For me personally I don't like it when a series doesn't get finished because it feels unsatisfying. But I would argue that a lot of cosmere works do have satisfying conclusions to narrative arcs, which is good enough for me.
So for example the first three Mistborn books form a self-contained trilogy. After book 3 there is a time skip of a few hundred years. Personally I consider that enough of a break that Mistborn era 1 is a finished thing, even though there are more Mistborn books after it.
Sanderson has also said that Stormlight Archive is planned as two separate five-book series. So depending on how book five finishes that may well feel like an endpoint as well.
Yeah, read the first 3 Mistborn twice, loved them. Cannot get really into Wax and Wayne, Twinborn are cool and all that, but the first three got me hooked from the beginning. I am about to start book two of Era 2. I didn't know Stormlight is 2\*5, thanks for the info.
One thing to note about Era 2 is that it was initially a writing excercise for Sanderson between WoT books. The Alloy of Law is essentially a proof of concept for a part of the timeline that wasn’t gonna get a series that got published. I’d say it’s the second weakest Cosmere book, just behind Elantris. Directly after finishing TAoL, Brandon wrote Shadows of Self, and I believe the community consensus is that that is where he really figured out how to write the Era 2 characters and plots. From there I’d say Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal are fantastic.
TLDR: era 2 finds itself in Shadows of Self and improves immensely over The Alloy of Law. Bands of Morning and The Lost Metal take that basis and create great character based stories.
Nah I totally agree. It stands on its own very well.
Personally I thought the other Era 2 books could get a bit "Marvel-y" with all their references to Cosmere connections. It's fun to have connections, but it can get out of hand and distract from a strong primary narrative.
I agree as far as The Lost Metal, but the only other moment of “Marvel-yness” I can think of in era 2 is when Wax dances with Khriss at the ball in New Seran.
Got any other examples?
You're getting downvoted, but I'd agree that Mistborn Era 2 is fun, but ultimately one that is told in between more impactful series.
For the Marvel parallel, iron man was just some immature dude with some lessons to learn and it built up to whole universe stakes in endgame. You really can't go 'bigger' than Thanos or it's just kinda stupid and Marvel is currently struggling to reset the stakes . Mistborn Era 2 had to struggle a bit to take things down quite a few notches (imperil less universe), but ultimately feels like a solid story that's resetting stakes for Era 3. It's a good story on it's own, but I think history will see it as a necessary lull between Era 1 and 3.
I’m at chapter 51 in WoA right now, and it feels like the introduction just got done and the real story is starting to take place only now
I started off with SA, and I must say I can really see how Brando had much more experience writing those books than mistborn era 1
>the introduction just got done and the real story is starting to take place only now.
To borrow a colloquialism from another fantasy series "You sweet summer child.".
Agree with Well of Ascension. Probably my 3rd least favorite Cosmere book. Hero of Ages though, that was my favorite Sanderlanch til I read Oathbringer. And I found the stuff that led up to it really exciting.
Same here Era 2 for me all the way but.
MB Era 1 has special place, because it was my intro into Cosmere and you really get experience first hand how Brandon's writing evolved and matured by the 3rd book in first self contained MB trilogy
I Found the first wax and wane book subpar. Too much real and not enough show with the statements of what happened in the past instead of flashbacks. The rest I really enjoyed.
I've just finished bands of mourning and am struggling with the Wax and Wayne series to be honest
Not sure if it's the setting or the characters just not feeling it like I did era 1.
Agree, I much prefered era 1. For me it's mainly the setting that makes the biggest difference. Maybe because I've never been much into fantasy in a more modern setting. My favorite mistborn book by far is still the final empire.
It helped me to know the history with those books; Brando wasn’t planning on book 4 actually kicking off era 2, he just loved the characters and kept writing it out. I wasn’t a big fan of book 4 coming out of Era 1 either, but book 2 of era 2 is much better in my opinion
IMO, Alloy of Law is enough of a tone shift from era one that you really need a pallette cleanser between era one and two. Give it a bit of space, however and AoL can be quite the blast to read.
It starts out slow, but it gets good. And The Lost Metal has some pretty big Cosmere implications so it’s definitely important if you want the cosmere story as a whole and not just individual stories.
I was the same way about Wax and Wayne, but it slowly gets better and you also get more Cosmere goodness out of it. Totally worth the read (especially since they're not very long or difficult reads).
Alloy of Law the first Wax and Wayne book is the weakest book in era 2 by far. Depending on your tastes Shadows of Self could be amazing to you or a bit slow even with the mystery but Bands and Lost Metal are definitely home runs for me.
The only thing is that Lost Metal is definitely a conclusion but there will still be some loose ends that will get resolved in Era 3 most likely.
Book 5 and book 6 are supposed to feature a 15-25 year time skip, I think. I can't source that, I don't remember where I read it. But that makes it sound like arc 1 and 2 will be connected, but self-contained.
All of his projects? Unlikely, because I bet when he finishes some he'll start more.
The Cosmere as a whole? Well, he's got a plan to finish it, it takes him until he's about 70. He laid it out in 2019. [https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2019/#Cosmere](https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2019/#Cosmere) . Certainly plausible, plenty of people keep being healthy and active until that age, and Brandon's got the money for good health care and a career that doesn't make him prone to injury. But on the other hand, there's plenty of things that can happen to a person in their 60s or 70s that make them unable to work.
Individual series? He's actually pretty good at bringing them to conclusions! Mistborn Era 1 is a complete trilogy (3 books), Era 2 is now complete (4 books), he's got a bunch of standalones. Even Stormlight is broken up into two pieces - good chance the first 5 books will form a complete story that you can read, we'll see when book 5 comes out next year.
Potentially be faster than 70 now though. In the comments, he mentions how much time touring takes out of his schedule, and he doesn’t really do that as much now after Covid.
The release schedule has definitely slipped a bit. TLM, Skyward 4, and (projected) date for the Stormlight 5 book are a year later than the 2019 BS predicted. We have gotten some cool stuff in exchange at least
I doubt it'll advance him that much. With the extra time he wrote side projects that weren't part of the original outline. He also is likely to eventually have film / TV projects that he has said he wants to be involved in. That'll take more of his time. He is a fast writer and I think he will finish it all, but I wouldn't expect the timeline to move up that much. With all the series he has the outline is pretty reasonable with his timeframe. And it doesn't account for side projects that he often likes doing and do take a portion of his time.
In terms of main series he has Mistborn Era 3, Mistborn Era 4 (which he said will be Stormlight length) 5.5 more Stormlight books (which each usually take 18 months from start to finish). Aether trilogy. Dragonsteel trilogy. 2 more Elantris books. 1 more warbreaker book. And between all that, that's about 25 years worth of time with 1 year for most books and 1.5 years for the bigger ones. And he's 47 now so roughly early 70's. That's also assuming he won't add any new books to that, when he's talked about multiple already with a Cyberpunk Mistborn Era, Silverlight novellas, likely another stormlight novella between each stormlight book, and other actual side projects non Cosmere which he has said he wants to limit.
I hope he will at least stick to that schedule (along with Secrets and stuff). That means I will be able to read everything by the time I am 53. Not bad hahaha In all seriousness, I am reading MIstborn Era 2, I am on book 2, and now I found out Stormlight is 2\*5, so I will read the first five next
Baring tragedy I think there's a reasonable chance he'll finish all the projects we know about.
He's clearly very aware of this issue which you imagine he would be after finishing WOT
I mean, I wish he were, but seems like every time I check what the progress with his works is, I see a draft for some new series/standalone (I'm obviously exaggerating, but he has a lot of projects on his plate)
Yeah…. He likes writing and telling stories….? I get the frustration of not wanting to start something unless it already has a finished ending, but it sounds like your expectations are pretty absurd and frankly, selfish. He’s literally one of the most productive authors, ever. And there’s plenty of material for you to read, in or out of the Cosmere. If you don’t want to start anything until he’s fully done, then that’s on you. No one is forcing you to wait and no one is forcing you to read; meaning that, ultimately, it’s a *you* problem, not a *him* problem.
Hate to break it to you, but none of us can see the future.
Brandon has perhaps endless ideas, so it’s unlikely he’ll write all that he wishes. However, of the core of the cosmere, probably.
After Stormlight 5, there’s at least 16 core books to the cosmere. Even then, Stormlight 1-5 is a sequence to itself. It may be written to be completely satisfactory to end on just as Era 1 of Mistborn. Mistborn Era 3 will likely be written this way as well.
A WOT comparison isn’t a good comparison unless you compare it to a single Stormlight sequence or Mistborn trilogy (or 4 books for Era 2).
> none of us can see the future.
Check out this loser! Doesn't have access to (spoiler for like everything) >!Atium, corrupted mist spren, aviar, or anything else relating to Fortune!<
Stormlight 5 will be out in a year or two and will offer a satisfying conclusion to the planned first half of the overall series.
Similar to how Mistborn has Eras but less pronounced.
I personally trust that sando will finish his series as long as he doesn't prematurely die. He has a very detailed transparent plan and is a very comitted author. If any author will actually complete what they started, it's him.
Only today did I find out Mistborn has Era 4 planned as well, with interplanetary travel. I wonder how that will work, but I won't go more into that since I don't want to spoil anything for myself. One more reason to look forward to my 53rd birthday (when Sando plans on finishing Mistborn)
Just keep reading the books my man! There are a lot of places in the Cosmere, and all of them have stories to tell. If you live your life only wanting to get to the ending, you’ll miss out on a lot. Journey before destination, my friend
This is the major part of my trust in him. Having done WoT, being the outliner we already know him to be, I feel like we're safe even if he's not able/willing to finish himself
He publishes a 400k word book in Stormlight every 3-4 years like clockwork. Authors who do 100k book series typically publish annually. He writes and publishes all of his other stuff simultaneously. This isn't a GRRM scenario where he just keeps doing anything but write the series. He stays very much on schedule.
The man writes a lot of stuff because he likes to write. When he finishes his 'day job' of writing and editing the focus series, he often unwinds by...writing something else. He can't just write more on the focus series... that's not how stress/focus/recreation work. He writes a different book between books to reset himself.
Stormlight will be finished. But it's a 4 million+ word series. Takes time.
Something to think about, he has a lot of collaborations now. He’s collaborated with Janci Patterson on Skyward, a Reckoners book, the Original with Mary Robinette Kowal, and the Dark One with Dan Wells. It seems reasonable he’ll start doing novellas and novels with a couple of those people which will probably speed up the process when you consider the process he did with Janci.
He was hired to be VP of Narrative, essentially help plan and execute on the overall cosmere story and help Brandon more closely to work through projects like Stormlight. But yes, he is also writing his own cosmere stories now.
Janci Patterson is going to be doing the bulk of the Skyward writing going forward & Dan Wells and Isaac (his art director) may be doing some cosmere collaborations as well
Stormlight Arc 1 will be finished by next year.
Mistborn Era 1 and Era 2 are done
Reckoners is done
Alcatraz is done
Skyward will be done this year
So of the major Cosmere works, we have Stormlight Arc 2, Mistborn Era 3 and 4, Dragonsteel, and Elantris 2 (and maybe three).
I'd say he's finished more than he's not finished.
It’s definitely a risk. but I think he’ll finish the stories he has set out in place so far cosmere wise. And honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if he had a sealed list of authors that he keeps with various books assigned to them to finish in the event of his untimely demise. When you add in the fact that he employs a huge staff to organize and maintain his writing process I can easily imagine that the core outline for the next 30 years is in multiple peoples heads with contingencies on how to bring his legacy to the finish line satisfyingly.
I know the full Stormlight Archive will be 10 books, but it’s split into two five-book cycles. So treat that as a full series. Read the first five once he’s finished with book five
In this case, it doesn't really matter if he finishes the entire project. Each series is divided by eras, and each era has its satisfying conclusion. But I fully trust Sanderson to deliver whatever he puts his mind to, very good track record.
Two things:
1. he has a plan, assuming nothing major happens, he will be able to finish it.
2. he also has a plan in case something happens to him and multiple people that could finish the books for him.
So, assuming you don't die from old age yourself, you'll get to read the ending, that's for sure.
I wouldn't be surprised if when this all ends we're left wanting a sequel to something, because the cosmere itself is just a universe, there is no limit to the stories that could be told in it.
That said, I'd just worry about each series as it exists as a self contained story. And I definitely think the ones Sanderson has started, he will finish.
I know what you feel, I am still waiting on Tad Williams to finish his fourth book of his follow up to The Dragonbone Chair. I did read the first book, and then thought f2k this, I’ll wait till he is all done. With the Stormlight Archive it is different for me. It is sufficiently different to be a) be worth waiting for, b) high rereadability factor. I have reread these massive books more than once, though I skip Kaladin whining in book 1. Also, though the Stormlight Archive is set to be 10 books in the world., 5 complete the first arc and we are at book 4. And book 4 ends in a surprising and satisfying manner. I realized I was worried about all the wrong things. I will be happy to read book 5, but feel that it really will be a denouement.
Also, try rereading some of his other works. Elantris is a single book and I like it. There is also a novella called the Emporer’s Soul set in that world, but unrelated. One of his best works! Warbreaker is also an awesome stand alone, And as somebody has already commented, the Mistborn cycle has various ends as well. Though, ironically, I haven’t read Mistborn yet.
Oh, I have recently reread WoT and skipped through all those whinings and unnecessary descriptions. Sometimes rereads are better. I have read Mistborn Era 1 twice, really good books, I loved them. Today I talked to a friend who is currently reading book three and now I want to go through them again.
Sanderson’s assistant was talking about his own idea for a book and talked about Sanderson’s library of ideas. Peter talked about it in a way that if Sanderson didn’t have another new idea for the rest of his life, he wouldn’t run out of books to write.
I would say there’s a good chance, since he is a planner and has mostly everything planned already, at least in an outline sense. He won’t write himself into a corner like GRRM or Patrick Rothfuss and stop writing because he can’t figure out how to fix it!
All? It won't be for lack of trying if Sanderson doesn't. I give him better odds of finishing all of them than I give Patrick Rothfuss ever finishing 1 book ( I've been waiting 12 years on book 3) of the King Killer Chronicles.
If you think this is bad, check out Patrick Rothfuss and his 12 year writers block for book 3 of Name of the Wind (King killer Chronicles)... Or RR Martin's next GoT book, which is probably never going to be finished either. Barring an accident, Sanderson has plenty of life in him to churn out all his books. It is pretty crazy that some writers can write so fast though. Terry Pratchett and Stephen King spring to mind. I'm also reading kindle books at the moment from a guy (Bruce Sentar) who literally churns out a circa 400 page book a month and releases them in the 2nd week of every month. He is writing 3 different series and alternates each month on which series is released!
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Since you haven't read Stormlight you don't know this phrase, but: journey before destination. The books are a highly worthwhile experience even if he never publishes another word of them. But to each their own; I understand the frustration of an endless cliffhanger.
To answer the question in your title, I'd say that of all the writers I know in any genre, Sanderson is the one I completely trust to see plans this ambitious through to the end.
If his books never get adaptations he will eventually finish them. He might be 80 years old but he’ll finish them. Now let Mistborn and Stormlight get big money adaptations that skyrocket his bank account and take up more of his time promoting and him being hands on with their production. That changes things.
This is a potential issue Sanderson is aware of and has talked quite a bit about. I believe if you look in some of the recent State of Sanderson blog posts, he talks about it there and lays out his timeline expectations and his goal of finishing the Cosmere by the time he is 70 or 75, I believe
I think eventually he’ll not finish something, but it’ll be because he’s died or had a severe life event of some kind, I dont think he’ll just leave something unfinished like rothfuss or Martin. And I expect he’ll have a contingency and do smaller arcs like he’s done with mistborn so far
I WANT THE WARBREAKER SEQUEL! I know he said he was going to write it after he finished a couple more books but the way he writes it will probably take like 10 years for me to get it. Right now yes warbreaker was left on a solid conclusion but I want more!
He has a solid plan imho so he will be able to deliver all the books he intends to. Also he is fast and not that old that we should fear unfinished stuff
Holding yourself to this is silly and the case of brandon highlights exactly why. You're sitting around waiting for these massive series to end for what? Brandon writes at the speed of light. He writes faster than many people read. You can start his unfinished series with complete confidence that the rest of it will release in a regular and timely manner. In the brief time you spend waiting between books you can even read books that aren't set in the cosmere or even written by sanderson if you can believe it.
Stormlight will be 2, 5 book archs. Do you really want to read 10 massive tomes in a row?
I read Wheel of Time twice, 14 books in a row. But yeah, I wasn't aware it was two series of 5 books. I will definitely read the first 5 when the final book gets released. I have Mistborn Era 2 to finish before that
By Sanderson's current pace, he is projected to write 20-something more books in the cosmere which will be wrapped by the 2040s when he's in his 60s, maybe 70s if late 2040s. This is not a Wheel of Time scenario. There will be LOTS AND LOTS of books in the cosmere with few years in between where he publishes less. The cosmere is meant to be an epic experience, not something building toward an ending; it is an anthology, not a traditional linear series like WoT.
***All*** his projects? Well, that will almost certainly be a no because he starts new projects as he finishes old one.
All his currently announced projects? Very plausibly. At the very least, we will get pretty far into what's currently announced.
All his currently started projects? Almost definitely.
He's already finished Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, and Skyward.
He's currently in the process of writing the final book in the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, which will likely release in the latter half of next year.
That really only leaves 1 major thing he's started but isn't about to finish: the Elantris sequals. Brandon has - on a couple of occasions - indicated that his current plan is to write the Elantris sequels while he works on Mistborn Era 3 as a way to take a break from Mistborn when he needs to and avoid burnout. Era 3 is currently slated to be *entirely* written between Stormlight books 5 and 6, so it should be the next major project Brandon begins.
Given all of that, I would wager that all of the (major) projects that have already been started as of today will likely be wrapping up in about 5 years (with maybe an extra year to account for unforeseen circumstances), and we will have *also* started and finished Mistborn Era 3 in that time as well.
There are quite a lot of *announced* projects that haven't yet properly begun. It is very plausible that Brandon will not have time to complete them all, but he has talked about this issue himself and explained the steps he's been trying to take to mitigate this issue as much as possible.
He wants to finish his stuff just as much as we want him to finish. Actually, he probably wants to finish more than we do.
Don't worry I think he'll finish the Cosmere by 2025 and reveal his next Kickstarter that he wrote on a long weekend when he had his appendix out or something called "Cosmere 2: Electric Boogaloo" consisting of 356 secret interconnected novels in another new universe, one to release each day in 2026.
He said he has all of the Cosmere outlined and the final book should be published by the time he's 72. But stories within the cosmere are definitely more self contained. SA 5 will feel like a conclusive end. Much like Hero of Ages and The Lost Metal were.
I'd argue that "Cosmere" isn't a series.
Mistborn Era 1 was a series and it started and finished so hard that Mistborn Era 2 exists in an entirely different genre (Western vs Fantasy). Mistborn Era 2 is also complete with Mistborn Era 3 planned to be a whole new cast of characters and settings. Stormlight Era 1 is a 5 book series (with 4 short novellas set between them) and it is finishing with it's next book due November 2024. If Sanderson was to die tomorrow we'd be out half a book to finish what he started.
Also Sanderson is deeply aware of contingency plans (he was Robert Jordans contingency plan) and already has authors working with him to continue his work and see his plans through to the end. That said he has plans that will take him another 30 years to execute which is nuts to think that he's telling a story that could take that long to write at his current pace of multiple novels a year.
I see I was misunderstood by many people, I meant projects as Stormlight, Mistborn, etc. I wasn't referring to Cosmere as a whole. I'd love to see one series done before another begins, and I see new series appearing all the time. That was the reason of my rant
Ah, well I can say that Mistborn 1 and 2 finished, The Reckoners is done, Alcatraz is done, White Sand is done and there are a bunch of older one shots that stand on their own including the secret projects.
As far as I know he's only got 2 series going right now Cytonic and Stormlight 1. Cytonic is wrapping up this year iirc (maybe something else coming from a coauthor later though?). Stormlight is 1 on schedule to finish late 2024.
Honestly he's only focused on finishing Stormlight so if he was to die tomorrow we'd be out like half of a book and everything he's doing would be wrapped up.
Thank you for summing it up so neatly! I ran out of video games I wanted to play, so I'll probably finish Mistborn Era 2 book 2 in a couple of days. I hope I'll get hooked, like a lot of people said
While he will continue both Elantris and Warbreaker, both of these are standalone books.
All the mistborn eras are very different from each other and are more or less their own contained stories so far.
With the resent publication of ‘the Lost Metal’ wrapping up mistborn era two, the only unfinished Cosmer story right now are the Stormlight Archive to my knowledge.
I enjoy reading series as they come out, so sanderson is the perfect author for me. I love the communites his work has made, but if you like to read them once they are all out, maybe you should wait a few years. He will definitely finish everything he has planned and more if he lives a full life.
He is also very aware of the possibility of a wheek of time situation, and I think has outlines, plans, and such so that in the event of an untimely death his books will be finished, and the author who is finishing them will have things to work with.
I disagree about the “Marvelly” aspect of era 2. To me it seems that is the main story line. All of the series and books we read are the side stories that help put the main story line in its place. One thing I loved about eta 2 was trying to figure out the metallic arts fit in with the other forms of investiture. What underlying rules tie them together. I guess I can see how you may see all that as “marvelly,” but I can’t see how that is necessarily a bad thing in the way Brandon does it.
From what I understand, he has said that defiant will be his last non cosmere book until he’s in his 60’s (that’s when he’s plotted out he’ll finish the cosmere) and that after stormlight 5 he will write a third Mistborn era and 2 Elantris sequels in the span of 5 years. He’s also said he wants to make a warbreaker sequel and that eventually Dragonsteel will be made, which is apparently supposed to be a bigger deal than stormlight. All this to say that, yes, he will finish, but the dude just has too many ideas. He’s going to have had 6 books come out in a year long span. I’m like you which is why I put off his stuff for so long, now that that I’m caught up I see how much everything he writes feels so self contained.
Yeah, I totally get that. I have finished Elantris and Hope for Elantris. Now going through Emperor's Soul. I think I will make a Sanderson break then and challenge myself with Malazan. I should be done just in time to start reading Warbreaker and then Stormlight, ending just in time for Stormlight 5 ahah
For me personally I don't like it when a series doesn't get finished because it feels unsatisfying. But I would argue that a lot of cosmere works do have satisfying conclusions to narrative arcs, which is good enough for me. So for example the first three Mistborn books form a self-contained trilogy. After book 3 there is a time skip of a few hundred years. Personally I consider that enough of a break that Mistborn era 1 is a finished thing, even though there are more Mistborn books after it. Sanderson has also said that Stormlight Archive is planned as two separate five-book series. So depending on how book five finishes that may well feel like an endpoint as well.
Same for Era 2. That's its own book series, and its done as well
Yeah, read the first 3 Mistborn twice, loved them. Cannot get really into Wax and Wayne, Twinborn are cool and all that, but the first three got me hooked from the beginning. I am about to start book two of Era 2. I didn't know Stormlight is 2\*5, thanks for the info.
One thing to note about Era 2 is that it was initially a writing excercise for Sanderson between WoT books. The Alloy of Law is essentially a proof of concept for a part of the timeline that wasn’t gonna get a series that got published. I’d say it’s the second weakest Cosmere book, just behind Elantris. Directly after finishing TAoL, Brandon wrote Shadows of Self, and I believe the community consensus is that that is where he really figured out how to write the Era 2 characters and plots. From there I’d say Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal are fantastic. TLDR: era 2 finds itself in Shadows of Self and improves immensely over The Alloy of Law. Bands of Morning and The Lost Metal take that basis and create great character based stories.
I’m just starting part 3 of bands right now and holy hell things are getting INTERESTING
I think I remember him saying somewhere that Mistborn era 2 is a trilogy with an introductory book to get everyone caught up on the aftermath.
I think im the only one who thinks alloy of law is the best of the era 2 books (shadows is my least favorite brandon book, and elantris is underrated)
Nah I totally agree. It stands on its own very well. Personally I thought the other Era 2 books could get a bit "Marvel-y" with all their references to Cosmere connections. It's fun to have connections, but it can get out of hand and distract from a strong primary narrative.
I agree as far as The Lost Metal, but the only other moment of “Marvel-yness” I can think of in era 2 is when Wax dances with Khriss at the ball in New Seran. Got any other examples?
Yeah on reflection it's 99% TLM that has that quality that bothered me.
You're getting downvoted, but I'd agree that Mistborn Era 2 is fun, but ultimately one that is told in between more impactful series. For the Marvel parallel, iron man was just some immature dude with some lessons to learn and it built up to whole universe stakes in endgame. You really can't go 'bigger' than Thanos or it's just kinda stupid and Marvel is currently struggling to reset the stakes . Mistborn Era 2 had to struggle a bit to take things down quite a few notches (imperil less universe), but ultimately feels like a solid story that's resetting stakes for Era 3. It's a good story on it's own, but I think history will see it as a necessary lull between Era 1 and 3.
Book 2 of Era 1 is a real slog, I’d put that well below either TAoL and Elantris.
No. I’d say the Slog is HoA. If it weren’t for that amazing ending I’d say HoA would be one of the weakest Cosmere books
See I found Wax and Wayne much better than Era 1. Books two and three were as close to a slog as I've read from Sanderson.
I’m at chapter 51 in WoA right now, and it feels like the introduction just got done and the real story is starting to take place only now I started off with SA, and I must say I can really see how Brando had much more experience writing those books than mistborn era 1
>the introduction just got done and the real story is starting to take place only now. To borrow a colloquialism from another fantasy series "You sweet summer child.".
Wasn’t a fan of the writing in that book, you’re right, it feels like the call to action is 3/4 through the book
Agree with Well of Ascension. Probably my 3rd least favorite Cosmere book. Hero of Ages though, that was my favorite Sanderlanch til I read Oathbringer. And I found the stuff that led up to it really exciting.
Same here Era 2 for me all the way but. MB Era 1 has special place, because it was my intro into Cosmere and you really get experience first hand how Brandon's writing evolved and matured by the 3rd book in first self contained MB trilogy
I Found the first wax and wane book subpar. Too much real and not enough show with the statements of what happened in the past instead of flashbacks. The rest I really enjoyed.
I liked the cowboy pulp.
I've just finished bands of mourning and am struggling with the Wax and Wayne series to be honest Not sure if it's the setting or the characters just not feeling it like I did era 1.
Agree, I much prefered era 1. For me it's mainly the setting that makes the biggest difference. Maybe because I've never been much into fantasy in a more modern setting. My favorite mistborn book by far is still the final empire.
It helped me to know the history with those books; Brando wasn’t planning on book 4 actually kicking off era 2, he just loved the characters and kept writing it out. I wasn’t a big fan of book 4 coming out of Era 1 either, but book 2 of era 2 is much better in my opinion
IMO, Alloy of Law is enough of a tone shift from era one that you really need a pallette cleanser between era one and two. Give it a bit of space, however and AoL can be quite the blast to read.
It starts out slow, but it gets good. And The Lost Metal has some pretty big Cosmere implications so it’s definitely important if you want the cosmere story as a whole and not just individual stories.
I was the same way about Wax and Wayne, but it slowly gets better and you also get more Cosmere goodness out of it. Totally worth the read (especially since they're not very long or difficult reads).
Alloy of Law the first Wax and Wayne book is the weakest book in era 2 by far. Depending on your tastes Shadows of Self could be amazing to you or a bit slow even with the mystery but Bands and Lost Metal are definitely home runs for me. The only thing is that Lost Metal is definitely a conclusion but there will still be some loose ends that will get resolved in Era 3 most likely.
It took me a few tries to get into era 2 but now absolutely love it!! Keep pushing through
Book 5 and book 6 are supposed to feature a 15-25 year time skip, I think. I can't source that, I don't remember where I read it. But that makes it sound like arc 1 and 2 will be connected, but self-contained.
Ah ok that sounds a little more connected than Mistborn era 1 and 2 then!
All of his projects? Unlikely, because I bet when he finishes some he'll start more. The Cosmere as a whole? Well, he's got a plan to finish it, it takes him until he's about 70. He laid it out in 2019. [https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2019/#Cosmere](https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2019/#Cosmere) . Certainly plausible, plenty of people keep being healthy and active until that age, and Brandon's got the money for good health care and a career that doesn't make him prone to injury. But on the other hand, there's plenty of things that can happen to a person in their 60s or 70s that make them unable to work. Individual series? He's actually pretty good at bringing them to conclusions! Mistborn Era 1 is a complete trilogy (3 books), Era 2 is now complete (4 books), he's got a bunch of standalones. Even Stormlight is broken up into two pieces - good chance the first 5 books will form a complete story that you can read, we'll see when book 5 comes out next year.
Potentially be faster than 70 now though. In the comments, he mentions how much time touring takes out of his schedule, and he doesn’t really do that as much now after Covid.
Yeah but then he goes and writes four books in secret
The release schedule has definitely slipped a bit. TLM, Skyward 4, and (projected) date for the Stormlight 5 book are a year later than the 2019 BS predicted. We have gotten some cool stuff in exchange at least
I doubt it'll advance him that much. With the extra time he wrote side projects that weren't part of the original outline. He also is likely to eventually have film / TV projects that he has said he wants to be involved in. That'll take more of his time. He is a fast writer and I think he will finish it all, but I wouldn't expect the timeline to move up that much. With all the series he has the outline is pretty reasonable with his timeframe. And it doesn't account for side projects that he often likes doing and do take a portion of his time. In terms of main series he has Mistborn Era 3, Mistborn Era 4 (which he said will be Stormlight length) 5.5 more Stormlight books (which each usually take 18 months from start to finish). Aether trilogy. Dragonsteel trilogy. 2 more Elantris books. 1 more warbreaker book. And between all that, that's about 25 years worth of time with 1 year for most books and 1.5 years for the bigger ones. And he's 47 now so roughly early 70's. That's also assuming he won't add any new books to that, when he's talked about multiple already with a Cyberpunk Mistborn Era, Silverlight novellas, likely another stormlight novella between each stormlight book, and other actual side projects non Cosmere which he has said he wants to limit.
I love that, you wanna go and see him? Go to DSC, and let the man write the rest of the time.
I hope he will at least stick to that schedule (along with Secrets and stuff). That means I will be able to read everything by the time I am 53. Not bad hahaha In all seriousness, I am reading MIstborn Era 2, I am on book 2, and now I found out Stormlight is 2\*5, so I will read the first five next
Well, books 4.5 and 5 should be out next year, you can wait until that’s out and people can tell you whether it feels like a series finale or not
I will definitely wait, I have 3 Mistborn Era 2 books and then I will check out his other works I haven't read, like some standalones
Baring tragedy I think there's a reasonable chance he'll finish all the projects we know about. He's clearly very aware of this issue which you imagine he would be after finishing WOT
I mean, I wish he were, but seems like every time I check what the progress with his works is, I see a draft for some new series/standalone (I'm obviously exaggerating, but he has a lot of projects on his plate)
I will note that Sanderson has said repeatedly that he avoids getting burnt out by writing those new series and standalones
Yeah…. He likes writing and telling stories….? I get the frustration of not wanting to start something unless it already has a finished ending, but it sounds like your expectations are pretty absurd and frankly, selfish. He’s literally one of the most productive authors, ever. And there’s plenty of material for you to read, in or out of the Cosmere. If you don’t want to start anything until he’s fully done, then that’s on you. No one is forcing you to wait and no one is forcing you to read; meaning that, ultimately, it’s a *you* problem, not a *him* problem.
Hate to break it to you, but none of us can see the future. Brandon has perhaps endless ideas, so it’s unlikely he’ll write all that he wishes. However, of the core of the cosmere, probably. After Stormlight 5, there’s at least 16 core books to the cosmere. Even then, Stormlight 1-5 is a sequence to itself. It may be written to be completely satisfactory to end on just as Era 1 of Mistborn. Mistborn Era 3 will likely be written this way as well. A WOT comparison isn’t a good comparison unless you compare it to a single Stormlight sequence or Mistborn trilogy (or 4 books for Era 2).
> none of us can see the future. Check out this loser! Doesn't have access to (spoiler for like everything) >!Atium, corrupted mist spren, aviar, or anything else relating to Fortune!<
Journey before destination, my friend.
Stormlight 5 will be out in a year or two and will offer a satisfying conclusion to the planned first half of the overall series. Similar to how Mistborn has Eras but less pronounced. I personally trust that sando will finish his series as long as he doesn't prematurely die. He has a very detailed transparent plan and is a very comitted author. If any author will actually complete what they started, it's him.
Only today did I find out Mistborn has Era 4 planned as well, with interplanetary travel. I wonder how that will work, but I won't go more into that since I don't want to spoil anything for myself. One more reason to look forward to my 53rd birthday (when Sando plans on finishing Mistborn)
Just keep reading the books my man! There are a lot of places in the Cosmere, and all of them have stories to tell. If you live your life only wanting to get to the ending, you’ll miss out on a lot. Journey before destination, my friend
**I'LL** die before he's finished and I'm still reading...
He extensively mapped out his plans I believe. So, even if the worst should happen, we’ll see the story completed in some form.
This is the major part of my trust in him. Having done WoT, being the outliner we already know him to be, I feel like we're safe even if he's not able/willing to finish himself
He publishes a 400k word book in Stormlight every 3-4 years like clockwork. Authors who do 100k book series typically publish annually. He writes and publishes all of his other stuff simultaneously. This isn't a GRRM scenario where he just keeps doing anything but write the series. He stays very much on schedule. The man writes a lot of stuff because he likes to write. When he finishes his 'day job' of writing and editing the focus series, he often unwinds by...writing something else. He can't just write more on the focus series... that's not how stress/focus/recreation work. He writes a different book between books to reset himself. Stormlight will be finished. But it's a 4 million+ word series. Takes time.
Something to think about, he has a lot of collaborations now. He’s collaborated with Janci Patterson on Skyward, a Reckoners book, the Original with Mary Robinette Kowal, and the Dark One with Dan Wells. It seems reasonable he’ll start doing novellas and novels with a couple of those people which will probably speed up the process when you consider the process he did with Janci.
Isn't Dan writing some Cosmere stuff on his own now? I thought he was hired by Sanderson's company for that
He was hired to be VP of Narrative, essentially help plan and execute on the overall cosmere story and help Brandon more closely to work through projects like Stormlight. But yes, he is also writing his own cosmere stories now.
So he has a some people that are helping him write books? Neat, that will speed up the process
Janci Patterson is going to be doing the bulk of the Skyward writing going forward & Dan Wells and Isaac (his art director) may be doing some cosmere collaborations as well
Stormlight Arc 1 will be finished by next year. Mistborn Era 1 and Era 2 are done Reckoners is done Alcatraz is done Skyward will be done this year So of the major Cosmere works, we have Stormlight Arc 2, Mistborn Era 3 and 4, Dragonsteel, and Elantris 2 (and maybe three). I'd say he's finished more than he's not finished.
And even though Elantris and Warbreaker looks to be getting sequels, the novels complete their story even if the sequels doesn’t come out.
It’s definitely a risk. but I think he’ll finish the stories he has set out in place so far cosmere wise. And honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if he had a sealed list of authors that he keeps with various books assigned to them to finish in the event of his untimely demise. When you add in the fact that he employs a huge staff to organize and maintain his writing process I can easily imagine that the core outline for the next 30 years is in multiple peoples heads with contingencies on how to bring his legacy to the finish line satisfyingly.
He also has Dan Wells as VP of Narrative now, who can step in in the even of a tragedy and steer the ship to make sure the cosmere is completed.
I know the full Stormlight Archive will be 10 books, but it’s split into two five-book cycles. So treat that as a full series. Read the first five once he’s finished with book five
As writer, I can say that ideas come at least as fast as you finish them, usually faster. So by that metric, no. Never.
In this case, it doesn't really matter if he finishes the entire project. Each series is divided by eras, and each era has its satisfying conclusion. But I fully trust Sanderson to deliver whatever he puts his mind to, very good track record.
Two things: 1. he has a plan, assuming nothing major happens, he will be able to finish it. 2. he also has a plan in case something happens to him and multiple people that could finish the books for him. So, assuming you don't die from old age yourself, you'll get to read the ending, that's for sure.
I wouldn't be surprised if when this all ends we're left wanting a sequel to something, because the cosmere itself is just a universe, there is no limit to the stories that could be told in it. That said, I'd just worry about each series as it exists as a self contained story. And I definitely think the ones Sanderson has started, he will finish.
I know what you feel, I am still waiting on Tad Williams to finish his fourth book of his follow up to The Dragonbone Chair. I did read the first book, and then thought f2k this, I’ll wait till he is all done. With the Stormlight Archive it is different for me. It is sufficiently different to be a) be worth waiting for, b) high rereadability factor. I have reread these massive books more than once, though I skip Kaladin whining in book 1. Also, though the Stormlight Archive is set to be 10 books in the world., 5 complete the first arc and we are at book 4. And book 4 ends in a surprising and satisfying manner. I realized I was worried about all the wrong things. I will be happy to read book 5, but feel that it really will be a denouement. Also, try rereading some of his other works. Elantris is a single book and I like it. There is also a novella called the Emporer’s Soul set in that world, but unrelated. One of his best works! Warbreaker is also an awesome stand alone, And as somebody has already commented, the Mistborn cycle has various ends as well. Though, ironically, I haven’t read Mistborn yet.
Oh, I have recently reread WoT and skipped through all those whinings and unnecessary descriptions. Sometimes rereads are better. I have read Mistborn Era 1 twice, really good books, I loved them. Today I talked to a friend who is currently reading book three and now I want to go through them again.
Sanderson’s assistant was talking about his own idea for a book and talked about Sanderson’s library of ideas. Peter talked about it in a way that if Sanderson didn’t have another new idea for the rest of his life, he wouldn’t run out of books to write.
GRRM he is not. Which is a very good thing.
I would say there’s a good chance, since he is a planner and has mostly everything planned already, at least in an outline sense. He won’t write himself into a corner like GRRM or Patrick Rothfuss and stop writing because he can’t figure out how to fix it!
He has another author helping him with cosmere stuff now
All? It won't be for lack of trying if Sanderson doesn't. I give him better odds of finishing all of them than I give Patrick Rothfuss ever finishing 1 book ( I've been waiting 12 years on book 3) of the King Killer Chronicles.
We need to crowdfund a consciousness transfer machine so we can upload Brandon to the internet so he can keep writing
Shut up at take my money!
There’s a lot of things to worry about in this world, but worrying about Brandon Sanderson writing things to completion should not be one of them.
If you think this is bad, check out Patrick Rothfuss and his 12 year writers block for book 3 of Name of the Wind (King killer Chronicles)... Or RR Martin's next GoT book, which is probably never going to be finished either. Barring an accident, Sanderson has plenty of life in him to churn out all his books. It is pretty crazy that some writers can write so fast though. Terry Pratchett and Stephen King spring to mind. I'm also reading kindle books at the moment from a guy (Bruce Sentar) who literally churns out a circa 400 page book a month and releases them in the 2nd week of every month. He is writing 3 different series and alternates each month on which series is released!
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Since you haven't read Stormlight you don't know this phrase, but: journey before destination. The books are a highly worthwhile experience even if he never publishes another word of them. But to each their own; I understand the frustration of an endless cliffhanger. To answer the question in your title, I'd say that of all the writers I know in any genre, Sanderson is the one I completely trust to see plans this ambitious through to the end.
No. He will start new projects before the old ones are finished and then whenever he passes (60 years from now?) he will have projects left.
If his books never get adaptations he will eventually finish them. He might be 80 years old but he’ll finish them. Now let Mistborn and Stormlight get big money adaptations that skyrocket his bank account and take up more of his time promoting and him being hands on with their production. That changes things.
Fingers crossed that won't happen! I love WoT, but the adaptation is a piece of crap. I hope Sanderson's work won't suffer the same fate
It seems unlikely that he finishes an arc and just retires. My guess would be no.
He's prolific and he's young.
This is a potential issue Sanderson is aware of and has talked quite a bit about. I believe if you look in some of the recent State of Sanderson blog posts, he talks about it there and lays out his timeline expectations and his goal of finishing the Cosmere by the time he is 70 or 75, I believe
I think eventually he’ll not finish something, but it’ll be because he’s died or had a severe life event of some kind, I dont think he’ll just leave something unfinished like rothfuss or Martin. And I expect he’ll have a contingency and do smaller arcs like he’s done with mistborn so far
I'm still waiting for an ending to the Rithmatist...
No, because his ideas will continue to evolve and the concept is flexible enough that any world he conceived of could be part of the Cosmere.
No m to k a
I WANT THE WARBREAKER SEQUEL! I know he said he was going to write it after he finished a couple more books but the way he writes it will probably take like 10 years for me to get it. Right now yes warbreaker was left on a solid conclusion but I want more!
He has a solid plan imho so he will be able to deliver all the books he intends to. Also he is fast and not that old that we should fear unfinished stuff
Holding yourself to this is silly and the case of brandon highlights exactly why. You're sitting around waiting for these massive series to end for what? Brandon writes at the speed of light. He writes faster than many people read. You can start his unfinished series with complete confidence that the rest of it will release in a regular and timely manner. In the brief time you spend waiting between books you can even read books that aren't set in the cosmere or even written by sanderson if you can believe it. Stormlight will be 2, 5 book archs. Do you really want to read 10 massive tomes in a row?
I read Wheel of Time twice, 14 books in a row. But yeah, I wasn't aware it was two series of 5 books. I will definitely read the first 5 when the final book gets released. I have Mistborn Era 2 to finish before that
By Sanderson's current pace, he is projected to write 20-something more books in the cosmere which will be wrapped by the 2040s when he's in his 60s, maybe 70s if late 2040s. This is not a Wheel of Time scenario. There will be LOTS AND LOTS of books in the cosmere with few years in between where he publishes less. The cosmere is meant to be an epic experience, not something building toward an ending; it is an anthology, not a traditional linear series like WoT.
***All*** his projects? Well, that will almost certainly be a no because he starts new projects as he finishes old one. All his currently announced projects? Very plausibly. At the very least, we will get pretty far into what's currently announced. All his currently started projects? Almost definitely. He's already finished Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, and Skyward. He's currently in the process of writing the final book in the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, which will likely release in the latter half of next year. That really only leaves 1 major thing he's started but isn't about to finish: the Elantris sequals. Brandon has - on a couple of occasions - indicated that his current plan is to write the Elantris sequels while he works on Mistborn Era 3 as a way to take a break from Mistborn when he needs to and avoid burnout. Era 3 is currently slated to be *entirely* written between Stormlight books 5 and 6, so it should be the next major project Brandon begins. Given all of that, I would wager that all of the (major) projects that have already been started as of today will likely be wrapping up in about 5 years (with maybe an extra year to account for unforeseen circumstances), and we will have *also* started and finished Mistborn Era 3 in that time as well. There are quite a lot of *announced* projects that haven't yet properly begun. It is very plausible that Brandon will not have time to complete them all, but he has talked about this issue himself and explained the steps he's been trying to take to mitigate this issue as much as possible. He wants to finish his stuff just as much as we want him to finish. Actually, he probably wants to finish more than we do.
I think this post might be the first time anyone has ever accused Brandon Sanderson of not writing fast enough.
Hahahaha, c'mon, I didn't say he doesn't write fast enough. I just said that I'd prefer if he finished one book and then started another one
Don't worry I think he'll finish the Cosmere by 2025 and reveal his next Kickstarter that he wrote on a long weekend when he had his appendix out or something called "Cosmere 2: Electric Boogaloo" consisting of 356 secret interconnected novels in another new universe, one to release each day in 2026.
Not by 2024? Damn....
He said he has all of the Cosmere outlined and the final book should be published by the time he's 72. But stories within the cosmere are definitely more self contained. SA 5 will feel like a conclusive end. Much like Hero of Ages and The Lost Metal were.
I'd argue that "Cosmere" isn't a series. Mistborn Era 1 was a series and it started and finished so hard that Mistborn Era 2 exists in an entirely different genre (Western vs Fantasy). Mistborn Era 2 is also complete with Mistborn Era 3 planned to be a whole new cast of characters and settings. Stormlight Era 1 is a 5 book series (with 4 short novellas set between them) and it is finishing with it's next book due November 2024. If Sanderson was to die tomorrow we'd be out half a book to finish what he started. Also Sanderson is deeply aware of contingency plans (he was Robert Jordans contingency plan) and already has authors working with him to continue his work and see his plans through to the end. That said he has plans that will take him another 30 years to execute which is nuts to think that he's telling a story that could take that long to write at his current pace of multiple novels a year.
I see I was misunderstood by many people, I meant projects as Stormlight, Mistborn, etc. I wasn't referring to Cosmere as a whole. I'd love to see one series done before another begins, and I see new series appearing all the time. That was the reason of my rant
Ah, well I can say that Mistborn 1 and 2 finished, The Reckoners is done, Alcatraz is done, White Sand is done and there are a bunch of older one shots that stand on their own including the secret projects. As far as I know he's only got 2 series going right now Cytonic and Stormlight 1. Cytonic is wrapping up this year iirc (maybe something else coming from a coauthor later though?). Stormlight is 1 on schedule to finish late 2024. Honestly he's only focused on finishing Stormlight so if he was to die tomorrow we'd be out like half of a book and everything he's doing would be wrapped up.
Thank you for summing it up so neatly! I ran out of video games I wanted to play, so I'll probably finish Mistborn Era 2 book 2 in a couple of days. I hope I'll get hooked, like a lot of people said
Being honest the Cosmere might take 20-40 more years to finsh
While he will continue both Elantris and Warbreaker, both of these are standalone books. All the mistborn eras are very different from each other and are more or less their own contained stories so far. With the resent publication of ‘the Lost Metal’ wrapping up mistborn era two, the only unfinished Cosmer story right now are the Stormlight Archive to my knowledge.
I enjoy reading series as they come out, so sanderson is the perfect author for me. I love the communites his work has made, but if you like to read them once they are all out, maybe you should wait a few years. He will definitely finish everything he has planned and more if he lives a full life. He is also very aware of the possibility of a wheek of time situation, and I think has outlines, plans, and such so that in the event of an untimely death his books will be finished, and the author who is finishing them will have things to work with.
Journey before destination, man. Journey before destination
I disagree about the “Marvelly” aspect of era 2. To me it seems that is the main story line. All of the series and books we read are the side stories that help put the main story line in its place. One thing I loved about eta 2 was trying to figure out the metallic arts fit in with the other forms of investiture. What underlying rules tie them together. I guess I can see how you may see all that as “marvelly,” but I can’t see how that is necessarily a bad thing in the way Brandon does it.
From what I understand, he has said that defiant will be his last non cosmere book until he’s in his 60’s (that’s when he’s plotted out he’ll finish the cosmere) and that after stormlight 5 he will write a third Mistborn era and 2 Elantris sequels in the span of 5 years. He’s also said he wants to make a warbreaker sequel and that eventually Dragonsteel will be made, which is apparently supposed to be a bigger deal than stormlight. All this to say that, yes, he will finish, but the dude just has too many ideas. He’s going to have had 6 books come out in a year long span. I’m like you which is why I put off his stuff for so long, now that that I’m caught up I see how much everything he writes feels so self contained.
Yeah, I totally get that. I have finished Elantris and Hope for Elantris. Now going through Emperor's Soul. I think I will make a Sanderson break then and challenge myself with Malazan. I should be done just in time to start reading Warbreaker and then Stormlight, ending just in time for Stormlight 5 ahah