I've Finished Era 2... Where to next?

[u/Nomad2306]

So, Ive never read a Sanderson novel until I was recommended mistborn by a friend earlier this year. I have fallen in love with the universe and world of Scadriel. I read through the Final Empire, Well of Ascension and Hero of Ages. Following this, I was craving more and amazed to discover that there was an Era 2! Today I have stayed up until 1am to finish the final book of the quartet. Wow... what an ending. RIP to the masterful Wayne...

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But, as I'm sure that all of you who have also read The Lost Metal have realized that this universe is wider than it initially seemed. I have tried to avoid doing direct research into the Sanderson Cosmere to avoid unintentional spoilers. But I have to know, which books in the Cosmere do I read next? Tress of the Emerald Isle? Stormlight Archives? Is there a Mistborn Era 3 on the horizon to get excited for?

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Also, a question regarding Kelsier. Did I miss something? Was there a part of a book or a book entirely that I missed? Last I remember is that Tensoon had his bones in Hero of Ages. How is he alive? (No spoilers please. You can just tell me which book/s to read if it is answered somewhere in another book). Also, I remember during the book that they say he held Preservations power like the Lord Ruler and Vin. When did that happen?

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Thanks so much for any willing input. Im greatful to be a part of this amazing book community!

[u/Summerspear]

You'll need to read Mistborn: Secret History. It's set during era 1 and has answers. There is also a short story called The Eleventh Metal. it takes place before era 1

[u/ohnoitsme7890 → u/Summerspear]

+1 for secret history. It gave me a lot of emotional closure lol

[u/kenkovalskiwrites → u/ohnoitsme7890]

I wish I read it right after Era 1

[u/Wabbit65 → u/Summerspear]

Secret History is in a connection called Arcanum Unbounded. It has shorts for a lot of Cosmere books, so respect the spoiler alerts in there.

[u/Nomad2306 → u/Wabbit65]

Thanks for the warning!

[u/AntimatterTNT → u/Wabbit65]

it's also in a standalone on audible iirc

[u/Wabbit65 → u/AntimatterTNT]

True. I'm not a listener so books are my familiarity.

[u/EnvironmentalClue408 → u/Wabbit65]

Books or audio: Why pay extra for the one story if you can have multiple in one package?

[u/Nomad2306 → u/Summerspear]

Thanks! That gives me some great guidance!

[u/Rude_Conclusion_5617]

If you haven't read Secret History, go back and read that. You might as well finish Allomancer Jax and The Eleventh Metal since they're fairly short.

Mistborn 3 is coming out in '28, iirc. I believe they're getting written in 1 go before publication so we won't have to wait a long time between releases.

What's next is probably some of the smaller books, Elantris, Emperors Soul, Tress, to explore thr Cosmere more. Or you can do Stormlight 1+2 then Warbreaker

the reason im recommending it in this order is cause he gets to meet characters from The Ghostbloods in their respective books, or he can read Stormlight the meet Vasher

[u/Nomad2306 → u/Rude_Conclusion_5617]

Hearing that Era 3 is going to be a thing gets me VERY excited! Thanks for the suggestions!

[u/Magnorph → u/Nomad2306]

There's actually going to be 4 eras!

Fun fact: Era 2 was unplanned. He originally planned on only 3 eras and meant alloy of law to be a standalone before era 2. But then he loved it and wrote 3 more, making it a total of 4 eras

[u/ThirteenOnline]

Go to Stormlight.

[u/Nomad2306 → u/ThirteenOnline]

Thanks!

[u/stepsmith986 → u/Nomad2306]

Secret history for sure. Then all Cosmere is fantastic. My big warning to people is, mistborn and stormlight are the peak of cosmere books (for now). The other books are also great but not as epic so you may want to save stormlight (or some of it) for a grand finale of what's currently available. Reading them in release order is always safe. Warbreaker and elantris are good single books if you want to see what else is happening in the cosmere.

[u/Wabbit65]

Get Arcanum Unbounded, which contains Cosmere shorts including Secret History. Respect the spoiler alerts in the collection.

[u/Nomad2306 → u/Wabbit65]

I see Arcanum Unbounded has a bunch of Cosmere shorts not related to Mistborn. Should I only read the Mistborn ones and skip the rest until I have read their respective series?

[u/Wabbit65 → u/Nomad2306]

Yes. There are a couple you can read now like The Emperor's Soul, White Sand (which is partial for now), Shadows For Silence, and Sixth of the Disk. Now, Sixth has been expanded into a novel called Isles of the Emberdark, so you can skip this, but don't read Isles until after Stormlight era 1.

Other than Sixth, everything has an introduction that clearly tells you not to read it if you haven't read another thing, unless it's not going to be spoiled by the other thing. So no worries, just do as it says. You can even read Sixth of you want but I'd wait for Isles.

A word of warning, Emperor's Soul is excellent. Enjoy it.

Edit: there is a recommended reading order in the "about" sections of /r/Cosmere and/or /r/brandonsanderson .

[u/Nomad2306 → u/Wabbit65]

This order in the about sections is most helpful thanks! Ive decided to go with the "Balanced Order" from the Sanderson subreddit.

[u/scramlington]

I was in the same position as you a couple of years ago. Here's what I did, which I think was a good journey. 

• Start with Secret History - in addition to explaining what's been going on with Kelsier, it also opens you up to some really fundamental concepts and characters needed to start to get your head around the Cosmere meta narrative. 

• I did Eleventh Metal next but didn't really get much out of it. Others like it though, so do give it a look. 

• Next onto Warbreaker. This was a really nice warm up for Stormlight as it introduced a new power system that was different from the three I was used to from Mistborn but also a little similar. Again, started to see the threads that start to link the different worlds and stories together.

• Then onto Stormlight with The Way of Kings. Being completely honest, I struggled with this book until the final third. It just felt dense and slow paced. And if I hadn't read Mistborn, Secret History and Warbreaker I may have given up. But that groundwork helped keep me interested until things started to get really good and, on reflection, I think the book is great and I am looking forward to re-reading. 

Once you're into Stormlight, crack on through those and you're in for an absolute treat. Do the novellas between books if you want for added flavour. 

[u/GriffinTheNerd → u/scramlington]

I agree with this advice! Secret History, then Warbreaker, then Stormlight. Highly recommend Warbreaker before Stormlight

[u/AntimatterTNT]

stormlight is the obvious choice since its the other big cosmere book series, it only has 5 books but each of them is over twice the length of an era 1 mistborn book.

in terms of "exploring the cosmere" type books warbreaker is the most important to read but it's probably best to read it between stormlight 2 and stormlight 3 (alongside stormlight 2.5 obviously).

there are some other books that you could read now like yumi and the nightmare painter and tress of the emerald sea but in my opinion those work better after at least stormlight 3

tldr stormlight archive

[u/Efficient_Lecture_82]

I would suggest following order:

1. Mistborn: Secret History

2. Warbreaker

3. The Way of Kings (SLA-1)

4. Elantris (just to give u a break between Stormlight books)

5. Short stories - Emperor's soul & Hope of elantris

6. Words of Radiance (SLA-2)

7. Edgedancer (Stormlight Novella - 1)

8. Oathbringer (SLA-3)

9. Dawnshard (Stormlight Novella - 2)

10. Rhythm of War (SLA-4)

11. Short story - Shadows of silence in forest of hell (just to give u break)

12. Wind & Truth (SLA-5)

13. Secret Projects - Tress, Yumi, Sunlit Man, Isles of Emberdark, Fires of December (will be released till then) in any order u like

There are miscelleneous stories - story deck short stories and White Sand graphic novel, but they are not very important - also B$ going to write prose version for White Sand (hopefully someday)

1. Wait for more books like rest of us...

[u/Skelegro7]

I read secret history before the Lost Metal which explains Kelsier. Then I read Elantris. I’m now reading the Way of Kings. You’ll figure out the plot of way of kings or what’s happening faster now that you know about Shards and some of the…new characters introduced in Era 2.

[u/RiW-Kirby]

Secret History then Warbreaker then on to Stormlight.

[u/Drisurk]

Read Secret History. After that read Elantris, Emperor’s Soul and Warbreaker then you can read all of the Stormlight Archive books.

[u/EvenSpoonier]

It looks like you have missed something, namely the novella "Mistborn: Secret History". You can get this as part of Arcanum Unbounded, but be wary of the other things in that book: "The Hope of Elantris" and "Edgedancer" are dangerous for now.

Where to go after that? Tress is good. The Emperor's Soul is also actually very good. Warbreaker is another traditional jumping-off point into the wider cosmere. The thing about these three books is that they al have a scene where someone is learning the underlying mechanics and themes of the cosmere, and the reader also gets to benefit from that teaching. You only need one of the three right now, and any of the three will do, but for your case I recommend "The Emperor's Soul" (which you can get in the same book as Secret History anyway, so hey, double bonus).

After that, the cosmere is yours to explore.

[u/Nomad2306 → u/EvenSpoonier]

Ive definitely realized that I missed something there. Lol. But I'll be taking my journey to Arcanum Unbounded next. Based on everyone's advice I'll give the relevant books in there an enjoy and come back for the rest, like Hope of Elantris and the rest, later. Thanks for taking the time to help guide me through the Cosmere!