Elantris before RoW??

[LumosTerris]

I was looking at a suggested book reading order to send to someone I'm indoctrinating into Sanderson, and it mentioned that you should read Elantris before Rhythm of War. 

What did I miss??? I don't remember anything of note related to Elantris from RoW.

[Mags she/they]

1 hour ago, LumosTerris said:

I was looking at a suggested book reading order to send to someone I'm indoctrinating into Sanderson, and it mentioned that you should read Elantris before Rhythm of War. 

What did I miss??? I don't remember anything of note related to Elantris from RoW.

ROW spoilers (obviously):

Spoiler

the device (cube thing) that Shallan uses to contact mraize throughout the book is heavily implied to have Seon inside it. Not to mention all of the mistborn references that rely on Mistbron stuff that relies on Elantris

 

[alder24]

2 hours ago, LumosTerris said:

I was looking at a suggested book reading order to send to someone I'm indoctrinating into Sanderson, and it mentioned that you should read Elantris before Rhythm of War. 

What did I miss??? I don't remember anything of note related to Elantris from RoW.

You should read it even earlier, at least before Oathbringer, if not even before the Way of King. There are two people appearing briefly from Elantris - in WoR it's Galladon as Grump in the Purelake interlude I-1, in OB it's Riino, the Elantrian who was put into the Shardpool by Raoden&co, appears as Rii Oracle in the lighthouse scene, OB ch 97. But in RoW the most important thing is the appearance of a Seon, Ala - that's the communication cube given to Shallan by Mraize, it's a Selish Seon, RoW ch 115:

Quote

She removed her hand and situated herself at the desk. Adolin fell silent, waiting and watching as Shallan lifted the top of Mraize’s cube. With help from Kelek, they’d gotten it open without harming the thing inside: a spren in the shape of a glowing ball of light, a strange symbol at the center. No one here recognized the variety of spren, but Wit called it a seon.
“Are you well, Ala?” Shallan asked. It was said like A-lay.
“Yes,” the spren whispered.
“You can come out of the cube. You don’t need to live in there anymore.”
“I’m … supposed to stay. I’m not supposed to talk. To you. To anyone.”
Shallan glanced at Adolin. The odd spren resisted attempts to get it free. It acted … like an abused child.
Another in the list of Mraize’s crimes, Radiant thought.
[...]
“Contact Mraize please, spren,” she whispered to the ball of light. “It is time.”
The ball floated into the air, and the next part took barely a moment. The globe of light shifted to make a version of his face speaking to her.

Moreover there are some Elantris related tech appearing here and there and some mention of Ire, Selish worldhopping organization. 

Quite major parts are also hidden in SA letters, references to the death of Aona and Skai, Vessels of Devotion and Dominion Splintered by Odium. This is important but in Elantris there is not much that would tell you they are dead, so it's not that clear reference.

Overall, even including those two Selish worldhoppers who are very easy to miss, it's just some little references, more like easter eggs than something big that you really need to read Elantris before. Elantris however introduces you to concepts like Intent, which are important to RoW, but also present and understandable in RoW. Only the Seon is important to be recognized - but I would say even this can be gotten from reading Elantris after RoW without missing anything. She appears just by the end of RoW from which you can immediately jump to Elantris and realize what a Seon is.

But in general Elantris is often recommended as a good start for Cosmere. @Treamayne has a good reading order recommendation starting with Elantris iirc.

Edited February 29, 2024 by alder24

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, LumosTerris said:

I was looking at a suggested book reading order to send to someone I'm indoctrinating into Sanderson, and it mentioned that you should read Elantris before Rhythm of War. 

5 minutes ago, alder24 said:

But in general Elantris is often recommended as a good start for Cosmere. @Treamayne has a good reading order recommendation starting with Elantris iirc.

The most-referenced thread can be found here, though I have discussed my thoughts in quite a few "reading order" threads. It's not so much as "Elantris first" (though that is commonly recommended when the prefered reading order is publishing order) as I generally recommend:

Spoiler

Start with Elantris - or - Mistborn Era 1 - or - Warbreaker (based on person's reading preference on the action/intrigue scale):

Spoiler

• Elantris - It's a stand-alone (for now - 1 Short Story and one tangentially related Novella) and was the first published. Start here if you really like political intrigue books and a cerebral atmosphere. Less action than Mistborn or Warbreaker, until the end. 
• Mistborn Trilogy (Book 1 Mistborn: The Final Empire / Era 1) - It's a Trilogy (so more initial time investment) but it is packed with action, great magic, great (dystopian) worldbuilding. Some political intrigue - can be a lot to take in at once for some readers. 
• Warbreaker - Stand-alone (for now - no short stories). About mid-way between the the first two in both action and politics. The world is specifically meant to contrast to Mistborn's setting (so I recommend reading this either right before or right after Mistborn) and introduces many important things for shared universe (Cosmere)

Then, I always recommend Emperor's Soul before going into the wider Cosmere (because it is both a quick read, and does the best job of introducing basic Realmatic Theory)
 

After that, I think it's more important to just identify when one thing spoils another so that the person to whom you are recommeding can make an informed decision at each stage on what to read next. 

I actually "created" an "Intro to Cosmere" epub that I offer to people that are interested that has:

• Cosmere bibliography (by Shardworld)
• My "reading order thoughts" and spoiler warnings (as discussed here and the linked thread)
• Shardworld short summaries (so they know what kind of stories to expect from a given series)
• The Three Sanderson Law essays (so they understand how and why he goes about magic systems and worldbuilding)

 

[LumosTerris]

Oh, thank you guys!!! That absolutely makes sense! I remember reading this and making that realization, but it must not have stuck very well