Favorite Cosmere Book

[KalSpear he/him]

I am curious to see which books are more popular. My personal favorite is Rythm of War. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

38 minutes ago, KalSpear said:

I am curious to see which books are more popular. My personal favorite is Rythm of War.

RoW was pretty good, but for SA I think OB was better, likely due to the build up from the previous two books.

However, BoM is probably my favorite of all Cosmere books thus far.

[KalSpear he/him]

3 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

However, BoM is probably my favorite of all Cosmere books thus far.

That is surprising to me. I would have thought that if you had a favorite in the Wax & Wayne trilogy, it would be the Lost Metal. BoM felt like a set up to that. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

10 minutes ago, KalSpear said:

That is surprising to me. I would have thought that if you had a favorite in the Wax & Wayne trilogy, it would be the Lost Metal. BoM felt like a set up to that. 

It was pretty good, but it felt. . . Off, to me. It almost felt like fanfiction with the characters, like they were acting how a person who wasn't the original author would write them.

And, I mean, with the time gap between their writing it makes some sense, but it made the story worse overall in my opinion. 

[KalSpear he/him]

 

 

2 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

It was pretty good, but it felt. . . Off, to me. It almost felt like fanfiction with the characters, like they were acting how a person who wasn't the original author would write them.

I honestly don't remember the story well enough to know what you are talking about. But I will trust it. 

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

22 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

RoW was pretty good, but for SA I think OB was better, likely due to the build up from the previous two books.

However, BoM is probably my favorite of all Cosmere books thus far.

Am I a bad guy thinking OB was the worst 45 hours of my life?  There were glimpses of greatness in it but overall it was way too slow for my liking and I never felt like anyone was in danger... ever. 

Now BoM is a great book and the train scenes were some of my favorite in all of the cosmere. The amount of character building we saw and the introduction to primer cubes were some of my all time favorites.  

All that said my answer is still Warbreaker. For any literary issues it may have... that world fascinated me. The magic is my favorite in the cosmere, mainly for portability of the breaths and the possibility of it working in tandem with other systems in the future.  Seeing the Returned die at the end was also a point in the basket for it. It just isn't fun reading about people who can heal through everything. The danger was always real in Warbreaker and I don't feel that in other cosmere books.

Make no mistake I am so attached to my characters that I can't help but try to fit F gold into every build... but to read the stories healing on the level we see in the cosmere just makes fightscenes fall flat. Even Miles vs Wax... when Miles gets shot in the face and it heals back before it can even get messy is a cool moment in a scene but the rest of the scene loses so much of its potential as you quickly realize that Wax will never get hit or killed and despite landing every shot he takes Miles will simply never die. Fun in theory as you meet the unstoppable force vs the immovable object but other than an excuse to fill 5 pages with cool new ideas on how to use steel it falls flat when neither character is in danger. 

 

[KalSpear he/him]

5 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Am I a bad guy thinking OB was the worst 45 hours of my life?

lol, I think you should have read it physically. Saves so much time. 

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

53 minutes ago, KalSpear said:

That is surprising to me. I would have thought that if you had a favorite in the Wax & Wayne trilogy, it would be the Lost Metal. BoM felt like a set up to that. 

TLM was not a Wax and Wayne book at all. it was just a cosmere book with wax and Wayne as side characters. the Wax and Wayne books before TLM were about Wax's story. TLM sidelined Wax's story and did a half pass on Wayne's story while focusing on Marasi (not saying I didn't like her storyline, her storyline was phenomenal.) It completed the over all plot, but most of the character arcs were completed in Bands of Mourning. TLM was only necessary because of the loose ends for the plot, and for giving set up for era three. TLM is also the book where we get the most rough separation of the Sanderlanche, splitting it up in ways that felt unnatural for a Mistborn book. 

I went a little ranty there, but I really really dislike The Lost Metal. I liked it first read, but then I reread it with the addition of the other books in the series and felt it did not match whatsoever.

13 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Am I a bad guy thinking OB was the worst 45 hours of my life?  There were glimpses of greatness in it but overall it was way too slow for my liking and I never felt like anyone was in danger... ever. 

If you didn't like Dalinar's or Kaladin's arcs, then that's completely fair. I love OB so much because Dalinar's arc just resonated with me so well, and because I just adore that final sequence. 

I highly recommend rereading the book though and seeing if you like it better on the second read, or third, or fourth, or fifth for that matter. 

[KalSpear he/him]

3 minutes ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

Dalinar's or Kaladin's

My favorite chapters are the ones with Kaladin, Dalinar, and Adolin. So for me, OB was a great book. Personally, Kaladin is my favorite. 

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

Just now, KalSpear said:

My favorite chapters are the ones with Kaladin, Dalinar, and Adolin. So for me, OB was a great book. Personally, Kaladin is my favorite. 

Kaladin is a wonderful character, I love him. He's probably my second or third favorite character in SA, if not the cosmere. Dalinar just takes the cake for me on terms of relatability for me in specific. 

[Espella]

Bands of Mourning has the most focus on Steris, ergo it is the best cosmere book.

 

But in all seriousness it is my favorite of the Wax and Wayne books because I feel like it really is the climax of most of the character development, and Lost Metal has the cast mostly static in their character development outside of Wayne in my opinion. I do still like Lost Metal quite a bit but without all of the character development it feels less like a satisfying end and more like setup for Era 3 and Ghostbloods stuff. The scene with the bands in Lost Metal in particular feels like things are being moved out of the book because they need to be saved for the next trilogy. Maybe it will feel better once we can read the whole series straight though.

Edited April 4, 2024 by Espella

[KalSpear he/him]

1 minute ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

Kaladin is a wonderful character, I love him. He's probably my second or third favorite character in SA, if not the cosmere. Dalinar just takes the cake for me on terms of relatability for me in specific. 

 

Who is your 3rd? Dalinar and then Kaladin or ______? 

[Trusk'our he/him]

On 4/4/2024 at 1:09 PM, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Am I a bad guy thinking OB was the worst 45 hours of my life? 

Not at all buddy.

I loved it myself, but I'm glad to hear someone else's take.

On 4/4/2024 at 1:09 PM, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Now BoM is a great book and the train scenes were some of my favorite in all of the cosmere. The amount of character building we saw and the introduction to primer cubes were some of my all time favorites.  

The introduction of the Southern continent and its people was HUGE to me; it opened a whole new world of possibilities for the series as a whole and fit with the original world building. 

On 4/4/2024 at 1:09 PM, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

All that said my answer is still Warbreaker. For any literary issues it may have... that world fascinated me. 

What literary issues?

On 4/4/2024 at 1:09 PM, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Make no mistake I am so attached to my characters that I can't help but try to fit F gold into every build... but to read the stories healing on the level we see in the cosmere just makes fightscenes fall flat. Even Miles vs Wax... when Miles gets shot in the face and it heals back before it can even get messy is a cool moment in a scene but the rest of the scene loses so much of its potential as you quickly realize that Wax will never get hit or killed and despite landing every shot he takes Miles will simply never die. Fun in theory as you meet the unstoppable force vs the immovable object but other than an excuse to fill 5 pages with cool new ideas on how to use steel it falls flat when neither character is in danger. 

Understandable.

What about when more advanced weaponry, like fragmenting aluminum bullets, anti-Investiture bombs or daggers, and Awakened blades/guns become available?

Then even Invested healing will not be able to prevent serious danger, so maybe you won't have to worry about it forever. 

On 4/4/2024 at 1:09 PM, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

The danger was always real in Warbreaker and I don't feel that in other cosmere books.

The scene where Vivenna realizes the mercenaries aren't her friends. . . That scene had some tension to it.

On 4/4/2024 at 1:16 PM, KalSpear said:

lol, I think you should have read it physically. Saves so much time. 

Yeah, I listened to a chapter when I was driving with my dad, and the narrator for OB was terrible. He honestly sounded like he didn't want to be there.

On 4/4/2024 at 1:27 PM, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

TLM was not a Wax and Wayne book at all. it was just a cosmere book with wax and Wayne as side characters. the Wax and Wayne books before TLM were about Wax's story. TLM sidelined Wax's story and did a half pass on Wayne's story while focusing on Marasi (not saying I didn't like her storyline, her storyline was phenomenal.) It completed the over all plot, but most of the character arcs were completed in Bands of Mourning. TLM was only necessary because of the loose ends for the plot, and for giving set up for era three. TLM is also the book where we get the most rough separation of the Sanderlanche, splitting it up in ways that felt unnatural for a Mistborn book. 

I went a little ranty there, but I really really dislike The Lost Metal. I liked it first read, but then I reread it with the addition of the other books in the series and felt it did not match whatsoever.

Completely understandable. 

I personally liked it, but I think it could have been better if written to line up with the rest of the Wax and Wayne books.

On 4/4/2024 at 1:34 PM, Espella said:

Bands of Mourning has the most focus on Steris, ergo it is the best cosmere book.

So true. I really grew to love her character over the course of the series.

On 4/4/2024 at 1:34 PM, Espella said:

But in all seriousness it is my favorite of the Wax and Wayne books because I feel like it really is the climax of most of the character development, and Lost Metal has the cast mostly static in their character development outside of Wayne in my opinion. I do still like Lost Metal quite a bit but without all of the character development it feels less like a satisfying end and more like setup for Era 3 and Ghostbloods stuff. The scene with the bands in Lost Metal feels like it is being moved out of the book because it needs to be saved for the next trilogy. Maybe it will feel better once we can read the whole series straight though.

Agreed on all accounts. 

Edited April 7, 2024 by Trusk'our

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

Personally, for wax and Wayne, I like Shadows the best purely because Wax is one of my faves.

3 minutes ago, KalSpear said:

 

Who is your 3rd? Dalinar and then Kaladin or ______? 

Honestly, I don't have really any idea of a particular order for those after Dalinar. Kaladin is around second and third, Wax probably too. For top three, I might put it like Dalinar, Wax and then Kaladin.

2 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Completely understandable. 

I personally liked it, but I think it could have been better if written to line up with the rest of the Wax and Wayne books.

Yeah, I see why a lot of people like it. It just really is not the right book for me.

[Treamayne]

39 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Am I a bad guy thinking OB was the worst 45 hours of my life? 

Oathbringer is my least favorite in SA so far. On most re-reads I have to skip as many Shallan chapters as possible

Quote

All that said my answer is still Warbreaker.

Warbreaker is great (especially with the annotations). Very underrated (as are White Sand and Elantris, IMO). 

2 hours ago, KalSpear said:

What is Your Favorite Cosmere Novel?

The next one. . . 

[KalSpear he/him]

13 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Yeah, I listened to a chapter when I was driving with my dad, and the narrator for OB was terrible. He honestly sounded like he didn't want to be there.

I wouldn't want to be there either. Who wants to read a story for 45 hours?

1 minute ago, Treamayne said:

The next one. . . 

Meaning Stormlight 5?

[NameIess]

I put RoW as well, but it's really a toss-up between all the SA books (except OB) that depends on which I've read most recently. Not counting Stormlight, Yumi's my favorite.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

21 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Yeah, I listened to a chapter when I was driving with my dad, and the narrator for OB was terrible. He honestly sounded like he didn't want to be there.

 

I dislike Micheal and Kate as narrators, except in WoT. That's where they shine. SA isn't the series for them imo.

[KalSpear he/him]

2 minutes ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

WoT

Stands for?

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

11 minutes ago, KalSpear said:

Stands for?

Wheel of Time

[KalSpear he/him]

11 hours ago, NameIess said:

Yumi's my favorite.

It was actually incredibly unique and quite good. I had not expected that from the title.

10 hours ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

Wheel of Time

Never read those. I don't consider them to be true Sanderson content.

[Trusk'our he/him]

44 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Oathbringer is my least favorite in SA so far. On most re-reads I have to skip as many Shallan chapters as possible

How come? I didn't love most of them compared to the rest, but Veil was pretty nice to read about.

20 minutes ago, KalSpear said:

Never read those. I don't consider them to be true Sanderson content.

I tried to, but 5 pages in I was still getting through was would be Sanderson's first sentence. It was too long and tedious to continue for me.

[Treamayne]

45 minutes ago, KalSpear said:

Meaning Stormlight 5?

Nope. it's like the Dalinar quote - What's the most important step - The Next One.

My Favorite is the one that I am anticipating (and hoping to avoid spoilers about).

2 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

How come?

Discussed here (don't want to take the thread off-topic)

[alder24]

I saw you've posted the same topic in the General Brandon Discussion subforum - that's unnecessary, please avoid double posting or reposting the same topic in a different section. You can edit your post to change or report it and ask mods to move it to another section if you wish. Both options are available if you open the three-dots menu in the top right corner of your post.

Now back to the topic:

4 hours ago, KalSpear said:

I am curious to see which books are more popular. My personal favorite is Rythm of War.

Warbreaker. I simply adore Awakening. Its versatility and  limitations are fascinating to me, the idea of magic based on recreating life and utilizing colors is amazing. It's always fun to imagine what can be done with Awakening. This magic system is not as combat oriented as others in Cosmere, but it can offer a great advantage for those with good imagination. This is my favorit magic system. And I love the story and all the characters - Vasher especially. For me it's the best book. I'm often catching myself rereading some parts of the book just when I wanted to grab a quote or check some detail. It grabbed my heart and doesn't let go of it. 

 

2 hours ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

TLM was not a Wax and Wayne book at all. it was just a cosmere book with wax and Wayne as side characters. the Wax and Wayne books before TLM were about Wax's story. TLM sidelined Wax's story and did a half pass on Wayne's story while focusing on Marasi (not saying I didn't like her storyline, her storyline was phenomenal.) It completed the over all plot, but most of the character arcs were completed in Bands of Mourning. TLM was only necessary because of the loose ends for the plot, and for giving set up for era three. TLM is also the book where we get the most rough separation of the Sanderlanche, splitting it up in ways that felt unnatural for a Mistborn book. 

You’ve nailed it. While I personally like TLM, I felt something was off and that's a great description of its problems.

[Lego Mistborn he/him]

Ooh. I love rhythm of war, and the middle two Wax and Wayne's, TWoK, Yumi is the best of the cosmere SPs and I'm gonna add FWGSME (frugal wizard) because it landed perfectly with me, and I disagree with every criticism I've heard about it.

OB, the ending of tress, and some(but not all)of TLM are examples of stuff that didn't land for me.

Edited April 5, 2024 by Lego Mistborn