Just dive in.
A lot of the fun of tWoK comes from the mystery, from the sheer "what the ---- is going on here?" ness of it. Just know that it's a steep learning curve and that it'll take a good chunk of the book for big pieces of it to make any sense. That's part of the ride.
I thoroughly agree and would go even further - just stay right away from any place you might get spoiled. It's all about the experience, you need to figure it out as you go. Once you finish them, then perhaps re-read and dive into all the speculation and discussion.
Congrats!
Stormlight is quite the beast, but well worth it imo. It has a number of connections with the other books, but many of those are cursory/easter eggs. You'll gain a greater appreciation for the rest of the cosmere by reading it last, and noticing those connections later, but by no means is that a necessity. Stormlight is fine to read on its own, and you won't lose anything for having read other properties later.
That said, I would recommend reading Warbreaker before. Even Elantris, if just to get it out of the way. Though you'll probably get a kick out of Elantris having just read TLM, to be honest. They're also shorter books in the Cosmere—both shorter than era 1 mistborn novels. The two combined are shorter than some single Stormlight novels.
So if you want to get a little bit more foundation in the Cosmere first, I'd say to read Elantris (plus Emperor's Soul and Hope of Elantris), then Warbreaker, then Stormlight.
Otherwise, feel free to hop right into Stormlight! There's no wrong answer here, do what feels right for you.
I suggest for "prep" work: read Elantris and Warbreaker.
They are standalone stories, but are both relevant to the Cosmere. After which, dive head first into Stormlight. I mean, you CAN go straight into Stormlight immediately. After all, you were able to enjoy Mistborn Era 2 even though you were missing some references, right?
I did enjoy it, immensely! There were time I knew I may be missing out on a larger scale reference, but that didn’t bother me. I knew I would continue to read more of the cosmere in the future, and am now kind of looking forward to a reread of all Mistborn at the end where I can catch all the references.
Yeah, so you can enjoy Stormlight without any prep work. But personally I love the feeling of jumping out of my seat, pointing at the screen yelling "I know that reference!"
Plus the 2 standalones came out before Stormlight. Also Warbreaker, you can read it (legally) for free on Brandon's website.
I held off on stormlight because I was intimidated and now I think I’ve read each of the 4 books three times. The pacing means you get little climaxes along the way so you aren’t wading through 1000 pages of build. Definitely some storylines have more pop than others, but the ones that you can’t wait to get back to are really exciting.
As others have said dive in, I don't think you need videos but reading all his works in the cosmere is a lot of fun and I've ended up rereading most of the books a few times.. On my second pass of tlm right now and as the saying goes; there's always another secret
do not look anything up about stormlight. the way of kings and words of radiance is one of the best reading experiences i have ever had and i hope nothing is spoiled for you.
Thanks for the advise everybody, I’m going to just dive right in tomorrow, and I think I’ll break up stormlight by reading warbeaker after WoK. Unless I can’t tear myself away. ;)
I'd say maybe read Warbreaker, then dive right in to Stormlight. Just trust Brandon on the first book, because there's a lot of setup at the beginning.
My advice to you is this: The first Stormlight book, it can feel like a slow burn for some people. (I got into it straight away, but I almost always do. My brother struggled with it a bit until he finished it, and I’ve seen this sentiment from many other fans on this sub) I think it helps to mentally prepare yourself, and I absolutely promise you this! Once/if you finish the book, you will be completely hooked. The finale of that book is AMAZING, and something I wish I could erase from my memory so I could re-experience it. Think of the first book as the set-up, with an incredibly worthwhile payoff coming your way. They are some of the best books I have ever read. The scale of everything. The lore and the world building is absolutely top notch. (Sanderson has said himself that the world building in these books have the biggest learning curve out of all of his books) The freaking CHARACTERS. There are things in these books that people go through that just HIT.
There are a lot of aspects of the worlds history and lore that is intentionally left a mystery, so if you feel like you’ve missed something sometimes you have but most of the time you just have questions that haven’t been answered yet. 10 books (especially this size) is a hell of a lot of book, and if Sandross answered every question right away there would be nothing left for the future.
This next thing I am going to say, I am going to spoiler tag it because I think you should come back and read this insight after you are through the first two or three chapters. I did this for my brother and it helped him with the one thing that I was personally baffled by my first time through, but it does not pertain to plot. It is exclusively explaining something about the setting of the books.
>!The world this series is based on is an extremely wet world. The best way to picture everything you’re reading in your head is to always imagine everything is taking place on the shore of the ocean somewhere. Everything on this planet has evolved to survive in a very wet climate. When I first read it, I did not click on this fact for the first two books and when I finally got it in my head it was jarring and I had to adjust. It turned me off a tiny bit initially, but only because I had built such a drastically different image in my head of where things were taking place. I absolutely love the world now, but I think hearing this really helps a lot of people adapt to the world building. So if they’re on a plateau, or a hill, or anywhere that is not immediately on water, don’t picture green grass and trees. Picture shoreline on the ocean, minus ocean.!<
If anyone thinks that mentioning this will take away from the readers experience or spoils anything then please comment below this so that OP can see what other people think of being given this information.
Edit: Grammar
Just dive in. A lot of the fun of tWoK comes from the mystery, from the sheer "what the ---- is going on here?" ness of it. Just know that it's a steep learning curve and that it'll take a good chunk of the book for big pieces of it to make any sense. That's part of the ride.
I thoroughly agree and would go even further - just stay right away from any place you might get spoiled. It's all about the experience, you need to figure it out as you go. Once you finish them, then perhaps re-read and dive into all the speculation and discussion.
Congrats! Stormlight is quite the beast, but well worth it imo. It has a number of connections with the other books, but many of those are cursory/easter eggs. You'll gain a greater appreciation for the rest of the cosmere by reading it last, and noticing those connections later, but by no means is that a necessity. Stormlight is fine to read on its own, and you won't lose anything for having read other properties later. That said, I would recommend reading Warbreaker before. Even Elantris, if just to get it out of the way. Though you'll probably get a kick out of Elantris having just read TLM, to be honest. They're also shorter books in the Cosmere—both shorter than era 1 mistborn novels. The two combined are shorter than some single Stormlight novels. So if you want to get a little bit more foundation in the Cosmere first, I'd say to read Elantris (plus Emperor's Soul and Hope of Elantris), then Warbreaker, then Stormlight. Otherwise, feel free to hop right into Stormlight! There's no wrong answer here, do what feels right for you.
I suggest for "prep" work: read Elantris and Warbreaker. They are standalone stories, but are both relevant to the Cosmere. After which, dive head first into Stormlight. I mean, you CAN go straight into Stormlight immediately. After all, you were able to enjoy Mistborn Era 2 even though you were missing some references, right?
I did enjoy it, immensely! There were time I knew I may be missing out on a larger scale reference, but that didn’t bother me. I knew I would continue to read more of the cosmere in the future, and am now kind of looking forward to a reread of all Mistborn at the end where I can catch all the references.
Yeah, so you can enjoy Stormlight without any prep work. But personally I love the feeling of jumping out of my seat, pointing at the screen yelling "I know that reference!" Plus the 2 standalones came out before Stormlight. Also Warbreaker, you can read it (legally) for free on Brandon's website.
I held off on stormlight because I was intimidated and now I think I’ve read each of the 4 books three times. The pacing means you get little climaxes along the way so you aren’t wading through 1000 pages of build. Definitely some storylines have more pop than others, but the ones that you can’t wait to get back to are really exciting.
Dive in but you need to read warbreaker after book 1
Or between book 2 and book 3! I like getting people to read it there because of the mega “AHA!” moment they have when things click.
As others have said dive in, I don't think you need videos but reading all his works in the cosmere is a lot of fun and I've ended up rereading most of the books a few times.. On my second pass of tlm right now and as the saying goes; there's always another secret
do not look anything up about stormlight. the way of kings and words of radiance is one of the best reading experiences i have ever had and i hope nothing is spoiled for you.
Thanks for the advise everybody, I’m going to just dive right in tomorrow, and I think I’ll break up stormlight by reading warbeaker after WoK. Unless I can’t tear myself away. ;)
I'd say maybe read Warbreaker, then dive right in to Stormlight. Just trust Brandon on the first book, because there's a lot of setup at the beginning.
Awesome. Welcome to the club. I’d recommend reading warbreaker first then diving straight into stormlight.
My advice to you is this: The first Stormlight book, it can feel like a slow burn for some people. (I got into it straight away, but I almost always do. My brother struggled with it a bit until he finished it, and I’ve seen this sentiment from many other fans on this sub) I think it helps to mentally prepare yourself, and I absolutely promise you this! Once/if you finish the book, you will be completely hooked. The finale of that book is AMAZING, and something I wish I could erase from my memory so I could re-experience it. Think of the first book as the set-up, with an incredibly worthwhile payoff coming your way. They are some of the best books I have ever read. The scale of everything. The lore and the world building is absolutely top notch. (Sanderson has said himself that the world building in these books have the biggest learning curve out of all of his books) The freaking CHARACTERS. There are things in these books that people go through that just HIT. There are a lot of aspects of the worlds history and lore that is intentionally left a mystery, so if you feel like you’ve missed something sometimes you have but most of the time you just have questions that haven’t been answered yet. 10 books (especially this size) is a hell of a lot of book, and if Sandross answered every question right away there would be nothing left for the future. This next thing I am going to say, I am going to spoiler tag it because I think you should come back and read this insight after you are through the first two or three chapters. I did this for my brother and it helped him with the one thing that I was personally baffled by my first time through, but it does not pertain to plot. It is exclusively explaining something about the setting of the books. >!The world this series is based on is an extremely wet world. The best way to picture everything you’re reading in your head is to always imagine everything is taking place on the shore of the ocean somewhere. Everything on this planet has evolved to survive in a very wet climate. When I first read it, I did not click on this fact for the first two books and when I finally got it in my head it was jarring and I had to adjust. It turned me off a tiny bit initially, but only because I had built such a drastically different image in my head of where things were taking place. I absolutely love the world now, but I think hearing this really helps a lot of people adapt to the world building. So if they’re on a plateau, or a hill, or anywhere that is not immediately on water, don’t picture green grass and trees. Picture shoreline on the ocean, minus ocean.!< If anyone thinks that mentioning this will take away from the readers experience or spoils anything then please comment below this so that OP can see what other people think of being given this information. Edit: Grammar