Without spoilers, can you tell me which characters are in multiple series / I should be paying attention to?

[Kvothe]

So all of Brandon Sanderson's fantasy series' take place in the same world, yes? And I've heard that there are crossover characters. I'm currently reading Way of Kings and I haven't finished with the first Mistborn book, so I want to know which characters I should be paying particular attention to whenever they're mentioned or hinted at.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Kvothe

[dyring]

Ill put in some generic information without to much spoilers.

It is not all the same world, it is the same universe.

(And not quite all, not the alcatraz books, and not several of his short stories. Nor ofcourse, the wheel of time.)

This universe, a number of worlds, are called the cosmere.

Different series have a different amount of information regarding this. All have hints, few have anything straight forward.

As for characters, if you look through the books, or while you read em, you will notice quite a few of them have a char named "Hoid" in them.

Hard to add more really. Cant tell you about the rest without major spoilers, its only hoid thats fairly apparent.

The cosmere books that are out as of yet are

Way of kings. (on the planet Roshar)

Mistborn trilogy + Alloy of law (Scadrial)

Elantris and Emperors soul (Sel)

Warbreaker (on Nalthis)

Edited February 8, 2013 by dyring

[FlashWrogan he/him]

I wouldn't worry about tracking it. Brandon specifically writes his books so that the reader can pick up any book without knowing a thing about the cosmere. I finished all the books that were out at the time before I even had a clue. The fun thing about that, is then you get to go back and read the books later with fresh eyes and catch all the easter eggs.

[Kvothe]

Ill put in some generic information without to much spoilers.

It is not all the same world, it is the same universe.

(And not quite all, not the alcatraz books, and not several of his short stories. Nor ofcourse, the wheel of time.)

This universe, a number of worlds, are called the cosmere.

Different series have a different amount of information regarding this. All have hints, few have anything straight forward.

As for characters, if you look through the books, or while you read em, you will notice quite a few of them have a char named "Hoid" in them.

Hard to add more really. Cant tell you about the rest without major spoilers, its only hoid thats fairly apparent.

The cosmere books that are out as of yet are

Way of kings. (on the planet Roshar)

Mistborn trilogy + Alloy of law (Scadrial)

Elantris and Emperors soul (Sel)

Warbreaker (on Nalthis)

I wouldn't worry about tracking it. Brandon specifically writes his books so that the reader can pick up any book without knowing a thing about the cosmere. I finished all the books that were out at the time before I even had a clue. The fun thing about that, is then you get to go back and read the books later with fresh eyes and catch all the easter eggs.

Alright, thank you both for the info. It answered quite a bit if what I was wonering about.

[Krelian]

To add to this, his whole Cosmere mythology is supposed to encompass, I believe, about 36 books.

And only the latter ones will have any discrete crossovers. Moreover, I think in a somewhat recent interview he said that Stormlight Archive would not, within the scope of the actual series, do much crossover at all, even near the end.

Hoid is the only character that is meant to be recognizable as being present in multiple series so far, though we've figured out a couple more.

So, if you wanna delve into the rest of his works (which I recommend!), then pay attention to seemingly unimportant stuff. Otherwise, just enjoy the series, it's meant to stand alone regardless of everything else going on in the universe :)/>/>

Edited February 11, 2013 by Krelian

[Cheese Ninja he/him]

The books that take place within the Cosmere are all related, but until he starts writing books that really tie it all together, it's not too important in regards to appreciating the novels. It's just an interesting note about the setting and backstory. Like Anne McCaffrey's Pern series taking place in the distant future after humans decided to go into space and colonize different worlds. Or Saberhagen's Book of Swords taking place 50000 years after a nuclear apocalypse, and the demons are coalesced anthropomorphic clouds of radiation. Or Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle being post-apocalyptic. You don't really need to know those things to appreciate the series.