A year of Cosmere

I mentioned before that the Cosmere will be part of my reading journey in 2023 (here). I want to experience more about this connected universe. I want to be able to find all the Easter eggs and how the connect with each other.

In fact, it bothers me that I am not able to do so already. So I need to spend a little bit of time exploring how these worlds connect and, in some cases, the experience will be a re-read of books I loved and I have not read in years; in other cases, it will be the first read and I am all in.

The Cosmere

What is included in the Cosmere? Sanderson has his own post (here) listing the series, books or comics that are included in this world. Interestingly, I just realized that the Cosmere is a registered trademark and I find myself smiling - not many authors register a trademark on their universe but it seems like a good idea considering the Kickstart initiative and the goodies Sanderson and his team will be shipping in the next months.

What are the titles included in the Cosmere?

• Elantris

• The Mistborn saga (era 1 and era 2 are currently published; all the next era(s) that is/are not out at the time of publication of this post)

  • era 1, the original trilogy

    • The Final Empire

    • The Well of Ascension

    • The Hero of Ages

  • era 2, the Wax and Wayne series and it takes place about 300 years after the events of the original series

    • The Alloy of Law

    • Shadows of Self

    • The Bands of Mourning

    • The Lost Metal

  • era 3 will be published at a later stage and it will be significantly later in time; and there might be additional eras afterwards

• Warbreaker

• The Stormlight Archive

  • The Way of Kings

  • Words of Radiance

  • Oathbringer

  • Rhythm of War

• White Sand, the first novel by Sanderson, also adapted into a graphic novel series, White sand (3 volumes in total, 1, 2, and 3)

• The stories published in Arcanum Unbounded

• Three of the 2023 Sanderson secret projects, one being Tress of the Emerald Sea (my review) and the others are not published at the time of this post - and I am excited to see what they will bring to the table!

What makes them connected?

Sanderson also answers this question, essentially indicating that they are bound by the same big bang event that also provides all the magic systems are somehow logical. Yet, the best part of this universe is the fact that you might find characters that join one series or another. This is the comment Sanderson makes in his explanation of the Cosmere: “Certain characters from one series sometimes show up in other series. You don’t often need to know this is going on to enjoy the book, but if you keep your eyes open, you’ll be rewarded with glimpses of these Worldhoppers now and then.” (Sanderson’s explanation of the Cosmere here).

How do I plan to (re-)read the books in the series?

I plan to start with the re-read of Elantris and Warbreaker. I remember Elantris being quite unique in its world building; I loved Warbreaker and the main characters. I will probably read both books in the first quarter.

I then plan to get into reading Mistborn; I will mostly focus on reading era 2 (steampunk seems to be a theme that is growing on me) as a brand new experience for me but I will not put it past me to re-read era 1. I need to make a couple of tough choices regarding the time I spend in this world. The Mistborn saga will be my focus in the second quarter.

I am also looking forward to the Arcanum Unbound stories and to White Sand. I assume I need a month to cover this content and it should be the summer.

Finally, the Stormlight Archive. For me, it’s a 75/25: mostly a re-read and one brand new read. I want to leave this series last as it is the most recent and it is likely that the “Worldhoppers” (a term used by Sanderson to describe characters that show in different worlds of the Cosmere) occur there. It is also the series I am most excited about because it is epic fantasy in both scope and world building and I still remember very vividly Kaladin and how his story starts. It just resonated with me and he is not even my favorite character in this world. But I do not want to spoil all the fun in my reading journal adventure!

I will focus on this series in the second half of the year. And I am struggling to contain the excitement for getting back in this world. In fact, I struggle to keep up with the commitment to push this read to the second half of 2023!

Sharing my thoughts

I struggled to decide how to share my experience (re-)reading the Cosmere and I finally landed on the set-up that should work form me: dedicate a few reading journal posts to the Cosmere.

I will also want to provide a couple of why read series or books, focusing on The Stormlight Archive and probably Elantris and/or Warbreaker plus the Secret Projects.

Any suggestion on how to share this experience here? Most importantly, what are your plans in connection with Sanderson and / or the Cosmere? Do you expect to read from Sanderson in 2023? The new projects only or do you plan to expand and make this a year of Cosmere or Sanderson too?

If you are actively looking to have any form of a Cosmere year (better said, if you plan to read even one Sanderson book), put a book emoji (or a stack of books if you plan to read more than one Cosmere book in 2023) below!