New to the Cosmere Qs

[Urionok]

Hi all, my first post here. 

I first read TWoK back in 2013. I picked it up again recently and then swept through WoR, ED and O. Waiting for Dawnshard and RoW I've been having fun reading this forum, which I recently discovered. However I seem to be missing something. 

You guys talk about shards, splinters, adonalisium, investiture, nighblood, resonance, and many other concepts, names, like you've been taught about them before, and so end up feeling spoiled. I know I get too eager sometimes and I will definitely miss things when reading, but I fell this goes beyond that. Where is this info? Other books of the cosmere (which I know now it's a single universe and intend on reading soon)? Sanderson interviews? Somewhere else? All of the above? 

Thanks! 

[NameIess]

24 minutes ago, Urionok said:

You guys talk about shards, splinters, adonalisium, investiture, nighblood, resonance, and many other concepts, names, like you've been taught about them before, and so end up feeling spoiled. I know I get too eager sometimes and I will definitely miss things when reading, but I fell this goes beyond that. Where is this info? Other books of the cosmere (which I know now it's a single universe and intend on reading soon)? Sanderson interviews? Somewhere else? All of the above? 

All of the above. I would read the Mistborn series next, then Elantris and then Arcanum unbounded.

[Experience]

Here is a good post that gives info about the cosmere. It doesn't have spoilers about the books, except possibly which shards are on which worlds. 

 

[Mat]

Also, https://coppermind.net/ is a good thing to browse for quick definitions of those terms, if you're into doing that. It can really feel like an infodump.

[Chasmgoat]

I highly recommend reading all cosmere books and then going through the coppermind as Matrim put above. After reading through the coppermind a bit, you start picking more stuff up as you go along.
I included links to the terms you were wondering about below:

Shards

Splinters

Adonalsium

Investiture

Nightblood

Resonance

Cosmere in general

If you would like to know anything else, you can PM me or post on here and I can let you know more about it.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Chasmgoat

[Chanarach]

Respectfully disagree slightly with some of the above.  Mainly, I think you should read Warbreaker next, preferably before RoW. Nalthis (Warbreaker's setting) has the most connections to Roshar, imo, and slight spoiler

Spoiler

There are cross over characters.  

 A lot of info also comes from "Words of Brandon" aka stuff he says in chats and at signings.  That is all compiled and available i. The Arcanum section.  Just be very careful until you've read all cosmere works. 

 

[kaellok]

5 hours ago, Nameless said:

All of the above. I would read the Mistborn series next, then Elantris and then Arcanum unbounded.

I disagree. Arcanum Unbounded for sure next, especially the novella Edgedancer, since it is about Lift, takes place on Roshar, occurs between WoR and O, and is explicitly part of the Stormlight Archive.  But then Warbreaker should follow, given the direct (if minor so far) tie-in that it has with WoR and O.  Warbreaker will specifically answer questions about Nightblood--and lead to asking a whole lot more.  Mistborn is great, and Elantris has some amazing characters, but I think that given the amount of time between now and RoW they should be lower priority.

6 hours ago, Urionok said:

You guys talk about shards, splinters, adonalisium, investiture, Nightblood, resonance, and many other concepts, names, like you've been taught about them before, and so end up feeling spoiled. I know I get too eager sometimes and I will definitely miss things when reading, but I fell this goes beyond that. Where is this info? Other books of the cosmere (which I know now it's a single universe and intend on reading soon)? Sanderson interviews? Somewhere else? All of the above? 

Thanks! 

Pay special attention to the King's Wit, aka Hoid, aka 'You!'  He's a special cameo character that is typically going to be fulfilling at least three things at once whenever he's on screen, even if we're barely sure of one of them at the time.  He does world-hopping stuff, and helps tell some of the multi-world behind-the-scenes story (1), often acts as a storyteller to flesh out the world history in a sort of meta and interesting way (2), and provokes a reaction in the POV character we're with to get them to act a certain way (3) to further his personal agenda (4), which may or may not be to the benefit of the people around him.

A lot of what we know was pieced together by a lot of really smart people over a number of years who then took opportunity at author signings to start asking Sanderson if this theory or that was right or wrong.  And then they've just kept doing that, started a pretty comprehensive wiki that @Matrim's Dice shared, and there's a collection of pretty much anything he's ever said to anyone over the past 15 years, sorted by tags to make it easily searchable.

[Chasmgoat]

some more information can be found here. This is the questions and answers asked at signings.

[NameIess]

8 hours ago, kaellok said:

I disagree. Arcanum Unbounded for sure next, especially the novella Edgedancer, since it is about Lift, takes place on Roshar, occurs between WoR and O, and is explicitly part of the Stormlight Archive.  But then Warbreaker should follow, given the direct (if minor so far) tie-in that it has with WoR and O.  Warbreaker will specifically answer questions about Nightblood--and lead to asking a whole lot more.  Mistborn is great, and Elantris has some amazing characters, but I think that given the amount of time between now and RoW they should be lower priority.

The biggest reason to read Arcanum unbounded is Mistborn: Secret History, which has major spoilers for at least the first Mistborn trilogy. @Urionok was specifically asking about how we know about Cosmere lore, and Arcanum unbounded has that, but I think that it would be best to be able to read the entire thing at once without being spoiled. Going on story, I would reccomend reading Warbreaker before Edgedancer, as Edgedancer comes in between WoR and OB, two books Urionok has already read, and is meant to simply make things a little neater and give a little background info about some previously known characters, while Warbreaker is (Slight spoilers)

Spoiler

The origin story for several side characters in stormlight.

 

[Urionok]

19 hours ago, Nameless said:

 

 

19 hours ago, Experience said:

 

 

18 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

 

 

17 hours ago, Chasmgoat said:

 

 

13 hours ago, Chanarach said:

 

 

13 hours ago, kaellok said:

 

 

Thanks all!, so basically I should read Warbraker, Mistborn trilogies (of which I already have the first) and Elantris. Then finish with Arcanum and then, if I have questions wrt things I read hear, is mostly things said by Brandon Sanderson, which I can also find here.

I guess not all of that is "necessary" but I don't want to feel I'm spoiling some interesting stuff before reading it, so might as well get to it before reading too much of this forum.

Thanks again!

[Realmatic Shadow]

On 31/10/2020 at 7:52 AM, Urionok said:

Hi all, my first post here. 

 

First of all, welcome to the Shard!

On 01/11/2020 at 4:01 AM, Urionok said:

I don't want to feel I'm spoiling some interesting stuff before reading it

So long as you stay out of series-specific sections (and the general cosmere section for the most part, because that is all spoilers allowed), you shold be able to avoid most spoilers for unread books. The moderators seem to keep quite vigilant about spoilers in titles, and people nearly always mark their spoilers appropriately in their posts and comments. 

 

On 01/11/2020 at 4:01 AM, Urionok said:

so basically I should read Warbraker, Mistborn trilogies (of which I already have the first) and Elantris. Then finish with Arcanum and then, if I have questions wrt things I read hear, is mostly things said by Brandon Sanderson, which I can also find here.

That seems like a good lineup for what to read next, though I'd recommend reading specifically the Edgedancer short story (which is part of Arcanum Unbounded) after Warbreaker, because it is directly related to the main line Stormlight books, though you won't miss out on anything by not reading it until you go through all the Arcarnum Unbounded stories.

The Stormlight Archive is not the most commonly suggested entry into the Cosmere, but I've loved it nonetheless as being my hook into the greater Cosmere works, and I'm sure you will as well.

As a somewhat related note, what is your opinon on each of the main characters in Stormlight so far? (any characters you view as main, there is no hard and fast list for who is and isn't imo) Always like to hear new opinions on them.

[Urionok]

On 11/2/2020 at 4:38 AM, Realmatic Shadow said:

First of all, welcome to the Shard!

So long as you stay out of series-specific sections (and the general cosmere section for the most part, because that is all spoilers allowed), you shold be able to avoid most spoilers for unread books. The moderators seem to keep quite vigilant about spoilers in titles, and people nearly always mark their spoilers appropriately in their posts and comments. 

 

That seems like a good lineup for what to read next, though I'd recommend reading specifically the Edgedancer short story (which is part of Arcanum Unbounded) after Warbreaker, because it is directly related to the main line Stormlight books, though you won't miss out on anything by not reading it until you go through all the Arcarnum Unbounded stories.

The Stormlight Archive is not the most commonly suggested entry into the Cosmere, but I've loved it nonetheless as being my hook into the greater Cosmere works, and I'm sure you will as well.

As a somewhat related note, what is your opinon on each of the main characters in Stormlight so far? (any characters you view as main, there is no hard and fast list for who is and isn't imo) Always like to hear new opinions on them.

Yeah! I didn't mean "real spoilers", more like the usage of concepts that I still don't know. But yeah, people seem to be very sensible about true spoilers. And I did read Edgedancer.

I didn't know about the Cosmere before I got TWoK. I like to just browse my favorite library, and one of those days I stumbled upon it and just had to buy it.

WRT the characters, well, I see Dalinar and Kaladin as "mains", and I don't really like Shallan all that much. I will not go into details here but I imagine it has to do with the fact that the problems Kaladin and Dalinar face are far more relatable (or so we wish, I think a part of us all wishes to be super honorable), but it is difficult to relate to someone who killed her parents. I also really like Lift.