Probably an unpopular opinion, but I prefer mistborn era 2 over era 1. I really like era 1, specially Hero of Ages, but era 2 just has something else, a little spark that makes me love it, with Lost Metal being my favorite. I complete agree with your placement of the rest (the ones I read at least😅, I still need to read books 2-4 from stormlight)
Yup you’re not alone! I love the Era 2 fun and whimsy, along with the special drama. I even really enjoyed both Wax *and* Wayne as characters!! Can’t really grok the Era 2 hate. The story and characters are so special and unique. I may actually reread Era 2 before I reread Era 1 some day!
Completely agree with your thoughts on Oathbringer, i found the first 50/60% of the book a bit of a mess for me. It did end brilliantly though as all of the Stormlight books do
You can easily rank everything in each tier by moving them left and right. Furthest left being closer to the tier above and furthest right being the closest to the tier below. 😵💫
Isn’t Elantris his first book ever?? That would explain why it is not as flushed out as his others, but what’s really amazing is you can see how Brandon has grown as a writer but also as he ages his focus changes and his main characters are also older. I do love that we have such a wide range with his books.
It's his first published book. Though the 6th book he wrote. It's funny too because The Final Empire his next published book was like his 12th or something. So he did have a lot more practice between those two than you'd think.
I agree with you on The Way of Kings. I’m doing my 3rd read of it and I am enjoying it even more. Kaladin is my favorite character in the Stormlight Archive. I also reread the Final Empire last year and didn’t enjoy it as much. It was solid but not a favorite. I’m rereading The Well of Ascension now and will finally finish book 3 this year (I dnf’d book 3 a while back). Stormlight is the superior series for me.
I agree with you on Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages, Way of Kings, and Rhythm of War! Naturally, I disagree on Oathbringer, Edgedancer, Dawnshard, but especially on Mistborn: Secret History (that one scene made everything even better, in my view) and Sunlit Man. Also, Tress and Emperor’s Soul are too low. I would have liked to see Sixth of the Dusk and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell in here as well! Even though you seem to generally dunk on the other novellas for being too short. I think the 6 novellas we have are long enough to be judged as stories and Sixth and Silence are our only stories on their respective planets. The wait for Wind and Truth continues!
Nice tier list! Thanks for sharing! Everything I've read by Sanderson so far ranges from "Good" to "Amazing" except for White Sand. That one is a "meh" for me. I wonder if the Omnibus version is better, though. I'm curious on your thoughts of it, if you've read it!
Rhythm of war is the best Stormlight book for me as well. Not bcz of Navani's chapters. I really didn't all the science work. But Kaladins arc from his very first chapter was so interesting and the ending sequence at Urithuru was so good. In my opinion , Oathbringer's ending was too focused on just 1 character. On the other hand, ROW's ending was focused on pretty much all of the characters and that did a world of good to the overall read of the last sequence, especially the fight between Kaladin and the pursuer and Kaladin's thoughts before and during the fight
Sixth of the Dusk is my favorite story in the Cosmere. I'm kind of glad you didn't include it because odds are we would have placed it in very different positions given the criteria you used to score the other stories.
I’ve so far only gone through Warbreaker and Elantris. I enjoyed both, but liked Elantris a lot more. I’m hoping to read through pretty much everything else this year
I find it interesting that all these tier lists seem to exclude the White Sand series. Even though it's a graphic novel, it's still a part of the cosmere and really interesting! Overall, I think this is a fantastic tier list and love your thoughts on everything. I'd make some minor adjustments for myself but on the whole this is extremely similar to how I'd rank things as well.
I’ve just started my Stormlight Archive read, so far I’ve only read WOK and I can’t wait to see which books I’m gonna love the most. The other cosmere books that I’ve read, I agree with most everything you said. Well of Ascension is a masterpiece and I’m ready to die on that hill. But I did love Secret History, especially after The Lost Metal came out. 😅
I'm still working on my re-read of the Stormlight Archives and Era 2 but I felt similarly to you on my re-read of Warbreaker. I loved it the first time but the second time it wasn't quite as impressive.
I won't agree or disagree with your rankings as I think many will differ on many of the titles. I have read all, except I am currently reading Warbreaker and still to read is Sunlit Man, Yumi, and I just ordered Emperors's Soul as I did not know this book existed or was Cosmere until this video. With that said, Where I agree the most with you is on Oathbringer. While I did like the overall story bits in this, I had a lot of trouble getting through it. With the other Stormlight books, I consumed them in a couple days each. Oathbringer took me a while of putting down and coming back to. The pace was wonky and every time a chapter started with "xx years ago..." I would let out a sigh. I like the backstory bits for Dalinar, but man! - the back and forth in the book made it a slog to read. Nothing about what was written about was a detractor for me, but the construction of the book was my issue. Maybe put Dalinar's backstory in a more linear telling or something. I don't know. Still liked it, just the least favorite of Stormlight for me. Where I disagree most with you is on the Mistborn era 2 books. I love Wax and Wayne! I love the industrial age-like setting. Wayne is probably my favorite character in all the published Mistborn behind Vin. Sidenote - the only Sanderson books I ever read before the fall of 2022 were his contributions to Wheel of Time. Since the fall of 2022 I have been consuming Cosmere quickly and cannot get enough of it. Aside from what I have yet to read as I mentioned, I also recently picked up Arcanum Unbounded and is in my TBR. You did not include this in your rankings. Is it not Cosmere? Speaking of Cosmere, you also did not include White Sands graphic novels. I have not picked them up yet, but aren't those Cosmere as well?
Funny, Oathbringer is my favorite Cosmere Book. The flashbacks alone lift it way above RoW which I was rather underwhelmed by and liked the least of the Stormlight-Archive. For me Dalinars final confrontation is probably the best single moment in all of Fantasy I ever read. (With the exception of the red wedding, which is a totally different kind of "great" moment.)
Where's my sunlit man love at? I def don't think it's S or A or anything but D tier? I thought it was kinda similar to frugal wizard but inside the cosmere. I spent a lot of time theory crafting about the cosmere while reading sunlit man and think that was my favorite part. I think the action was weak, but overall, I enjoyed sunlit quite a bit
I completely agree on Oathbringer, it alslmost put me off reading RoW, which turnes out to be one of my favourites. The Dalinar storyline in Oathbringer is the best character development I've ever read, the rest of the book just dragged.
I am still struggling through Oathbringer (i DNF it about 5 years ago and recently thought i should try to pick it up again) and felt like Stormlight archive is just not for me, but your opinions on rhythm of war makes me hopeful I might come to like it again. Overall stormlight is probably still my least favorite series of his. I'll probably skip edgedancer and dawnshard since my least favorite part of stormlight are the intermission chapters, because... i don't care about these characters. I think Stormlights problem for me is that it's too big, especially too big of a cast and I only care about a fraction of them. There are even characters I actually wish i could skip altogether. I personally looove Elantris so much and of his standalone books it's my most reread and favorite one. I also like The final empire the most of the 3 Mistborn books (of era1, i didn't read the era 2 books yet and keep procrastinating them) because I love the heist story part, (when I finished reading it i instantly reread it again) but Mistborn in general is just genius. Of his series it's my favorite. I very much agree on your opinion of warbreaker, but i'd put tress about the same tier as that. haven't read yet: yumi, emperors soul, era2 mistborn, secret history, the stormlight novellas and sunlit man. Still a lot to do here. (I had quite a long break from reading in general...partially because of oathbringer haha)
I'm half way through The Well of Ascension and so far I don't like it as much as The Finale Empire. Sazed has the most interesting storyline so far. Vin's storyline is okay. And Elend is Elend lol.
Elantris was my first and I have lots of nostalgia for it, but it’s def one of the weakest. When I got to Stormlight, Shallan struck me as off-brand Sarene lol
Shallan is Sarene but with flaws and 1000x more depth. In fact Shallan is so flawed and deep I don't really understand the comparison at all lol. Sarene is a very flat, static character relative to almost every other POV in the cosmere. Don't get me wrong, she's a good person and enjoyable character to read, but she kinda feels like a blank slate even by the end of Elantris. I wanted her to have more of an arc than she got :\ Raoden also had a similar issue for me. He's just 100% a good person with virtually no character flaws, a Gary Stu, and is the most static character in the Cosmere. Enjoyable to read but lacks that emotional gut punch we expect from Cosmere protagonists. Luckily we had a fantastic dynamic character in Hrathen, otherwise the story wouldn't have worked at all because you can't have every POV character be a static 100% good guy otherwise it just feels like a kids book.
I'm currently reading Oathbringer for the first time. I'm not having an issue with the pacing yet but I don't like how my favorite seems to being put on the backburner. I also don't like how present Shallans voice still is. I feel bad cause I feel like a lot of people don't like her and I'm not sure if my dislike of her is fair but I just find her so annoying. I would really like her to not have so large a presence.
I haven't read all the Cosmere books yet. Going to be working on some more of them later this year. But Way of Kings and Words of Radiance are tops for me. Rhythm of War would be ranked as the worst SA book but ahead of any Mistborn Era 1.
Im surprised about your opinion on secret history. So far i only read that and mistborn era 1( im a cosmere noob who just here for the vibes) but i thought that secret history enhanced the ending of hero of ages a ton for me. I thought HOA was great but i was missing some sense of finality to the trilogy that the reunion scene in secret history in particular gave me. Had me in my feels and didnt tamper with prestablished logic
I am really torn about the ending of Oathbringer. It was really intense, and immersive, and everything was coming together but in a dark and 'this either wins now or all is lost', then it turned into a marvel movie with every character saying a one liner that completely tore me away from the story and left me feeling both whiplashed and completely unmotivated to finish the story, which sucked because I really liked every other part of oathbringer.
So far i've read Mistborn Era 1 and Emperor's Soul. With your ranking system I would put Final Empire, Well of Ascencion, and Emperor's Soul in S tier. I especially enjoyed the political drama in book 2. Hero of Ages has a fantastic ending but would be A tier. Gonna try Elantris and Warbreaker next. Would you be making another Cosmere reading order video incorporating all the 2023 book?
Bro how do people rank Dawnshard so low, is a Cosmere wide level of importance (You could argue that putting that in a side story novella is not good but it's long so it didn't fit in books 4 and 5). And also we have sooo much world building and Rysn is such and interesting character.
There’s only one S tier book Sanderson has written and that is final empire. It’s the Elden ring of fantasy books. The book itself is OK in vacuum, but the feeling and exploration of the story and setting just like exploring in Elden ring make it S tier. Its magic only works the first time.
Honestly, Emperor's Soul and Warbreaker didnt hit that hard for me. I still really liked them, but others say they are the best in the cosmere and i can't relate.. That being said, the entire Stormlight Archive and Mistborn era 1 is absolute *shard teir ;) Really, my only two gripes are Sazed's POVs in HOA and Venli's flashbacks in ROW which were both a bit of a slog. Sanderson is the best
Alloy is top tier for me as is Final Empire. I tend to prefer first books that can standalone. I also really like the two main novellas you did not rank (Shadows for Silence and Sixth of Dusk) even more so than Emperor's Soul. Only two-thirds through WOK but I don't think it will be top tier for me. Absolutely agree about Secret History being bottom tier. It sounds like you were about to say it reads like fan fiction, which is accurate.
I love your content and you are great but I disagree with every single one of these rankings... I was stunned and shocked by this lol. But I don't matter! Thanks for your time and effort
I haven't read much of the Cosmere yet, but I really didn't like Warbreaker. There was just something really off-putting for me about the characters, and how the women in particular were portrayed.
Same I’ve only read Mistborn, tress, way of kings and war breaker. Warbreaker was so bad, honestly the worst book I’ve read in a long time. 2 star max 😂
Interesting ranking. I think Alloy of Law was my least fave era 2 book. It's not bad or anything, but it's just kinda like a warmup for the other three novels afterward. Brandon said though that Alloy is kinda the stage setter/standalone era2 book and the three afterward are more connected. Mkay, I can see that. The humor is more subtle and it's really about Wax & Wayne vs a more detailed character plot, etc. That gets ironed (hahaha) out in the next three. Oathbringer being ranked so low makes me sad. I like all the world building in that place some characters go, we see lots of spren and weird behaviors and places. The lighthouse thing is spooky and a good little thrill in the midst of all the doom and gloom. Also, Dalinar talking with the monarchs is perhaps not as interesting, but one thing i love about SL is its detail. Stuff like the feasts in the Way of Kings, the Middlefest chapter in Words, those are important scenes for building character depth and also kinda feeling like I'm there. I could be eating at the king's table and have Wit annoying me, that would be fun. Haha. Rhythm is amazing. At first I was just like, this is getting super dark and there's no breaks. But after reading it a few times it's one of my faves. The point is to be dark, things are moving and characters are showing strain. It's both fascinating and heartbreaking. I'm gonna get the other secret projects and read them all in one chunk later in the year before SL5 drops. Cheers and happy new year
Alloy of Law was my least favorite on first read, because I wasn't in love with the characters yet and didn't really trust where the story was going. On reread it became one of my favorites because I already loved the characters and knew how good the full arc was so it felt completely different the second time around.
I know Rhythm of War gets a lot of grief, but I really had only one problem with it: not enough Rock. I've heard Sanderson has plans for this character, but I felt his absence. Still, I can see why it belongs in the top tier.
I read warbreaker immediately after finishing the Farseer Trilogy, and had a very hard time getting through it. Not a bad book, just bad in comparison (for me at least).
Oathbringer spends too much time on characters in captivity. Authors seem to think it'll be full of pathos or something. But it's almost always boring instead. This was the only Sanderson book I've ever put down and not picked up again for two months.
I agree on Oathbringer, I thought it was slog and disagree on will ascension cant handle the angst of the characters one the well of the scension and dnf the book
You have opinions that have not been backed with much reasoning. Even with stuff that I agree with you, I thought you'd be more critically interesting. My mistake.
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Emperor's soul is a 5 star read for me.I can't imagine it in a B tier😂
People would argue that oathbringer has the best sanderlanch.
I am said people, haha :)
@@brooklynkelsey703 hello said people. Thank you for the good work you do in the community.
YOU CANNOT HAVE MY PAIN
@@dornishraven1628 "What's the most important step a man can take?"
Nah worse Sanderson book out there
i strongly disagree with your Oathbringer thoughts but i respect your opinion
Yay! I was waiting for everyone to redo their cosmere ranking. I figured it would happen as we approach the release of Wind and Truth
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I prefer mistborn era 2 over era 1. I really like era 1, specially Hero of Ages, but era 2 just has something else, a little spark that makes me love it, with Lost Metal being my favorite. I complete agree with your placement of the rest (the ones I read at least😅, I still need to read books 2-4 from stormlight)
I’m with you there, I really love Era 2 but I also do really like Era 1
Yup you’re not alone! I love the Era 2 fun and whimsy, along with the special drama. I even really enjoyed both Wax *and* Wayne as characters!! Can’t really grok the Era 2 hate. The story and characters are so special and unique. I may actually reread Era 2 before I reread Era 1 some day!
Completely agree with your thoughts on Oathbringer, i found the first 50/60% of the book a bit of a mess for me. It did end brilliantly though as all of the Stormlight books do
You can easily rank everything in each tier by moving them left and right. Furthest left being closer to the tier above and furthest right being the closest to the tier below. 😵💫
Isn’t Elantris his first book ever?? That would explain why it is not as flushed out as his others, but what’s really amazing is you can see how Brandon has grown as a writer but also as he ages his focus changes and his main characters are also older. I do love that we have such a wide range with his books.
It's his first published book. Though the 6th book he wrote. It's funny too because The Final Empire his next published book was like his 12th or something. So he did have a lot more practice between those two than you'd think.
Have to say, I love the outro music and am glad it has stayed with the channel all this time
holy shit. I almost forgot about "we have to go back" :D instant nostalgia. damn, lost was such a great show
I know, I was saying "nooooo and Yay go kick butt" at the same time!
I agree with you on The Way of Kings. I’m doing my 3rd read of it and I am enjoying it even more. Kaladin is my favorite character in the Stormlight Archive. I also reread the Final Empire last year and didn’t enjoy it as much. It was solid but not a favorite. I’m rereading The Well of Ascension now and will finally finish book 3 this year (I dnf’d book 3 a while back). Stormlight is the superior series for me.
My list is so different 😂 it’s so cool seeing how people’s tastes differ even in things they both enjoy. Love the video!
While I agree that Oathrbringer has some real pacing problems, I do think it’s Sanderlance is really great.
I agree with you on Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages, Way of Kings, and Rhythm of War!
Naturally, I disagree on Oathbringer, Edgedancer, Dawnshard, but especially on Mistborn: Secret History (that one scene made everything even better, in my view) and Sunlit Man. Also, Tress and Emperor’s Soul are too low.
I would have liked to see Sixth of the Dusk and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell in here as well! Even though you seem to generally dunk on the other novellas for being too short. I think the 6 novellas we have are long enough to be judged as stories and Sixth and Silence are our only stories on their respective planets.
The wait for Wind and Truth continues!
You're entitled to your opinion, and this video was an interesting watch. That being said, Oathbringer in C tier is criminal
This was a fun tier ranking. :) Way of Kings, Rhythm of War, and Words or Radiance are my favorite cosmere books.
Nice tier list! Thanks for sharing!
Everything I've read by Sanderson so far ranges from "Good" to "Amazing" except for White Sand. That one is a "meh" for me. I wonder if the Omnibus version is better, though. I'm curious on your thoughts of it, if you've read it!
Rhythm of war is the best Stormlight book for me as well. Not bcz of Navani's chapters. I really didn't all the science work. But Kaladins arc from his very first chapter was so interesting and the ending sequence at Urithuru was so good. In my opinion , Oathbringer's ending was too focused on just 1 character. On the other hand, ROW's ending was focused on pretty much all of the characters and that did a world of good to the overall read of the last sequence, especially the fight between Kaladin and the pursuer and Kaladin's thoughts before and during the fight
Sixth of the Dusk is my favorite story in the Cosmere. I'm kind of glad you didn't include it because odds are we would have placed it in very different positions given the criteria you used to score the other stories.
I’ve so far only gone through Warbreaker and Elantris. I enjoyed both, but liked Elantris a lot more. I’m hoping to read through pretty much everything else this year
you are in for a ride
I think you have tress lower than anyone I have ever watched before.
Rhythm of war is the best stormlight book for me as well
I find it interesting that all these tier lists seem to exclude the White Sand series. Even though it's a graphic novel, it's still a part of the cosmere and really interesting!
Overall, I think this is a fantastic tier list and love your thoughts on everything. I'd make some minor adjustments for myself but on the whole this is extremely similar to how I'd rank things as well.
Elantris and Emperors soul above OATHBRINGER is an absolutely wild take
I’ve just started my Stormlight Archive read, so far I’ve only read WOK and I can’t wait to see which books I’m gonna love the most. The other cosmere books that I’ve read, I agree with most everything you said. Well of Ascension is a masterpiece and I’m ready to die on that hill. But I did love Secret History, especially after The Lost Metal came out. 😅
Hard agree regarding oathbringer sanderlanch. Did not care about any of it whereas WoK and RoW were emotionally charged aswell as the action stuff
I'm still working on my re-read of the Stormlight Archives and Era 2 but I felt similarly to you on my re-read of Warbreaker. I loved it the first time but the second time it wasn't quite as impressive.
Hope you are having a great weekend Elliot 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🩵🎉📚📚📚🩵📖📙📖🩵🎉📚🎉🩵📖📖🩵🎉🎉📚📚📚🩵📖📙📙📖🩵🎉📚📚📚🩵📖📙
Words of Radiance is my favourite Sanderson Book :)
I won't agree or disagree with your rankings as I think many will differ on many of the titles. I have read all, except I am currently reading Warbreaker and still to read is Sunlit Man, Yumi, and I just ordered Emperors's Soul as I did not know this book existed or was Cosmere until this video.
With that said, Where I agree the most with you is on Oathbringer. While I did like the overall story bits in this, I had a lot of trouble getting through it. With the other Stormlight books, I consumed them in a couple days each. Oathbringer took me a while of putting down and coming back to. The pace was wonky and every time a chapter started with "xx years ago..." I would let out a sigh. I like the backstory bits for Dalinar, but man! - the back and forth in the book made it a slog to read. Nothing about what was written about was a detractor for me, but the construction of the book was my issue. Maybe put Dalinar's backstory in a more linear telling or something. I don't know. Still liked it, just the least favorite of Stormlight for me.
Where I disagree most with you is on the Mistborn era 2 books. I love Wax and Wayne! I love the industrial age-like setting. Wayne is probably my favorite character in all the published Mistborn behind Vin.
Sidenote - the only Sanderson books I ever read before the fall of 2022 were his contributions to Wheel of Time. Since the fall of 2022 I have been consuming Cosmere quickly and cannot get enough of it. Aside from what I have yet to read as I mentioned, I also recently picked up Arcanum Unbounded and is in my TBR. You did not include this in your rankings. Is it not Cosmere? Speaking of Cosmere, you also did not include White Sands graphic novels. I have not picked them up yet, but aren't those Cosmere as well?
You actually didn't need to order Emperor's Soul; it's included in the Arcanum. And yes, all those stories are Cosmere as well
I'm doing my Mistborn era 1 and Stormlight Archive re-reads later this year, so I'll be able to react better to your rankings then!
Absolutely insane you put secret history in D tier.
Funny, Oathbringer is my favorite Cosmere Book. The flashbacks alone lift it way above RoW which I was rather underwhelmed by and liked the least of the Stormlight-Archive. For me Dalinars final confrontation is probably the best single moment in all of Fantasy I ever read. (With the exception of the red wedding, which is a totally different kind of "great" moment.)
I kept reading online how Mistborn book 2 was everyone’s least favourite one in Era 1, but in my opinion it was the best!! I’m so glad others agree ❤
On first read, I was not a fan of ROW, but it grew on me on reread.
Where's my sunlit man love at? I def don't think it's S or A or anything but D tier?
I thought it was kinda similar to frugal wizard but inside the cosmere. I spent a lot of time theory crafting about the cosmere while reading sunlit man and think that was my favorite part. I think the action was weak, but overall, I enjoyed sunlit quite a bit
I completely agree on Oathbringer, it alslmost put me off reading RoW, which turnes out to be one of my favourites. The Dalinar storyline in Oathbringer is the best character development I've ever read, the rest of the book just dragged.
Damn you look good lol what books were we discussing again?
I am still struggling through Oathbringer (i DNF it about 5 years ago and recently thought i should try to pick it up again) and felt like Stormlight archive is just not for me, but your opinions on rhythm of war makes me hopeful I might come to like it again. Overall stormlight is probably still my least favorite series of his. I'll probably skip edgedancer and dawnshard since my least favorite part of stormlight are the intermission chapters, because... i don't care about these characters. I think Stormlights problem for me is that it's too big, especially too big of a cast and I only care about a fraction of them. There are even characters I actually wish i could skip altogether.
I personally looove Elantris so much and of his standalone books it's my most reread and favorite one. I also like The final empire the most of the 3 Mistborn books (of era1, i didn't read the era 2 books yet and keep procrastinating them) because I love the heist story part, (when I finished reading it i instantly reread it again) but Mistborn in general is just genius. Of his series it's my favorite. I very much agree on your opinion of warbreaker, but i'd put tress about the same tier as that. haven't read yet: yumi, emperors soul, era2 mistborn, secret history, the stormlight novellas and sunlit man. Still a lot to do here. (I had quite a long break from reading in general...partially because of oathbringer haha)
I'm half way through The Well of Ascension and so far I don't like it as much as The Finale Empire. Sazed has the most interesting storyline so far. Vin's storyline is okay. And Elend is Elend lol.
Wayne make me cry more than the end of era 1, imo
Elantris was my first and I have lots of nostalgia for it, but it’s def one of the weakest. When I got to Stormlight, Shallan struck me as off-brand Sarene lol
Shallan is Sarene but with flaws and 1000x more depth. In fact Shallan is so flawed and deep I don't really understand the comparison at all lol. Sarene is a very flat, static character relative to almost every other POV in the cosmere. Don't get me wrong, she's a good person and enjoyable character to read, but she kinda feels like a blank slate even by the end of Elantris. I wanted her to have more of an arc than she got :\
Raoden also had a similar issue for me. He's just 100% a good person with virtually no character flaws, a Gary Stu, and is the most static character in the Cosmere. Enjoyable to read but lacks that emotional gut punch we expect from Cosmere protagonists. Luckily we had a fantastic dynamic character in Hrathen, otherwise the story wouldn't have worked at all because you can't have every POV character be a static 100% good guy otherwise it just feels like a kids book.
I'm currently reading Oathbringer for the first time. I'm not having an issue with the pacing yet but I don't like how my favorite seems to being put on the backburner. I also don't like how present Shallans voice still is. I feel bad cause I feel like a lot of people don't like her and I'm not sure if my dislike of her is fair but I just find her so annoying. I would really like her to not have so large a presence.
I haven't read all the Cosmere books yet. Going to be working on some more of them later this year. But Way of Kings and Words of Radiance are tops for me. Rhythm of War would be ranked as the worst SA book but ahead of any Mistborn Era 1.
And I thought my list was wild...
Im surprised about your opinion on secret history. So far i only read that and mistborn era 1( im a cosmere noob who just here for the vibes) but i thought that secret history enhanced the ending of hero of ages a ton for me. I thought HOA was great but i was missing some sense of finality to the trilogy that the reunion scene in secret history in particular gave me. Had me in my feels and didnt tamper with prestablished logic
Tress the emerald sea love the book and the characters beautiful story 🎉📚📚🩵📖📖📖🎉📚📚📚📚🎉📖📖🎉🩵📚📚🎉📙📙📖🎉🩵🩵📚📚🩵🎉📖📙📙📖🎉📚📚🩵🎉
I am really torn about the ending of Oathbringer. It was really intense, and immersive, and everything was coming together but in a dark and 'this either wins now or all is lost', then it turned into a marvel movie with every character saying a one liner that completely tore me away from the story and left me feeling both whiplashed and completely unmotivated to finish the story, which sucked because I really liked every other part of oathbringer.
So far i've read Mistborn Era 1 and Emperor's Soul. With your ranking system I would put Final Empire, Well of Ascencion, and Emperor's Soul in S tier. I especially enjoyed the political drama in book 2. Hero of Ages has a fantastic ending but would be A tier. Gonna try Elantris and Warbreaker next. Would you be making another Cosmere reading order video incorporating all the 2023 book?
Bands of Mourning is also the least memorable for me and I'm about to reread it. I'm currently doing a reread of most Cosmere books.
Bro how do people rank Dawnshard so low, is a Cosmere wide level of importance (You could argue that putting that in a side story novella is not good but it's long so it didn't fit in books 4 and 5). And also we have sooo much world building and Rysn is such and interesting character.
I’ve still yet to read a Brandon Sanderson book 🥲
There’s only one S tier book Sanderson has written and that is final empire. It’s the Elden ring of fantasy books. The book itself is OK in vacuum, but the feeling and exploration of the story and setting just like exploring in Elden ring make it S tier. Its magic only works the first time.
Not having every stormlight book in S tier let alone C tier is a crime
Great vid! I just put out my own ranking including every Cosmere work. Made a new tier list maker for it so check it out and send me your rankings!
Best words of radiance. I don't think Brandon wrote anything better yet.
Worst elantris
Honestly, Emperor's Soul and Warbreaker didnt hit that hard for me. I still really liked them, but others say they are the best in the cosmere and i can't relate.. That being said, the entire Stormlight Archive and Mistborn era 1 is absolute *shard teir ;)
Really, my only two gripes are Sazed's POVs in HOA and Venli's flashbacks in ROW which were both a bit of a slog. Sanderson is the best
Alloy is top tier for me as is Final Empire. I tend to prefer first books that can standalone.
I also really like the two main novellas you did not rank (Shadows for Silence and Sixth of Dusk) even more so than Emperor's Soul.
Only two-thirds through WOK but I don't think it will be top tier for me.
Absolutely agree about Secret History being bottom tier. It sounds like you were about to say it reads like fan fiction, which is accurate.
Well of Ascension belongs lower simply because Zane is in it. Huge miss in the mistborn series imo.
I love your content and you are great but I disagree with every single one of these rankings... I was stunned and shocked by this lol. But I don't matter! Thanks for your time and effort
I completely agree with you on Oathbringer - both times I read it I put it down for weeks halfway through after racing through the first two books
Our rankings are so different, mostly because I have only 3 tiers, C and D tier don't exist for me when it comes to Cosmere 😅
I haven't read much of the Cosmere yet, but I really didn't like Warbreaker. There was just something really off-putting for me about the characters, and how the women in particular were portrayed.
you're not alone
Same I’ve only read Mistborn, tress, way of kings and war breaker. Warbreaker was so bad, honestly the worst book I’ve read in a long time. 2 star max 😂
Interesting ranking.
I think Alloy of Law was my least fave era 2 book. It's not bad or anything, but it's just kinda like a warmup for the other three novels afterward. Brandon said though that Alloy is kinda the stage setter/standalone era2 book and the three afterward are more connected. Mkay, I can see that. The humor is more subtle and it's really about Wax & Wayne vs a more detailed character plot, etc. That gets ironed (hahaha) out in the next three.
Oathbringer being ranked so low makes me sad. I like all the world building in that place some characters go, we see lots of spren and weird behaviors and places. The lighthouse thing is spooky and a good little thrill in the midst of all the doom and gloom.
Also, Dalinar talking with the monarchs is perhaps not as interesting, but one thing i love about SL is its detail. Stuff like the feasts in the Way of Kings, the Middlefest chapter in Words, those are important scenes for building character depth and also kinda feeling like I'm there. I could be eating at the king's table and have Wit annoying me, that would be fun. Haha.
Rhythm is amazing. At first I was just like, this is getting super dark and there's no breaks. But after reading it a few times it's one of my faves. The point is to be dark, things are moving and characters are showing strain. It's both fascinating and heartbreaking.
I'm gonna get the other secret projects and read them all in one chunk later in the year before SL5 drops.
Cheers and happy new year
Alloy of Law was my least favorite on first read, because I wasn't in love with the characters yet and didn't really trust where the story was going. On reread it became one of my favorites because I already loved the characters and knew how good the full arc was so it felt completely different the second time around.
Uhm. Oathbringer is 4th tier. Boo to you. You're plain mean. You are more devious than Prince Regal.
I have no real evidence but i feel like peoples opinion of mistborn era 2 depends entirely on how you feel about Wayne
I really wish I could go back and not read Secret History. It nearly ruined Mistborn for me and I would argue that it retconned the end of HOA.
Your dentist's name is Crentist?
The Well of Ascension is a masterpiece ❤️
I know Rhythm of War gets a lot of grief, but I really had only one problem with it: not enough Rock. I've heard Sanderson has plans for this character, but I felt his absence. Still, I can see why it belongs in the top tier.
I read warbreaker immediately after finishing the Farseer Trilogy, and had a very hard time getting through it. Not a bad book, just bad in comparison (for me at least).
I’m more than halfway through Warbreaker and struggling. However, I accidentally watched Elliot’s spoiler on that book. So, hard to finish as well.
warbreaker is probably his most overrated work tbh
What the f...? Rhythm better than Words of Radiance? Oathbringer C tier?
That's personal opinion bro... If you like the other books better that's your personal opinion. No hard feelings.
I spilled my coffee! 😅
Oathbringer spends too much time on characters in captivity. Authors seem to think it'll be full of pathos or something. But it's almost always boring instead.
This was the only Sanderson book I've ever put down and not picked up again for two months.
❤❤❤❤❤❤
Elliot doesn't know how to do a tier list. You did not order the books in each tier based on what you said. Also secret history bottom tier common!!!
The disrespect towards Wayne…
I agree on Oathbringer, I thought it was slog and disagree on will ascension cant handle the angst of the characters one the well of the scension and dnf the book
Aren't you forgetting the short stories?
Dumb comment
You have opinions that have not been backed with much reasoning. Even with stuff that I agree with you, I thought you'd be more critically interesting. My mistake.
That’s why it’s called an OPINION. It’s about feelings. It’s not literary critique, it’s a tier ranking. Get over yourself. 🙄
Rude.
This is so bad. Unfollowing.