Explain Cosmere Please !!

[FlameSkull]

Im having difficulty understanding Cosmere. There are so many details and its so huge. I want to enjoy Brandon Sanderson's work to full potential and as I have seen,  Cosmere is a huge part of it. Please explain me cosmere in simple language

Who is Andolasium? and Odium ? and Hoid? Want to understand everything 

Ive only read the First Mistborn Trilogy and first two books of SA

[Samaldin he/him]

Well the Cosmere is a pretty big thing to explain in simple words, i believe the best way to understand it would be to read all books which are set in the Cosmere and then to go on an extensice stroll through the coppermind wiki.

As for the questions you asked:
Adonalsium is/was the original God of the cosmere and we don´t really know all that much about him (we don´t even know if he was a being or just a force) but he created the first humans on a planet called Yolen and maybe some others (can´t remember right now). Adonalsium was later shattered (i´m not going to say how because that´s one of the most fun things to find out^^) and his power splintered into 16 so called Shards (this Event is called The Shattering) which were picked up by people who became something like fractual Gods who started to call themself after their Shards (like Ruin, Preservation, Honor, Cultivation, Odium, etc we haven´t met all of them yet). The Shards went to other planets and "work" there as Gods, but for Odium that isn´t enough, he goes around and wants to shatter the other Shards

As for Hoid: There are people who can travel between worlds, you´ve met some of them in SA but it can be difficult to find them and is probably impossible if you haven´t read the books in which they first appear. The one exception is Hoid he has a cameo or at least a mention in every cosmere book (In SA you have met him as Wit). We know actually a good deal about him, but he is still one of the most mysterious beings in the Cosmere. For example he was around at the Shattering which was some thousand years ago, also he has a personal connection to some if not all of the original Shardholders, he himself doesn´t have ashard, etc

Hope this helps and i really advise you to read the rest of the books and the coppermind

[FlameSkull]

Thankyou!! 

Is there any paticular order to read the cosmere books ?

 

[Samaldin he/him]

You can more or less read them in any order, except maybe for one exception but that is to read Warbreaker before Words of Radiance, so it´s already to late for you (it helps identifying 2 Worldhoppers in WoR but is not important for the story)
If you want to gain a lot of information about the Cosmere you should read Mistborn: Secret History, but it has minor spoilers for Bands of Mourning so maybe you want to read Mistborn Era 2 first

[Stark he/him]

Brandon is intentionally writing them so that each series is self contained.  You do not need to read the series in any particular order to get the full benefit of each.  Hints of the greater Cosmere are liberally sprinkled throughout, hidden for you to find.  Chances are you'll want to read them all, then re-read at least once to find the hidden bits from other worlds.

 

But you will not lose anything by reading the various series in different orders.

 

One thing worth mentioning about the 16 Shards, they are each named for an intent that was part of Adonalsium, as @Samaldin mentioned, but it is more than a name.  They are guided and must act according to that intent.  You will have seen this in action in the first Mistborn trilogy, and to varying degrees elsewhere.

[Jofwu he/him]

Check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmere/wiki/overview

[FlameSkull]

Thankyou everyone !!

Ive started Alloy Of Law right now and will read the latest two that came out this year

 

[Thunder_93]

Just like everyone else was writting, just reading all the cosmere-books is alreadya great help, and some thing you might find out by yourself. 

If you don't find something, don't worry, hints are sometimes really hard to get. But then I can recommend the coppermind, as it's like a Sanderson-Wiki, where you can read all that stuff up.

But for Adonalsium's sake, please don't go there and read everything up before you read the actual book. I always first read the book, and if I'm interested in something special, I might go look it up there. It helped me to understand a little better what a Shard is, what Adonalsium is, and so on.

 

And last but not least: You didn't mentioned it anywhere, so I'll just tell you: Dont forget to read Elantris! It's also Cosmere, just in case you didn't know.