-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Brandon Sanderson - The Cosmere |OT| there's always another secret...
- Thread starter ExMachina
- Start date
spleenpoker
Member
Hey everyone, quick question.
I was just browsing the net to see which book I should start with as a first time Brandon Sanderson reader and I found a blog which recommended a few of the books to start with.
This is what they had to say about the premise of Mistborn.
Potential Mistborn spoilers follow.
Is that a spoiler for the book? I didn't see anywhere online in the synopsis about
Now I'm scared I've ruined the twist.
Thanks.
I was just browsing the net to see which book I should start with as a first time Brandon Sanderson reader and I found a blog which recommended a few of the books to start with.
This is what they had to say about the premise of Mistborn.
Potential Mistborn spoilers follow.
Hundreds of years ago, the Hero of Ages destroyed the eldritch Deepness, saving the world and gaining godlike power. However, our Frodo became Sauron, becoming the god-king Lord Ruler that has enslaved the world for millennia. He rules with an iron fist
Is that a spoiler for the book? I didn't see anywhere online in the synopsis about
the bad guy being the hero previously.
I think I remember seeing the opening chapter mention something about a Hero of Ages, when I had a sneak peek at the book previously. I hear a common thing with Sanderson books is the opening chapter has a lot of hidden meaning which then makes sense after reading the book
I think I remember seeing the opening chapter mention something about a Hero of Ages, when I had a sneak peek at the book previously. I hear a common thing with Sanderson books is the opening chapter has a lot of hidden meaning which then makes sense after reading the book
Now I'm scared I've ruined the twist.
Thanks.
Tor.com should have you covered. I forget where exactly they are in terms of his work. Think they are on Warbreaker but pretty sure they've covered the first two books in the Stormlight Archive series already.
that's what I thought when I started, but before I knew it I'd already finished the entire Cosmere bibliography!
elshoelace
Member
That isn't really a spoiler. That is just more or less the starting premise for the world and it goes from there. Just checked and the back of my book says pretty much what you just wrote out, so don't worry about it and enjoy the series!
I almost feel like it's a spoiler if I tell you it's not a spoiler
don't read too much into this :lol
seriously though, it's not a spoiler. plenty of twists and turns yet to come.
TheMissingLink
Member
Waiting till November here....want to sit down with the physical version and ENGULF myself.
Y'all have fun, tho! Guess I'm outta this thread until then!
Y'all have fun, tho! Guess I'm outta this thread until then!
JustAnotherMike
Member
You haven't ruined anything. Mistborn was my first Sanderson book as well. I had it described to me as a supernatural heist story, which it is.
Strap in and enjoy.
spleenpoker
Member
Haha, thanks everyone for the replies. Just needed my fears alleviated. Going to get started with the book this weekend. Going to give the standalones a try too, before I hit the magnum opus!
Imp the Dimp
Member
Final Empire? It's one of his best books. It's so good.
Spectromixer
Member
Meanwhile I haven't started WoR yet :/
Aaronrules380
Member
Just read the edgedancer novella in arcanum unbounded. This feels really fucking significant to the overall story of the stormlight archives all things considered
that and mistborn secret history are so interesting in the context of their overarching stories. in fact they both even have crossovers with other Cosmere worlds!
What's holding you back? It's sooooooooooo good.
Spectromixer
Member
Fnishing through some other books. Just finished the TWoK in June.
I'm very jealous of you. I'm going to start my re-reads soon.
I don't disagree with you. There's a lot in there that I'm somewhat surprised was left to a side-story novella. And not just for the title character.
Aaronrules380
Member
I mean I'd definitely argue the stuff that goes on with Nalan is even more central and important to the Stormlight Archive's ongoing story than the stuff with Lift, even if she will clearly be more important going forward
Dolla Dolla
Member
Is the second Mistborn trilogy required reading for the Cosmere universe? I started reading the first one, Alloy of Law, and it didn't draw me in like The Final Empire.
Jest Chillin
Member
The novella's have a lot of important aspects.
Edgedancer is a standout, though. The next closest is Secret History: and while it rivals Edgedancer in terms of plot importance, the way it was published was significantly different. SH follows up on events in a series published years before with implications of what will come sometime in the future for Mistborn and perhaps the Cosmere at large. Edgedancer continues events in the middle of an ongoing series that has really only just begun. We are only now getting to the middle of the first sequence of five, and I can't imagine going in to Oathbringer without having read Edgdancer. It literally feels like Stormlight 2.5 to me, and that's what sets it apart.
Jest Chillin
Member
Sixth of the Dusk carries a lot of importance as well, I feel. There's a lot of implications there. I have no doubt that The Emperor's Soul will turn out to be important too.
The thing is, the novella's often serve to flesh out lesser known areas that reside within existing mainline series and they all foreshadow quite a bit.
captjohnboyd
Member
Finished WoK a while back then immediately got started on WoR but sort of stopped half way through because of life. Started back up again last night and am loving it but I've been reading some posts on here that say to read Warbreaker before WoR and I'm curious if I should stop WoR and start WB or if it's fine to continue on?
Jest Chillin
Member
For most of the books, there's no definitive reading order aside from reading in order while within a series. There's a couple of exceptions now though.
Mistborn reading order:
The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
The Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
The Bands of Mourning
Secret History (Novella)
The Lost Metal (not yet released final book in the second series)
Stormlight Archive reading order:
The Way Of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (novella, included in Arcanum Unbounded collection)
Oathbringer (not yet released, coming out in Nov of this year)
To Cosmere newcomers I would suggest reading everything else before starting Stormlight. Note this is just my advice and it's far from vital, but these are my reasons:
1) Stormlight is the newest series, and also the most expansive. The other books might be a bit of a letdown if you jump into those after.
2) Stormlight draws a great deal from Cosmere lore throughout, and you might not recognize when it's doing so if you haven't read the other books already. More importantly, though, it would be useful to get an understanding of what this universe is all about before starting the series which looks like it will ultimately affect things everywhere down the road. It's kind of like all the other series (so far) have been building up to the events of Stormlight.
3) Stormlight has a number of crossovers with other books (most notably Warbreaker, but also others to a lesser extent... so far).
Apart from that, I recommend reading Elantris before Mistborn Secret History (I didn't do this, but in retrospect I wish I had)
1) Stormlight is the newest series, and also the most expansive. The other books might be a bit of a letdown if you jump into those after.
2) Stormlight draws a great deal from Cosmere lore throughout, and you might not recognize when it's doing so if you haven't read the other books already. More importantly, though, it would be useful to get an understanding of what this universe is all about before starting the series which looks like it will ultimately affect things everywhere down the road. It's kind of like all the other series (so far) have been building up to the events of Stormlight.
3) Stormlight has a number of crossovers with other books (most notably Warbreaker, but also others to a lesser extent... so far).
Apart from that, I recommend reading Elantris before Mistborn Secret History (I didn't do this, but in retrospect I wish I had)
captjohnboyd
Member
Okay where does warbreaker and elantris fall in the "order" of reading? The post above yours doesn't have them listed at all
should I stop reading WoR and start mistborn or something else for the "full effect"? It doesn't bother me to start on something else if it makes for a better experience with WoR. I do have to admit until almost the very end of WoK I was sort of lost since he throws you in the deep end with magic, history and spren (me at the start of the book "wtf is a spren?! Is anyone ever going to tell me?!")I'm reading Stormlight Archives as my first Sanderson series, and I don't really see myself going to read his other stuff. I know I'm missing out on some details, but everyone seems to agree that Stormlight is his best work and I'm not really interested in anything he's written that's below this quality.
*Shrug*
I think his prose isn't very good and I wouldn't enjoy SA if it wasn't as good as it is in other respects. In fact, it took very special circumstances for me to enjoy even SA, because I actually dropped it halfway through WoK's the first time I read it because of his lame prose. I might give his other stuff a shot eventually, but if my enjoyment of his best stuff is that conditional, I can't see myself dealing with his lesser stuff well.
Besides, I have like 200 other books to read in my queue, so I'm good on reading material.
That's actually precisely what the special circumstances were that allowed me to enjoy SA were. Reading the Wheel of Time novels were what let me get passed the issue.
I just don't feel like extending that to his entire body of work.
Okay where does warbreaker and elantris fall in the "order" of reading? The post above yours doesn't have them listed at all
Since you've already started WoR I'd just run with it. Even though you might not get the Warbreaker thing, if you go back and read it after you'll recognize it there and still have that aha! moment.
There is also a very minor reference to the 6th Mistborn book in WoR but again you can just get that recognition when you read Mistborn later on.
So all in all I would just say finish WoR, then go back and read Warbreaker, then Elantris, then the 6 Mistborn novels, then the Mistborn novella, then all the other stuff in Arcanum Unbounded, including Edgedancer.
Or you know, do whatever. Lol.
Jest Chillin
Member
Okay where does warbreaker and elantris fall in the "order" of reading? The post above yours doesn't have them listed at all
There isn't an order. I'm not wrong in that. And the Cosmere itself crosses over in several ways but almost none of them actually matter in terms of enjoying the books or understanding the story. The times where it does matter are the ones that I mentioned in my previous post.
The vast majority of the crossover amount to basically easter eggs. It's things that a lot of people miss even if they have read the other books already. This is absolutely true of "warbreaker before words of radiance" and "elantris before secret history." Easter egg type things that most people don't notice even when they had read the books in that order.
Jordan's prose in general is better than Sanderson's. I mean, sure, he went overboard sometimes, but at his best, it was really great. Very descriptive, in good way.
I have very good imagination, and this is one reason i love The Wheel of Time a lot, its prose allowed me to conjure far more accurate images than usually.
Sanderson's style is certainly influenced by WoT, but is markedly different.
I'mma....gonna respectfully disagree with you on that.
Poodlestrike
Banned
This.
Also this.
Neither Sanderson nor Jordan are exactly what I'd call brilliant wordsmiths, but Jordan is below even Sanderson.
Sanderson is who you go to if you want really, truly epic fantasy worldbuilding and really great mass action scenes.
captjohnboyd
Member
Thanks for all the insights to everyone that responded. Seems the cross overs are more fun than essential which is exactly the info I was looking for. I'll pick up the rest of his books soon as I'm don't with WoR
Poodlestrike
Banned
It is worth noting that there is... one, call it two exceptions. You'll want to read Warbreaker right after Words of Radiance. Before, for preference, but you're already waist deep in it.
StrangeADT
Banned
I appreciate the plots in Sanderson books but he has a tendency to take certain ideas and repeat them a lot. IE Sazeds religious turmoil, kaladins depression, vin and elends insecurities etc. It's quite grating and I am fairly certain at least 10% of every single book he writes could be ripped out and they'd be better for it. Definitely a lot of padding. Also the ending of HoA was extremely disappointing for me.
Just ugh. Also the Mormon/American morality where splitting someone's head in half is apparently less grotesque than sexual relations is definitely in full force.
Don't get me wrong. I still enjoy the books, but there are definite flaws and they won't be in my list of favourites.
Especially the bit of "logic" about faith that Sazed vomits out.
Don't get me wrong. I still enjoy the books, but there are definite flaws and they won't be in my list of favourites.
captjohnboyd
Member
Is he a Mormon?
Poodlestrike
Banned
Oh, yeah. There were actually some uncomfortable implications around the Shardbearers because of it, the Lighteyes stuff is sorta reminiscent of some fringe Mormon doctrines about black people if you squint at it. Probably nothing. Hopefully.
And of course the sex stuff is like right there.
captjohnboyd
Member
Ugh. I basically dropped Orson Scott Card completely bc of some of the shit he's spewed over the years I'd hate to see any of Brandon's faith seep into what's an otherwise fun little universe. Don't get me wrong I dont have a problem with someone practicing whatever faith they choose I just don't want to be lectured when I'm reading and looking to escape stuff like that. Particularly lately
Similar threads
- Locked