How Did You Become Cosmere Aware?

[Through The Living Glass]

I think the title speaks for itself.

Most of y'all probably knew about the Cosmere and how the books are connected either before or when you started reading them, but does anyone have any fun stories on how you came to find out?

Here's mine (also some spoilers for Oathbringer and Warbreaker):

Spoiler

So about two years ago I had just finished Oathbringer for the first time. I had Warbreaker on my bed next to me, so almost as soon as I finished Oathbringer I was already reading another Sanderson book. I had absolutely no idea that they were connected, but when I opened Warbreaker and saw the name Vasher, some part of my brain recognized it. That prompted me to open Oathbringer again and, sure enough, Nightblood kept talking about someone named Vasher! As you can probably guess, my mind was absolutely blown. I read through Warbreaker a bit more (lo and behold, there was Nightblood), then got on my computer, found the Coppermind, and almost died when I found out how many Sanderson books I had read were actually connected.

And the rest is history, as they say.

Anyone else find out about the Cosmere on their own?

[J. Magi]

For me, I decided to look up stormlight fanart while reading WoR. I can't remember any specific posts but contact with the fandom somehow made me aware eventually.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

21 minutes ago, Through The Living Glass said:

I think the title speaks for itself.

Most of y'all probably knew about the Cosmere and how the books are connected either before or when you started reading them, but does anyone have any fun stories on how you came to find out?

Here's mine (also some spoilers for Oathbringer and Warbreaker):

  Hide contents

So about two years ago I had just finished Oathbringer for the first time. I had Warbreaker on my bed next to me, so almost as soon as I finished Oathbringer I was already reading another Sanderson book. I had absolutely no idea that they were connected, but when I opened Warbreaker and saw the name Vasher, some part of my brain recognized it. That prompted me to open Oathbringer again and, sure enough, Nightblood kept talking about someone named Vasher! As you can probably guess, my mind was absolutely blown. I read through Warbreaker a bit more (lo and behold, there was Nightblood), then got on my computer, found the Coppermind, and almost died when I found out how many Sanderson books I had read were actually connected.

And the rest is history, as they say.

Anyone else find out about the Cosmere on their own?

I sort of cheated. Had a friend tell me about the Metallic Arts and read the mistborn trilogy that week back in 2011. Then a few years later after getting my whole family to read it, I heard about how he was doing some cameos from book to book hidden in them... 

Then I cheated. Googled the word worldhopper found the name Hoid and discovered the 17th shard and coppermind. 

It drove me to read Warbreaker which is my favorite now, and then dabble into Stormlight. 

I am a sucker for the worldhoppers and if it wasn't for their appearances on Roshar (mainly Vasher) I probably wouldn't keep reading that series. 

 

So long story short. I cheated and the only way I can say I stumbled upon it organically is that one of my pals who reads them mentioned a character who is "collecting stories from each world".  So that was my big hint.  It wasn't super difficult to figure out past that. 

[Returned]

Hoid. He provided the through line that demonstrated that the books were connected once I recognized him in a couple of places, and then I kept an eye out for him in every subsequent book and reading. He could still have been just an Easter egg, but things he said and did seemed too purposeful and convenient to individual plots to jibe with the rest of the writing (the books were better written than such a kludge would indicate). When Hoid said "Adonalsium" to Dalinar in... I think it was Way of Kings... that then registered with Sazed saying it in Hero of Ages, and made clear that there was something within each series that had no context but was relevant to more than one series. And if more than one, maybe all.

Edited February 29 by Returned

[Quantus]

Came to Sanderson through WoT.  I loved his writing there so I looked up other books and found era1 Mistborn, which I marathoned in a few days of a beach vacation.  Not long after I picked up Elantris, Emperors Soul and Warbreaker, and noticed Hoid as a recurring presence.  I knew authors like Steven King liked to have some loose connectivity at a vague multiverse level, so I was expecting that when I started looking into it.  Never expected it have the intricacy of the cosmere, or for it to be a literal shared region of space, etc.  

[alder24]

Time to dig up some dirt, huh? It's a bit embarrassing.

It was years ago, probably shortly after WoR release. I think I read every main Cosmere book by that point, starting with the Mistborn series, Elantris, Wabreaker and ending with SA. I just finished reading WoR and I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT NIGHTBLOOD WAS THERE... yeah, I was dumb. I read everything, I read Warbreaker and it still didn’t get to me that it's all connected. The worst thing was that I recognized that the sword looks and talks just like Nightblood, but I still ignored this thinking it was just some cool easter egg or something weird like that. Instead I was "theorizing" Nightblood was Odium’s evil version of Shardblades - it talks like a spren, it looks like a Shardblade, it leaks blackness like you would expect it from something evil and it even talks about destruction and evil - it fits! It told the exact same line Nigthblood said in Warbreaker almost word to word? Naaaah, that's just an easter egg, nothing else. Could you imagine such different worlds being connected in the same universe?? Impossible!

A few weeks had passed and I was still living with the ending of WoR. So I reread some fragments of the finale, including Szeth's resurrection. And I missed it again... But this time I was really intrigued by that sword and I thought that there must be some fan wiki about Sanderson, which might contain more information. That's how I found the Coppermind (I think) and I started reading about Szeth. You can imagine my utter shock, when I read Nightblood's name on the Szeth's page. A whole new world just opened in front of my very eyes. I kept reading, being shocked by Vasher, Hoid, Felt, Shards, Cosmere and everything. I read the Coppermind for a whole week and then I had to reread everything, while looking for all those things I'd missed earlier. It was life changing. 

For my excuse, I had a tendency to lifelessly read books at night till the sun rises. Or I was/am just dumb.

Edited February 29 by alder24

[Through The Living Glass]

15 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Time to dig up some dirt, huh? It's a bit embarrassing.

It was years ago, probably shortly after WoR release. I think I read every main Cosmere book by that point, starting with the Mistborn series, Elantris, Wabreaker and ending with SA. I just finished reading WoR and I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT NIGHTBLOOD WAS THERE... yeah, I was dumb. I read everything, I read Warbreaker and it still didn’t get to me that it's all connected. The worst thing was that I recognized that the sword looks and talks just like Nightblood, but I still ignored this thinking it was just some cool easter egg or something weird like that. Instead I was "theorizing" Nightblood was Odium’s evil version of Shardblades - it talks like a spren, it looks like a Shardblade, it leaks blackness like you would expect it from something evil and it even talks about destruction and evil - it fits! It told the exact same line Nigthblood said in Warbreaker almost word to word? Naaaah, that's just an easter egg, nothing else. Could you imagine such different worlds being connected in the same universe?? Impossible!

A few weeks had passed and I was still living with the ending of WoR. So I reread some fragments of the finale, including Szeth's resurrection. And I missed it again... But this time I was really intrigued by that sword and I thought that there must be some fan wiki about Sanderson, which might contain more information. That's how I found the Coppermind (I think) and I started reading about Szeth. You can imagine my utter shock, when I read Nightblood's name on the Szeth's page. A whole new world just opened in front of my very eyes. I kept reading, being shocked by Vasher, Hoid, Felt, Shards, Cosmere and everything. I read the Coppermind for a whole week and then I had to reread everything, while looking for all those things I'd missed earlier. It was life changing. 

For my excuse, I had a tendency to lifelessly read books at night till the sun rises. Or I was/am just dumb.

Wow, that's an amazing story! And hey, you're totally fine! I honestly do stuff like that all the time. 

[RoyalBeeMage]

I worked it out with hoid. I started his work through the wheel of time and loved just how action packed it was 

[Scars of Hathsin]

I found out after connecting some events between SA and Mistborn, with the titles mostly and talking with sazed. 

[The Sibling]

My neighbour told me that Hoid appeared in a bunch of Brandon's books, so I started looking for Hoid in Skyward. Later, I realized he was in Warbreaker, and then when he ate powder in Words of Radiance I realized that it wasn't just, like, Hoid showing up for fun, there were actual magical connections between planets. After that Mistborn Secret History left me very confused and I started researching the Cosmere and watching Shardcast.

[Alumínio]

I had finished mistborn and I thought was great, I searched for similar books on Google and found Elantris, I did the same with Warebreaker and realized they were by the same author, I read SA afterwards and then a seon appeared and I went crazy

[The Bookwyrm]

My dad got me into the Cosmere at a pretty young age. I'd heard him talking about Mistborn several times before and thought it sounded cool. 

I remember not knowing they were connected when I started Mistborn, but I'm pretty sure he told me sometime while I was reading it, because I know I was aware of it before I read anything else by him.

Honestly I don't remember much of my early Sanderson reading days, only that I'm a huge fan of that universe now. Despite not remembering the specific moment where I learned that it even was a universe.

[TwinSouls]

Both my parents really like Sanderson, and had talked about how great Mistborn was, so I decided to do the audiobook.

In sixth grade, I started Mistborn, and now, 1.5 years later, I have binged listening to most of Sanderson’s books.

Honestly, that’s the entire story.

[Treamayne]

Shortly after Alloy of Law released, I found Elantris at the same time a coworker friend found Mistborn The Final Empire. We read, swapped, picked up Well and Hero. . oh, new book Way of Kings - grab that too (lots of time on deployments). We discussed it at work, shared the books with a few other coworkers, noticed Hoid (how cute) - didn't quite put it together. 

Found Alloy of Law (new-ish) - coworking friend started but never finished (felt it was too different from the original trilogy and did not have the context to know "why" /  didn;t adjust well to the changes) gave me his copy. I read it, finished and thought "there has to be a reason this is sooooooooo different." After a few google minutes. . . DING. . .  I found this WoB (or one very similar as I specifically recall Fantasy > Urban Fantasy > Space Opera implications):

Spoiler

Questioner

Any more Mistborn stories in the works?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. For those who aren't aware, when I pitched the Mistborn series to my editor originally, way back when, I pitched it as a trilogy of trilogies—a past-present-future—where I would do an epic fantasy trilogy and then I would jump forward hundreds of years and explore what happens with the magic in a modern-day technology level setting, and then I would jump forward hundreds more years and allow the magic to then become the primary means by which FTL—faster-than-light space travel—is able to happen. And so, the three metallurgic magic systems actually have FTL built into them. And so there will be a space-opera series set in the future, because I was able to plan all this stuff out finally knowing what I would be publishing. One thing that I ran into doing that was, when I delved into The Way of Kings and The Stormlight Archive, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to get to that second Mistborn trilogy any time soon, so I didn't want to have two big epics going on at the same time—I wanted, you know, one epic, and then other things—and so what I did is I said, well I'm going to try writing a short story in the Mistborn world, and this will be something exciting for people that, you know-- I kind of sort of do some of these things to keep Mistborn going.

Hal-Con 2012 (Oct. 30, 2012)

Clue light comes on. . . "it's all connected" moment (with a hint of Nostalgia since, like Brandon, I was one of those eagerly awaiting Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation when those were new in the 80s). Reread everything, tracked down the bits I missed, all that jazz.

I don't think I found the 17th Shard for a while after that (join date Jan 2016) - mostly due to bad internet (makes for great reading time), but I was already mired in Realmatic Quicksand by that point. 

[Faerie Braids]

I read the original Mistborn trilogy out of my local library, absolutely loved it, then soon forgot about Brandon Sanderson when I realised that none of his other books were available at the library. Cut to several years later, when I found TFE and Elantris in a bin of free books, remembered how much I had loved the series, and decided to reread Mistborn. Being a few years older, and having money to spend on books, I bought Secret History, and almost died when Elantrians showed up. At that point, I was completely hooked, and read the rest of the Cosmere within a couple of months.

[Collecter128]

I got this weird preview book with a few chapters of Mistborn and stormlight. I got really into mistborn and forgot about that book. Some time much later I was reading the back of a mistborn book and noticed roshar being mentioned. "What is that" I thought to myself. I tried looking it up and found out it was from stormlight. Instead of looking deeper I was like "Wow Mistborn and stormlight have a mysterious connection!" I started reading stormlight, but I was lured back to the wiki again for some reason. There I saw the names of the shards and the series they were from and I was like MInd blown that there were so many series connected.

Edited March 1 by Collecter128

[Lego Mistborn]

I live in Nebrask, the same city the sando grew up in, and was given steelheart to read. Years later I was visiting my grandparent's ward and someone suggested Mistborn to me.

[JohnnyKaizen]

I knew nothing about the Cosmere when I first started reading Sanderson books. I didn't even know Shard vessels existed, much less Adonalsium. My BIL recommended that I read Elantris, Warbreaker, and the original Mistborn trilogy (in that order). So, imagine my surprise when Ruin and Preservation showed up. I was pretty blindsided in a very positive way. I then had to ask some people for some basic Cosmere knowledge as spoiler free as they could. I then read through every Cosmere book I could (that was available at the time) which was up to TWoK. After that, I found the 17th shard and would read off and on for a few years before I started posting.

So mostly, I became Cosmere aware because of my BIL and this place. I will always be grateful that my BIL didn't mention the Cosmere at all before getting me to read. I imagine there are a lot of folks who didn't get to experience that. It was really special.

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

BIL

?

Spoiler

I'm guessing you don't mean "the Boss is Listening"

 

[Returned]

16 hours ago, Treamayne said:

?

Presumably it's "brother-in-law". At least, I've seen that abbreviation elsewhere and commonly.

[JohnnyKaizen]

On 3/2/2024 at 11:55 AM, Returned said:

Presumably it's "brother-in-law". At least, I've seen that abbreviation elsewhere and commonly.

Yes, I did mean brother-in-law. My wife's brother.

[Leuthie]

Started with Mistborn trilogy, which I read at the release of Hero of Ages. Read Warbreaker, then Elantris. I believe I started putting together the greater Cosmere when reading the Annotations for Mistborn and Warbreaker on Brandon's website.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood]

I was told about it and my parents were like "When you're older, you can read it." Then I devoured Elantris, begged for Mistborn and SA, was allowed to read those, then sped through everything else. The first cosmere story I read, though, was White Sand the graphic novel. That... was not a good way to start. 

[Treamayne]

3 hours ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

The first cosmere story I read, though, was White Sand the graphic novel. That... was not a good way to start. 

Was it at least the Omnibus? Or the three-part originals? (The omnibus fixes a lot)

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood]

Just now, Treamayne said:

Was it at least the Omnibus? Or the three-part originals? (The omnibus fixes a lot)

Nah, It was the three part ogs. I was on the Shard when the omnibus was released.