Reading With Tyler

When I was compiling a list of books to read in 2025 inspired by friends, one of my friends (hi Jake!) recommended Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. I already knew I wanted to try an ‘enter the cosmere’ in 2025 (I’m not foolish enough to challenge myself to FINISH the Cosmere in 2025, have you seen how big some of those books are?!) and Tress of the Emerald Sea is included in the Cosmere! So, I took it out of that challenge and knew I had to read the Cosmere.

Queue the hunt to understand the reading order of the Cosmere… It turns out that there are quite a few opinions on what order one should attempt to read the Cosmere in… Ultimately I have decided to follow Emma Halbrook’s suggested reading order (here is a link to her video) as I watch and enjoy her content already even though she puts Tress of the Emerald Sea towards the end of her reading list…which means I might not get to it in 2025 (Sorry Jake) but I will get to it!

I have written it out in this post so that I have something to refer back to! I’ve never really read anything outside of the published order before (with the exception of .5 books which I tend to just read when my heart desires as opposed to when published or when intended) and so this is the first time I’m trying to do this – hopefully it’ll give me a really good reading experience!

1. The Final Empire (Mistborn Era 1 #1)
2. The Well of Ascension (Mistborn Era 1 #2)
3. The Hero of Ages (Mistborn Era 1 #3)
4. The Eleventh Metal (Arcanum Unbounded)
5. Mistborn: A Secret History (Arcanum Unbounded)
6. Elantris
7. The Hope of Elantris (Arcanum Unbounded)
8. Warbreaker
9. The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1)
10. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2)
11. Edgedancer (Arcanum Unbounded)
12. Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive #3)
13. Dawnshard
14. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4)
15. The Emperor’s Soul (Arcanum Unbounded)
16. The Alloy of Law (Mistborn Era 2 #1)
17. Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania (Arcanum Unbounded)
18. Shadows of Self (Mistborn Era 2 #2)
19. The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn Era 2 #3)
20. The Lost Metal (Mistborn Era 2 #4)
21. Tress of the Emerald Sea
22. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
23. The Sunlit Man
24. Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive #5)

In the video at the end she writes that the other short stories in Arcanum Unbounded that aren’t specifically mentioned can be read whenever/wherever. I believe these are: Episodes Twenty-Eight Through Thirty, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell and Sixth of the Dusk.

Wow… That’s a long list… From what I have seen, starting with Mistborn Era 1 is somewhat agreed on – so perhaps I’ll start with The Final Empire and then double check to see if the opinions on the reading order are different following more people finishing Wind and Truth (as it came out in December 2024). I am beyond excited to get into the Cosmere in 2025!

I’ll be using the tag 2025 Challenge in order to signify in a review if that book completed a challenge in any of the 4 that I’ve got going on in 2025! So look out for those! And I’ll either come back to this post and update with dates of when things were accomplished or I’ll just post an update midway through the year and then at the end of the year!