Elantris

2005

Ten years ago, the city of Elantris was the seat of immortal beings whose magic could heal, feed, and transform. Then the Shaod - the blessing that turned ordinary people into radiant Elantrians - became a curse. Now the city's inhabitants are trapped in decaying bodies that neither heal nor die, and the once-glorious capital is a ruin sealed behind high walls. Prince Raoden of Arelon is taken by the Shaod and thrown into Elantris, where he refuses to surrender to despair. Outside the walls, Princess Sarene of Teod arrives for a political marriage only to discover her betrothed is officially dead - and that the kingdom is far more fragile than anyone admits. Meanwhile, the high priest Hrathen has been given ninety days to convert Arelon to the Fjordell empire's religion, or the empire will destroy it by force. Brandon Sanderson's debut novel, a standalone epic fantasy driven by three converging viewpoints and a mystery at the heart of a broken magic system.

The Final Empire

Mistborn Era 1

2006

The first novel in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, set in a world where ash falls from the sky, the sun is red, and the seemingly immortal Lord Ruler has reigned for a thousand years. Among the oppressed skaa, a half-breed street urchin named Vin discovers she possesses Allomancy - the ability to burn metals for extraordinary powers. Recruited by the charismatic Kelsier, the only man to survive the Lord Ruler's most brutal prison, Vin joins an audacious crew of Allomancers planning the ultimate heist: the overthrow of the Final Empire itself. What begins as an elaborate confidence game becomes something far more dangerous as Vin infiltrates the nobility, uncovers ancient secrets, and learns that the legends surrounding the Lord Ruler may not be what they seem. A masterful blend of heist fiction, epic fantasy, and a meticulously crafted magic system.

The Well of Ascension

Mistborn Era 1

2007

The impossible has been accomplished: the Final Empire has fallen and the Lord Ruler is dead. Now Vin and the surviving members of Kelsier's crew face a challenge none of them were prepared for: governing. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, is fragile and exposed. Three rival armies converge on its walls - one of them composed of ferocious koloss - and there is no sign of the Lord Ruler's legendary atium cache that could tip the balance. Meanwhile, the mists have begun behaving strangely, staying longer and killing without explanation, and Vin senses a mysterious presence watching from within them. Venerated by a budding new religion and haunted by powers she doesn't fully understand, Vin must hold a besieged city together while chasing an ancient legend - the Well of Ascension - that may offer the only hope of salvation, if it even exists.

The Hero of Ages

Mistborn Era 1

2008

The world is ending. Ash falls so thickly it buries crops. The mists linger longer each day, killing those they touch. And Ruin - the ancient force that Vin was tricked into releasing - is free to reshape the world in its image. Life under the Lord Ruler is starting to look like paradise by comparison. Vin and Elend lead a desperate campaign to locate the Lord Ruler's hidden caches of supplies, racing against an enemy that is not a conqueror but something closer to entropy itself - a will bent on unmaking everything. Scattered across a dying world, Sazed struggles with a crisis of faith, TenSoon faces judgment from his own kind, Spook is drawn toward a dangerous new power, and Marsh fights to hold on to what remains of himself. The final volume of the Mistborn trilogy, where the courage and faith Kelsier once kindled are tested against overwhelming odds.

The Gathering Storm

The Wheel of Time

2009

The first of three volumes completed by Brandon Sanderson from Robert Jordan's notes. Rand al'Thor has reached his darkest point - hardened, paranoid, and willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to prepare for the Last Battle. His arc in The Gathering Storm climaxes atop Dragonmount in a moment of profound personal crisis and renewal that many readers consider the emotional peak of the entire series. Simultaneously, Egwene's campaign to reunify the White Tower reaches its conclusion in a masterful display of political and personal courage. The Gathering Storm was praised for reinvigorating the series' momentum.

Warbreaker

2009

After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, Elantris, and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today’s leading master of what Tolkien called "secondary creation", the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own. Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago. Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people. By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.

Towers of Midnight

The Wheel of Time

2010

With Rand reborn in purpose and the White Tower reunited under Egwene, the forces of Light begin their final preparations. Perrin at last comes to terms with his wolf nature and forges his identity as both lord and wolfbrother. Mat leads an expedition into the Tower of Ghenjei to rescue Moiraine from the otherworldly Aelfinn and Eelfinn - a sequence Jordan had planned for decades. The borders of reality are fraying as the Dark One's influence grows, and the armies of the world must decide whether to follow the Dragon Reborn to Shayol Ghul.

The Way of Kings

The Stormlight Archive

2010

Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive. Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter. It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars are fought for them, and won by them. One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable. Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by overpowering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity. Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under the eminent scholar and notorious heretic Jasnah Kholin, Dalinar’s niece. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war. The result of more than ten years of planning, writing, and worldbuilding, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making. Speak again the ancient oaths, Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. and return to men the Shards they once bore. The Knights Radiant must stand again.

The Alloy of Law

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

2011

Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds. Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history - or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice. One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

Words of Radiance

The Stormlight Archive

2012

The eagerly awaited sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Way of Kings. Six years ago, the Assassin in White, a hireling of the inscrutable Parshendi, assassinated the Alethi king on the very night a treaty between men and Parshendi was being celebrated. So began the Vengeance Pact among the highprinces of Alethkar and the War of Reckoning against the Parshendi. Now the Assassin is active again, murdering rulers all over the world, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin’s master has much deeper motives. Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status darkeyes. Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl. Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and their civilization-ending Desolation. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but even arriving there proves more difficult than she imagined. Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The consequences for Parshendi and humans alike - indeed, for Roshar itself - are as dangerous as they are incalculable.

Memory of Light

The Wheel of Time

2013

The final volume. The Last Battle has begun. Rand al'Thor rides to Shayol Ghul to confront the Dark One while the armies of humanity fight on multiple fronts in a battle that spans over two hundred pages - one of the longest sustained battle sequences in fantasy literature. Every major character converges on their destiny: Mat commands the forces of Light, Perrin fights in the World of Dreams, Egwene faces the Forsaken, Lan charges the Gap. A Memory of Light brings closure to storylines that began in 1990 and delivers the ending Robert Jordan envisioned before his death. The prologue and several key scenes were written by Jordan himself; Sanderson wove them into the completed novel.

Shadows of Self

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

2015

Scadrial's fledgling democracy is under threat. As technology and magic reshape society, four competing religions vie for influence, and tensions between labour and industry simmer beneath the surface. When a series of crimes designed to inflame religious conflict and class unrest strike at the heart of Elendel, Waxillium Ladrian recognises the work of something more than a common agitator. Alongside Wayne and the brilliant Marasi, Wax must track down the conspiracy before civil strife tears the city apart. But the deeper he digs, the more personal the threat becomes - and the answers he finds will shake his understanding of the world the Survivor built.

Arcanum Unbounded

2016

Brandon Sanderson creates worlds, and those worlds are linked. His universe spans the Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn series, the tales of Elantris, and others, comprising a unique constellation of vividly imagined realms known as the Cosmere. Now for the first time anywhere, stories representing each of these planets, and their fully realized and distinct magic systems, have been collected in a single spectacular volume. Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection brings together tales spanning the known limits of Sanderson's universe - including the never-before-published Edgedancer, a thrilling new novella of the Stormlight Archive - along with charts, illustrations, notes...and secrets. The Cosmere Collection encompasses six worlds in all, explored across nine astonishing works of short fiction: Sel ("The Hope of Elantris" and The Emperor's Soul); Scadrial ("The Eleventh Metal," "Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes Twenty-eight Through Thirty," and Mistborn: Secret History); Taldain ("White Sand"); Threnody (Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell"); First of the Sun ("Sixth of the Dusk"); and Roshar (Edgedancer). These exciting tales will catapult you onto an unprecedented journey across a cosmos only Brandon Sanderson could have envisioned. Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection is an indispensable volume no Sanderson fan can do without.

The Bands of Mourning

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

2016

The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metalminds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the full suite of powers he commanded. Most people consider them a legend. Then a kandra researcher returns to Elendel with images that appear to depict the Bands, alongside writings in an unreadable language, and the legend suddenly demands investigation. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran, where the trail leads toward his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organisation known as The Set. What Wax, Wayne, and Marasi discover there will reshape their understanding of Scadrial's history and its place in the wider Cosmere.

Edgedancer

The Stormlight Archive

2016

From Brandon Sanderson comes a short novel of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive (previously published in Arcanum Unbounded). Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older - a wish she believed was granted. Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one. Although the young Azish emperor granted her safe haven from an executioner she knows only as Darkness, court life is suffocating the free-spirited Lift, who can’t help heading to Yeddaw when she hears the relentless Darkness is there hunting people like her with budding powers. The downtrodden in Yeddaw have no champion, and Lift knows she must seize this awesome responsibility.

Oathbringer

The Stormlight Archive

2017

Dalinar Kholin's Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified. Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar's blood-soaked past and stand together - and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past - even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.

Dawnshard

The Stormlight Archive

2020

When a ghost ship is discovered, its crew presumed dead after trying to reach the storm-shrouded island Akinah, Navani Kholin must send an expedition to make sure the island hasn’t fallen into enemy hands. Knights Radiant who fly too near find their Stormlight suddenly drained, so the voyage must be by sea. Shipowner Rysn Ftori lost the use of her legs but gained the companionship of Chiri-Chiri, a Stormlight-ingesting winged larkin, a species once thought extinct. Now Rysn’s pet is ill, and any hope for Chiri-Chiri’s recovery can be found only at the ancestral home of the larkin: Akinah. With the help of Lopen, the formerly one-armed Windrunner, Rysn must accept Navani’s quest and sail into the perilous storm from which no one has returned alive. If the crew cannot uncover the secrets of the hidden island city before the wrath of its ancient guardians falls upon them, the fate of Roshar and the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

Rhythm of War

The Stormlight Archive

2020

The eagerly awaited sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Oathbringer, from epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar's crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin's scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength. At the same time that Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with his changing role within the Knights Radiant, his Windrunners face their own problem: As more and more deadly enemy Fused awaken to wage war, no more honorspren are willing to bond with humans to increase the number of Radiants. Adolin and Shallan must lead the coalition’s envoy to the honorspren stronghold of Lasting Integrity and either convince the spren to join the cause against the evil god Odium, or personally face the storm of failure.

The Lost Metal

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

2022

The earth-shattering conclusion to Mistborn Era 2. For years, frontier lawman turned senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organisation known as the Set, whose leaders include his own late uncle and sister. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne uncover stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, the investigation reveals that the Set's influence has spread to the Elendel Senate itself. After Wax discovers a new type of explosive capable of unprecedented destruction, an immortal kandra reveals that Bilming has fallen under the sway of the god Trell, an outside force threatening all of Scadrial. Wax must decide whether to set aside his rocky relationship with Harmony and once again become the divine Sword he was groomed to be - because if no one steps forward, the planet and its millions of people face annihilation. The most Cosmere-connected Mistborn novel to date, featuring significant crossover with the wider universe.

The Sunlit Man

2023

A man called Nomad - a fugitive hunted across the Cosmere by the mysterious Night Brigade - crash-lands on Canticle, a small planet where the sun's heat incinerates anything caught in daylight. The planet's inhabitants live on floating cities that flee perpetually ahead of the dawn, and a warlord called the Cinder King controls them through objects that burn away their personalities. Nomad must help the locals overthrow their tyrant while staying ahead of his own pursuers. The most action-driven and Cosmere-connected of the Secret Projects, The Sunlit Man is set far in the Cosmere's future and features a protagonist from The Stormlight Archive. Best read after completing Stormlight and Mistborn for the full impact of its reveals.

Tress of the Emerald Sea

2023

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one - collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. When Charlie is captured by the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea, Tress stows away on a ship to rescue him, navigating oceans made of dangerous spores where a single drop of water can mean instant death. Narrated by Hoid, the Cosmere's most enigmatic recurring character, Tress of the Emerald Sea is a standalone adventure inspired by The Princess Bride - whimsical in tone but rich with Sanderson's trademark worldbuilding and an inventive magic system based on the aethers, a form of Investiture being introduced to the broader Cosmere.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

2023

On a world enshrouded in darkness, Painter patrols the streets of Kilahito, using his art to trap and disable nightmares that emerge from the shroud. On a distant sunlit world, Yumi is a yoki-hijo - a priestess who summons spirits by stacking stones in intricate patterns, serving her community through a life of rigid ritual. When the two are suddenly flung together, swapping bodies across worlds they didn't know were connected, they must learn each other's crafts and unravel a mystery that threatens both their peoples. Narrated by Hoid and inspired by the manga Hikaru no Go and the anime Your Name, this is Sanderson's most character-driven Cosmere novel - a slow-burn story about connection, identity, and the value of art, set against a backdrop with deep implications for the wider universe.

Wind and Truth

The Stormlight Archive

2024

The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Timesbestselling Stormlight Archive - the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare - and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray. Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide - Adolin in Azir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah in Thaylenah. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons... and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar. At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiant killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

Isles of the Emberdark

2025

All his life, Sixth of the Dusk has been a traditional trapper of Aviar - the supernatural birds his people bond with - on the deadly island of Patji. When invaders from the stars threaten to exploit his world's unique resources, Dusk is drawn into a desperate mission that takes him beyond the boundaries of his planet and into the Cognitive Realm itself. Expanding upon Sanderson's novella Sixth of the Dusk (included as flashback chapters, so no prior reading is required), Isles of the Emberdark is set during a pivotal moment in the Cosmere's future - when the great powers of Scadrial and Roshar are reaching outward to other worlds. A story about colonialism, tradition, and what is lost when cultures collide with technologically superior forces.