Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere Tier List - Includes "Wind and Truth"

Last year I read the entirety of currently available "Cosmere" books. This was based on a recommendation from a friend at work, I didn't think it have such a profound effect on me. Little did I know in March 2024 when I first started reading "Elantris" that I would be pre-ordering "Wind and Truth" and spending ludicrous amounts of money to import the illustrated versions of "The Secret Projects" and some leatherbound editions of "Mistborn". They do look very pretty on my book shelf though.

I was having a conversation with the same friend, about which was our favourite book from the "Stormlight Archives" and that lead me to think, how would I rank all the books in the Cosmere. So I decided to do a tier list! Because everyone loves a tier list.

First a disclaimer. I enjoyed all these books even the lower tier ones, and I highly recommend them. If you're a fan of fantasy, and you haven't let tried Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere series, frankly, what are you waiting for? A reading order can be found on this reddit page (https://www.reddit.com/r/Cosmere/wiki/order/). I will also be going into spoilers below, so don't read anymore if you are not caught up!

Tier list for the Cosmere Universe

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

D Tier - "White Sand" is a fun story, and I very much enjoyed the world presented to us, as well as some of the characters, I just felt like we didn't get enough time to appreciate it, due to the format. It is the only graphic novel in the Cosmere series and while I think it was well made and illustrated it just didn't give me enough. I very much look forward to the novel release.

"The Alloy of Law" is the start of "Mistborn" part 2, and I think suffers from the fact that it was meant to be a standalone, and I feel like the characters, specifically of Wayne and Steris are very caricature-esque and don't quite feel real. This is rectified, to an extent, in later books, and Steris actually goes on to be one of my more favourite characters. I think there was also some residue sadness at the characters I knew and liked from "Mistborn" part 1, being long dead.

C Tier - "The Lost Metal" as I said previously I find the character of Wayne to be a bit caricature-esque, and I remember finding him especially grating in this story. I liked the connection to the Ghostbloods, and the wider ramifications for the Cosmere, with Autonomy trying to invade.

"Rhythm of War", is the lowest ranking "Stormlight Archive" book, purely because it felt like it dragged on at points. The ending were Kaladin is falling from the tower, had me in tears, but it was a bit of a slog to get there. Journey before destination, am I right? It think it would have had the same level of emotional impact, if it had been a few hundred pages less, and thus would have got a better rating.

"Mistborn - Final Empire". I really liked both this book, and the entire "Mistborn" series, maybe even more than "Stormlight", but this books ending, really annoyed me, so much so that I gave it a particularly harsh rating. I wasn't a massive fan of Elend at all, and found it infuriating that he became King at the end. It just didn't seem realistic, that a mob, angry at the nobles, would suddenly stop their rioting and appoint a nobleman as King just because he didn't flee the city and paid some lip service to equality. I'd feel more forgiving to the character if we saw him do something that showed he truly believed in equality, as opposed to just chatting about it with his friends, and that would then have made it more believable if he was popular with the people.

B Tier - "Yumi and the Nightmare Painter". We are starting to get to the really good books, these are books I rated 4.5/5 or higher when reading them and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is no exception. I love how the characters relationships and their own personalities shift and change through out the story. I bought the illustrated version and the illustrations really bring to life such a vibrant setting and story. I cheered for joy at the end when it was revealed that Yumi lived.

"The Way of Kings" is a grant example of how to start of a epic fantasy series. You start of with no idea how anything works. You have so many questions like, how is this guy running on the wall? Why is everything a crab? What's a Spren? And by the end you know some of those answers, and your very eager to pick up the second book and find out a bit more. Also contains the most kickass line in all of the Cosmere "Honour is dead, but I'll see what I can do"

"Elantris" was the first book by Brandon Sanderson I read, and was the first book he wrote. You can sort of tell it was his first book and I think it lacks some of the finesse you see in his later work. But I still very much enjoyed reading this. I was just planning to read this one book to appease my friend, but ended up reading the entire series. Was well worth a read.

A Tier - A lot of books made it to A tier, which just goes to show how much I enjoyed this series of books. Over half this series is 4.75/5 or higher, including the latest book by Brandon Sanderson "Wind and Truth". This is the first book in the series I had to wait for, I finished Sunlit man at the end of September, so had two and a half months for "Wind and Truth" and it was well worth the wait. I enjoyed so many parts, specifically Adolin's POV chapters and his arc. A few bits had me in tears, like Shallan talking to her mother. Overall the only thing that kept this from S tier was that I was expecting a more, definite conclusion, while this felt more like a prologue for Stormlight Part 2, which we have to now wait a while for.

"The Sunlit Man" is another part of the "Secret Projects". It was a great edition to the Cosmere lore, and showed us where Sigzil is in the future. It raised a lot of questions, that would hopefully be answered in "Wind and Truth". The planet itself is interesting with it's fire storms, and altogether I found this a very satisfying read.

"Dawnshard" is a much smaller book, which I think works in it's advantage as it's a small, enjoyable story. It was fun to see The Lopen outside of his normal comfort and he was given some much needed character progression. Rysn made a compelling protagonist and Chiri-Chiri is so freakin' adorable. Looking forward to see what happens with these two considering Rysn holds a dawnshard.

"Bands of Mourning" left me so excited a the end when I found out that Kelsier was still alive, it got an instant 4.75 rating.

"Shadows of Self" fixed many of my issues with "The lost metal" as it was during this book that I really started to engage with the Mistborn part 2. The ending, with Wax's wife was a really emotional moment that I think was written well, and you could really feel the conflict within Wax when he founds out his God had set him up essentially. It was also this book where I started to like Steris, and felt it was a strong scene where she just sits with him when he is emotional distress.

"Warbreaker" is a fun little standalone, set in a really interesting world. I liked the idea of the returned and especially Lightsong. All the magic systems in the Cosmere are fairly unique but I think this one stands out the best to me as something special. The idea of breathes being given directly to inanimate objects to animate I think is the best way of showing how the Investiture system works in grand Cosmere as a whole. It's not surprising that the value of breathes seems to have been apapted by other civilisations in the cosmere.

"Well of Ascension" may be one of the cleverest bits of writing I have read. The fact the prophecy is changing without the reader really noticing makes it so believable that the protagonists don't notice either. I personally only cottoned on very close to the end when it mentions that the Hero of Ages was short, and I could have sworn reading something earlier that mentioned they were tall. It was the first big twist I read in Brandon's books and I think it's telling of his skill that all the twists make sense, but at the same time you don't necessary see them coming fully. The only reason this isn't S tier is because Elend once again, falls upwards. He spends the whole book doubting Vin, gets stabbed, only to be brought back with Mistborn powers.

S Tier - The books I gave 5/5. Starting with "Tress of the Emerald Sea". I just honestly thought this book was really beautifully written and I loved the characters and I am a sucker for a good sea faring story, though this has the twist of the sea is highly explosive when exposed to water. I just really enjoyed the fun romp as Tress tried to save her boyfriend, who was in fact a mouse all the time. It has a quant fairy tale feel to it. Part of me wonders if like "Yumi and Nightmare Painter" this fairy tale vibe comes from the fact it is written from Hoid's point of view. Something else I very much enjoyed. I felt the fact it was Hoid narrating the story added a certain whimsical aspect that I could see others not liking, but which personally elevated a good story to a S tier ranking.

"Oathbringer" has the best Sanderlanche I think of any other in his series, the only one that comes close is "Words of Radiance" which is also a S tier rank. I just loved the battle, with so many characters coming together to fight off Odium. And when Dalinar opens the perpendicularity and we see a God, such as Odium recoil in fear, it was a brilliantly written scene. No notes.

"Words of Radiance" I think is when we really start to see Kaladin as the hero he is, when he starts to truly become a Windrunner. You can understand both him and Moash (Bold words I know) here, how they have such hatred for Elhokar. It is completely reasonable for a person from a lower class, once they are given power to want to strike down at the oppressors, especially one they see as responsible for the death of their loved ones. Both Kaladin and Moash are very similar, but is their response to the trauma and the suffering they have experienced that makes them different and while I personally hope to see them face of together once more at some later point in the series.

"The Hero of Ages", or as I like to call it Elend's redemption arc. This is the first book that I started to like Elend as a character. He is presented with hard choices, and has to make choices that benefit his people, while also staying true to his ideals. I found this made him come as a lot smarter, as opposed to in the other books where people claimed he was smart, but he just kept doing dumb stuff. I think overall he had a good character arc, and I ended up not hating the character as much as previously. I also really liked the ending, I thought it was really beautiful and fitting, and the twist that Sazed became Harmony made a lot of sense in retrospect. I loved the entire subplot with Spook, and overall it was an amazing end to an amazing series.

So that's my tier list, as I mentioned it's just my opinion, if you have any different views feel free to comment below.