Series

Books

Brandon Sanderson

1 universe3 series14 books

Brandon Sanderson (born December 19, 1975) is an American author known for his intricate and imaginative works in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Sanderson developed a passion for writing at a young age. He attended Brigham Young University, where he studied English and later earned a master's degree in creative writing. Sanderson is best known for creating the Cosmere, a vast fictional universe that encompasses many of his fantasy novels, where they share subtle connections and a common mythology, including the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive. The Mistborn trilogy, starting with the novel Mistborn: The Final Empire, is a thrilling fantasy heist story set in a dystopian world ruled by a tyrannical lord. The Stormlight Archive, starting with the novel The Way of Kings, is an epic fantasy series that combines political intrigue, war, and extensive world-building. In addition to his work within the Cosmere, Sanderson completed [Robert Jordan's] epic fantasy series "The Wheel of Time" after Jordan's passing. He has also authored several young adult series, such as The Reckoners and the Skyward series. Sanderson's analytical approach to world-building includes his "Sanderson's Laws of Magic," which distinguish between "hard" and "soft" magic systems in fantasy literature. His ability to create immersive worlds and compelling characters has earned him a dedicated fan base and numerous accolades, including the Hugo Award in 2013 for his novella The Emperor's Soul, the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for his novels Elantris in 2005, and The Hero of Ages in 2008, as well as David Gemmell Legend Awards in 2011 for The Way of Kings and in 2015 for [[book:DsTUUc09-X_SMpjPcXA9b|Words of Radiance]]. In 2022, Sanderson's Kickstarter campaign for four secret novels became the most successful in history, raising over $41 million. As of 2022, he is a co-creator and former host of the Writing Excuses podcast, an educational podcast for writers by writers that was started in 2008.

Universes (1)

The Cosmere

3 series by this author

The cosmere is a fictional shared universe where many of Brandon Sanderson's books take place. As a result, books set in the cosmere share a single cosmology and underlying rules of magic, and some characters from one world will make appearances on other worlds. Despite the connections, Brandon has remained clear that one does not need any knowledge of the broader cosmere to read, understand, or enjoy books that take place in the cosmere. The core sequence of the cosmere will consist of the Dragonsteel series, the Elantris trilogy, at least four eras of the Mistborn series, and The Stormlight Archive. The story of the cosmere does not include any books that reference Earth, as Earth is not in the cosmere. The shared "creation myth" of the cosmere revolves around Adonalsium, the power of creation, which was broken into sixteen pieces called Shards in an event known as the Shattering of Adonalsium. The Shards are effectively gods, and magic is derived from their power.

Series (3)

Mistborn Era 1

The Cosmere

The original Mistborn trilogy introduces readers to a world of ash and mist, where a seemingly immortal tyrant has ruled for a thousand years and the skaa live as slaves beneath noble oppression. This is where Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere begins for many readers - a complete, self-contained story that showcases his signature magic systems and intricate plotting. Allomancy, the magic of burning metals for supernatural powers, drives both the action and the mysteries at the heart of these books. Follow Vin, a street urchin who discovers she's Mistborn - capable of using all Allomantic metals - as she's recruited into a crew planning the ultimate heist: overthrowing the Lord Ruler himself.

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

The Cosmere

Set 300 years after the original trilogy, this series blends epic fantasy with detective noir and Wild West adventure. Follow Waxillium Ladrian, a lawman-turned-noble, as he uncovers conspiracies in the industrial city of Elendel.

Books (14)

The Final Empire

Mistborn Era 1

2006

Sometimes I worry that I’m not the hero everyone thinks I am. The philosophers assure me that this is the time, that the signs have been met. But I still wonder if they have the wrong man. So many people depend on me. They say I will hold the future of the entire world on my arms. What would they think if they knew that their champion - the Hero of Ages, their savior - doubted himself? Perhaps they wouldn’t be shocked at all. In a way, this is what worries me most. Maybe in their hearts they wonder - just as I do. When they see me, do they see a liar?

The Well of Ascension

Mistborn Era 1

2007

The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler - the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years - has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves. As Kelsier's protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her. Stopping assassins may keep Vin's Mistborn skills sharp, but it's the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn't run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier's crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won't get easier with three armies – one of them composed of ferocious giants – now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler's hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal. As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.

The Stormlight Archive

The Cosmere

An epic fantasy series set on the world of Roshar, where powerful storms shape ecology and magic. Knights Radiant, ancient warriors with magical abilities, are returning after millennia.

The Hero of Ages

Mistborn Era 1

2008

This book is not only the third book in a trilogy, but it’s Act Three of the the three-act structure for the Mistborn Trilogy - it’s the part of the story where the heroes have discovered that what they thought was the problem all along was not the true danger, and now they’re fighting for not only their own survival but that of the world they live in. The mists are killing people and staying out much longer than they should. The Ashmounts are spewing more and more choking ash into the sky, burying the crops that everyone needs to eat to live. And Ruin, the creature Vin was tricked into freeing from its prison of a millennium, is loose to wreak havoc upon the land. Life under the Lord Ruler is starting to look like paradise in comparison. While the first book in the trilogy turned the standard fantasy story on its head, this volume (perhaps inevitably?) returns in a way to the tropes the first volume was a reaction against. Yet in this case the enemy is not a human or humanlike Dark Lord, but something more like a force of nature - entropy itself given a will and a guiding personality in the form of Ruin. Ultimately, the book is about how the characters we have grown to love from the previous volumes - Vin, Elend, Sazed, TenSoon, Spook, Marsh, and others - find the courage and faith to fight on in the face of overwhelming odds, just as Kelsier taught them when he plotted the downfall of the Final Empire.

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.

Rhythm of War

The Stormlight Archive

2011

The eagerly awaited sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling [[book:vqVrxg1m_98pyMKp1r14u|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.

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.

Shadows of Self

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

2015

Shadows of Self shows Mistborn’s society evolving as technology and magic mix, the economy grows, democracy contends with corruption, and religion becomes a growing cultural force, with four faiths competing for converts. This bustling, optimistic, but still shaky society now faces its first instance of terrorism, crimes intended to stir up labor strife and religious conflict. Wax and Wayne, assisted by the lovely, brilliant Marasi, must unravel the conspiracy before civil strife stops Scadrial’s progress in its tracks. Shadows of Self will give fans of The Alloy of Law everything they’ve been hoping for and, this being a Brandon Sanderson book, more, much more.

The Bands of Mourning

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

2016

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. The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metal minds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.

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.

The Lost Metal

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

2022

The first story collection by New York Times bestselling author 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 [[book:oUW3a7bysin0USxqXKjd_|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.

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.

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Series

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Series

Books

Brandon Sanderson

Universes (1)

The Cosmere

Series (3)

Mistborn Era 1

Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne)

Books (14)

The Final Empire

The Well of Ascension

The Stormlight Archive

The Hero of Ages

The Way of Kings

The Alloy of Law

Rhythm of War

Words of Radiance

Shadows of Self

The Bands of Mourning

Edgedancer

Oathbringer

Dawnshard

The Lost Metal

Wind and Truth