The Cosmere
3 series21 books56 characters
Reading Order
2 reading orders available - see all →
Series (3)
Mistborn Era 1
3 books
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)
4 books
Three hundred years after the fall of the Final Empire, the world has industrialised. Elendel is a city of railways, electric lights, and political corruption, ruled by noble houses who have forgotten what the Survivor and the Hero of Ages actually did to give them this world. Waxillium Ladrian spent twenty years as a lawman in the Roughs before being dragged back to the city to save his house from bankruptcy. He brings his irreverent partner Wayne, a talent for violence, and a set of Allomantic and Feruchemical abilities that make him uniquely suited to the conspiracies he keeps stumbling into. The four books blend the epic fantasy foundation of the original trilogy with detective noir and a genuinely funny double act at their centre.
The Stormlight Archive
7 books
Roshar is a world scoured by highstorms - massive, recurring tempests of such power that its ecology, architecture, and culture have all formed around surviving them. The magic comes from those storms: Stormlight, breathed in to fuel the Surgebinding abilities of the Knights Radiant, an ancient order that protected humanity for millennia before mysteriously abandoning their oaths and disappearing. The series follows Dalinar Kholin, a highprince haunted by visions of the past, Kaladin, a former slave who becomes a soldier and then something more, and Jasnah, a scholar-queen who suspects the Return of the ancient enemy is already underway. Brandon Sanderson's most ambitious work - planned as ten books, with five published - and the centrepiece of the Cosmere.
Books (7)
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Characters (56)
| Name | Aliases | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Dalinar Kholin Highprince of Alethkar and uncle to the king, haunted by visions of the past | The Blackthorn | Protagonist |
| Kaladin A former soldier turned slave, leader of Bridge Four who becomes a Knight Radiant | Kal, Kaladin Stormblessed, Captain | Protagonist |
| Marasi Colms A brilliant detective and Pulser (Cadmium Allomancy). Starts as a constable student and rises to prominence. | Protagonist | |
| Shallan Davar A young Veden scholar seeking to become Jasnah's ward, hiding dark secrets | Veil, Radiant | Protagonist |
| Steris Harms Wax's fiancée and later wife. A meticulous planner with no magical abilities but sharp intellect. | Lady Ladrian | Protagonist |
| Vin A half-skaa street urchin who discovers she is Mistborn - able to burn all Allomantic metals. Recruited by Kelsier to infiltrate the nobility, she poses as the noblewoman Valette Renoux while helping to overthrow the Final Empire. Distrustful and shaped by a harsh life on the streets, she gradually learns to trust and ultimately kills the Lord Ruler. | Valette Renoux, Lady Heir, Ascendant Warrior | Protagonist |
| Waxillium Ladrian A Twinborn lawman-turned-noble. Coinshot (Steel Allomancy) and Skimmer (Iron Feruchemy). Lord of House Ladrian and later Senator. | Wax | Protagonist |
| Wayne Wax's eccentric partner and master of disguise. Slider (Bendalloy Allomancy) and Bloodmaker (Gold Feruchemy). Former criminal turned lawman. | Protagonist | |
| Amaram A lighteyed officer who betrayed Kaladin, appears honourable | Meridas Amaram | Antagonist |
| Autonomy A Shard from another world seeking to interfere with Scadrial. The true power behind The Set. | Trell, Bavadin | Antagonist |
| Edwarn Ladrian Wax's corrupt uncle and high-ranking member of The Set. Believed dead but secretly leading criminal operations. | Suit, Uncle Edwarn | Antagonist |
| Ialai Sadeas Wife of Sadeas, cunning political manipulator | Antagonist | |
| Miles Hundredlives A corrupt lawman and Twinborn with gold Compounding, making him nearly immortal. Leader of the Vanishers. | Miles Dagouter | Antagonist |
| Paalm A rogue kandra who was once Wax's wife Lessie. Seeks to free humanity from Harmony's influence. | Bleeder, Lessie | Antagonist |
| Ruin The primordial force of entropy and destruction | Ati | Antagonist |
| Straff Venture Elend's ruthless father, king of the Northern Dominance | Antagonist | |
| Szeth-son-son-Vallano A Shin assassin wielding an Honorblade, bound by his Oathstone | Szeth, Assassin in White, Truthless | Antagonist |
| Telsin Ladrian Wax's sister who becomes involved with The Set. | Antagonist | |
| The Lord Ruler The immortal god-emperor who has ruled the Final Empire for a thousand years. Believed to be the Hero of Ages who saved the world, he is actually Rashek, a Terris packman who betrayed and killed the true Hero and seized divine power at the Well of Ascension. His combined mastery of Allomancy and Feruchemy makes him nearly invincible. | Rashek, The Sliver of Infinity | Antagonist |
| Torol Sadeas Highprince of Alethkar, ambitious rival to Dalinar | Antagonist |
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Groups (1)
| Name | Type | Appears In |
|---|---|---|
| Shards of Adonalsium | Faction | Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2 (Wax and Wayne) |