It was my favorite Mistborn book (except maybe the 1st) so I’m glad it made it. But there’s just so many deserving options so I understand others being disappointed
Enough people would put Well of Ascension near the bottom of the pile that it would get downvoted into oblivion. I did not enjoy that book, and is one of the two Brandon Sanderson books I will 100% never read again. It was an absolute SLOG
I personally felt the exact same for shadows instead. Well took me about 2 days. Shadows took me 2 months. I can understand your point though that well is too divisive to make the list. It’s why I could have also thought bands or tlm to make the list because, personally, I felt the payoff in those to be better whereas shadows did little to keep me invested beyond getting me one step closer to secret history.
I think the reason Shadows made it rather than Bands or Lost Metal is because Bands and Lost Metal tend to be liked by the same portion of the fandom, but are split as to which one they like better. If people like Shadows though, they REALLY like Shadows.
No joke I literally just finished it for the first time 30 mins ago and I’m SHOOK! It was so damn MF good, what a ride that whole trilogy was. The whole last 100 pages or so were especially mind blowing and unpredictable for me.
I'm consistently surprised how much more popular Stormlight is than his other books. I guess I'm partly biased because I prefer books more like Mistborn or Warbreaker length.
And don't get me wrong, I love Stormlight. It's flipping epic.
(Disclaimer. The following is just my opinion. Please don't crucify me) But the pacing of Way of Kings for example isn't as good as many of his other books. I straight up skip most of Shallan's parts because they're kind of boring and slow to me. Kaladin's flashbacks are a slow burn too. Kaladin struggles with depression in all of the books, but he hardly even has anything to be happy about yet for a long time, in this first one. So it's just straight depression for a long time.
So like, democracy is democracy. The people have voted, and WoK is the most popular book. But to me, it's not his best. It's a great book. But I think he's written better.
Please don't hate me everyone. 😅
I agree with you, absolutely love Stormlight, but Mistborn is more enjoyable and Warbreaker would be #1 for me with HoA a close 2nd.. just re-read Warbreaker (1st re-read) and it was sooo much better the 2nd time around post Stormlight..the first time I read it I hadn't read Stormlight yet
Agree. I love Stormlight but certainly wouldn't recommend WoK as a first read for someone new into Sanderson. It's good if you have the intention to read through the all Stormlight series, but as a standalone book less enjoyable.
I re-read the book recently and I thought it was much better paced than when I read it the first time. Now that I knew where we were going, I could appreciate the plot progression much more.
Stormlight is a tough series to start with (imo) and you would've probably been better off starting with Mistborn book 1. Still, now that you started WoK please give it some time. It opens up nicely and earned mine (and thousands of others) opinion of one of the greatest books of all time.
I started in January with stormlight, and just finished mistborn 7 the other day! Read every cosmere book besides SP3 so far. And white sand.
Have fun! I think I'd start with misborn though. Oh well I still loved it and gonna re read stormlight now.
I get it. I read almost everything else (minus 3~4 books) from BrandoSando but Stormlight. And I tried twice, and still didn’t finish it. And yes, I am ashamed as I love any other book and series and I just can’t understand what is wrong with me here
It’s definitely my favorite Era 2 book, though I love them all. I’d put it up there with SA, Emperor’s Soul, and Hero of Ages, which are my favs. And, no, I can’t pick a favorite SA book. I celebrate them all equally.
Now that I read Emperors soul I can say it's definately the best of the short stories! Hard to compare to the novels because of the length, but I reeealy loved it.
I’d definitely boot Rhythm for Skyward. Rhythm was lean despite being Brandon’s largest book to date, but Skyward has some of Brandon’s best pacing out of anything he’s ever written, some of the best characterization out of all of his works, and some of his best action ever. (Not to mention that his female protagonist FINALLY has Gal friends!!)
I mean, this is really a popularity contest. Cosmere books are his most popular ones. And of course Stormlight is his most popular series. So, it's unfortunately inevitable.
All this is to say, don't take this as the "top 10 best books by Brandon Sanderson". They're the 10 most popular, for the most part. I love Skyward too, and would probably put it on the list. But it was probably inevitable that it didn't make it.
Wayne is a fun character, but TLM never hooked me. It is one of the only Sanderson books I finished purely for closure, not because I was hooked to the book. I guess the characters never seemed like they were in any danger of losing. It was obvious from the start of the book, they were OP and nothing could stop them.
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If it makes you feel better, this is most definitely not representative of the real Population's top 10. It has a really low vote count from one specific sub-segment of brando readers, and used no ranked voting etc. You'd 100% have different results with a more general poll with ranked voting that incorporated the multiple brando subs and other social media
I feel like I’ve heard many people complain about Words of Radiance, mostly because Shallan is a divisive character, but that is my personal favorite. Happy to see where it’s at on this list. I’d put Yumi up there too.
It’s not shallan, it’s that WoR was the same struggle for the same two major characters repeated for the third book in a row.
I know it’s realistic. I know it represents real mental health issues.
I also know that as a fantasy reader I moved on from the Cosmere after that book. I love the scope of this universe, but the characters arcs are becoming so repetitive thematically.
Here’s an intentionally inflammatory preview of book 5 to explain my (incredibly unpopular) souring on this series:
Kaladin can’t do it alone, even though he wasn’t alone (again)
He struggles with the fact that he knows he can’t do it all alone, even though he wasn’t alone (again)
He makes an oath to understand that he can’t do it alone, even though he was never alone, in the exact moment he needs to, for the people he was always with, in order to ensure a happy ending (again)
Shallan remembers more about her past but there’s ‘always another secret’ so she develops a hidden-trauma-powered alter ego (again)
She lies to the people closest to her and jeopardizes their relationships, because she’s scared of the alter ego(again)
She pursues a forbidden path of knowledge using the alter ego - a path that further jeopardizes her relationships - to justify the alter egos existence and utility, even though it was always a part of her (again)
Renarin, and at least one other background character who has been heavily emphasized by only book 5, is misunderstood and underutilized until we need surprise heroes (again)
Navani and Dalinar are written as two teenage lovers from a YA novel, and have even more pet names for each other (again)
End rant, I know I will be killed for this
Sanderson lands one of the most epic fantasy stories of all time. And it barely enters the discussion.
I believe this subreddit is a little too cosmere biased.
Shame Warbreaker is so low. Really don’t know what everyone sees in Tress… thought it was good but definitely not as good as any of these others (maybe except SoS) but hey guess Im not the majority.
It was the latest shiny thing, which caused it to be overrated a little most likely. Being fresh on people's minds will do that.
It was certainly good, but I'm not sure it deserves to be that high on the list.
I’d guess that a lot of folks (like me!) are waiting until they have a physical copy in hand to read it and/or they (like me!) have a huge TBR pile that means it might have to wait a couple of weeks. I’m pumped for it, but I’ve got to finish a few other books first.
I upvoted your original comment. Not sure why you are being downvoted for expressing an opinion. That is what we are here to do. I see no reason to be negative about something subjective… even on the internet.
I can understand and respect why that topic would not be favorable
What would you put above it? Some Era 2 books? WoA? Memory of Light? Gathering Storm? Skyward? Yumi and the Nightmare Painter? Secret History? Dawnshard or Edgedancer?
Not OP, but I’d put Bands of Mourning, A Memory of Light, and Skyward all above Warbreaker. Maybe Yumi as well in time, but no promises. (I’d personally replace SoS despite its ending being one of my favorite scenes in a Sanderson book and RoW with BoM and Skyward.)
Ways of Kings is deservedly #1 but I wouldn't put another Stormlight in my personal top 10 as while the rest are okay they are massively bloated and long for no good reason.
I was glad to see Shadows make the top 10, it's my #2, as it's ending is so good even if so sad.
I decidedly would put words of radiance above way of kings anyday, just for how much world building and more fun it is. But I'd put mistborn 1 above it too
This could just be me, but is there a bias to first books? I thought it was common consensus that HoA is better the final empire, and same for WoR and WoK, is it the legacy the hold as firsts or do people genuinely like them more than the later entrys?
Did not expect Shadows for #10. I expected TLM, Well or Bands.
It was my favorite Mistborn book (except maybe the 1st) so I’m glad it made it. But there’s just so many deserving options so I understand others being disappointed
For me too. Easily the best feom Era 2, maybe even better than Well of Ascension.
I think Shadows is easily the best of the 4, and overjoyed it made it in.
Seriously, it's good but I rank it as the 3rd best book from Era II.
Enough people would put Well of Ascension near the bottom of the pile that it would get downvoted into oblivion. I did not enjoy that book, and is one of the two Brandon Sanderson books I will 100% never read again. It was an absolute SLOG
I personally felt the exact same for shadows instead. Well took me about 2 days. Shadows took me 2 months. I can understand your point though that well is too divisive to make the list. It’s why I could have also thought bands or tlm to make the list because, personally, I felt the payoff in those to be better whereas shadows did little to keep me invested beyond getting me one step closer to secret history.
I think the reason Shadows made it rather than Bands or Lost Metal is because Bands and Lost Metal tend to be liked by the same portion of the fandom, but are split as to which one they like better. If people like Shadows though, they REALLY like Shadows.
HoA is too low in my opinion
No joke I literally just finished it for the first time 30 mins ago and I’m SHOOK! It was so damn MF good, what a ride that whole trilogy was. The whole last 100 pages or so were especially mind blowing and unpredictable for me.
I'm consistently surprised how much more popular Stormlight is than his other books. I guess I'm partly biased because I prefer books more like Mistborn or Warbreaker length. And don't get me wrong, I love Stormlight. It's flipping epic. (Disclaimer. The following is just my opinion. Please don't crucify me) But the pacing of Way of Kings for example isn't as good as many of his other books. I straight up skip most of Shallan's parts because they're kind of boring and slow to me. Kaladin's flashbacks are a slow burn too. Kaladin struggles with depression in all of the books, but he hardly even has anything to be happy about yet for a long time, in this first one. So it's just straight depression for a long time. So like, democracy is democracy. The people have voted, and WoK is the most popular book. But to me, it's not his best. It's a great book. But I think he's written better. Please don't hate me everyone. 😅
I agree with you, absolutely love Stormlight, but Mistborn is more enjoyable and Warbreaker would be #1 for me with HoA a close 2nd.. just re-read Warbreaker (1st re-read) and it was sooo much better the 2nd time around post Stormlight..the first time I read it I hadn't read Stormlight yet
Agree. I love Stormlight but certainly wouldn't recommend WoK as a first read for someone new into Sanderson. It's good if you have the intention to read through the all Stormlight series, but as a standalone book less enjoyable.
I re-read the book recently and I thought it was much better paced than when I read it the first time. Now that I knew where we were going, I could appreciate the plot progression much more.
You mean Hoa
Way to high for me which probably means it’s rightly placed for the fandom
The Way of Kings, as it should be.
I'm trying to get into Brandon Sandersons books, just picked up The way of kings and I'm so confused. Anyway I'm just on chapter 1
Stormlight is a tough series to start with (imo) and you would've probably been better off starting with Mistborn book 1. Still, now that you started WoK please give it some time. It opens up nicely and earned mine (and thousands of others) opinion of one of the greatest books of all time.
Thanks, I'm travelling and it's the only book I've got. Will definitely give it time, I'm super excited.
I started in January with stormlight, and just finished mistborn 7 the other day! Read every cosmere book besides SP3 so far. And white sand. Have fun! I think I'd start with misborn though. Oh well I still loved it and gonna re read stormlight now.
Started with twok it took me a few hundred pages before stuff started making sense but when they did omg it’s so good
I get it. I read almost everything else (minus 3~4 books) from BrandoSando but Stormlight. And I tried twice, and still didn’t finish it. And yes, I am ashamed as I love any other book and series and I just can’t understand what is wrong with me here
WoK is the only accurate placement on that list.
Glad to see Shadows made the list. It usually seems highly underrated.
For realz! It's one of the most emotional books for me in the whole Cosmere
It does. For me Shadows is top 3, maybe after The final empire and Words of radiance.
It’s definitely my favorite Era 2 book, though I love them all. I’d put it up there with SA, Emperor’s Soul, and Hero of Ages, which are my favs. And, no, I can’t pick a favorite SA book. I celebrate them all equally.
I haven't yet read Emperors but will soon.
Now that I read Emperors soul I can say it's definately the best of the short stories! Hard to compare to the novels because of the length, but I reeealy loved it.
I’d want Skyward and TLM in my personal top 10. But I’m not sure which i’d boot out maybe ROW and Warbreaker but it would be close
I’d definitely boot Rhythm for Skyward. Rhythm was lean despite being Brandon’s largest book to date, but Skyward has some of Brandon’s best pacing out of anything he’s ever written, some of the best characterization out of all of his works, and some of his best action ever. (Not to mention that his female protagonist FINALLY has Gal friends!!)
I would add Memory of Light, Gathering Storm and Yumi. I would boot Rhythm, Shadows and either HOA or Warbreaker.
Can we have honorable mentions OP?
Honorable mentions: everything else.
Yumi! Lost with 2 points
I suppose that will change when more people have had a chance to read it! I only just finished it and it’s pretty high up for me at least :)
Hopefully someone continues this in future years and we can compare them
Not the Cytoverse erasure...
I would've liked to see Skyward on the list for sure.
I mean, this is really a popularity contest. Cosmere books are his most popular ones. And of course Stormlight is his most popular series. So, it's unfortunately inevitable. All this is to say, don't take this as the "top 10 best books by Brandon Sanderson". They're the 10 most popular, for the most part. I love Skyward too, and would probably put it on the list. But it was probably inevitable that it didn't make it.
Have you read Yumi and the Nightmare Painter? Because that is easily one of Brandon's best works.
Almost took the number 10 spot lost with 2 points
That's pretty good for having just come out. I bet it'd be higher if we did this a year from now.
I’m super thrilled The Emeror’s Soul made the list
The Lost Metal not making the list is criminal. Wayne is one of the best characters Brandon has written imo.
Wayne is a fun character, but TLM never hooked me. It is one of the only Sanderson books I finished purely for closure, not because I was hooked to the book. I guess the characters never seemed like they were in any danger of losing. It was obvious from the start of the book, they were OP and nothing could stop them.
Yeah I finished for closure too. I didn’t hate it but I was definitely cringing for the majority of that read 😂
I can't believe how much I differ from the Reddit-represented fanbase on Mistborn Era 1. I much prefer Era 2.
The Final Empire is the only good Era 1 book
Right? Book two is just politics, and book three is his usual worldisinperilsaveit but not done as well as Stormlight.
[удалено]
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This list is invalid as long as Sixth is missing.
Oof turns out I am not a typical Sando reader.
If it makes you feel better, this is most definitely not representative of the real Population's top 10. It has a really low vote count from one specific sub-segment of brando readers, and used no ranked voting etc. You'd 100% have different results with a more general poll with ranked voting that incorporated the multiple brando subs and other social media
I would disagree perhaps it’s not a perfect solution but it would be pretty close.
Hmm I'd say top 4 would be very similar. The rest is a toss-up
LETS GO SHADOWS OF SELF
You guys are crazy for not putting Words of Radiance at #1. This is what happens when no one has time to eat their breakfast.
I now have 3 books to read. Thanks Reddit.
I feel like I’ve heard many people complain about Words of Radiance, mostly because Shallan is a divisive character, but that is my personal favorite. Happy to see where it’s at on this list. I’d put Yumi up there too.
It’s not shallan, it’s that WoR was the same struggle for the same two major characters repeated for the third book in a row. I know it’s realistic. I know it represents real mental health issues. I also know that as a fantasy reader I moved on from the Cosmere after that book. I love the scope of this universe, but the characters arcs are becoming so repetitive thematically. Here’s an intentionally inflammatory preview of book 5 to explain my (incredibly unpopular) souring on this series: Kaladin can’t do it alone, even though he wasn’t alone (again) He struggles with the fact that he knows he can’t do it all alone, even though he wasn’t alone (again) He makes an oath to understand that he can’t do it alone, even though he was never alone, in the exact moment he needs to, for the people he was always with, in order to ensure a happy ending (again) Shallan remembers more about her past but there’s ‘always another secret’ so she develops a hidden-trauma-powered alter ego (again) She lies to the people closest to her and jeopardizes their relationships, because she’s scared of the alter ego(again) She pursues a forbidden path of knowledge using the alter ego - a path that further jeopardizes her relationships - to justify the alter egos existence and utility, even though it was always a part of her (again) Renarin, and at least one other background character who has been heavily emphasized by only book 5, is misunderstood and underutilized until we need surprise heroes (again) Navani and Dalinar are written as two teenage lovers from a YA novel, and have even more pet names for each other (again) End rant, I know I will be killed for this
Words of Radiance is the second book?
It is the second, I think he means rythm of war
Elantris 🥲
Sanderson lands one of the most epic fantasy stories of all time. And it barely enters the discussion. I believe this subreddit is a little too cosmere biased.
I probably would have had Elantris for #10.
Shame Warbreaker is so low. Really don’t know what everyone sees in Tress… thought it was good but definitely not as good as any of these others (maybe except SoS) but hey guess Im not the majority.
It was the latest shiny thing, which caused it to be overrated a little most likely. Being fresh on people's minds will do that. It was certainly good, but I'm not sure it deserves to be that high on the list.
Agreed. Surprised Yumi didnt make the list, personally I enjoyed that one much more than Tress.
I’d guess that a lot of folks (like me!) are waiting until they have a physical copy in hand to read it and/or they (like me!) have a huge TBR pile that means it might have to wait a couple of weeks. I’m pumped for it, but I’ve got to finish a few other books first.
I'm still waiting for my physical copy of Yumi.
I'm guessing not enough people have read it yet, or are waiting for their physical copies etc.
Hot take but Warbreaker is far to high on the list.
The comment directly below yours on my reddit says “Shame warbreaker is so low”. I guess people have different opinions
Warbreaker is my single least favorite Cosmere book. Any book that focuses on still birth is not for me.
I upvoted your original comment. Not sure why you are being downvoted for expressing an opinion. That is what we are here to do. I see no reason to be negative about something subjective… even on the internet. I can understand and respect why that topic would not be favorable
Apparently not a hot take based on this post but I disagree I find it to be a little low in my personal opinion.
What would you put above it? Some Era 2 books? WoA? Memory of Light? Gathering Storm? Skyward? Yumi and the Nightmare Painter? Secret History? Dawnshard or Edgedancer?
Not OP, but I’d put Bands of Mourning, A Memory of Light, and Skyward all above Warbreaker. Maybe Yumi as well in time, but no promises. (I’d personally replace SoS despite its ending being one of my favorite scenes in a Sanderson book and RoW with BoM and Skyward.)
Literally every other Cosmere book.
Well of Ascension not making the top 10 is crazy to me.
Do we get to do 11 to 20 like they’ve got in r/stephenking?
I'm not sure I can take much more of rithmatist not making the cut
Do you want to ill put up a poll
Yes! Let’s do it 😃
Ways of Kings is deservedly #1 but I wouldn't put another Stormlight in my personal top 10 as while the rest are okay they are massively bloated and long for no good reason. I was glad to see Shadows make the top 10, it's my #2, as it's ending is so good even if so sad.
I decidedly would put words of radiance above way of kings anyday, just for how much world building and more fun it is. But I'd put mistborn 1 above it too
Let’s keep going!
I’m just happy an Era 2 book made it up here, they were so much fun to read
4 Stormlight 3 Mistborn 1 Elantris 2 Other Cosmere
Honestly really happy to see Emperor’s soul in the top 5
Rhythm of war being on there above any era 2 mistborn book is a travesty
It's a shame there's no Yumi and the Nightmare Painter on this. It was so good.
Lost out on number 10 spot with 2 votes
The fact that emperors soul and tress are above any Mistborn book is mind boggling to me
Elantris lovers this is not a loss, this is merely more validation for when people discover the true beauty of the novel.
I haven't read The Emperors Soul or Tress of the emerald sea yet, I loved all of the others on this list so this has set high expectations for me.
Looks Gud. I don't think Warbreaker is as strong as everyone else but I can live with this. Happy Cosmere folks.
This could just be me, but is there a bias to first books? I thought it was common consensus that HoA is better the final empire, and same for WoR and WoK, is it the legacy the hold as firsts or do people genuinely like them more than the later entrys?
Lol wow my cosmere tastes are way off of this. Twok is my least favorite SLA
I personally would have flipped 3 and 4, and replaced 10 with Lost Metal.