Mistborn or Stormlight?

[Oezi]

Hi Guys, I'm new here and hope I get some help. I'm a very very big fan of the Witcher book series. I also like a song of ice and fire tho. My favourite characters are Ciri, Yennefer, Daenerys, Milva and Geralt of those 2 books series. I love witcher because its dark, has many races like elves and humans and because of the magic and different skills each characters and races have. The most important thing for me are the characters. I want deep and interesting characters and strong female characters who aren't only there for the males. And I like intrigues and mysterys and twists. 

So given that, would you say I should read the stormlight archive next or the mistborn trilogy? Which is the better, more interesting series? I had 10 series considers but those 2 are my finalists as both sound interesting. I can't decide now. But from the little I know mistborn has the stronger, more interesting and deeper female character correct? 

Hope I get some nice opinions and recommendations. I never read sanderson before. Can't read both series. I always read only one series and take my time too. 

[TheWanderer]

33 minutes ago, Oezi said:

Hi Guys, I'm new here and hope I get some help. I'm a very very big fan of the Witcher book series. I also like a song of ice and fire tho. My favourite characters are Ciri, Yennefer, Daenerys, Milva and Geralt of those 2 books series. I love witcher because its dark, has many races like elves and humans and because of the magic and different skills each characters and races have. The most important thing for me are the characters. I want deep and interesting characters and strong female characters who aren't only there for the males. And I like intrigues and mysterys and twists. 

So given that, would you say I should read the stormlight archive next or the mistborn trilogy? Which is the better, more interesting series? I had 10 series considers but those 2 are my finalists as both sound interesting. I can't decide now. But from the little I know mistborn has the stronger, more interesting and deeper female character correct? 

Hope I get some nice opinions and recommendations. I never read sanderson before. Can't read both series. I always read only one series and take my time too. 

I would recommend mistborn if you are just getting into the cosmere. One of the pov characters is in fact a woman, though this is also the case in stormlight. However, stormlight has easter eggs from other cosmere works that you may not get without reading the other stuff. Would say both have interesting female leads, but one is more likeable in the second book according to many fans. 

[Frustration]

Mistborn is probably what you want given your intrests, personally I like Stormlight more, but if you want something dark with mystery and multiple differnet people using their skills to the best of their abilites probably start there.

[Robin Sedai]

Mistborns's protagonist is a girl, but it has almost no other female characters. (I actually like Mistborn better than Stormlight, but thought you should know this before heading into Mistborn on the strength of its strong women.)

Edited January 18, 2022 by Robin Hatter
forgot to close my parentheses

[Oezi]

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

Mistborn is probably what you want given your intrests, personally I like Stormlight more, but if you want something dark with mystery and multiple differnet people using their skills to the best of their abilites probably start there.

OK now I learned how to quote. I already send a pm. First of all thanks for recommending mistborn as its darker and more mysterious with people using their abilities to the best. Was wondering what it is that makes you love stormlight more? Which aspects are better there? 

[Oezi]

1 hour ago, Robin Hatter said:

Mistborns's protagonist is a girl, but it has almost no other female characters. (I actually like Mistborn better than Stormlight, but thought you should know this before heading into Mistborn on the strength of its strong women.)

OK good to know thanks If its a strong interesting character that's fine as its a main character at least. 

What about Stormlight. From the little I know this shallan (that red head) is the only female too isn't she? Or are there more female characters that we see more often and that are deeply written? (Not meaning characters that appear a very 600 pages once or so :D) 

[NameIess]

1 hour ago, Oezi said:

What about Stormlight. From the little I know this shallan (that red head) is the only female too isn't she? Or are there more female characters that we see more often and that are deeply written? (Not meaning characters that appear a very 600 pages once or so :D) 

Shallan is the only female character that gets a bunch of chapters from her perspective in the first couple of books, but there are other strong female characters, especially later in the series. And there are other strong female characters that are parts of the main plot, but they don't get many chapters from their perspectives until later in the series.

[Frustration]

4 hours ago, Oezi said:

What about Stormlight. From the little I know this shallan (that red head) is the only female too isn't she? Or are there more female characters that we see more often and that are deeply written? (Not meaning characters that appear a very 600 pages once or so :D) 

There are more, Shallan is the only one in book one that gets a lot of focus, there is another with some focus but not much, it isn't until book three that more start showing up, but they are are very cool.

4 hours ago, Oezi said:

OK good to know thanks If its a strong interesting character that's fine as its a main character at least. 

I already answered there, but if you want I can move it back here.

[danex]

that is a loaded question

i'd say neither series is better overall, but each is probably better in certain areas

I think SA is better in general prose, since brandon has been writing those books forever and his writing has gotten better

On 1/17/2022 at 3:18 PM, Oezi said:

The most important thing for me are the characters. I want deep and interesting characters and strong female characters who aren't only there for the males. And I like intrigues and mysterys and twists. 

I'd actually recommend SA then. Mistborn's protag is female, but she is also the only female. Where as SA has no clear single protag, and out of all the characters that could be considered "Main", many are female.

Jasnah, Navani, eshonai, venli, shallan, (i'd even count syl here)
all are honestly really great and really well written characters.

and as for deep and interesting characters, SA has the best character work I've ever seen. Kaladin is just *chef's kiss*

SA also has quite a few plot twists, but then again, so does Mistborn. Sanderson loves his twists. SA has more, but that might be just because it's a longer series in general.

Also, you should know that there are actually 2 different Mistborn Series, Era 1 and Era 2. (with eras 3 and 4 planned for the future)

Edited February 1, 2022 by Dannnex

[Ishar]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:18 PM, Oezi said:

The most important thing for me are the characters. I want deep and interesting characters and strong female characters who aren't only there for the males. And I like intrigues and mysterys and twists. 

I don't think you can go wrong with this choice here, both series are absolutely great.

I would say that Mistborn probably has more mystery, intrigue in twists (not that Stormlight doesn't, but the twists/mystery in Mistborn tend to be more of a focus and more impactful). I would also say Mistborn will provide a bit of a clearer understanding of the Cosmere than Stormlight, so it is generally what I recommend first. 

On the other hand, Stormlight definitely has greater focus on character development, and their personal struggles. It's also just really an incredible series (so even if you don't read it first, you should still eventually read it). Also, you mentioned that you usually read one series and take your time doing that, I will warn you that the Stormlight Archive series is only on book 4/10, and book 10 probably won't be released for another 20 years or so.

Finally, for strong female characters. This is my opinion, and others may disagree, but if you are looking in-particular for strong female characters, I would look somewhere else. Brandon Sanderson's books are great, and I absolutely think you should read them, but I have found that his female characters feel consistently less or underdeveloped compared to the male characters. That's not to say there aren't strong/powerful/smart female characters, most of his female characters are, and most of them are independent of men, but the character development is lower quality. I'm happy to provide recommendations of other books with strong female characters if you want, or for after you're done with Mistborn/Stormlight.

Edited March 22, 2022 by Ishar

[AonDoor]

On 2/1/2022 at 0:23 PM, Dannnex said:

Also, you should know that there are actually 2 different Mistborn Series, Era 1 and Era 2. (with eras 3 and 4 planned for the future)

Actually, I don't think Brandon classifies Wax and Wayne as Era 2. Alloy of Law was originally intended to be a stand-alone. Era 2 comes later. I could be wrong, though.

[Frustration]

10 minutes ago, AonDoor said:

Actually, I don't think Brandon classifies Wax and Wayne as Era 2. Alloy of Law was originally intended to be a stand-alone. Era 2 comes later. I could be wrong, though.

It wasn't supposed to be Era 2 but it is now.

[Wayne's Unlucky Hat]

Mistborn is probably the better choice darker characters very exciting plot and the 2nd era is set in the wild west.