Brandon Sanderson Books in Order

Brandon Sanderson is the most prolific fantasist in modern publishing - more than thirty novels across one shared universe (the cosmere), four other series, and a record-breaking Kickstarter - and his back list is genuinely hard to navigate: readers finish Mistborn or The Way of Kings, discover the books are secretly connected, and face a wiki diagram with eleven worlds in it. The honest map has two layers. The cosmere - Mistborn, Stormlight, Elantris, Warbreaker and the 2023 Secret Projects - shares one deep mythology that surfaces in cameos rather than plot requirements. Everything else (Skyward, the Reckoners, Alcatraz, The Rithmatist) stands fully alone. This guide walks both layers (2005–present).

Where to start

Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006) is the standard recommendation and the right one - a complete trilogy with a heist plot, the best demonstration of Sanderson's signature (magic as a system with rules and costs), and an ending people still refuse to spoil. The two honest alternatives: readers who want the massive epic now should start The Way of Kings (2010), the 1,000-page Stormlight flagship; readers who want one self-contained book should take Warbreaker (2009), a standalone with all the mechanics of a series in one volume. Do not start with Elantris (2005) unless you already love him - it was written first and reads like it.

Does the reading order matter?

Publication order inside each series, and series order between them matters in one specific way: each cosmere series stands alone plot-wise, but a wanderer named Hoid appears in all of them and the background war grows clearer the more you have read - so reading Mistborn era 1 before Stormlight makes the cameos land, while reading it after merely makes them quieter. Within the arcs: Mistborn era 1 (3 books), era 2 (4), Stormlight arc 1 (5, complete with Wind and Truth, December 2024), then the novellas Edgedancer and Dawnshard slot between their neighboring Stormlight books. Arcanum Unbounded (2016) collects the novellas, including Mistborn: Secret History, which must not be read before Hero of Ages. Stormlight arc 2 and Mistborn era 3 are next - in progress, no firm dates as of October 2026.

Which one is the best?

The Way of Kings (2010) is the masterpiece and the fan-named peak of the whole cosmere. The Well of Ascension ending and The Hero of Ages reveal (2007-08) remain the best triple-payoff in the genre. Wind and Truth (2024), the arc 1 finale a decade in the making, dominated bestseller lists for a season. Among the smaller books, The Emperor's Soul (2012, in Arcanum Unbounded) is the award-winning novella connoisseurs hand to skeptics, and Tress of the Emerald Sea (2023) is the charmer that became the most re-read Secret Project.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Dune books in order, Sarah J. Maas books in order, The Hunger Games books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.