Cosmere Rankings 2025

[Lord Spirit he/him]

@Stitof did this a few years ago, but not a ton of people responded and I was interested how everyone ranks Wind and Truth. Use whatever system you want, I just wanted to organize my thoughts.

My list would be:

S tier:

1. Tress of the Emerald Sea
2. Elantris*
3. Hero of Ages
4. Wind and Truth*
5. Words of Radiance

A tier:

1. Bands of Mourning
2. Final Empire
3. Oathbringer
4. The Way of Kings
5. Secret History

B tier:

1. White Sand*
2. Edgedancer
3. Rhythm of War
4. The Emperors Soul
5. The Well of Ascension

C tier:

1. The Sunlit Man
2. Alloy of Law
3. The Lost Metal
4. Dawnshard
5. Sixth of the Dusk

D tier:

1. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
2. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter*
3. Shadows of Self
4. Warbreaker*

 

*Unpopular opinions (I think)

 

[BridgeBoi]

S Tier

1. Final Empire
2. Words of Radiance
3. Way of Kings 
4. Hero of Ages

A Tier

1. Tress of the Emerald Sea
2. Secret History
3. Emperors Soul
4. Oathbringer

B Tier

1. Rhythm of War
2. Elantris
3. Edgedancer
4. Sixth of the Dusk
5. Wind and Truth

C Tier

1. Bands of Mourning
2. The Sunlit Man 
3. Well of Ascension 
4. Alloy of Law

D Tier 

1. Shadows of Self
2. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
3. Warbreaker
4. The Lost Metal

Dawnshard Tier

1. Dawnshard

 

[Forts Board]

S Tier:

Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Elantris, Tress, Warbreaker, The Emperors Soul

A Tier:

Wind And Truth, Rhythm of War, Oathbringer, Mistborn Era 1, Sunlit Man, Shadows for Silence, Sixth of the Dusk, Mistborn Era 2 (excluding lost metal), Secret History. 

B Tier: Lost Metal, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Brandon never gets below a B for me lol

Edited January 27, 2025 by Forts Board

[Ookla she/her]

S Tier: Warbreaker, Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Rhythm of War, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer. I'm actually a sucker for Brandon's romance, mostly because it doesn't typically follow all the classic romance tropes you see in Hallmark movies. It might touch on a few, but it usually does so in an interesting way rather than rehashing the same old romantic plots every time.

A Tier: The Way of Kings, Oathbringer, Wind and Truth, The Final Empire, The Sunlit Man, Dawnshard.

B Tier: The rest of Mistborn Era 1 and Era 2, Secret History, Elantris, Sixth of the Dusk, Shadows for Silence, the rest of Arcanum Unbounded.

Does that cover everything? I think so? And this, by the way, covers the books in order of the frequency with which I typically reread them--A Tier being the ones I reread sometimes, and B tier being the ones that I almost never reread. I'm actually not a huge fan of Mistborn in general--I like The Final Empire because Vin stars most heavily in that book and it has the happiest ending of Era 1, in my opinion, but otherwise there are other Cosmere novels that I find more interesting and less dark.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

S :

Final Empire, Oathbringer, Words of Radiance, Tress of the Emerald Sea

A :

Hero of Ages, Shadow of Self, Allomancer Jak, The Way of Kings, Secret History, The Emperor's Soul

B :

Sunlit Man, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Edgedancer, Shadows of Silence, Sixth of the Dusk, Well of Ascension, Alloy of Law, The Lost Metal, Bands of Mourning, Warbreaker

C : Wind and Truth, Elantris, Rhythm of War

D : Dawnshard, Hope of Elantris, The Eleventh Metal

[Qianweilian He/him]

Books aren't ordered within tiers

S

1. The Way of Kings

2. Oathbringer

3. Hero of ages

4. Tress and the Emerald Sea

5. A Memory of Light wait no, that's not cosmere, stop 

A

1. The Final Empire

2. Words of Radiance

3. Rhythm of War

4. Elantris

5. The Bands of Mourning

6. The Alloy of Law

B

1. Wind and Truth

2. The sunlit man

3. Shadows of Self

4. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

5. Dawnshard

6. The Lost Metal

C

1. Warbreaker 

2. Shadows for silence in the forests of hell

3. Sixth of the Dusk

4. Mistborn: Secret history

5. The Emperor's soul

6. Edgedancer

7. Arcanum Unbounded(as a whole)

8. Well of Ascension with Hero of Ages preview in the back.

D

1. White Sand(prose, I haven't read graphic novel)

2. Well of Ascension

3. The Eleventh Metal

4. Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes Twenty Eight through Thirty 

5. The Hope of Elantris

 

Edited January 28, 2025 by Qianweilian
Forgot TLM

[OverlordBob999]

S-Tier: Final Empire, Hero of Ages, Secret History, Shadow of Self, Bands of Mourning, The Lost Metal, The Emperor's Soul, Warbreaker, Way of Kings, Wind and Truth

A-Tier: Elantris, Well of Ascension, Oathbringer

B-Tier: Alloy of Law, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer, Rhythm of War

C-Tier: Pretty much just the rest of the wee novellas; They're interesting, but not on the level of everything else

 

[Elegy he/him]

Hell yeah, let's go! The tiers are actually ranked, albeit often loosely.

 

S-Tier: In my top 10 favorite books ever
1. Words of Radiance
2. Way of Kings 

A-Tier: Amazing
1. Oathbringer
2. The Final Empire
3. The Hero of Ages
4. The Emperor's Soul
5. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
6. Warbreaker 

B-Tier: Good
1. The Well of Ascension
2. Shadows for Silence
3. Secret History
4. Dawnshard
5. Tress of the Emerald Sea
6. Wind and Truth
7. Edgedancer
8. Rhythm of War 

C-Tier: Meh
1. Elantris
2. The Sunlit Man
3. Sixth of the Dusk
4. The Lost Metal
5. The Bands of Mourning
6. Allomancer Jak
7. Shadows of Self
8. Alloy of Law 

D-Tier: Weak
1. The Eleventh Metal
2. The Hope of Elantris

Altogether a fantastic achievement, especially considering that the only strories I straight-up dislke are the shortest, supplement-style ones. Side-note, all the Mistborn Era 2 books are pretty much interchangable to me.

[Qianweilian He/him]

31 minutes ago, Elegy said:

all the Mistborn Era 2 books are pretty much interchangable to me

I feel the same way, except Bands of Mourning was really good.

[Elegy he/him]

6 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

I feel the same way, except Bands of Mourning was really good.

Bands of Mourning used to be my favorite of the bunch (if you can call it that), but the fact that many of the things it set up were left mostly untouched and unexpanded in Lost Metal soured me on its overall position in the series. I still believe it's the most well-rounded of the four in and of itself, while Lost Metal has the most stand-out moments for me and Shadows of Self (of course) has the best ending (which is genuinely amazing). It's a consistent series for sure, but not coherent as a whole, which weakens each of the individual books imo. Of course I know and acknowledge that many people love these four books, but I personally was disappointed with the way it unfolded

[Treamayne]

I don't get that whole tier thing y'all are using (which seems like high school grades with an S above them. . . maybe?)

Old Response here

On 1/25/2025 at 7:39 PM, Lord Spirit said:

Use whatever system you want

So, I will use the same "thinking" I apply to my entire library (no particular order in each category - just cut and paste):

Spoiler

When I read books, I tend to subconciously place them in one of the following "categories" (the bolded category "names" are newly devised for this list - I've never codified this in this way before):

• At-Will: Highly Recommend - I enjoy it enough that I will re-read at-will for no reason whatsover, just because I want to 
  • Often I am not ready to start something new, so I choose something to re-read - and, if I have no new entries to a series I follow (necessitating a re-read of some/all of that series), I usually choose from this list
• Series: Highly Recommend - I enjoy it enough to re-read before a new entry is released to the series
• Periodic: Recommend - I enjoy it enough to re-read now and then, but less frequently than others or only if there is a reason to re-read. 
• Summary: Series is Recommended - A weaker entry in a series, and I may skip this one when doing a series re-read, opting for a summary or "high points" refresher instead 
• Enjoy: Recommend, as appropriate - I enjoyed the story and would recommend it to the right person for the right reason. I may or may not read these entries more than once. 
• Bare: I did not particularly enjoy the story, but I did finish it. I have no plans to re-read the story. 
  • For example - Alcatraz is this for me.  
• DNF: I did not enjoy the story and did not finish the story (doesn't mean it's bad - it's just not for me)

At-Will:

Spoiler

• Arcanum Unbounded (Khriss Silverlight Essays)
• Altered Perceptions Essays
  • Sanderson's Laws of Magic Essays (Essay three has links to one and two)
• Mistborn Era 1 Complete Edition
  • The Eleventh Metal*
  • Mistborn: Secret History*
• The Way of Kings
• Warbreaker Complete Annotated Edition
• Elantris 10th Anniversary Complete Edition
• The Emperor's Soul
• Sixth of the Dusk* (especially the Shadows beneath Version (explained at the bottom of this post)
• Words of Radiance Deleted Interlude and Scene

Series: 

Spoiler

• Tress of the Emerald Sea (SP1)
• White Sand Graphic Novel Omnibus
• Hope of Elantris
• Shadows of Self
• The Bands of Mourning
• Words of Radiance
• Edgedancer
• Dawnshard
• Rhythm of War
• Mistborn: The Final Empire (Annotated)
• The Well of Ascension (Annotated)
• The Hero of Ages (Annotated)

Periodic: 

Spoiler

• Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (SP3)
• The Sunlit Man (SP4)
• White Sand (Prose, Non-Canon)
• Aether of Night (Non-Canon)

Summary: 

Spoiler

• The Alloy of Law
• Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania*
• The Lost Metal (might promote to periodic if I can convince myself to give it one more reading)
• Oathbringer
• Wind and Truth

Enjoy: 

Spoiler

• Way of Kings Prime
• Dragonsteel Prime

Bare: N/A

DNF: N/A

 

Edited January 28, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Lord Spirit he/him]

6 hours ago, Treamayne said:

I don't get that whole tier thing y'all are using (which seems like high school grades with an S above them. . . maybe?)

After checking Wikipedia, it appears the ranks come from Japanese grading, which apparently has an S. Teir lists originated from video game culture when people wanted to rank characters. It’s a generic way to rank things that’s easy to use. Your way is great for books.

[Treamayne]

10 hours ago, Lord Spirit said:

After checking Wikipedia, it appears the ranks come from Japanese grading, which apparently has an S. Teir lists originated from video game culture when people wanted to rank characters. It’s a generic way to rank things that’s easy to use. Your way is great for books.

Danke mucho

I will say that after reading TOW on the subject I can see the application for fighting games (having spent way too much in Arcades in the 80s and 90s) but still don't quite get how that translates to books (as a tier - makes sense as a "grade" though, I guess).

Edited January 29, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG/Link

[SPECTRE120]

Rankings are relative, if it was just for books in general there probably wouldn't be anything below C. I don't do rereads so some books would probably change rating if I remembered them better. In no particular order:

S Tier:

Final Empire
Well of Ascension
Hero of Ages
Way of Kings
The Emperor's Soul

A Tier:

Words of Radiance
The Alloy of Law
Sixth of the Dusk
White Sand (1-3)
Warbreaker

B Tier:

Oathbringer
Wind and Truth
Elantris
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
Mistborn: Secret History
Shadows of Self

C Tier:

The Lost Metal
Edgedancer
Dawnshard
The Bands of Mourning

D Tier:

The Sunlit Man
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
The Eleventh Metal
Rhythm of War

F Tier:

Tress of the Emerald Sea
The Hope of Elantris
Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania

I think that's all of them.

Edited January 29, 2025 by SPECTRE120

[Qianweilian He/him]

The only interesting part of AJATPOE (wow, that's a terrible acronym) is the annotations

[KnightSkye Reforged They/Them]

S teir:

1. Rhythm of War
2. Words of Radiance
3. The Hero of Ages
4. The Lost Metal

A teir:

1. Oathbringer
2. Wind and Truth
3. The Alloy of Law
4. Yum I and the Nightmare Painter
5. The Final Empire
6. Bands of Mourning
7. The Sunlit Man

B teir:

1. The Well of Ascension 
2. Shadows of Self
3. The Way of Kings
4. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of He'll
5. Sixth-of-the-Dusk
6. Secret History
7. White Sand
8. The Emperors Soul 
9. Tress of the Emerald Sea
10. Warbraker
11. Edgdancer

C teir:

1. Elantris
2. The Eleventh Metal
3. Dawnshard

D teir: 

1. Allomancer Jak
2. The hope of Elantris