Entering a new fantasy world is daunting for any reader. Whenever you tell me there are ten+ books and the writer still has more to come, I pause. It’s easy to see why I have perhaps avoided Sanderson’s Cosmere for quite some time. These days I tend to read more fantasy than anything else, which might be a personal fad as my reading up until a few years ago was always oriented around Sci-Fi. Don’t get me wrong, I still read plenty of fantasy. A Song of Ice and Fire had a place in my heart before the show ever came out. The Lord of the Rings is a foundational work in both my heart and mind, and I still believe that the Kingkiller Chronicles represents some of the best modern speculative writing I have ever had the pleasure to read.

If you had tried to get me to read books in the Cosmere universe a few years ago, I would have been polite, but I don’t think I would have headed to the bookstore anytime soon. If you have looked at the books I’ve been reading you’ll notice a lot of Cosmere in there. Next week, I will likely add one more to the list as well. I’ve read just enough of the Cosmere that I want to talk about it, but not enough to be any sort of an expert. So if I misspeak when it comes to one of your favorite fantasy universes, please forgive me, and if the Cosmere is not in your pantheon of must-read fantasy yet, maybe the words of this Cosmere novice will help you.

In reflecting on my journey through the Cosmere thus far, it started in a way that I am not proud of. I got sucked up into the “Year of Sanderson” with his all too famous record-breaking Kickstarter (he just had another, this time on BackerKit if you haven’t been paying attention). There was suddenly so much attention on this author that I only really knew of as that guy who writes a billion fantasy novels and helped finish The Wheel of Time. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and taking some of the Internet’s always-trusted advice, I started with Mistborn. That trilogy hooked me hard with an interesting cast of characters, a magic system unlike any I had ever seen on paper, and a compelling world.

I Read:

• The Final Empire
• The Well of Ascension
• The Hero of Ages

With that trilogy down and some money spent on the Kickstarter (well-spent I might add, the secret novels were beautiful and worth the price of admission), I was ready to keep going. I loved the idea of a time jump in fantasy. It’s been done before, but jumping ahead to a time period like the 1920’s with many of the world’s religions having been built around the events that took place in the first trilogy wasn’t just cool, it was a window into how the Cosmere works. You can read any book or any series set in the Cosmere in any order you want so long as you respect any series it might belong to. The Wax and Wayne quartet (or at least the first three books) reads well even without the context of Mistborn, but with that added context you have a richer experience. It’s the same with something like the new Fallout show—which I am also loving but trying not to binge. My wife loves it too, but I think I’m having a different experience because the Fallout games had been such a big part of my life at one point in time.

I Read:

• Alloy of Law
• Shadows of Self
• Bands of Mourning

The observant among you have likely noticed that the last book of the quartet is missing from my list. Wax and Wayne wasn’t as strong as Mistborn for me, a sentiment I think I share with many, but that definitely wasn’t the reason I stopped. I wanted to dive into some of his other worlds. I started paying more attention to recommended reading orders. I wanted to know more about this Cosmere and not just this one sliver of it. I started my exploration with Tress of the Emerald Sea (going against reading orders in favor of reading this new book I just got), and then I read Elantris, The Hope of Elantris, and a few other non-Cosmere works like The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England. Finally, there was The Way of Kings.

I Read:

• Tress of the Emerald Sea
• Elantris
• The Hope of Elantris
• The Way of Kings
• The Emperor’s Soul
• Warbreaker
• Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell
• Secret History

Feel free to criticize my reading order, but I will defend it. Not because I think it’s the right way, but because it’s a way, and that’s good enough. Unlike Discworld (which is a beautiful tangled mess in its own right) the Cosmere may all take place in the same universe, but many of these characters will never meet each other. Their decisions will have little bearing on each other. Their magics are different, their enemies are different, and their legends are different but very occasionally, they might share an acquaintance. Very occasionally, you will see something in one world that ties right into something from another. And very occasionally something in your mind will click into place, like a puzzle you didn’t even know you were working on. The more you look, the more you see the hidden gears that run the Cosmere and work toward making these worlds, these magic systems, and these characters. That’s why the Cosmere is beautiful. That’s why I am excited to dig into Words of Radiance next week. And that’s why I am taking my time in the Cosmere and I’m loving it.

Quote of the Moment:

“Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. Repeat the ancient oath and give to men the shards they once bore. The Knights Radiant must stand again.”

—Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

Current Reads:

Shakespeare’s Planet by Clifford D. Simak
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury