Jump to content

Newbie


Igolbug

Recommended Posts

Hi,

New to the Cosmere series and don`t want to skim through and pick up spoilers so started my own thread to ask my question.

What books are all included in this and is there an order I should be reading them in?

I hate reading books out of order, feel throughout the read as if I am missing something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't worry about missing things at this point, unless you have a major aversion to rereading books later on (I find that BS's are worth it). The books are written so that the reader doesn't need to know anything about the cosmere to read the books. Cosmere info is inserted as more of an easter egg. Once you start getting a better picture of what is going on in the background, you can go back and reread the earlier books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You CAN read them in any order and they'll do it as a standalones but you'll have to do rereading for Cosmere stuff. Or you could read them in order of release dates to catch a bit more. Though for me best reading order is:

Mistborn Trilogy - got most info about cosmere atm

Warbreaker/Elantris - good stuff for catching crossover character/s and getting bit more clue about cosmere

Alloy of Law - you should read this only after trilogy but I think reading it right after it won't work well

Way of Kings - try reading this after Mistborn, Warbreaker and Elantris. Its standalone and you'll be able to start from here but its still first out of ten and you will miss lots of awesome stuff. You can catch them later of course but first time is always best for me.

Emperor's Soul - you'll have lots of questions about laws of Cosmere after reading them all and you'll find some answers here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you want to read them "chronologically" how they happen in the cosmere the order is:

  • Elantris
  • Emperor's Soul
  • Mistborn Trilogy
  • Warbreaker
  • The Way of Kings
  • Alloy of Law

This may not be the best order if it's your first time through though. Emperor's Soul has a lot of cosmere stuff that could be more fully appreciated after reading others, and reading Alloy right after the Mistborn Trilogy helps you to catch all the fun easter eggs better.

That being said, you can really read them in any order you please, although obviously reading the Mistborn trilogy before Alloy is a good idea if you want to avoid some fairly large spoilers from the trilogy. I just read them in the order I could get my hands on them, and ended up going backwards chronologically. It all works out fine, they make good rereads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks all.

Now if only the Chapters near me carried all the Mistborn books so I don`t have to wait for it to come in.

I`m pretty big on re-reading books because I read so much it saves me some money to re-read the series I enjoy every couple of years. Couple weeks I`ll probably be a regular here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be interested in an experiment sometime: if someone were to read The Emperor's Soul first (with the way it maps out the basics of the underlying Cosmere), how would it change the way they see the later books?

Too late for me, obviously, and most of us. But it would be interesting to see if someone could get a newbie to do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be interested in an experiment sometime: if someone were to read The Emperor's Soul first (with the way it maps out the basics of the underlying Cosmere), how would it change the way they see the later books?

Too late for me, obviously, and most of us. But it would be interesting to see if someone could get a newbie to do it.

Grrr.... still waiting for my copy to arrive. Not yet published in Ireland or UK, some kind of publishing rights kerfuffle. Waiting on a copy to be shipped in from the US.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Grrr.... still waiting for my copy to arrive. Not yet published in Ireland or UK, some kind of publishing rights kerfuffle. Waiting on a copy to be shipped in from the US.

Huh, I wasn't aware of this... the Kindle version is available, so if you're desperate you can get that (if you don't own a Kindle, you can get the Kindle reader for most smartphones/tablets or Windows - not sure about Max OS).

Surprising though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be interested in an experiment sometime: if someone were to read The Emperor's Soul first (with the way it maps out the basics of the underlying Cosmere), how would it change the way they see the later books?

Too late for me, obviously, and most of us. But it would be interesting to see if someone could get a newbie to do it.

I'm not sure that TES really maps out that much for people who aren't already Cosmere aware - beyond the explanations of Realmatics, I don't recall a huge amount of Cosmere info being revealed (nothing specifically pertaining to Shards for example). Please feel free to correct me on this, my memory is poor at the best of times.

Also, I think you'd need someone who's never read the books but is at least aware that they're linked to have the desired effect (otherwise they're not even going to be looking for the things TES gives clues to).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Huh, I wasn't aware of this... the Kindle version is available, so if you're desperate you can get that (if you don't own a Kindle, you can get the Kindle reader for most smartphones/tablets or Windows - not sure about Max OS).

Surprising though.

There is an application for OS X.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Huh, I wasn't aware of this... the Kindle version is available, so if you're desperate you can get that (if you don't own a Kindle, you can get the Kindle reader for most smartphones/tablets or Windows - not sure about Max OS).

Surprising though.

Not desperate, and I only buy things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be interested in an experiment sometime: if someone were to read The Emperor's Soul first (with the way it maps out the basics of the underlying Cosmere), how would it change the way they see the later books?

Too late for me, obviously, and most of us. But it would be interesting to see if someone could get a newbie to do it.

So far I`ve read 3 books, in the following order;

The Way of Kings

Elantris

Emperor`s Soul

Odd order to read them in but I picked of Way of Kings before starting my WoT re-read only to find after I finished it that it was a 1st in 10 book series that just started(was not happy I did that to myself, especially with WoT coming to an end)

Reading Emperor`s Soul that early you wouldn`t know what she was talking aboot until you re-read it at a later date after knowing aboot the Cosmere. Would just assume its part of the magic system in that particular book.

Also I didn`t find out I had paid $16 for a paperback less than 200 pages until I got home and looked at my receipt. I mean what the heck is that aboot I can buy a dvd for cheaper which takes longer to watch than that book was to read.

Edited by Rubix
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also I didn`t find out I had paid $16 for a paperback less than 200 pages until I got home and looked at my receipt. I mean what the heck is that aboot I can buy a dvd for cheaper which takes longer to watch than that book was to read.

^That's a harsh price. It is available as an eBook for cheaper, and it's $8.50 on Amazon, so it looks like the bookstore just gauged you.

The listed retail price is $14.95, and it's because Tachyon is a smaller press, and it's more expensive for them to print books because they're not printing the massive quantities that other publishers do. As for why it's cheaper on Amazon, they sell so many books that they're able to make less profit per book, from what I understand. As for the ebook, the reason it's cheaper is because Brandon retained the digital rights when he sold the book to Tachyon and is selling it himself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you want personal experience I started with Mistborn and then Way of Kings before I even had Elantris on the shelf or even knew about Warbreaker. This all before Alloy or Emperor's Soul was out but the order I chose to read them in didn't obfuscate the cosmere at all. There's a lot in Way of Kings that can be picked up with prior readings, specifically certain characters, but it's not essential that you've read anything beforehand. Only, Stormlight Archive is set to be Sanderson's epic so it does contain some easter eggs you might benefit from by reading the others first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Chaos locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...