Every Cosmere Novel Reviewed in 10 Words or Less

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

Hi there! This was inspired by Jello Apocalypse's movie review series. It's basically what it says on the tin - I'll be reviewing each of the cosmere novels, but I'll restrain myself to a limit of ten words. Then, I'll say more about my three favorites and three least favorites.

Please read the below first.

1.  In addition to a ten-or-less word review, I will also be graciously providing you with a rating on a scale from one to ten.
2.  These ratings won't be from "Harmony-awful" to "Pretty good," like most things you see rated on a scale like this. Since I didn't dislike any books in the cosmere, I decided it would be more interesting to have 1 represent "pretty good," and 10 represent "the best book I've ever read." Remember that I enjoyed reading all of these books.
3.  This will be very controversial. All of the ratings I'm presenting here are subjective - meaning what I liked or didn't like, not what's objectively good or bad. Feel free to reply to my post and disagree (or agree! ) with me, just don't get too heated about it .
4. Also, spoilers for the ENTIRE COSMERE. Don't read any of this, even reviews for books you've already read, if you haven't already read everything.

Okay.

Let's get started.

~~~~~

The Final Empire: A hero who's the villain of another story.  9/10

Rhythm of War: The story where he's the villain.   8/10

The Well of Ascension: Nothing really happens until the end.  3/10

The Hero of Ages: The classic girl vs. God story.  6/10

The Alloy of Law: Try this one weird trick and become a Coinshot today!!!!!!!!  5/10

Shadows of Self: *puts on Steris fan club t-shirt*  5/10

Bands of Mourning: OMG KELSIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  8/10 

Elantris: Politics and Zombies. 9/10

Warbreaker: Politics and Zombies 2: electric boogaloo.  7/10

The Way of Kings: A masterpiece of worldbuilding and character development. (Not plot, though.)  10/10

Words of Radiance: "I am a stick." Nothing else in this book matters.  6/10

Oathbringer: A slow burn, for people who like slow burns.  5/10

White Sand: Unremarkable.  1/10

~~~~~

Okie dokie. Now, let's take a look at the top and bottom three (in true JelloApocalypse fashion!)

Third Best - Elantris

Elantris is the most under-rated of Brandon's books. While everyone was blathering on and on about Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive, I finished this book in one afternoon (while I was supposed to be doing homework). Sure, Brandon's writing has improved since he wrote it, and the characters could use some work. But the setting and the plot are just so compelling that I couldn't help but be dragged in. When people say this in book reviews, I often roll my eyes, but with Elantris, I really couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

Third Worst - Oathbringer

Ok, ok. Hear me out here. Oathbringer is a good book, objectively. But subjectively, it just wasn't my thing. The worldbuilding, which was why I'd loved tWoK, had been put on the back burner, and there really wasn't anything else that could fill that void. Maybe if it was faster-paced, it would've been better, but it wasn't - it moved at the same slow-burn type pace that tWoK and WoR had. Only this time, there wasn't any worldbuilding to fill in the gaps. The plot id did have was good, which kept it from being moved further down the list.

Second Best - The Final Empire

This one's a more conventional opinion. The Final Empire was my first Sanderson book, and it feels like it perfectly exemplifies who he is as an author. There's political intrigue, philosophical discussions, a gripping plot, and amazing characters. Kelsier really feels like one of those protagonists that's only the protagonist because there's a bunch of even worse people around. It feels like if he was in another story, he'd be the villain...

oh, wait

Second Worst - The Well of Ascension

This book is just... slow. Nothing much really happens until the end. I still enjoyed reading it, but it's turned two of my friends off Mistborn, and I really wish that didn't happen. Most of the Final Empire is a heist novel, in essence. It drops that pretense about three-quarters of the way through the book, but that's just in time for the first pebbles of the Sanderlanche to start coming down on our heads. However, this becomes a bit of a problem in Well of Ascension. I signed up for a heist and political intrigue, and I got bland romantic tension, and a slow-going siege that just feels like it takes forever to resolve.

Best - The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings isn't too heavy on the plot. But it did everything else so well, I hardly noticed. It plunges you straight into this strange and wonderful world that's filled to the brim with secrets to unravel, the characters are three-dimensional and lifelike, and what little plot it does have is masterfully worked. This is one of those books that makes me wish I could just tuck all of my memories of it away in a coppermind and experience it for the first time again.

Worst - White Sand

I enjoyed reading White Sand. I don't really have a problem with the story or the characters. But that's honestly all it has going for it. It's just... unremarkable. I don't really know what else to say.

~~~~~

Sooooo, that's it! Let me know if you want one of these for non-cosmere novels or novellas or something else. I certainly had a fun time making it.

byeeeee 

[Sequence she/they]

Interesting point of view, and I mostly agree with you.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

2 hours ago, Sequence said:

Interesting point of view, and I mostly agree with you.

In what ways do you not?

[AonDoor he/him]

The White Sand thing is understandable if you're talking about the graphic novel. It's a graphic novel. If you were talking about the prose, however, I don't know, since I haven't read it.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

1 hour ago, Ookla the Johnny Boy said:

The White Sand thing is understandable if you're talking about the graphic novel. It's a graphic novel. If you were talking about the prose, however, I don't know, since I haven't read it.

I haven't read the prose either. I only did commercially published books in this, since I haven't read tWoK', AoN, or DS'.

[Honorless he/him]

Huh, can't say I've ever thought of Oathbringer as a slow burn, not inaccurate though. I, personally, have more of a problem with the too-much at once ending than the long lead-up.

Absolutely agree with Well of Ascension, now that was often a needlessly slow book. I did like the politicking there, though it had not great irl implications and it did have cool moments, this is where we meet TenSoon! But also Zane. And that was just ugh.

The Alloy of Law was pretty bad. I really only started liking era 2 upon reread, except the first book which is still pretty meh, imo. So, agree.

Yes! Way of Kings rules!

Words of Radiance had a Shalladin ship going and just nope to that. I usually don't like romantic drama subplots in general.

A Elantris and Warbreaker comparison? Hadn't thought about that. I think I enjoyed Warbreaker more and have definitely reread that more - thrice, compared to Elantris' once.

Broadly agree with the marks of the Final Empire, RoW, Bands of Mourning , though maybe I'd change it up by a point up or down. Shadows of Self wasn't that bad. And Hero of Ages would get a higher score by a point or two as well.

The White Sand hate is a shame but gotta admit, the graphic novels were not great, except part 3 especially towards the ending. I did like the prose though and I would suggest people check it out.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

1 hour ago, Honorless said:

The White Sand hate is a shame but gotta admit, the graphic novels were not great, except part 3 especially towards the ending. I did like the prose though and I would suggest people check it out.

I should check the prose out. That’s three people now who’ve told me that 

And don’t get me wrong - I’m not hating on the graphic novels, they’re just kind of derivative and aren’t the best by Brandon standards

[Sequence she/they]

3 hours ago, Ookla the Confused said:

In what ways do you not?

They're pretty vague, mostly I think TWoK had more plot than you gave it credit for, and the Well Of Ascension had a bit more action. For the most part, I agree.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

Just now, Sequence said:

They're pretty vague, mostly I think TWoK had more plot than you gave it credit for, and the Well Of Ascension had a bit more action. For the most part, I agree.

For tWoK, I would have said “relevant plot” if I had more words. For WoA, it just moves so slowly that you hardly notice.

[Sequence she/they]

Just now, Ookla the Confused said:

For tWoK, I would have said “relevant plot” if I had more words. For WoA, it just moves so slowly that you hardly notice.

Fair (mostly). Agree to disagree.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

1 minute ago, Sequence said:

Fair (mostly). Agree to disagree.

Ok.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

@Ookla the Confused I think you are wrong in this in every way except for the white sand review sorry Oathbringer was the fastest stormlight book and rhythm of war was the slowest.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

6 minutes ago, Thaidakar the Cool Ookla said:

@Ookla the Confused I think you are wrong in this in every way except for the white sand review sorry Oathbringer was the fastest stormlight book and rhythm of war was the slowest.

But RoW had the science bits, which satiated my need for worldbuilding. Oathbringer didn’t have anything like that.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

Just now, Ookla the Confused said:

But RoW had the science bits, which satiated my need for worldbuilding. Oathbringer didn’t have anything like that.

true but RoW was super slow for most of the book, but for books to be good do they have to have science? is Harry Potter not a good book as it does not have science?

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

Just now, Thaidakar the Cool Ookla said:

true but RoW was super slow for most of the book, but for books to be good do they have to have science? is Harry Potter not a good book as it does not have science?

No. Harry Potter had lots of worldbuilding - the science bits are just examples of that. Plus, I’ll still enjoy a book with less worldbuilding - it just has to be faster-paced.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

Just now, Ookla the Confused said:

No. Harry Potter had lots of worldbuilding - the science bits are just examples of that. Plus, I’ll still enjoy a book with less worldbuilding - it just has to be faster-paced.

well to be fair Oathbringer was faster paced in my opinion at least then RoW because nothing really happened in RoW till the middle of the book when the tower was invaded. yes the science stuff was great but that was in the last half. Oathbringer had the action stuff more spread out, same with the interesting stuff, I am not saying RoW is bad just that is not the best.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

Just now, Thaidakar the Cool Ookla said:

well to be fair Oathbringer was faster paced in my opinion at least then RoW because nothing really happened in RoW till the middle of the book when the tower was invaded. yes the science stuff was great but that was in the last half. Oathbringer had the action stuff more spread out, same with the interesting stuff, I am not saying RoW is bad just that is not the best.

Agree to disagree.

[2EmLee2 she/her]

On 12/12/2021 at 1:46 PM, Ookla the Confused said:

Words of Radiance: "I am a stick." Nothing else in this book matters.  6/10

But... Apology with boots! That matters!

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

5 minutes ago, Ookla the Ballerina said:

But... Apology with boots! That matters!

I guess that does too. Again, not enough words

[GroundPetrel]

On 12/12/2021 at 2:46 PM, Ookla the Omniscient said:

Hi there! This was inspired by Jello Apocalypse's movie review series. It's basically what it says on the tin - I'll be reviewing each of the cosmere novels, but I'll restrain myself to a limit of ten words. Then, I'll say more about my three favorites and three least favorites.

Please read the below first.

1.  In addition to a ten-or-less word review, I will also be graciously providing you with a rating on a scale from one to ten.
2.  These ratings won't be from "Harmony-awful" to "Pretty good," like most things you see rated on a scale like this. Since I didn't dislike any books in the cosmere, I decided it would be more interesting to have 1 represent "pretty good," and 10 represent "the best book I've ever read." Remember that I enjoyed reading all of these books.
3.  This will be very controversial. All of the ratings I'm presenting here are subjective - meaning what I liked or didn't like, not what's objectively good or bad. Feel free to reply to my post and disagree (or agree! ) with me, just don't get too heated about it .
4. Also, spoilers for the ENTIRE COSMERE. Don't read any of this, even reviews for books you've already read, if you haven't already read everything.

Okay.

Let's get started.

~~~~~

The Final Empire: A hero who's the villain of another story.  9/10

Rhythm of War: The story where he's the villain.   8/10

The Well of Ascension: Nothing really happens until the end.  3/10

The Hero of Ages: The classic girl vs. God story.  6/10

The Alloy of Law: Try this one weird trick and become a Coinshot today!!!!!!!!  5/10

Shadows of Self: *puts on Steris fan club t-shirt*  5/10

Bands of Mourning: OMG KELSIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  8/10 

Elantris: Politics and Zombies. 9/10

Warbreaker: Politics and Zombies 2: electric boogaloo.  7/10

The Way of Kings: A masterpiece of worldbuilding and character development. (Not plot, though.)  10/10

Words of Radiance: "I am a stick." Nothing else in this book matters.  6/10

Oathbringer: A slow burn, for people who like slow burns.  5/10

White Sand: Unremarkable.  1/10

~~~~~

Okie dokie. Now, let's take a look at the top and bottom three (in true JelloApocalypse fashion!)

Third Best - Elantris

Elantris is the most under-rated of Brandon's books. While everyone was blathering on and on about Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive, I finished this book in one afternoon (while I was supposed to be doing homework). Sure, Brandon's writing has improved since he wrote it, and the characters could use some work. But the setting and the plot are just so compelling that I couldn't help but be dragged in. When people say this in book reviews, I often roll my eyes, but with Elantris, I really couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

Third Worst - Oathbringer

Ok, ok. Hear me out here. Oathbringer is a good book, objectively. But subjectively, it just wasn't my thing. The worldbuilding, which was why I'd loved tWoK, had been put on the back burner, and there really wasn't anything else that could fill that void. Maybe if it was faster-paced, it would've been better, but it wasn't - it moved at the same slow-burn type pace that tWoK and WoR had. Only this time, there wasn't any worldbuilding to fill in the gaps. The plot id did have was good, which kept it from being moved further down the list.

Second Best - The Final Empire

This one's a more conventional opinion. The Final Empire was my first Sanderson book, and it feels like it perfectly exemplifies who he is as an author. There's political intrigue, philosophical discussions, a gripping plot, and amazing characters. Kelsier really feels like one of those protagonists that's only the protagonist because there's a bunch of even worse people around. It feels like if he was in another story, he'd be the villain...

oh, wait

Second Worst - The Well of Ascension

This book is just... slow. Nothing much really happens until the end. I still enjoyed reading it, but it's turned two of my friends off Mistborn, and I really wish that didn't happen. Most of the Final Empire is a heist novel, in essence. It drops that pretense about three-quarters of the way through the book, but that's just in time for the first pebbles of the Sanderlanche to start coming down on our heads. However, this becomes a bit of a problem in Well of Ascension. I signed up for a heist and political intrigue, and I got bland romantic tension, and a slow-going siege that just feels like it takes forever to resolve.

Best - The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings isn't too heavy on the plot. But it did everything else so well, I hardly noticed. It plunges you straight into this strange and wonderful world that's filled to the brim with secrets to unravel, the characters are three-dimensional and lifelike, and what little plot it does have is masterfully worked. This is one of those books that makes me wish I could just tuck all of my memories of it away in a coppermind and experience it for the first time again.

Worst - White Sand

I enjoyed reading White Sand. I don't really have a problem with the story or the characters. But that's honestly all it has going for it. It's just... unremarkable. I don't really know what else to say.

~~~~~

Sooooo, that's it! Let me know if you want one of these for non-cosmere novels or novellas or something else. I certainly had a fun time making it.

byeeeee 

I agree on some but disagree on others.  I tend to rate Elantris pretty low because Raoden and Sarene are annoyingly perfect (not lovably perfect as Adolin is) on reread.  The plot was solid and Sanderson's writing voice hooked me instantly and got me addicted to his books, but it's just one of his weakest IMO. 

I would say "the one where he's the villain" is actually Alloy of Law.  Miles comes off as "what if Kelsier, but fighting a system that is just kinda corrupt instead of OMGWTF pure evil". 

Personal disagreement on Oathbringer, but as you said, personal take there. 

Way of Kings changed my life.  That thing is an addictive masterpiece.  Sanderson could've dropped dead immediately after sending the final draft to the publishers and he would've gone down in history as one of the greatest writers in human history.  That book should be taught in literature classes, not all these fuddy-duddy old English bozos. 

Words of Radiance I would also rate as my 2nd fave because I literally nearly died reading it, it was so addictive.  I walked across a green light in NYC with my head in my Kindle because of that book. 

I do think Sanderson's work is bad for graphic novel transpositions.  They always seem super rushed when I just want to enjoy the trip.  At the risk of sounding like an addict--journey before destination. 

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

I- I look back now and realize that you were more right about this than I gave you credit for, @Szeth_Pancakes. I pressed this on your signature, forgetting I'd already read this. TFE is definitely at least second place if not number one. WoA is slow, but I think it deserves a point or two more because of TenSoon and Elend. HoA also needs at least one more point. I really enjoyed Shadows of Self and would put it at a seven rather than the same as Alloy. Alloy was pretty goodgood when I read it for the first time recently, though that might only be because it scratched an itch for that sort of story. Imo, I still would put OB a few points higher. But, agree to disagree.

[cometaryorbit]

I'm going to do my standard "standing up for Well of Ascension" thing here. I can't say it's my favorite since it's the middle of a trilogy - my favorite is either TFE or BoM depending on whether I'm in a more serious or more pulp mood - but I love it because it does stuff which is rarely done, "after the villain loses, how do you deal with the aftermath", "building something that lasts and works is harder than killing the bad guy", and is realistically *messy* about it - people don't just instantly reject even a very evil system, if it's all they've ever known, and especially if the replacement doesn't inspire confidence. I like it primarily because too often in stories killing the main villain fixes everything.

I actually don't mind Zane. I mean, I'd hate him if he were a real person, but I think as a character he represents something that needs to be in the book. The temptation to use Mistborn powers to just kill all your enemies, to say "why should we follow regular people's rules of society when we have the power"...

Also, WoA is the only book where koloss are a threat through most of the book (they only turn enemies again at the end of HoA) and I love koloss as foes.

[Treamayne]

On 12/12/2021 at 4:46 PM, Szeth_Pancakes said:

Hi there! This was inspired by Jello Apocalypse's movie review series. It's basically what it says on the tin - I'll be reviewing each of the cosmere novels, but I'll restrain myself to a limit of ten words. Then, I'll say more about my three favorites and three least favorites.

Please read the below first.

1.  In addition to a ten-or-less word review, I will also be graciously providing you with a rating on a scale from one to ten.
2.  These ratings won't be from "Harmony-awful" to "Pretty good," like most things you see rated on a scale like this. Since I didn't dislike any books in the cosmere, I decided it would be more interesting to have 1 represent "pretty good," and 10 represent "the best book I've ever read." Remember that I enjoyed reading all of these books.
3.  This will be very controversial. All of the ratings I'm presenting here are subjective - meaning what I liked or didn't like, not what's objectively good or bad. Feel free to reply to my post and disagree (or agree! ) with me, just don't get too heated about it .
4. Also, spoilers for the ENTIRE COSMERE. Don't read any of this, even reviews for books you've already read, if you haven't already read everything.

Okay.

Let's get started.

~~~~~

My version (but not an arbitrary 10 word limit - no idea who Jello is. . . or why it matters to the Cosmere):

Elantris:  8/10 - Good world-building; liked the chapter triad layout.  Great magic system.  A bit too DEM in the ending.

The Final Empire: 8/10 - Great world-building and characters. Good story and reversal. Ending a bit off.

The Well of Ascension:  6/10 - Agree with @cometaryorbit - I love that this book tackles subplots normally avoided and a good "politics" contrast to Elantris and Warbreaker

The Hero of Ages: 7/10 - Great conclusion for the trilogy, but missing some "meat" and some character choices seem off.

Warbreaker: 5/10 - Not bad, and I like Awakening; but this book was mostly saved by Lightsong and a very well done villain reversal.

The Way of Kings: 9/10 - Great world-building. Good characterization and well portrayed mental illness. Shallan's best book.

Words of Radiance: 7/10 - Good continuation. Less world-building but better character development. Kaladin's best book.

Oathbringer: 4/10 - Loved Dalinar's flashbacks; disliked almost everything else. Especially Shallan's arc starting in this book.

Rhythm of War:  6/10 - Started feeling disjointed (first real time skip in SA), and felt very unstable across the board. Great easter eggs and finally some Fabrial background.

White Sand: 4/10 - I understand why BS felt Sand Mastery would be good for a visual medium, but the lack of some explanation hurt the story. Omnibus will fix most of this, I hope.

White Sand (Prose): 7/10 - The additional explanation really helps the world-building and understanding what is happening throughout.

The Alloy of Law: 5/10 - Middle of the road across the board - world-building, character arc, etc. Wayne saves this from a lower score.

Shadows of Self: 6/10 - Better example of what Era 2 could be, but still a little disjointed in that some character decisions/motivations don't mesh.

Bands of Mourning: 7/10 - Good to see that Era 2 isn't just Elendel, but it felt a bit unfinished.

Spoiler

The Lost Metal: 4/10 - Explained in Spoiler section reactions

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Treamayne
SPAG