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So what exactly does one have to read to be up to date on the cosmere


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Ok disclaimer. I might just be useless.

 

I cant seem to work out exactly which books i have to read to know all the things people in this forum seem to know on the cosmere.

 

Ive read (or listened to)

 

-mistborn series

-stormlight archive

-warbreaker

-elantris

 

and im sure im missing vital information that seems to be pretty common knowledge... am i missing some of the books or whats going on?

 

Im guessing its short stories or novellas that im lacking.

 

Apologies if there is an easy guide to this but i havnt really seen it. So please help a noob cosmereonaut out.

 

thanks ^^

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Emperor's soul, sixth of the dusk and shadows for silence in the forests of hell are the only cosmere novellas but it's been a while since I've read the other two so I don't remember how much extra cosmere info is in them.

Other than that there are annotations on Brandons website for some books, which provide extra information.

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You can get a full list of Cosmere books here: http://coppermind.net/wiki/Cosmere#Bibliography_of_the_Cosmere

 

You can email Brandon (contact form on his website) asking for White Sand and Aether of the Night. Both are unpublished, though White Sand is coming out in graphic novel form at some point in the future.

 

You've read the main stuff, though, so you're not behind there. The most important short work you've not read is The Emperor's Soul, which has some info on magic system physics.

 

In general, though, quite a lot of the "common knowledge" you're missing comes from years and years of interviews. Unfortunately, a lot of information discussed doesn't come straight from the books. You can read a ton of questions/answers from the Events & Signings section on these forums, or you can directly read most of the stuff Brandon's done here: http://www.theoryland.com/listintv.php

 

The previous link doesn't have everything, unfortunately, but it has most of it. Another big source of knowledge comes from the Annotations, which you can find here (scroll down): http://brandonsanderson.com/library/

 

Most of us had the problem of not knowing what anyone was talking about as we started out here. You'll pick up on the important bits quickly!

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Have you read 3, or 4, books from the Mistborn series? Because Alloy of Law has some important Allomancy stuff.

Outside those 4 series, everything is short stories that expand the Cosmere and show a few new forms of magic.

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I guess ill just have to passively get the info from reading the forums :P oh poor unfortunate me :P

 

It doesn't take too long to get acclimated. I joined late last October, and I was capable of partaking in serious Realmatic discussions within a month. Plus, we're all nice people, so posting incorrect information is usually corrected by another user quickly.

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I'm what you would consider a mega-lurker. I don't really post, mostly because everyone else really, really knows their cosmere stuff. From my perspective, a ton of what you are reading is theory and guesses. Unless something is published in a print/electronic copy by Brandon himself, it's not really cannon. Even in the interviews that he has given, I doubt he will contradict himself because he's genius and has a mega plan for all of his books, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does something different in his books vs. what he's said in interviews. So no worries, just join the rest of us lurkers and enjoy the Cosmere. :D

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I totally get you !!! I also listen to the Audiobooks.

 

What you need to do is read some interviews and WOB's to get a basic grasp on Hoid and the Cosmere, 17th Shard Adonalsium and such. Then have a good old reread and you will start to catch the little things and start to get a grasp before delving into the deeper stuff or it will just wash straight over your head.

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All 4 Mistborn: Where you learn about Shards and where most of our out-there speculation comes from

Elantris: Vague ideas around how Investure works, as well as at least one member of the Seventeenth Shard.

Emperor's Soul: Realmatics central. That pretty much covers how the 3 realms work as well as the future of Sel.

Warbreaker: Connected directly to WoR, more about how Cosmere magic works, etc. A world with a recent Shard too.

Stormlight Archive: All of the knowledge. All of it. Parallels and improvements to everything learned in all the other books.

 

I would highly recommend re-reading these, especially Mistborn and Stormlight Archive. There's a lot of hidden stuff in there that you'll miss even after a few rereads. Plus, do we really even need an excuse to go back through these books?

 

Interviews and links to them can be found all over the forums, and contain clarifications and a lot of extensions to things you might not see answered directly in the books. 

 

Annotations to Brandon's books can be found at his website library, at the bottom of this page. They go chapter by chapter and contain a lot of cool bonus information.

 

With all that, you're ready to be more-or-less competent all around the boards. The rest is just experience and hands-on learning.

Have fun :)

Edited by Observer
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At the moment a lot of the cosmere stuff in the books is between-the-lines. (The Stormlight Archive is actually partly so exciting because the cosmere stuff in there is the LEAST between the lines of any of Brandon's books) It will get more explicit later on when Brandon is closer to being able to publish the books that actually directly deal with it, for now it's optional to your enjoyment of the books.

 

As above, upvoted purely for the term "cosmeronaut". :)

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Okay so I just signed up for this website and I have only read the first mistborn trilogy but oh god does this all sound like the coolest thing. This post really helped me out a lot but I was wondering if you guys have any recommendations on what order I should read the rest of these series in? This is a lot of reading to do over the summer and I wanna make the most of it while confusing myself the least.

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Okay so I just signed up for this website and I have only read the first mistborn trilogy but oh god does this all sound like the coolest thing. This post really helped me out a lot but I was wondering if you guys have any recommendations on what order I should read the rest of these series in? This is a lot of reading to do over the summer and I wanna make the most of it while confusing myself the least.

Welcome to the site! LabRat's suggestion is as good as any, but Brandon wrote the different series so that they stand alone, so read whichever one looks most fun at the moment. I'd also add, don't forget about the Mistborn sequels (starting with "Alloy of Law," with two more coming out in the next few months). You should also make time for The Stormlight Archive, which is my personal favorite Sanderson story, but not by much. :)

Have fun reading, and be sure to come back here to share your ideas and theories.

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The amount of Cosmere info is overstated IMO. There is quite a bit, but it really isn't as fully fleshed out or complicated or expansive as every says (at least not yet). 16 pieces of what was once a single God, existence has 3 layers, and there are various types of magic. That's about it.

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