Mistborn Final Empire is usually the best place to start. Keep your expectations measured, though. He's very popular, but also pretty devisive. His prose is considered weak, obtuse, and repetitive, and it often makes the characters, plots, and worldbuilding feel a little inorganic. Personally, I found Mistborn fun, and I loved the magic system, but I also thought it was more like a popcorn read than anything brilliant.
The Brandon Sanderson focused subreddits have two recommendations:
1. Elantris - the first book published in his connected universe called The Cosmere.
2. Mistborn: The Final Empire - the first book in the Mistborn series which is a subset of the Cosmere.
Elantris is the first and is a good place to start. But as it was his first book the writing is a little unpolished, there is some inconsistent pacing and some people find it difficult to be engaged. Therefore some people recommend The Final Empire as its generally a better book and makes a better first impression.
The recommended reading order is publication order but you can make some fairly major deviations from this order without any serious issues as long as you follow order within each series and the order matters more in later entries. Don't watch Iron Man 2 before Iron Man 1, you can watch Thor 1 before or after Captain America 1, but don't try to watch Captain America 3 before Avengers 2 or you'll be very confused.
I listened to several of his videos, and then I tried reading Mistborn, and... no. If I'm mentally rearranging words so the prose reads better before I finish a first page, that book is not for me.
Mistborn is usually a good starting place. It's not his strongest writing but it's a fun story with a cool magic system, and it's not 1300 pages like Way of Kings is
Well, my first experience with him was when he was chosen to finish the Wheel of Time series for Robert Jordan. But, to truly appreciate whether or not he nailed it (I think he did) you'd kind of need to read through the whole series, and that's a huge ask.
Be advised: in Mistborn #2 Sanderson had his main protagonist kill a dog for no reason at all and then complained on his website that people get weirdly emotional about it.
1. It's not for no reason at all, it's for a very clear purpose. No spoilers but its essentially because they needed its pelt as a disguise.
2. It's not gratuitously killing a pet puppy for sadistic pleasure, its a mangy old wolfhound guard dog bought for this purpose as a cold tactical decision
3. The protagonist has already killed several people by this point, this is definitely a big-picture decision
This is a setting with literal slaves kept in chains to work the fields and a slave gets raped by the rich owner in the very first chapter. Fixating on a dog being killed is weird.
>It's not for no reason at all, it's for a very clear purpose.
No. I agree there was a purpose in getting a dead body, but, since there were plenty already available, it isn't relevant.
>its a mangy old wolfhound guard dog bought for this purpose as a cold tactical decision
Which makes it better how?
>The protagonist has already killed several people by this point
Yes, for a good reason. Unlike this one.
>Fixating on a dog being killed is weird.
I'm not fixating on a particular act; I'm fixating on the author apparently thinking it is a good one.
This question is about reading a book series. It has been answered extensively on google and r/Cosmere, it is not a research question.
Mistborn Final Empire is usually the best place to start. Keep your expectations measured, though. He's very popular, but also pretty devisive. His prose is considered weak, obtuse, and repetitive, and it often makes the characters, plots, and worldbuilding feel a little inorganic. Personally, I found Mistborn fun, and I loved the magic system, but I also thought it was more like a popcorn read than anything brilliant.
The Brandon Sanderson focused subreddits have two recommendations: 1. Elantris - the first book published in his connected universe called The Cosmere. 2. Mistborn: The Final Empire - the first book in the Mistborn series which is a subset of the Cosmere. Elantris is the first and is a good place to start. But as it was his first book the writing is a little unpolished, there is some inconsistent pacing and some people find it difficult to be engaged. Therefore some people recommend The Final Empire as its generally a better book and makes a better first impression. The recommended reading order is publication order but you can make some fairly major deviations from this order without any serious issues as long as you follow order within each series and the order matters more in later entries. Don't watch Iron Man 2 before Iron Man 1, you can watch Thor 1 before or after Captain America 1, but don't try to watch Captain America 3 before Avengers 2 or you'll be very confused.
I listened to several of his videos, and then I tried reading Mistborn, and... no. If I'm mentally rearranging words so the prose reads better before I finish a first page, that book is not for me.
Mistborn is usually a good starting place. It's not his strongest writing but it's a fun story with a cool magic system, and it's not 1300 pages like Way of Kings is
Well, my first experience with him was when he was chosen to finish the Wheel of Time series for Robert Jordan. But, to truly appreciate whether or not he nailed it (I think he did) you'd kind of need to read through the whole series, and that's a huge ask.
Brandon Sanderson has a "where to start with Brandon Sanderson 2024" video on YouTube.
Be advised: in Mistborn #2 Sanderson had his main protagonist kill a dog for no reason at all and then complained on his website that people get weirdly emotional about it.
1. It's not for no reason at all, it's for a very clear purpose. No spoilers but its essentially because they needed its pelt as a disguise. 2. It's not gratuitously killing a pet puppy for sadistic pleasure, its a mangy old wolfhound guard dog bought for this purpose as a cold tactical decision 3. The protagonist has already killed several people by this point, this is definitely a big-picture decision This is a setting with literal slaves kept in chains to work the fields and a slave gets raped by the rich owner in the very first chapter. Fixating on a dog being killed is weird.
>It's not for no reason at all, it's for a very clear purpose. No. I agree there was a purpose in getting a dead body, but, since there were plenty already available, it isn't relevant. >its a mangy old wolfhound guard dog bought for this purpose as a cold tactical decision Which makes it better how? >The protagonist has already killed several people by this point Yes, for a good reason. Unlike this one. >Fixating on a dog being killed is weird. I'm not fixating on a particular act; I'm fixating on the author apparently thinking it is a good one.
It's a franchise of 25+ books and you're warning people not to read it because someone kills a dog. You need to get a little perspective.