[OB] Recommended books

[Palindrome]

I was originally a WOT fan introduced to him through him taking up Robert Jordan series after his death. I chose to read the stormlight archive after tWOT ended to see what he was about.  I have since replaced WOT with stormlight as my favorite series.  However, it takes years between books and has become abundantly clear that the cosmere has much more to offer than just stormlight. If I were to choose another cosmere based series to get an understanding of it better, which would you recommend. 

[Guest]

Mistborn. And after that, just read everything that is available.

Edited January 25, 2018 by SLNC

[CrazyRioter she/her]

Definitely the Mistborn series (read the secret history novella last).

And then everything else. It's all good stuff.

[Govir]

There are a few routes you can go. First, I'll break them down by "series", and then tell you my recommendation.

• Elantris
  • Elantris - Brandon's first published Cosmere book. It's good, but rough around the edges.
  • The Hope of Elantris* - Short story set slightly after Elantris (i.e. read Elantris first)
  • The Emperor's Soul* - a Novella set on the same world as Elantris, technically stand alone but probably safer to read Elantris first just in case.
• Mistborn
  • Era 1
    • The Final Empire (sometimes called just Mistborn) - Book 1
    • The Well of Ascension - Book 2
    • The Hero of Ages - Book 3
    • The Eleventh Metal* - Short story with some background on one of the characters. Safe to read at any point, but personal preference of after The Hero of Ages..
    • Mistborn Secret History* - Technically part of Era 1, but most people suggest reading this after Bands of Mourning from Era 2.
  • Era 2
    • The Alloy of Law - Book 0 (originally written as a "standalone", but he's evolved it into a full trilogy, two of which have have been published)
    • Shadows of Self - Book 1
    • The Bands of Mourning - Book 2
    • Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania* - short story that takes place in Era 2, but doesn't have any of the main characters. Safe to read anytime after The Hero of Ages (from Era 1), but probably best read after The Alloy of Law.
• Warbreaker
  • Warbreaker - Currently a standalone book, with a sequel planned.
• White Sand
  • White Sand Vol. 1 - Volume 1 of a three part Graphic Novel. 
• Misc
  • Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell* - Stand-alone novella
  • Sixth of Dusk* - Stand-alone novella

Titles marked with an asterisk can all be found in Arcanum Unbounded, as well as stand alone elsewhere. I'd suggest picking them up in Arcanum Unbounded though, as it also has extra stuff about each system (however, I'd also suggest reading the stories before reading the notes about the systems).

So that's all of the non-Stormlight Archive Cosmere books. You have said that you've read Stormlight Archive, I'm going to assume that means The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer*, and Oathbringer. If you haven't read Edgedancer, you probably should (and parts of Oathbringer may not have made sense to you).

Because you've read SA, I would suggest the next read to be Warbreaker. It's directly tied to the Stormlight Archive, although it has a completely different story. It's also available free form his website.

After that, you can start any of the series with their respective first book. My favorite would be Mistborn, but honestly you can't go wrong here (since you're already hooked to Sanderson :)). So that means Elantris, The Final Empire, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, or Sixth of Dusk.

An important caveat: Stormlight Archive is so far the most Cosmere "aware" setting (i.e. it has the most talk of how the Cosmere works). The other books will have hints, but not much solid new information. Mistborn Era 2 would probably be the next most informative about the Cosmere. A lot of the online knowledge about the Cosmere has been pieced together by speculation and asking Sanderson directly (known as Words of Brandon, or WoB).

You may note that I exclude White Sand Vol. 1. I do this mostly because it's not finished, and probably won't be for at least another year. Vol. 2 should be coming out soon, but Vol. 3 (which is the end of the first story) doesn't have a publish date that I know of. It's something that you can get around to eventually after reading the rest of the books.

[Alderant she/her]

Mistborn is a must. 

Then Warbreaker, so you understand who Azure, Zahel, and Nightblood are.

 —————

Alternatively, I will recommend some non-Brandon or non-Cosmere books that are also excellent reads, even though its unrelated to your question:

The Reckoners, by Brandon Sanderson

The Licanius trilogy (only books 1 & 2 are out), by James Islington

The Partials series, by Dan Wells

The Michael Vey series, by Richard Paul Evans. 

The John Cleaver series, by Dan Wells

[Kered he/him]

I highly recommend that you read the first trilogy of Mistborn, then read Arcanum Unbounded. The first novella you should read in AU is Secret History. Not just for the important info you get about the overall Mistborn series, but also because so far Secret History has given the most in way of cosmere wide knowledge and mechanics. A sizable chunk of the fandom's general understanding of the cosmere came from that novella. Then read Elantris. followed by Emperor's Soul. After that, you should have a decent understanding of the "hidden" epic side of the cosmere. 

 

Non Brandon Sanderson recommendations

• Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin. Arguably the best representation of gods and their power in any fantasy series. The first book is very good, the second kind of falls back a little bit, but the third book is by far the best one in the series. Also, NK Jemisin's rhythm of writing is very unique and gripping. 
• Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks. 4 books of 5 are out. Solid epic fantasy that has a great humor element, one of my top favorite magic systems, and awesome character development.
• Broken Earth Trilogy also by NK Jemisin. The books in this series have won literally almost every award out their for the fantasy genre, including a Hugo. The first book Fifth Season has a style of writing not seen before. The overall plot of the story is unique and very dynamic. 
• Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. First book in a trilogy and it is for sure the most hilarious fantasy book I've read. It has all kinds of humor, but it does a good job of balancing with the actual story of the book. It's about a retired merc band that was once seen as heroic and the bravest band to ever live. About 20 years pass on the members of the band are old but are dragged into one last mission. Hilarity ensues because of them being rusty and just stumbling through problems and dangers. Really great book, also decently short. 
• Shattered Series by Joe Ambercormbie. A grimdark series set in a world of common fanatasy world in medieval era with kings, knights, swords, etc. Until you learn that it's actually a world that is thousands of years removed from a nuclear apocalypse, which was so severe that it sent the world back to the stone age. Now the people of the world know the ruins of the old world as Elves and Elvin magic. Kind of a brutal series but has many great fighting scenes. 
• Shadow of the Raven trilogy by Anthony Ryan. A very, very brutal and dark fantasy series, more brutal than aSoIaF or the First Law trilogy. But also very good in it's storytelling and world building.

Hoped that helped!

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine he/him]

Of course any Sanderson books that you haven't read are great ones to read.

If you like the philosophical implications of the Cosmere and are OK with some sometimes mature content I would recommend Philip K. Dick. His short stories are pretty safe from a content standpoint and are the basis for probably 1/16 of the good sci-fi movies that you've seen (minority report, total recall, the terminator series). That's a decent place to start. But if you are interested in descending into another internally consistent bizarre alternate reality I would suggest reading the following books in the following order:

1. The shifting realities of Philip K. Dick- collection of essays, letters and speeches that give you a broad understanding of his thinking and the significance of the events of 2-3-74, a 2 month period of Divine revelation that set him on course to write some of the most profound and amazing books ever written.
2. Flow my tears, the Policeman said**-This one definitely has some mature content, but it is a very interesting exploration of Identity, Power, and Subjective states of reality.
3. Ubik-probably the best book written on simulated reality ever. The great antipode of the creator, the active destroyer shows up in this book, but reality can be re-affixed by spraying a can of aerosolized Ubik. Freaking awesome.
4. Through the Scanner Darkly*- The story of an undercover drug agent whose dual life leads to a functional division in his identity. This book starts off kind of slowly but it seriously one of the most profound books you'll read outside of a 300 level college philosophy class. So good.
5. Valis*-This is at the end of the novel chain of books to read because, quite frankly, I have yet to read the 2nd 2 books in the Valis Trilogy. This is a fictionalized autobiographical novel about how Horse lover Fats received Divine Revelation in the form of a pink laser beam of Light that was beamed directly into his brain from a pan-galactic intelligence known as Valis. This is about as far down the rabbit hole as you can go and still be onboard, but it's an incredible ride.

If after finishing the above you want to go deeper, you can get Philip K. Dick's Exegesis which is basically a Meta-text about his other writings and includes long stream of consciousness thought dumps that read like Blaise Pascal's Pences written in the throes of some kind of psychotropic substance.

NOTE-The asterisks in the above list connote mature content, a single asterisk connotes mildly explicit sexual content and/or drug use. A double asterisk connotes somewhat more explicit sexual content and mild drug use (only applies to one book, but it's fun to use the word connotes)

Edited January 26, 2018 by hoiditthroughthegrapevine

[Wandering Investor]

Mostly what other people have put. Mistborn Era 1 (books 1-3), then all the standalones (Elantris, Warbreaker, Emperor's soul, etc), then finish off all that remains. Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Secret History, and the Arcanum Unbounded are the mostly likely to inform you about the greater cosmere.

[Alderant she/her]

21 hours ago, Govir said:

After that, you can start any of the series with their respective first book. My favorite would be Mistborn, but honestly you can't go wrong here (since you're already hooked to Sanderson :)). So that means Elantris, The Final Empire, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, or Sixth of Dusk.

Should probably point out that the only "series" in this list is Mistborn (the Final Empire). Elantris has an offshoot novella totally unrelated to it (but taking place in the same world) titled "The Emperor's Soul". Shadows and Sixth are both standalone novellas. Wouldn't want you to get your hopes up starting one of these only to have them dashed when you finally discover that they are the only ones in their respective worlds thus far.

[mosstheinflatablecow]

I'm going to go against the grain a bit and suggest that you read Warbreaker first, then the first Mistborn trilogy. Generally speaking, I think most people (myself included) recommend Mistborn as the introductory cosmere series, but you've already been introduced by SA and Warbreaker is more directly relevant to SA than Mistborn, at this point. So I would read Warbreaker, then Mistborn trilogy 1, then the Mistborn Secret histories (next to Warbreaker, this will give you the most relevant info to SA, but has huge spoilers for the original series), then go at the rest in whatever order you want. 

[CrazyRioter she/her]

M:SH also contains Era 2 spoilers so it should be read after Era 2.

[StormingTexan he/him]

I also agree that I would recommend reading Warbreaker next because of the SA tie in while everything is fresh in your mind.

[Wandering Investor]

I would argue that the knowledge of..... certain entities... and their perspectives that is gained from mistborn is more enlightening. There are more ties between Warbreaker and SA, but mistborn is more relevent in terms of understanding the struggle on Roshar.

[Subvisual Haze]

If you only read one other work of Brandon's I can't recommend The Emperor's Soul enough.  It does give you a little understanding of the "3 realms" underlying the magic of the cosmere, but mostly it's just a perfectly succinct and emotionally moving short story.  It's short, fast paced, exciting, has two wonderful main characters who banter brilliantly with one another and made me want to tear up at multiple points.  

Mistborn series is great and epic in scope like the Stormlight Archives and will help you understand the "bigger picture" of the cosmere and shards.  It also has an amazingly fun and intuitive magic system that kind of puts Roshar's to shame.  Mistborn Era 2 is a light hearted comedic romp followup that is pure enjoyment to read.

Warbreaker gives you background on a couple characters that appear in Stormlight Archive.  Mostly it's a self contained story featuring a surprisingly sweet love story.

Elantris...is a little rough.  Not a bad book by any means, but as his first published book it really shows (to me) how much Brandon has improved as writer.  Still has the suitable epic avalanche ending you love in a Sanderson book, just more rocky to reach that point.

[Palindrome]

So the consensus is I think, warbreaker first, then Mistborn. After that read all of the Sanderson books.