Below is the complete list of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Cosmere Books
- White Sand (1998)
White Sand was published in 1998 and is listed as book #1 in the Cosmere series. 
- Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania (2016)
Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania was first published in 2016; within the Cosmere series, it is listed as book #15. 
Publication Order of Cosmere Collections Books
Publication Order of Cosmere Short Stories/Novellas Books
- Sixth of the Dusk (2014)
Sixth of the Dusk was published in 2014 and is listed as book #1 in the Cosmere Short Stories/Novellas series. 
About Cosmere
Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere is not a conventional series with one protagonist, one planet, or a single uninterrupted plot. It is a shared fantasy universe encompassing major series such as Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, standalone novels including Elantris and Warbreaker, shorter fiction, and stories set on worlds separated by enormous distances. Each branch has its own cultures, conflicts, and forms of magic, yet all operate within the same underlying cosmology. What begins as a collection of largely independent fantasies gradually reveals a much larger history involving gods, worldhoppers, competing powers, and the changing ability of civilizations to cross between planets.
The foundation lies in an ancient event known as the Shattering of Adonalsium. The resulting Shards—vast powers associated with forces or intentions such as Ruin, Preservation, Honor, and Odium—shape the histories of different worlds. Most characters know little or nothing about this larger structure, which allows individual books to work on their own terms. A political revolution on Scadrial, a war on Roshar, or a crisis in the city of Elantris can remain immediately important without every protagonist understanding the cosmic framework behind it.
Mistborn provides one of the clearest examples of Sanderson’s long design. The original trilogy follows Vin and a rebellion against the Lord Ruler, but later Wax and Wayne novels move Scadrial into a more technologically advanced era. The same planet changes across centuries, allowing developments in magic, industry, religion, and politics to accumulate. That historical progression is central to Sanderson’s broader plan for the Cosmere, where societies are not intended to remain permanently medieval.
The Stormlight Archive operates on a larger epic scale. Set primarily on Roshar, it follows figures including Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar through war, the return of the Knights Radiant, and conflicts tied increasingly closely to the wider Cosmere. Beginning with The Way of Kings, the sequence develops through immense novels and related novellas, with Wind and Truth completing the first major five-book arc. Stormlight has become one of the principal points where previously subtle connections between worlds move into the foreground.
Other settings broaden the universe in different directions. Elantris and The Emperor’s Soul take place on the same planet while exploring distinct cultures and magical traditions. Warbreaker introduces Nalthis, Awakening, and characters whose importance eventually reaches beyond their home world. White Sand develops Taldain through graphic storytelling. The collection Arcanum Unbounded gathers shorter works from several planetary systems and provides a particularly clear sense that these apparently separate stories occupy a mapped universe.
Sanderson’s later standalone novels have made the shared structure increasingly visible. Tress of the Emerald Sea presents a distinctive oceanic world through a playful storytelling voice, while Yumi and the Nightmare Painter connects two lives across radically different societies. The Sunlit Man pushes far into the Cosmere’s future and assumes a universe in which worldhopping and interplanetary conflict matter more openly. Isles of the Emberdark continues that movement toward a far-future Cosmere, expanding material associated with Sixth of the Dusk into a story shaped by growing contact between worlds and competing galactic powers.
Hoid is the most persistent thread across these settings. Appearing under different circumstances and sometimes different names, he moves between worlds long before most inhabitants realize such travel is possible. Other characters eventually cross planetary boundaries as well, while concepts such as Investiture, the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual Realms, and the hidden history of the Shards provide deeper coherence beneath apparently different magic systems.
The Cosmere is therefore best understood as a network rather than a numbered shelf. Individual series retain their own internal sequences, and Sanderson himself has emphasized that several works can serve as starting points. The larger reward comes gradually: a minor stranger in one novel becomes significant elsewhere, a local magical rule proves part of a universal pattern, and conflicts once confined to a single planet begin to look like early movements in a story spanning an entire galaxy.