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Now what? Please help!


DJ_Ice

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I just finished the mistborn series (thanks to audible and long commutes to work) and the 2 Wax books, but now I don't know what to read next while waiting for the 3rd W&W book in January. I didn't realize there was a realm of books in this same universe and I'm not sure which one I should go to next. Any suggestions?

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Depends... I don't know what all you read already.

There are several more Cosmere-books:

I'd personally go in this direction:

Elantris

Warbreaker

Way of Kings

Words of Radiance

 

Of course, if you read one already, just skip it... or reread it, I'm actually rereading Warbreaker on English (read it the first time on German)

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Thanks! I haven't read anything yet, other than the mistborn series (which I assume Wax and Wayne are apart of as well, still trying to see if they are just creative names or if they have something to do with moon phases waxing (growing larger) and waning (shrinking)). I also read some of the Wikipedia page, but stopped when I started reading things that looked like spoilers. I am excited to see what else this universe holds!

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You really won't be disappointed. The whole Cosmere is great, even if the connections between the books are for now rather small (I hope this isn't to much of spoiler already :P)

So, have fun reading those other books, pay attention to the details to find out about as much as possible of the cosmere by yourself, and let us know about your progress ;)

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I would say Elantris first because it's his first book and also the weakest, in my opinion. (Though still pretty good.) That way you can save the best for last instead of being disappointed by comparison.

Hmm, interesting. I would have made the opposite recommendation. I would recommend...

  • Warbreaker
  • Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1)
  • Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2)
  • Elantris

    I recommend that you buy the 10th anniversary edition of Elantris. The anniversary edition has content in it that is NOT available with the audiobook (I know because I like to listen to Brandon's novels on audio at work with my Audible subscription). Also, Michael Kramer is not the narrator for Elantris and I missed him for this title. Furthermore, the extra content may or may not be available with the eBook; people have had inconsistent experiences with that from what I have read.

  • The Emperor's Soul

    The Emperor's Soul is a sort of non-sequel novella that takes place on the same world as Elantris. This one is available on Audible, but it's too short to be worth a $15 credit. Buy the eBook version of this one, it's not that long of a read.

  • Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell*
  • Sixth of the Dusk*

    Sixth of the Dusk is the cosmere novel/novella/story that I haven't read, so maybe it should be higher up on the list (I don't know enough to say one way or the other)

* #6 and #7 are novellas. Buy the eBooks for these from the store on Brandon's website. Novellas are short (i.e. not long enough to justify the cost of a credit) and I don't think that these two are even available on Audible.com.

The reason I recommend that you read Elantris and the novellas last is because by the time you finish Words of Radiance, Sanderson will be unable to do any wrong in your eyes. You'll be hungry for any additional stories and/or information about the Cosmere; as a result, the lower quality of relatively weaker novels (i.e. Elantris) and the novellas won't bother you. Also, if you're like me, you will be much more lenient on Brandon's first book after reading his better stuff.

 

Reading the weakest story last will keep you from losing patience before you make it to the really good stuff.

Also, as you go, look out for appearances of a character named Hoid. He shows up in a lot of Sanderson's novels, but we don't know exactly why he pops up all over the place or what he is doing just yet. There are some good theories about him on these forums, but I would advise you to wait until you have finished #1 - #4 to read those (the Hoid theories might will spoil things for you if you read them too soon).

Also, don't skip out on the Ars Arcanum sections at the end of the books, even though I know they are tough to listen to on audio. So, after you have listened to them, I recommend that you take a peak at a hard copy the next time you darken the door of a library or bookstore. That is especially true of the Stormlight archive books; they have a lot of illustrations that you would miss if you never looked at a hardcopy.

Edited by KidWayne
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Wow! Thanks for all of the insight! I will preface this by saying I drive about 20 hours per week for work, so I tend to lean towards the audio versions. So I read the descriptions of Elantris and Warbreaker and I still wasn't sure which to go after next since they sound very similar yet totally opposite. Seeing that there is extra content in the anniversary version of Elantris I figured I would read that one and get the Audible for Warbreaker. Then I saw that the digital PDF version of Warbreaker was free, but if I want the audible version it's $36 (or a credit). So my plan was to try and read Warbreaker next and listen to Elantris, but I don't want to miss the extra content. So I decided I would just get whichever one was read by Michael Kramer, he does each voice so distinctly that I don't even need the book to tell me who is speaking to recognize who it is, even if the character hasn't been used for chapters, and he conveys the emotions really well... but of course neither of those books are read by him. Then I thought I'd go by Amazon rating... Both 4.5 stars. Why is this so difficult? Well I have another week before I am done with my current audible so I think I'll start reading Warbreaker online and go from there. Thanks again for the suggestions!!

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On the Elantris/Warbreaker arguement, I bouht a bunch of Brandon books in backlog, so I sadly won't get 10th anniversary Elantris (yet) but I definately think that Elantris is a good choice. I am inclined to suggest the Stormlight Archive though, as it is my personal favorite series from the Cosmere. I don't know if you want to approach such a long book right off the bat, but I think it's worth the time.

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I just finished the mistborn series (thanks to audible and long commutes to work) and the 2 Wax books, but now I don't know what to read next while waiting for the 3rd W&W book in January. I didn't realize there was a realm of books in this same universe and I'm not sure which one I should go to next. Any suggestions?

I read Mistborn & Wax and Wayne first too. I would suggest just going off release dates of each book. Read earliest first. Then do Stormlight. Save the best thing Ive ever read for last I say. Because you will just read them over and over again. I just finished White Sands. Which you will probably read when he ACTUALLY releases it. But really just read all of the series (like Stormlight, Mistborn, W&W) in order (like how you read The Final Empire, WoA, and HoA), and you will be 100% fine.

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'Also, as you go, look out for appearances of a character named Hoid. He shows up in a lot of Sanderson's novels, but we don't know exactly why he pops up all over the place or what he is doing just yet.'

Cant believe you spoiled Hoid for em. Tht is what sucked me into Sandersons books, discovering Hoid. Just sayin, not cool.

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I would recommend Elantris then Warbreaker. Because Warbreaker is great to read right before Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, for reasons that I would hope are obvious to many.

 

Nonetheless, you started with the series that I always recommend first, so you're off to a great start. I'm jealous of you though, because I would love to read these books with a fresh take again! Granted, doing my re-reads I always find something new that I missed previously. 

Edited by Titan Arum
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Titan Arum you said --


I would recommend Elantris then Warbreaker. Because Warbreaker is great to read right before Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, for reasons that I would hope are obvious to many.


 

Uh oh -- It's not obvious to me and I've read Elantris, Warbreaker and the two Stormlight books!

So far, I haven't been very good at putting all these worlds together. What connection did I miss between Warbreaker and WoK/WoR?
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Titan Arum you said --

I would recommend Elantris then Warbreaker. Because Warbreaker is great to read right before Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, for reasons that I would hope are obvious to many.

 
Uh oh -- It's not obvious to me and I've read Elantris, Warbreaker and the two Stormlight books!
So far, I haven't been very good at putting all these worlds together. What connection did I miss between Warbreaker and WoK/WoR?

 

 

WoR spoilers: 

 

At the tail end of WoR, when Nin/Nalan gives Szeth his new blade, the sword speaks into his mind, saying "Hello. Would you like to destroy some evil today?" That's Nightblood's standard greeting. Anyone who hasn't read Warbreaker before WoR would assume that's just what all Honorblades do, but readers who did sort of lost their minds, since it means Great Noodly One Nightblood is a freaking Worldhopper what is even happening here.

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Please tread lightly here... I haven't read those yet so thank you for using the spoiler mask so I can't read it (Altho it did show up in my email, but I deleted it when I read the word spoiler).

Not sure if this is a spoiler at all below since i don't know of any of the other books, but I'll put this as a slight warning...

I really want to know who this Trell God is tho... Unless he's in the other books, then I don't want to know... Yet.

Also was on the lookout for Hoid... I remember Vin was looking for him and ran away in the last book, I must have missed him in the Wax books tho...

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Also was on the lookout for Hoid... I remember Vin was looking for him and ran away in the last book, I must have missed him in the Wax books tho...

 

Finding Hoid in Shadows of Self is pretty straightforward since someone calls him by name. In Alloy of Law we have Brandon's word that he's this guy:

 

The bride and groom arrived, and people rose to clap. Lord Joshin and Lady Mi’chelle; Waxillium didn’t know them, though he did wonder why they were speaking with a scruffy man who looked like a beggar, dressed all in black.

Edited by skaa
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So I decided to use the flow chart that TheYoungBard provided (I like flow charts) and it says that Warbreaker is suggested before Words of Radiance, and Words of Radiance is needed before The Way of Kings, and Elantris is suggested before The Way of Kings... so Elantris it is!

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  • 2 months later...

So I now have the following books under my belt (in order of how I read them, which I think was good):
Mistborn series
Wax & Wayne (haven't started Bands yet)
Elantris
Emperors Soul
Warbreaker
Stormlight

Next I plan to read Bands, then I picked up Shadows for Silence. Any suggestions where to go from here?

Stormlight and Warbreaker spoilers



I was a little upset about people suggesting war breaker before storm light. So I caught Hoid in warbreaker telling the story, but I didn't really get who he was, then after reading most of the storm light archives I was like ok, now I am understanding Wit err Hoid... I really wished I had read those first so I would have known who he was when reading war breaker.... But then the end of storm light came and night blood appears... Took everything back, glad I read it in that order! I really want to know how they travel between worlds, hope that's addressed in Nightblood

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