention it in his books, and that it's more of a background thing like you said. I skimmed over some stuff from WoK and all that, but it's VERY VERY interesting with the shards theory and stuff. And now that I'm thinking about it I remember reading the part when Kelsier was talking to Hoid. Hmmmmm..... I think I'm going to hold off on going too much deeper until I read WoK and stuff, but now as I'm reading the rest of the books I'm going to get a LOT more out of it. OMG! I'm excited to keep reading now!

Ok, so I have just finished the Mistborn trilogy, and am currently working on Elantris. I will be reading Warbreaker and WoK after this. So far I have not read anything in BS's books about the "Cosmere" or "Hoid" or anything like that and I am trying to keep myself spoiler free. So my question, once I read all of these books will things start to get explained or is the cosmere something that BS mentions outside of his books to try and link them all together? Please no spoilers.

Hi everyone, Just finished the mistborn trilogy and now working on Elantris. I have to say Sanderson has a wonderful skill for creating interesting worlds. I'm hoping to read all of his works soon then maybe starting the wheel of time. That is all, looking forward to lurking around on the site. Also, I see that there is a mistborn rpg on the forum, how do I play that? There doesn't seem to be a "rules"page or anything.