Mistborn Books in Order: Where to Start

The Mistborn Saga and its planet, Scadrial, make up the largest portion of the Cosmere books — at least for now — but don’t let that intimidate you from starting the series. These books are quite a bit slimmer than Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive. However, this series contributes just as much to the overall Cosmere universe and lore.

Cosmere Reading Order Mistborn Series Brandon Sanderson

Quick Answer: Where to Start (and the Best Reading Order)

If you’re new to Mistborn, start with The Final Empire and keep going in publication order. That’s the simplest, most spoiler-safe path, and it’s the order most readers prefer.

Where does Secret History fit?

There are two common placements, but if you want the spoiler-safe default: read Secret History after The Bands of Mourning. If you already know the big reveals from the first trilogy (or don’t care about surprises), you can read it earlier — just know it changes how a few moments land.

Mistborn Books in Order of Publication

First Era
1. The Final Empire (2006)
2. The Well of Ascension (2007)
3. Hero of Ages (2008)

Second Era
4. The Alloy of Law (2011)
– The Eleventh Metal (Short Story) (2011)
– Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania (Short Story) (2014)
5. Shadows of Self (2015)
6. The Bands of Mourning (2016)
– Mistborn: Secret History (Novella) (2016)
7. The Lost Metal (2022)

The series is split into two eras, with a third era in the works, too. There is a jump in time and tonal shift between each era, which makes the overarching series fascinating.

Mistborn in the Cosmere Reading Order

Below you will find a list that shows how the Mistborn books fit into the larger Cosmere universe. This is a supplemental reading order if you’re interested in learning more about the Cosmere, but it is in no way required reading to understand the different Mistborn eras.

The below list features the other Cosmere books in which characters that feature in Mistborn also appear. However, most of these characters will introduce themselves with a different name in order to hide their identity.

Brandon Sanderson’s recommended order begins with Mistborn, which sets you up perfectly if you’ve read both eras and are intrigued by the hints of something larger lurking in the background.

  1. The Final Empire (Mistborn 1)
  2. The Well of Ascension (M2)
  3. Hero of Ages (M3)
  4. The Alloy of Law (M4)
  5. The Eleventh Metal (Mistborn Short Story)
  6. Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania (Mistborn Short Story)
  7. Shadows of Self (M5)
  8. The Bands of Mourning (M6)
  9. Mistborn: Secret History (Mistborn Novella)
  10. The Lost Metal (M7)
  11. The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive 1)
  12. Words of Radiance (SA 2)
  13. Edgedancer (SA Novella)
  14. Oathbringer (SA 3)
  15. Dawnshard (SA Novella)
  16. Rhythm of War (SA 4)
  17. Tress and the Emerald Sea (Secret Project 1)
  18. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (Secret Project 3)
  19. The Sunlit Man (Secret Project 4)
  20. Wind and Truth (SA 5)

If you want to learn even more ways to read Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books, you can check out our Cosmere Reading Order.