Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere Book • Page 58

I think reading Secret History before Rhythm of War is necessary to get the full impact.

 

Spoiler tag why?

 

Understanding who Thaidakar is and the full scale of what Shallan is up against."

 

This is a fair point, but also, definitely don't read Secret History before Bands of Mourning, so if you're saving Mistborn Era 2 until after W&T, I think waiting on Secret History is still the right way to go. The thing you mention is cool but I think it still works as a reveal after the fact.

 

Eh I read Secret History right after era 1 I don't think it's a huge deal. I still loved Mistborn era 2. I'm still for reading Secret History before RoW.

 

Yeah, I read Secret History directly after Hero of Ages and I regret nothing.

 

Yeah I read Secret History about 30 minutes after HoA. Don’t think it really affected anything for me. I don’t think there’s a wrong place to read it other than after Mistborn Era 1.

 

I almost am certainly going to read it before any of mistborn era 2 and probably before the new stormlight book depending on timing. When people talk about shards, and all the worlds gods being connected and part of a bigger being there is really no context for that except the very end of Mistborn Era 1. From what I understand, there is no book that provides over arching cosmere context except secret history. There's some very high level discussion about the Cosmere and the shards, and world hoppers and names of gods etc that make me feel like I haven't even read a page of a Sanderson book in my life. Whenever people have asked how the hell they seem so clueless, the answer is always Secret history so my plan is to read that ASAP.

 

Arcanum specifically states it has slight spoilers for Bands of Mourning so it's a lot of contention for when it should be read. Personally, I read it after BoM due to some implications that it brings but it can be read at either of those 2 points.

 

The amount of time I've spent going back to the Coppermind trying to figure out the shards is probably equal to reading a book.

I am so curious why Brandon is holding Hoid's origin story/the shattering of Adonalsium (Dragonsteel) for post-Stormlight 10. Feels like exactly the trilogy we should be getting in this gap, no offense to the Elantris sequels.

 

I am going to have to wait until I finish Rhythm of War (currently reading) but even having read all mistborn books, I still don’t see a ton of connection between them and Stormlight. It could be that too much time lapsed between my last mistborn read though so I’ll have to dive in when I finish RoW

 

To be clear I don't think there's a wrong place to read it besides before Mistborn era 1. Kelsier is just my favorite character in the entire Cosmere. I even named my dog after him. Mostly because he's always smiling and he's a clever thief (mostly of balls at the dog park).

 

what a handsome boy

 

More specifically, the preface has Brandon saying "I recommend waiting to read Secret History until after Bands of Mourning" - FWIW to those who are in the middle of the journey.

Major spoilers for Secret History: I just think the reveal that Kelsier is "alive" and working on Scadrial and how that affects the plot of W&W 3/4 is so much bigger a reveal than that Kelsier = Thaidakar, because the first one is directly related to the Mistborn series and the latter just clarifies (for now) that this mysterious rogue spy is actually someone we already know from a different world. And I'd rather enjoy the reveal related to Mistborn than Stormlight.
But yeah, it'll all come together however you choose to read it.

On a related note, I should probably read The Sunlit Man before Wind & Truth (but I don't need to worry about Yumi yet), right?

 

Read Sunlit Man for sure. It’s not necessary, but it makes you have so many questions that are very fun (and according to Brandon, very related).

 

Really enjoyed Sunlit Man more than I thought and had a teary moment or two, which was unexpected. A very solid and tight plotted book imo. Left me wanting more but still satisfied that we spent time in that world/story.

 

62 hours and 48 minutes. I wonder how many of those minutes Kal gets to be happy. 27? 34?

 

Wild audiobook length! I thought Rhythm of War at 57 hours was an investment. I’m in!

 

Time for the biggest heist this side of The Final Empire.

 

I believe in you.

 

My initial thought was stealing Wind & Truth for myself.

But maybe instead I’ll replace them all with copies of Tangleweed.

 

I'm once again enjoying things more on a reread. I don't know what I was doing at the time, but beyond broad strokes, I didn't really remember Oathbringer and I'm at the end of part 1 and I'm enjoying it a lot and surprised at a lot of the parts. I like when series do something a bit different, like this one is a murder mystery-esque tale in the whole first part so the structure is very different from the last 2 and it's refreshing.

If I didn't have Dawnshard to contend with, I'd be positive I could finish and be ready for book 5. Gotta maintain a pace of about 59 pages a day...

I'll spoiler just in case (RE: Sunlit man), but I'm a little annoyed that Goodreads outed it as part of stormlight or am I wrong and that was always known? Seems like it could have been a fun thing to discover it's part of the series on that site and not part of the cosmere but specifically stormlight

 

in his video/blog post about it on March 24, 2022, he mentioned that it was Stormlight Adjacent - not just in the video but in the title itself. so I think it was always the intent for readers to know it was

 

So I'm going to Dragonsteel next month. I have a couple different cosplays I'm doing. One will be Wax Ladrian and one will be a certain cognitive shadow that would be too spoiler to get into. On the off chance that I get to ask Brandon a question, any suggestions? I'd love to end up getting a RAFO card but I'm open to any suggestions.

 

“How negotiable is this ten year wait for Stormlight 6?”

“Why aren’t we getting the Dragonsteel trilogy sooner?”