Sanderson has a guide to the reading order for his many books on his website, which is far more comprehensive than this review.

Rhythm of War does contain a spoiler for the end of the first Mistborn series, so if that’s also on your reading list, I would recommend finishing that first. I’ve only read the two Mistborn series, for example, and I imagine there are more references to the cosmere that I haven’t picked up on. The links to his other series are a nice touch in the world of Roshar, but it isn’t necessary to have read them. It becomes clear in later books that Sanderson doesn’t just write single worlds, he’s writing an entire universe – the cosmere. We follow their stories throughout the series, gradually picking up other main characters as important world events unfold. A young rural noble, Shallan, also has her life turned upside down when her family’s finances change and her only hope is to convince Jasnah Kholin, a famous royal scholar, to accept her as a ward. Indeed, Kaladin, once a solider and now a slave, believes his life cannot possibly get any worse, until he is forced to run on the army bridge crews – where human lives are spent like loose change. In The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive, the murder of the Alethi King Gavilar by the mysterious Assassin in White sparks a long war for revenge on the Shattered Plains. Strange spirits known as spren are an accepted part of life – with different types manifesting in the presence of strong emotions or everyday environmental phenomena like wind, fire and rain. On the planet of Roshar, life clings to cracks in the bare rock, beset by near-constant storms. Yet they all fled like shadows before sunlight as she reached the front…and looked out at the enemy.

She’d read hundreds some so detailed, she’d been able to smell the blood in the air. Accounts of what it was like to be in war. Brandon Sanderson’s epic fantasy series encompasses battles both mental and physical.Ī thousand quotes from noted scholars leapt to her mind.

Stormlight archive rhythm of war