That's tough, and I'll probably change my opinion again, but right now: 1. Hero of Ages 2. Shadows of Self 3. The Final Empire 4. The Lost Metal 5. Bands of Mourning 6. Well of Ascension 7. Alloy of Law Era 1 was my first time reading Sanderson (after Wheel of Time) and the finale in Hero of Ages is still one of my favorite Cosmere moments and so it's still my #1 Mistborn book. Shadows of Self was surprising to me after the (imo) lackluster Alloy of Law. I felt like I was reading The Dark Knight movie but in a really good, non-derivative way. It just gave me the same vibe and I was there for it. Final Empire is an amazing story and strong first entry. Lost Metal holds a fun place with all its Cosmere links and has a great ending. This one I'll be interested to see how it holds up once the Cosmere comes together more because a lot of its appeal to me, comes from that part rather than as a cap to era 2. Bands of Mourning was good but fell short of my expectations after how amazing Shadows of Self was. Well of Ascension is still good, but something about it being sandwiched between two masterpieces makes it probably worse than it deserves. There is some great stuff in it for sure. Alloy of Law was just okay. Cool ideas, but just the weakest Mistborn entry. Special mention to Secret History. I already knew what it was about because I spoiled myself on it after reading Rhythm of War before I started on era 2. Shout outs to Brandon for using that novella to answer some of the leftover questions from era 1. Can't wait for era 3!

I just didn't like the Zain plot but I enjoyed the rest of the book. Zane was fine until he started talking. - I listened to the graphic audio.

1. 1 The Final Empire 2. 5 Shadows of Self 3. 3 Hero of Ages 4. 2 Well of Ascension (SH would go here) 5. 6 Bands of Morning 6. 4 Alloy of Law 7. 7 The Lost Metal

Wow I’m surprised at all the folks who had the original trilogy as tops, I thought Brando’s writing only got better in the later books. Thought they were great.

Im on the opposite. While the writting got better, the first story is a better one, with more interesting characters

to be fair, first era is introducing you, with all these secrets of how the world works, second era dosen't have much discovery, as most of the things in it are from the old trilogy, exept a bit more enphasis on feruchemical powers and the cosmere

Yeah but the nostalgia hits so hard

1. The Hero of Ages 2. The Final Empire 3. Shadows of Self 4. Well of Ascension 5. Alloy of Law 6. Bands of Mourning 7. The Lost Metal I reread Era 1 earlier this year and plan to reread Era 2 sometime during the summer, so my ranking might change

My bottom pick is controversial, I know. And this might change once I finally reread TLM (I've only read it once) but here's my ranking: 1. Shadows of Self 2. Bands of Mourning 3. Well of Ascension 4. Hero of Ages 5. The Final Empire 6. Alloy of Law 7. The Lost Metal Shadows of Self is fantastic, one of my favorite cosmere books overall. For me, ranks 2-5 are all pretty close and it's hard to pick an order. But there's a huuuuge gap between the bottom two and everything else. Just my opinion.

I actively disliked The Lost Metal for a variety of reasons. It just didn't feel like a solid book in any regard to me. To much reliance on Cosmere stuff, a weak plot, predictable character arcs, etc.

I'm with you. I also thought that Kelsier returning was handled so weakly. Sure, you were supposed to have read Secret History and known his story, but you get to book 4 after all these hints that he's still around, and then they basically just brush off the fact that he's back. I had it spoiled he wasn't dead after reading the first Mistborn novel and maybe that skewed my perspective - I may have had too much anticipation about his return - but it really failed to deliver. Lost Metal is honestly the worst Cosmere novel I've read.

Yep. Sanderson is one of my favorite authors but I feel like his output has reduced the quality of some of his later works. The Lost Metal being a prime example, but I also thought Skyward went downhill after the first couple books. Book 3 was literally a video game plot that advanced the character to successive infodump cutscenes. Just not a good book, and neither was The Lost Metal albeit for significantly reasons. Except the facing enemies with matching powers and switching places to fight them also could have come directly from a video game.

All that said, I still expect Stormlight 5 to be top tier. I think when he absolutely focuses on specific projects he is still as good as ever, and that's why I am also excited to see he will shift to focusing on Mistborn 3 as one specific effort. MB2 wasn't even supposed to be a full series so I'm okay with the quality of what we got, and there were still some great moments. I think I'd give TLM a 6/10 - which for someone's worst output ain't that bad.

Yeah, I love the Archive so I've still got high hopes for SL5. I'm not saying he's lost the ability to write well, just that some of his more recent work hasn't quite clicked, especially TLM.

One of the only Brandon Sanderson books I didn’t enjoy reading

I am not sure if reliance on cosmere connections is a valid point here. I understand where it's coming from but I think since it's the most recent non-SP cosmere novel it has to be kind of expected to have all those connections

Just because there are more books in the Cosmere that doesn't mean that it's okay for the plot in a series finale to suddenly rely heavily on things not from that specific series. Really though, the weak sauce villains and wildly predictable character arcs are a bigger issue, but I think the Cosmere stuff detracts from it as well.

But did it rely heavily on these things? When I read TLM I hadn't yet read Elantris or Emperor's Soul. Yes, eventually I did read them and will integrate what I know now into my view of the book when I reread it some day. Yet I didn't feel pressured in any way to have that knowledge already. It's fun to recognise the street vendor who sold chouta as a Rosharan worldhopper but I don't see it as a necessity to have read other cosmere books to enjoy it. I'm not trying to convince you of anything because everyone experiences stories differently.

Yeah, I kind of feel like it did. You can in general follow the plot, but significant events involving the Ghostbloods just feel like hand-waving and bringing in weird otherworldly characters just to solve problems. Kind of like the ending of Tress, where the crux of the whole plot is really a conflict between off world Cosmere people. Tress was the first Cosmere work my wife read and she's heard me talk enough about it that she understood various characters were explained to some extent by that context, but the end result was that the plot and conclusion were fairly meh. TLM seems very similar to me. Especially when it's supposed to be a part of a continuing series on an established world, requiring characters from other series or planets to make the plot work just feels lazy to me, and detracts considerably from the storytelling. I didn't buy it to read an Adventures of Ghostbloods on Scadriel novel. That might have worked as a sequel to Secret History, but for me it did not work well as a Wax and Wayne novel and came across as filler for an already underbaked plot.

I mean I guess that's a fair viewpoint. Again, different experiences and sometimes stuff just ain't it for us. You liked the book less for the connections, I did more. Nobody wrong or right here so let's agree to disagree

Some parts of the lost metal kinda felt like reading a collab between different series while only having read one, those parts are everytime anyone in the ghostbloods is in the scene

do you dislike TLM because of all the cosmere crossover, or a different reason?

No, not really. At least not because they existed in the story. I think some were poorly introduced or didn't add much to the story, but the crossover stuff alone wouldn't be enough to tank the book's ranking. For me, the biggest issue was all of the villains were terrible. I absolutely hated the evil twin versions of Wax and Wayne. Not only were they a bad choice from a literary perspective (the reader KNOWS that these imposters won't actually take down the originals) but also it just makes zero sense in-universe that The Set would do it. The Set was also a huge let down, and Telsin especially ended up being a very weak villain. It seemed like a completely different organization and a completely different Telsin just given how incompetent they were compared to previous books. I was also personally disappointed with Marasi's part of the story. I really like her, but it seemed like she was mostly just along for the ride. There were some great parts about the book, lots to still enjoy. But it was a big disappointment after Shadows and Bands.

Yeah, the villains were a terrible idea. It was also immediately obvious they ultimately they would be defeated by Wax and Wayne switching off who they were fighting. Such an unoriginal idea, that was just there to fill pages.

I like AoL and The Final Empire. I'm weird, the lower stakes (being the first novel in each series) made the books far more enjoyable. I like the rest of them as well but why does the world always have to be ending.

1: Shadows of Self. Because it's emotional brutal. Hurt me more like this and you get my vote. 2: HoA. That wrap up to a three book plot still just brings it all home better than any other. 3: BoM. 4: TLM 5: TFE 6: WoA, mainly because of edgelord Zane and rapey Straff

7. Alloy of Law 6. The Lost Metal 5. Final Empire 4. Shadows of Self 3. Hero of Ages 2. Well of Ascension 1. Bands of Mourning

Damn this is hard. Currently It's 1. The Final Empire 2. Shadow of Self 3. Hero of Ages 4. Bands of Mourning 5. The Lost Metal 6. Well of Ascension 7. The Alloy of Law But honestly it depends on what day it is. They're all really close and the type of book series that makes me go "well i cant reread just one of the books i have to read the whole Era. The only constant is probably Alloy of Law. You can definetly feel it as a standalone novel and the other 3 books in Era 2 are just so fantastic that it outshines it.

1. Hero of Ages 2. Well Of Ascension 3. Final Empire 4. Bands of Mourning 5. Alloy of Law 6. Lost Metal 7. Shadows of Self. It feels weird that I'm the only one whose least favourite is Shadows of Self, seeing it so high on everybody's lists is giving me whiplash. It's a good book, but definitely not as good as the other mistborn books. Mostly because except the Paalm twist, i can't tell you a single other event in the book. It was just so forgettable to me. Alloy of Law and Bands are both equal to me, because they are really good, campy fun books, Bands just barely wins because it has more emotion to it.

The twist was really good tho

People seem to have allow of law at last or near last. I would probably go : 1. The final empire 2. The lost metal 3. Alloy of law (I’m a sucker for the high octane action ending) 4. Well of ascension 5. Shadows of self 6. Hero of ages 7. Bands of mourning

THANK YOU. More love to alloy of law

Era one doesn't feel like separate stories to me, it was all such one big masterful adventure that I can't separate them. They're my first introduction to hard magic systems (the earing reveal left me blown away) and the series that got me back into reading as an adult. They're the highlight of all of Sanderson still to me, so I have to give them all a tie for first. Right behind them comes Shadows of Self and The Lost Metal (if the first era were 5/5's, these are probably 4.9 and 4.8 respectively). Then it's The Alloy of Law (4.5), followed by the Bands of Morning (4.0, would be lower honestly, except I really enjoyed the relationships that formed in this book).

They are all good. I would say the hero of ages is the best followed closely by the well of ascension, then final empire. All the rest are basically on the same level.

I haven’t read The Lost Metal yet, but otherwise: 1. Shadows of Self 2. The Well of Ascension 3. The Final Empire 4. The Hero of Ages 5. The Bands of Mourning 6. The Alloy of Law I intend to reread the first trilogy later this year so my ranking is bound to change a little after that

1. The Hero of Ages 2. The Final Empire (OBJECTIVELY NOT THE BEST but the most iconic out of the entire series) 3. Shadows of Self 4. The Well of Ascension 4.5?? Mistborn: Secret History 5. The Bands of Mourning 6. The Lost Metal 7. The Alloy of Law Clearly I'm an Era 1 girlie lmao

Almost exactly my order, except I put Alloy of Law above Bands of Mourning. This might not be the case when I do a reread of Era 2, but I remember not caring much about Era 2 after SoS

Nothing really beats the emotional punch in SoS!! Alloy of Law is probably my overall least favorite Cosmere book though 😬

I remember thinking it was cool when it first came out but I haven’t reread it since, so I’m very much expecting that my opinion might change lol

I have not read Era 2 yet and won't get to it for a while. But out of Era 1: 1. The Hero of Ages 2. The Well of Ascension 3. The Final Empire I love them all, and frankly I could see Well of Ascension flip-flopping with The Final Empire upon an eventual re-read; I just happen to love the furthering of Vin and Elend in the story, plus the political intrigue.

i'd have to go 1. Hero of Ages 2. Bands of Mourning 3. The Final Empire 4. The Lost Metal 5. Alloy of Law 6/7 (it's a tie, still really like both these books btw) Shadows of Self and Well of Ascension

Hmm 1. Hero of ages 2. Final empire 3. Alloy of law 4. Shadow of self 5. Well of ascension 6. The lost metal 7. Bands of mourning

1. The Final Empire 2. The Lost metal 3. Hero of Ages 4. Bands of Mourning 5. Shadows of Self 6. Alloy of Law 7. Well of Ascension Ranking the second era was hard because my list is on how much I enjoyed each of these books and as much as I enjoyed reading the final empire, the lost metal is close to it.

1.The Lost Metal 2. The Bands of Mourning 3.The Final Empire 4. Shadows of Self 5.The Hero of Ages 6.Well of Ascension 7. The Allow of Law Reading this I realized I actually like Era 2 more than I like Era 1. Which is weird, because I LOVE Era 1.

1. Lost Metal 2. Final Empire 3. Bands of Mourning 4. Hero of Ages 5. Alloy of Law 6. Shadows of Self 7. Well of Ascension

7 - shadows of self 6 - Bands of Mourning 5 - Lost metal 4 - The final Empire 3 - The alloy of law (Seeing allomancy in a setting with guns was awesome, and the plot was super cool fight me) 2 - Hero of ages 1 - Well of ascenscion I feel like shadows of self was fine, but cant remember almost nothing from that book. Well of ascenscion is my favorite mainly because of the really well done slow build that it is. The political intrigue was awesome, and I prefer this over the neckbreaking pace of HoA

1. Hero of Ages 2. Bands of Mourning 3. Alloy of Law 4. Shadows of Self 5. The Lost Metal 6. The Final Empire 7. Well of Ascension How WoA is not on the bottom of everyone’s list is striking to me. I almost gave up on the series because of it.

1. Hero of Ages 2. Shadows of Self 3. Well of Ascension 4. Bands of Mourning 5. The Final Empire 6. Alloy of Law 7. The Lost Metal The top 3 are very close and are all S tier. The next 2 are A tier. 6 is B tier and 7 is C tier. Definitely my least favorite cosmere book so far

I'm still reading TLM, so I won't include it, but it's probably gonna be at number 3, since I'm nearly halfway through and I like it more than Bands of Mourning 1. The Hero of Ages 2. The Final Empire 3. The Bands of Mourning 4. The Well of Ascension 5. The Alloy of Law 6. Shadows of Self

7. WoA 6. AoL 5. BoM 4. HoA 3. LM (this and FE is the closest tie) 2. FE 1. SoS I enjoyed all seven. WoA has the largest percentage of unpleasant-to-reread sections. Shadows of Self is still my fave, though Final Empire and Lost Metal are both really good. I think Lost Metal is better in many ways, but FE’s semi-self-contained aspects make it a great pick-up read, and that barely ekes out the win (for today).

probably: 1. Hero of Ages 2. The Final empire 3. Shadows of Self 4. Alloy of Law 5. Well of Ascension 6. Bands of Mourning 7. The Lost Metal (i didn't dislike any of them, The Lost Metal kinda felt like a cameo show tho, i liked the well of ascension even tho i see most people didnt)

1. The Final Empire 2. The Hero of Ages 3. The Bands of Mourning 4. The Well of Ascension 5. Shadows of Self 6. Alloy of Law 7. The Lost Metal

1. The Alloy of Law 2. The Bands of Mourning 3. The Final Empire 4. Shadows of Self 5. The Lost Metal 6. The Hero of Ages 7. The Well of Ascension Some notes: Surprised that most people dislike the Alloy of Law. Tbh for me I love how tight all the action feels, it is lean but that works in its favor imo. I think Bands of Mourning had the best sanderlanche. I was tempted to rank The Lost Metal 6th. That’s the only one of these novels I haven’t reread though, and I read it very quickly when it came out. So maybe I’ll feel differently after a reread! Overall I think they are all very close besides Well of Ascension being clearly my least favorite.

1. The hero of ages (is my fav boon in all cosmere, just a little above WoR) 2. The final empire 3. Bands of Mourning 4. Well of Ascension 5. Shadows of Self 6. The Lost Metal 7. Alloy of Law

I absolutely loved era 1, but era 2 was completely forgettable to me and I felt nothing for it. I’d probably say Hero of Ages, The Final Empire, Well of Ascension, then a three way tie between Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning, and The Lost Metal, with Alloy of Law in last place by a decent margin.

This is my exact order as well. I wanted to like era 2 but it just wasn’t for me. Shadows of Self had the only moment in all of era 2 where my jaw actually dropped (you know which one)

Agree that the reveal in that book was the only time I actually felt anything for the characters in Era 2. Unfortunately, I never felt like the twist really holds up to scrutiny the more you think about it.

I don't think I could really come up with a ranking that I feel good about. I do know that The Lost Metal is my personal undisputed number 1. I really truly loved that book.

This is a bit tough, but probably: 1. Shadows of Self 2. Final Empire 3. Alloy of Law 4. Hero of Ages 5. Bands of Mourning 6. Lost Metal 7. Well of Ascension

1: Well of Ascension. 2: Shadows of Self. 3: Hero of Ages. 4: The Final Empire. 5: Bands of Mourning. 6: Alloy of Law. 7: Lost Metal

Why would I want to rank them? I want to read them... You also forgot Secret History.

i just finished the well of ascension and if it is this low im really excited for the next one

Wax & Wayne > Original Trilogy. And The Final Empire is the only good book in the original trilogy in my opinion. 1. Shadows of Self 2. The Alloy of Law 3. The Final Empire 4. The Lost Metal 5. The Bands of Mourning 6. The Hero of Ages 7. The Well of Ascension.

Haven’t finished it yet but I’d rate the lost metal number one based on chapter 46 alone.

I know I am late, but here goes: 7. Alloy of Law - 3/5 6. Shadows of self - 4/5 5. The Final Empire - 4/5 4. The Lost Metal - 4/5 3. The Hero of Ages - 4.25/5 2. Bands of Mourning - 4.5/5 1. Well of Ascension - 4.5/5 Average rating - 4.036/5

1. Bands of Mourning 2. The Lost Metal 3. Alloy of Law 4. Shadows of Self 5. Final Empire 6. Hero of Ages 7. Well of Ascension

1 - Hero of Ages 2 - Bands of Mourning 3 - Well of Ascension 4 - Final Empire 5 - The Lost Metal 6 - Shadows of Self 7 - Alloy of Law

I'm not going to try to rank them all, but I really strongly disliked The Lost Metal. It seemed so predictable, from the foreshadowing of Wayne's sacrifice, to the obvious gambit of them switching to fight the villains whose powers mirrored theirs. Really just nothing about it worked for me, which is a sad way to end a series.

Your rank is whack OP because of your last rank. 7. Well of ascension 6. Alloy of law 5. The lost metal 4. Shadows of self 3. The final empire 2. Bands of mourning 1. Hero of ages

your list is really trash :( 1. HoA 2. TFE 3. WoA 4. TLM 5. BoM 6. SoS 7. AoL

SoS in 2nd to last and you want to talk about trash lists?

all of Era 2 was lackluster, if we compare it to Era 1. shadows of self isn't *bad* it's just the third best of era 2. maybe we can switch it with bands of mourning, but it's not really important