Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere: The MCU of Fantasy
an in-depth analysis of Brandon Sanderson and his work
If you are a fan of fantasy literature, it’s impossible not to know who Brandon Sanderson is, even if you haven’t read his books. He’s one of the biggest fantasy and sci-fi authors at the moment, both in terms of output and popularity, and he made mainstream news in recent years when he had the most successful Kickstarter campaign of all time in 2023, raising over $41 million dollars. Since his debut novel, Elantris, in 2005, he has released 37 novels (including the final entries in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time), 17 novellas, two graphic novels, and a smattering of short stories1. His absurd output is Sanderson’s greatest defining trait, for better or for worse.
Most of Sanderson’s works are set in his fantasy universe, the Cosmere, which has been compared both by fans and critics to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. The similarities that are often brought up are the mainstream appeal of the works, the massive scale, and the overall tone of both franchises. The key word here is “franchise”, as Sanderson’s Cosmere has evolved from a literary series to a full-blown multimedia franchise, setting it apart from other interconnected fantasy universes.
Today I’m going to talk about Brandon Sanderson, his work, and its influence in the fantasy genre. This comes from someone that has read a fair amount of his bibliography2, and who used to be a diehard fan of his. While my feelings towards Sanderson’s writing have become more muted over time, I still have an emotional attachment to the Cosmere, so this is not going to be an anti-Sanderson rant, just some criticism and observations on his writing, and not everything is going to be negative.
And, in true Brandon Sanderson spirit, this is going to be a very long post.
The Man Himself.
Before we get into his writing, I think it’s necessary to talk a little about Brandon Sanderson, and the first thing that comes up when discussing Sanderson’s personal life is the fact that he’s part of the Latter-day Saints Church (commonly known as the Mormon Church3). I’m not qualified to talk about the church’s beliefs and practices, so I will not go in too much depth regarding Sanderson’s religious views. However, many have pointed out the ways in which his beliefs are present in his work, and I think it’s important to discuss his relationship with the church, to the limited extent of my capabilities.
Liz Busby, from BYU (Brigham Young University, where Sanderson teaches) points out that the LDS belief in “restorationism” is present in the Stormlight Archive, as well as the concept of “Covenants” with God4. Another example is present in the Mistborn books, where a key plot point is the use of metal to pass down knowledge, which is similar to how the LDS church was funded: according to the church, their founder, Joseph Smith, was guided by an angel to find golden plates inscribed with ancient history. There are probably more examples, but I think that’s enough.
Regardless of how one feels about the LDS Church, some of the Church’s actions and doctrine need to be criticized. The LDS Church is famously anti-LGBT, and Sanderson continues to donate to them. Recently, he donated part of the money from the Kickstarter campaigns, though he did address concerns from readers regarding that during an AMA. To summarize, he argues that he believes in changing the Church from within, and he says that he’s trying to offer support to LGBT members of the Church by educating himself and trying to include positive representation of LGBT people in his writing. I think it’s up to each of us to decide how we feel about that. It’s also worth pointing out that Sanderson cites Orson Scott Card (a raging homophobe) as one of his major inspirations, since both are members of the Church and write in the same genres. Card even wrote the blurb for Sanderson’s debut novel, Elantris5. I recommend reading some of his posts on his blog to get a better idea of his stance on LGBT topics.
Something that also needs to be talked about is Sanderson’s missionary work. There are plenty of criticisms to be made against missionaries and the way that they interact with other cultures, this is a topic that goes beyond the LDS Church and that has been discussed for a long time. For the sake of brevity, I will simply say that Brandon Sanderson worked as a missionary in South Korea, and he often takes inspiration from non-Western cultures in his worldbuilding. I think that’s something that can be criticized and that some people may take issue with, but it’s not my place nor the point of this post.
Outside of Brandon’s relationship with the LDS Church, he’s mostly controversy-free. He’s known for his close relationship with his fans, which I will talk about more below, and he’s very active in his community. He has a YouTube channel where he does reviews, livestreams, commentary, etc. How does he do all that while working non-stop? I don’t know. He seems like a nice enough guy, though recent news regarding another famous fantasy author may make some people more reserved in their judgement of Sanderson’s public persona. Someone already wrote an article that was very critical of Sanderson as a person, and I personally disagree with the tone and general arguments of that article, but it’s worth reading if you are interested.
The Cosmere.
The majority of Sanderson’s bibliography is set in his fantasy universe, the Cosmere. This is the main focus of this article, so I won’t discuss his other works that don’t belong to this specific universe.
Sanderson’s debut novel, Elantris, was also the first entry in the Cosmere, and the plot, characters, and setting of that novel are a kind of prototype for the rest of his work. Simple but serviceable prose, a hard magic system that drives the plot forward, multiple PoVs, quirky humor, world building inspired by real-life cultures6, attempts at positive representation of minorities7, and discussions of religion; all these elements from Elantris can be found in every Cosmere book, and some of the characters in this novel are similar to later Cosmere characters. This initial period is mostly self-contained, but Elantris still teases the existence of a wider universe that the characters aren’t aware of, which makes the book enjoyable as a stand-alone High fantasy story but also rewards attentive readers that are interested in the larger puzzle.
After this came the first Mistborn trilogy and the novel Warbreaker. These can be read on their own, though the third Mistborn book does provide the first clear-cut references to the Cosmere as a whole.
You can call this period “Phase 1” of the Cosmere Cinematic Universe. Elantris is like the Hulk movie, the one that nobody cares about, but that technically was the beginning of the franchise. I think it’s quite good and if you like Elantris you will probably like the rest of his work. Sanderson also divides the Mistborn books in Eras, which really gives more credence to the MCU comparisons.
The Way of Kings, the first book in the Stormlight Archive series, came out 2 years after the first Mistborn trilogy ended, and thus begins “Phase 2”. The Stormlight Archive could be considered the “core” of the Cosmere, the series that brings everything together. To continue the MCU analogy, the Stormlight Archive books are like the Avengers movies. The Way of Kings can be mostly enjoyed on its own, but as the series progresses, Sanderson’s promise of keeping each Cosmere series self-contained is entirely forgotten, and characters from other series evolve from being small cameos to regular part of the cast.
Another point of comparison is Hoid’s role in the Cosmere. He starts off as a blink-and-you-miss-it Easter Egg for the reader, but he’s a secondary character in the Stormlight Archive, and his actions are extremely plot-relevant. If you want to take the MCU analogy further, we can compare Hoid’s initial appearances with Stan Lee’s cameos in the MCU, but the comparison doesn’t work anymore.
“Phase 2” of the Cosmere is almost impossible to understand for casual fans. Besides the copious amounts of cameos and characters from other series, recent entries in the Cosmere have become increasingly concerned with the universe as a whole and not just local events, and the characters are more aware of other planets.
I think that now that the second Mistborn era and the first half of the Stormlight Archive are completed, it’s possible that we are going to see another shift in the Cosmere. “Phase 3”, if you will. Perhaps Cosmere-fatigue may start to set in, it certainly has for me, and that may force Sanderson to go back to stand-alone novels. I doubt it.
It’s also interesting to note that not only have the books become more interconnected, they have become bigger. Elantris has 492 pages, The Way of Kings has 1007, and Wind and Truth (the most recent book) has 13448. I think the current state of the Cosmere can be summarized as “Sanderson at his Most Sanderson”. The books are bigger, the prose is less polished, the dialogue and humor is more juvenile, and the magic systems are more and more complex, to the point that it feels like real science (some fans obviously love this, I don’t particularly care either way). Some people think that this is linked to the change in editor, his previous editor Moshe Feder has retired and a new one, Peter Ahlstrom, has taken over since, apparently, The Lost Metal9. Personally, I think his recent books would all benefit from getting some content cut—I can’t wrap my head around the fact that The Lost Metal had 7 epilogues. At that point, those are just chapters! Two or three would be quirky and fun, having 7 epilogues is just stupid and unserious. Which is also how I feel about the second Mistborn era as a whole. But I digress.
There are some positive developments, like Sanderson's commitment to include more representation in his books. It's commendable of him to use his massive platform for good. It's not always perfect, but it's appreciated. I also think he’s been doing an excellent job with the portrayal of mental health issues in the Stormlight Archive, although the language used to describe those issues feels a little too modern for the setting.
Which leads us to the most common criticism of Sanderson’s writing, his prose. It’s very simple and straightforward, which can make his books feel dry and uninspired at times, and the language is very modern. The dialogue, particularly when characters are trying to be funny, has a similar tone to the MCU (one-liners, quirky jokes, weird sarcasm) or the kind of dialogue found in YA books, like therapy-speak. It’s not always, but it’s certainly the most notorious “flaw” of Sanderson. However, he’s good at describing action scenes, and for people that prefer simple prose over more flowery writing Sanderson is perfectly fine.
Here’s a summary of the Cosmere over the years—Note that there are new releases almost every year since 2005:
2005—Elantris, Sanderson’s debut, entirely self-contained.
2006—The Final Empire, the first Mistborn book, also self-contained.
2007—The Weel of Ascension, the second Mistborn book.
2008—The Hero of Ages, third Mistborn book, the end of the first Mistborn Era. Direct allusions to the Cosmere, but doesn’t affect the plot.
2009—Warbreaker, stand-alone and pretty self-contained.
2010—The Way of Kings, first Stormlight book and mostly self-contained except for cameos in the interludes and vague allusions to the Cosmere.
2011—The Alloy of Law, first book in the second Mistborn era, self-contained.
2012—The Emperor’s Soul, self-contained novella set in the world of Elantris but unrelated to the events of that novel.
2013—two stand-alone novellas (Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell, Sixth of the Dusk).
2014—Words of Radiance, second Stormlight book, the cameos continue and characters from other worlds start to become more relevant to the main plot, still can be read without reading the rest of the Cosmere. Reading Warbreaker is advised, but not necessary.
2015—Shadows of Self, another Mistborn book.
2016—The Bands of Mourning and the Secret History novella, both set in the world of Mistborn. Secret History requires knowledge of the wider Cosmere. The first volume of the White Sand graphic novel came out (stand-alone), as well as Edgedancer, a Stormlight novella.
2017—Oathbringer, the third Stormlight book, requires both having read Warbreaker and at least some knowledge of the Mistborn books.
2018 to 2019—No Cosmere releases except for the White Sand graphic novels, he was working on other projects.
2020—Rhythm of War and another Stormlight novella, Dawnshard. The cameos and references become integral to the plot, one entire plot-line relies on having read the Mistborn books.
2021—No Cosmere releases.
2022—The Lost Metal, the final book of the second Mistborn era, being aware of the Cosmere is required.
2023—Three Cosmere novellas, mostly stand-alone but featuring characters from other Cosmere works.
2024—Wind and Truth, the final book in the first half of Stormlight, and just like The Lost Metal it requires extensive knowledge of the Cosmere10.
Now that we have a clear picture of the Cosmere, I’m going to talk about the Cosmere as a transmedia franchise, why I think this model is so appealing to readers and how Sanderson has turned the Cosmere from a literary project into a business.
First, we need to define transmediality in storytelling. Essentially, transmedia storytelling is the act of using multiple platforms to tell a story. As a design philosophy, the goal is to make sure that each part of the story is enjoyable and that there’s synergy between the content and the audience’s emotional response to it, which encourages their participation—fan works are part of transmedia storytelling. Each part has to be emotionally compelling on its own, and the whole must be enjoyable as well. More importantly for our discussion, transmedia storytelling is marketable because people like to connect things, and we also like different mediums (some people prefer books, others prefer comics) so transmediality allows you to sell your story to a wider public.
Telling stories across multiple platforms allows content that’s right-sized, right-timed and right-placed to form a larger, more profitable, cohesive and rewarding experience. Only with transmedia storytelling can we place the audience at the center of what we do. (Robert Pratten, 201111)
The Cosmere, as of now, is an example of transmediality because it includes novels, comics, and extra content (like Sanderson’s extensive Q&As that are carefully recorded and archived by fans for the sake of theorizing).
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Brandon Sanderson became so popular in the late 2000s and 2010s. There was a huge shift in media, the MCU. The success of this franchise had two important consequences: it made “nerdy” interests mainstream (so long as they have a wide appeal and don’t cater to a specific subculture), and it put the idea of transmedia franchises into people’s subconscious. You want to feel rewarded for picking up all the cameos and Easter Egg, you want to stay after the credits to get a tease of future events, you want to be part of something bigger. This is what Sanderson is offering to people who are more inclined towards literature.
Let’s compare the Cosmere to other interconnected fantasy universes: Pratchett’s Discworld, Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings12, and GRRM’s Song of Ice and Fire. The Discworld novels are mostly stand-alone, but you get a heightened experience if you read the rest because then you can see how the characters and the world evolve over time. However, it doesn’t qualify as transmedia storytelling, since the Discworld only exists in prose format (adaptations don’t count as transmedia because they aren’t expansions of the story). Realm of the Elderlings does contain multiple “series” within a single setting that focus on different characters and parts of the world, but just like with Discworld, it isn’t a transmedia experience, plus Realm of the Elderlings has an overarching linear narrative, meaning that you can’t really read each part on its own (except for the first two trilogies). GRRM’s universe is the closest to Sanderson’s, because aside from the books and their adaptations, HBO is also working on multiple spin-offs that have no source material, which means these shows/movies are going to be expansions of the original story in new mediums, and therefore, an example of transmedia storytelling.
The key difference between GRRM and Sanderson is that GRRM is not pumping out books every year (to my eternal grief). And also, Martin didn’t start a business where his books are the product.
In 201213, Brandon Sanderson founded Dragonsteel Entertainment, rebranded to Dragonsteel Books in 2021. The name refers to as of yet unpublished series within the Cosmere. This company serves as a publisher/producer for Sanderson’s books and projects, and it sells his merchandise. With this company, Sanderson holds yearly conventions and has also purchased land to possibly open a bookstore in the future. His record-breaking Kickstarted campaigns funded the production of special leatherbound editions and Sanderson’s Secret Project novellas.
An entire company relies on Brandon Sanderson putting out more content to sell. There’s a Vice President of Narrative.
Every year, Sanderson makes a “State of the Sanderson” post on his blog, where he lays out his plans for the following year. He talks about how long it will take to write each book, and when the books will be given over to production and published. For this year’s State of the Sanderson, he answered some questions over at Reddit. I want to highlight a couple key comments:
(On the topic of his books needing more editing, bolded by me)
I assure you, I'm edited more now than I ever have been--so I don't believe editing isn't the issue some people are having. Tress and Sunlit, for example, were written not long ago, and are both quite tight as a narrative. Both were edited less than Stormlight 5. Writing speed isn't the problem either, as the fastest I've ever been required to write was during the Gathering Storm / Way of Kings era, and those are books that are generally (by comparison) not talked about the same way as (say) Rhythm of War.
[…]
Plus, I feel that we have been rushed as a team ever SINCE Gathering Storm. That's a long time to be in semi-crisis mode in getting books ready the last few months before publication. We largely, as a company, do a good job of avoiding crunch time for everyone except a little during the year, depending on the department.
[…]
Peter, Isaac, and I (who mostly work on this kind of production) have been all together trying to resist this the last...well, decade or so, and are finally making headway. Isles of the Emberdark, for example, has given the editorial team a non-stressful deadline. Still challenging, but workable without a single bit of overtime. That meant that me turning it in this July has it ready early next year sometime to be sent out for printing, which these days can take as long as eight months.
I think, regardless of how you feel about Sanderson and his writing, that these types of comments make it plain that these books aren’t just literary works anymore. Sanderson doesn’t just write stories, he makes content for his company. And I do think it’s worth discussing whether such an approach to writing can be productive from an artistic perspective, and whether it’s even possible for Sanderson to keep up this model of production. One of his non-Cosmere series, Skyward, has been given over to his co-author, Janci Patterson. Is that the future of the Cosmere? More authors coming in to write Sanderson’s books for him, because he wants a new title out every other month? Dragonsteel is a company, therefore it needs profits, therefore we have to ask ourselves how much quality and authenticity is being sacrificed for the sake of financial gain. Opinions may differ in that regard, art is subjective after all, but as someone who has been around the Cosmere fandom for over a decade I feel that there has been a decline in artistic value.
I worry that, in his desire to give the fans (and his company) more content, Sanderson may not be giving each work the time and effort they need. I think there's genuine value and quality in his earlier works, but I can't honestly say the same of his recent releases. That's just how I feel, but you can draw your own conclusions.
Sanderson’s Relationship with the Fandom.
As I said before in the section about Sanderson’s personal life, he’s very close to his fans, thought not in a creepy way (as far as I know there’s never been any claims of inappropriate behavior). He cultivates this relationship by frequently answering fan questions. What I think differentiates Sanderson’s Q&As from others is the way that the fandom interacts with the information he provides, which is to say, he has built a fandom that thrives on theorizing and collecting lore, and this is both positive and negative. On one hand, this type of fandom is exactly what someone that is trying to make transmedia storytelling wants because fan participation is key to keeping this kind of franchises alive, and I do think that’s what Sanderson is doing. It is also just fun for the people that organize and collect Sanderson’s answers. On the other hand, Sanderson’s use of the Q&As to provide lore and explanations that should have been included in the novels themselves can be seen as bad writing, and it also makes it harder for casual fans to engage in fandom discussions.
A side consequence of this fandom culture is that literary criticism of his works is not encouraged. This is subjective, of course, but from my own observations over the years, I do think it’s fair to say that the fandom is hostile to any kind of negative criticism, which limits the kind of discussions that we can have about Sanderson’s work. It could be argued that Sanderson’s massive popularity has led to parts of the fandom to grow toxic and overtly defensive, and that Sanderson doesn’t do a good job at moderating this behavior. Some may think he has an ego problem, and I’m inclined to believe that that may be part of it (judging by the way he talks about getting preferencial treatment from publishers), but again, this is subjective and I don’t know him.
Something that personally bothers me a great deal is the fandom’s response to a specific character in the Stormlight Archive. I’m not going to do a whole “Moash deserved better” rant, but I do think it’s questionable that a character that is motivated by racial injustice and whose actions are nowhere near as evil as the main villains has a whole subreddit dedicated to hating on him, and that Brandon Sanderson encourages this negative response to Moash with his comments and jokes. For a series that preaches that everyone can be redeemed, it seems the message doesn’t apply to the Angry Man of Color. If you disagree with my opinion, that’s fine, but I do not wish to argue about this so let’s agree to disagree on that.
Influence in the Genre.
It’s hard to judge what Sanderson’s impact on the fantasy genre is going to be, since his work is still fairly recent. However, I think most people would agree that Sanderson’s biggest contribution to fantasy are his Three Laws of Magic, which have become a staple of fantasy discussions and worldbuilding advice.
He is well-known for his use of hard magic systems, which are extremely complex and full of rules, and this is something that gets him lots of praise and that the fandom clearly enjoys, and this approach to writing may have influenced other authors14. It would be a reach to say Sanderson is solely responsible for the popularity of hard magic systems, but he’s likely a factor.
Further Reading:
If you made it this far I think you have read enough about this topic, but here are some videos and literary analysis of Brandon Sanderson and his work. You can also check the references for more.
Brandon Sanderson’s Writing Advise playlist on his YouTube, to get a sense of his approach to writing directly from him.
Wind and Truth is a Disappointment by James Tullos. This is a review that I think also highlights some general issues with the current state of Sanderson’s writing.
Depiction of Good and Evil in The Stormlight Archive and A Song of Ice and Fire.
Evolution of Epic Fantasy Worldbuilding: Contrastive Analysis of
Sanderson’s Writing Style—An Analysis by Man Carrying Thing.
This article is already very long, so I’m going to be brief on my conclusion. Brandon Sanderson is one of the biggest fantasy authors of our generation, and how his work is going to influence the genre is still up in the air. I think the Cosmere can be considered a transmedia franchise, which does place it in the same corner as the MCU. His large output is part of his brand, and it’s important to be aware that Sanderson is not just an author but a businessman, and his books are his main product. Whether that has an impact on the quality of his work is debatable, but I personally believe that he sacrifices artistic integrity for the sake of quantity. As a long-time fan of his work, it saddens me that I no longer feel the same joy and positivity about his books that I used to feel, but at the end of the day, we all have different opinions, and he’s obviously popular for a reason. To each their own, but I’m likely going to stop reading him after Wind and Truth.
These numbers are taken from Wikipedia. I’m including the books he’s written in collaboration with other authors and I’m counting the three White Sand volumes as one graphic novel. If my count is incorrect, cut me some slack, it’s a lot of books either way.
My credentials, if anyone is interested: all Mistborn books, all Stormlight books and novellas (except Wind and Truth), The Rithmatist, Warbreaker, Elantris, most of the short stories set in the Cosmere (except the Secret Projects), and the Skyward and Reckoners series (except the last Skyward book and the novellas). I’m way more familiar with his work than casual fans, but I gave up on being a completionist a while ago.
I will be referring to them as the LDS Church because they don’t like being called Mormons (at least that’s my experience with the members I’ve met), and I think it’s important to be respectful of people’s religious beliefs even if you fundamentally disagree with them.
I think they have a personal relationship outside of their work but I couldn’t find anything in my search. It doesn’t really matter to my point.
This is something that gets praised a lot, but considering that Sanderson was a misionary, it does have some questionable undertones when he consistently takes inspiration from other cultures, it sometimes verges into Orientalism (The Emperor’s Soul being the biggest example).
With mixed results. Since a lot of people don’t care about Elantris, it’s often forgotten that there’s a kid in that book that is autistic-coded. I don’t remember all the details but I vaguely remember that there were other examples in that book of neurodivergent people. There’s also a character that falls into the Magical/Wise Black Man trope, a Sazed protoype if you will, which is not great but an attempt was made.
Numbers taken from here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/189tcf-Kk1hjrQxm7ADQMT3rvlRWtIqejAsJYoUYNlso/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Some comments I read says he took over since Wind and Truth, so take this with a grain of salt. The only thing certain is that Moshe is no longer Sanderson’s editor.
I haven’t read Wind and Truth (yet, I will get to it soon), so this is based on comments I’ve seen around about the book and from people I know who have read it. I also haven’t read the Secret Novels so maybe they are more stand-alone than I think, I have no interest in reading them either way.
Please read Realm of the Elderlings.
Source: https://www.worldswithoutend.com/publisher.asp?ID=985
I don’t read a lot of new fantasy, but I think Daniel Greene (the booktuber) is an example of an author that has been influenced by Sanderson. I haven’t read his books, they don’t seem very good, so I don’t know for sure.
Preface this by saying that I just got into the Cosmere last year, and I’ve only read a handful of the books (Stormlight, Mistborn era 1, and a few standalone novels) so I’m no expert. Yeah, he needs better editing. I don’t really notice the prose unless it’s distractingly bad, so I can’t really comment on a decline in quality.
Sanderson is an author I really want to like, if that makes sense. Based on what little I’ve seen from his lectures and interaction with other authors and influencers, he seems like a nice guy. I also appreciated his stance on Audible, and liked that he wanted smaller authors to be paid fairly. I like how involved he is with his fandom, and I really hope there’s no Gaiman stuff going on with him.
In case it isn’t clear from how much I write about him, I really enjoy his books. But I hadn't realized how corporatized he’s made it, and that bothers me. At least to me, he appeared to have a genuine passion for writing. I just hope that, in the future, he doesn’t sacrifice quality in exchange for quantity.
Brandon Sanderson has a specific writing quirk where he almost always has at least one main character be their own worst enemy for the entire book, until they come to an epiphany at the end and either weaknesses become strengths, or they have a great realization that lets them overcome their weaknesses.
After seeing it every single book for most of his books, it starts to fall a little flat.
Also if Brandon Sanderson is saying that wind and truth is more edited than his prior books, I question what the editors are adding and changing.
Another risk is checkboxing, where scenes or characters are added just to check off a box of including some specific thing that is thought to be necessary, but turns out to be unnecessary and disruptive.
Also he's completely wrong about spoilers.
The idiots studying whether spoilers are good or bad have constructed their studies without examining watching a movie twice.
They only study watching the movie one time with or without spoilers, not whether or not a person can enjoy a movie The first time when they are discovering what happens, then enjoy it more when they watch it again.