secret history Secret History Reading Order

[Endnighthazer]

So one of my friends is close to finishing Hero of Ages, and I want to present her with the choice of reading Secret History after Hero, and I want to be able to tell her the reasons for each reading order. So, what are the reasons for reading secret history after Hero or after Bands? 
After Hero the events are fresher in your mind, and after Bands you don't get spoiled on the reveal at the end, are there any more?

[Treamayne]

Mistborn: Secret History definitely has spoilers for Era 2 and the author recommends waiting until after Bands of Mourning to read it. Another factor is how much (if any) other Cosmere books/series has the individual read? If Mistborn is their first (or nearly first) work by Sanderson or in the Cosmere, then the ton of Cosmere references and information (Shadesmar, Ire, Connection, etc.) will not make much sense and will have far less impact than it should.

For all of my friends that I have recommended Sanderson (and Cosmere) I have never recommended they read MSH after HoA. I just warn them that they could do so, but it is not recommend as it spoils things down the road and will make less sense unless they have read, at least, Warbreaker and Elantris after HoA and before Alloy of Law. I usually only recommend reading it with Era 1 during a re-read of the whole Era 1.

Integrated Timeline: I also created a reading order for integrating the chapters/scenes of MSH with Era 1 (advised only for re-reads of all 5 works) and I also edited my epub so I have an integrated ebook for Era 1.

 

[Endnighthazer]

They haven't read anything else in the Cosmere, and I think they'd rather finish Mistborn first... Is your advice after Bands then?

[Treamayne]

12 minutes ago, Endnighthazer said:

They haven't read anything else in the Cosmere, and I think they'd rather finish Mistborn first... Is your advice after Bands then?

At least after Band of Mourning. . . Really, I would suggest:

• Finish Hero of Ages
  • Go back and read Eleventh Metal, if it was skipped
• Elantris
  • Hope of Elantris (if reading the short stories)
• Warbreaker
• Emperor's Soul
• Alloy of Law
• Shadows of Self
• Bands of Mourning
• Mistborn: Secret History

[Endnighthazer]

Are you sure they couldn't just read the mistborn series? I haven't read SH in a while, but do they lose that much if they don't know about some of the Cosmere stuff?

[AquaRegia he/him]

18 minutes ago, Endnighthazer said:

Are you sure they couldn't just read the mistborn series? I haven't read SH in a while, but do they lose that much if they don't know about some of the Cosmere stuff?

I agree with @Treamayne.  In general, it always makes most sense to read things in publication order, regardless of the order in which they actually take place.

The last scene in BoM is one of the high points of everything Brandon has written, and it would be rendered completely anticlimactic if one reads Secret History beforehand.

It seems to me that much of Secret History will seem like random nonsense without some additional Cosmere knowledge.

[Endnighthazer]

Yeah, I guess

[Treamayne]

7 hours ago, Endnighthazer said:

Are you sure they couldn't just read the Mistborn series? I haven't read SH in a while, but do they lose that much if they don't know about some of the Cosmere stuff?

I'm not sure of anything. Every reader's experience varies.

If the person intends to only read Mistborn, and never read the rest of the Cosmere; then you still lose the impact that the Survivor survived death. You still lose the impact that Wax and gang's assumption that the Sovereign was Rashek was so far off-base. If those kinds of reveals are not the kind of thing the reader cares about then reading order doesn't matter much. Part of the equation is also if the reader enjoys re-reading a book or series. If they are the kind of reader to never ever read a book twice, it could weigh toward reading MSH at any point (early or after BoM) - Since half the fun of MSH is re-reading with Era 1, after the first read has shown the reveal.

However, for most readers, that kind of spoiler is important. The only person I know that did read them in the order you suggested regretted it by the time they got to The Lost Metal.

6 hours ago, Ookla of axi said:

I agree with @Treamayne.  In general, it always makes most sense to read things in publication order, regardless of the order in which they actually take place.

The last scene in BoM is one of the high points of everything Brandon has written, and it would be rendered completely anticlimactic if one reads Secret History beforehand.

It seems to me that much of Secret History will seem like random nonsense without some additional Cosmere knowledge.

It's not even so much the knowledge as it is the context. Mistborn, in general (until MSH/TLM) is rather Cosmere unaware. MSH goes deep for Mistborn's first "larger story" and if you have only read Mistborn, you may not even know there is a larger story with which it Connects. So, even the simple things like Drifter lose meaning without context.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Endnighthazer]

14 hours ago, Treamayne said:

If the person intends to only read Mistborn, and never read the rest of the Cosmere; then you still lose the impact that the Survivor survived death. You still lose the impact that Wax and gang's assumption that the Sovereign was Rashek was so far off-base.

Wouldn't after Bands be best for these reveals? (sorry if that's what you're saying, I'm not sure I fully understand that part of your response)

14 hours ago, Treamayne said:

The only person I know that did read them in the order you suggested regretted it by the time they got to The Lost Metal.

Why? Because of the Cosmere connections?

14 hours ago, Treamayne said:

It's not even so much the knowledge as it is the context. Mistborn, in general (until MSH/TLM) is rather Cosmere unaware. MSH goes deep for Mistborn's first "larger story" and if you have only read Mistborn, you may not even know there is a larger story with which it Connects. So, even the simple things like Drifter lose meaning without context.

Oh yeah that's a good point

[Treamayne]

32 minutes ago, Endnighthazer said:

Wouldn't after Bands be best for these reveals? (sorry if that's what you're saying, I'm not sure I fully understand that part of your response)

I said:

22 hours ago, Treamayne said:

At least after Band of Mourning. . .

You said:

22 hours ago, Endnighthazer said:

Are you sure they couldn't just read the mistborn series?

So I was elaborating that, even for a person who intends to only read Mistborn, but never read any other Cosmere works - they should still read Secret History after The Bands of Mourning (at least the first time) because:

15 hours ago, Treamayne said:

then you still lose the impact that the Survivor survived death. You still lose the impact that Wax and gang's assumption that the Sovereign was Rashek was so far off-base.

With the exception that if the person doesn't care about spoilers, then obviously reading order doesn't matter nearly as much.

[Endnighthazer]

2 hours ago, Treamayne said:

So I was elaborating that, even for a person who intends to only read Mistborn, but never read any other Cosmere works - they should still read Secret History after The Bands of Mourning (at least the first time)

Ah ok thanks for clarifying

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, Treamayne said:

So I was elaborating that, even for a person who intends to only read Mistborn, but never read any other Cosmere works - they should still read Secret History after The Bands of Mourning (at least the first time)

6 hours ago, Endnighthazer said:

Ah ok thanks for clarifying

No worries. I'm often told at work that I rarely make sense to anybody but myself

 

[Al3ndi]

Wait, so I skimmed this whole thing, and for context, I am very new to any of Brandon Sanderson's works I have only read the first era (Mistborn, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages) as well as the Alloy of Law.  So the question is should I go back and read The Eleventh Metal, Elantris, Warbreaker, etc or continue reading the Wax and Wayne era, and  then backtrack before I read Secret History 

[alder24]

1 hour ago, Al3ndi said:

Wait, so I skimmed this whole thing, and for context, I am very new to any of Brandon Sanderson's works I have only read the first era (Mistborn, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages) as well as the Alloy of Law.  So the question is should I go back and read The Eleventh Metal, Elantris, Warbreaker, etc or continue reading the Wax and Wayne era, and  then backtrack before I read Secret History 

There isn't really any Cosmere official reading order (publication order is the best we have), but there are some books that are connected with others, reading them will help you understand other books better. I think if you already started to read Mistborn Era 2 you should continue reading it through. You can read The Eleventh Metal now as that's a really short story. After Alloy of Law (AoL) is Shadows of Self (SoS), then Bands of Mourning (BoM) but  then you definitely need to read Mistborn: Secret History (SH). You could read Elantris and Emperor's Soul before reading Secret History, as those will help you greatly with understanding some concepts that will appear in SH and in the last book. Warbreaker can be read after SH but it's advisable to read it before The Lost Metal (TLM). Either you read The Stormlight Archive series (SA - which is very big) before TLM or after it's up to you.

Because TLM was released last year, after 4 main books of SA it's technically advisable to know it before reading TLM but I think it really depends on many factors, like your reading speed, how much time for reading do you have, how well you remember books, your current immersion in Mistborn world etc. If you were to drop Mistborn Era 2 before the very last book to spend a year reading SA (because it's really huge) forgetting half of Mistborn stuff, I think it's better to just finish Era 2 as there isn't that much stuff from SA in TLM. You don't need to be familiar with SA to understand and enjoy TLM, but there are certainly some connections between those two, which you will notice reading either of those series. I personally would just finish Mistborn at this point and then jump into SA, because that's a very long series. Before jumping into SA it's good to read Warbreaker. 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Al3ndi said:

Wait, so I skimmed this whole thing, and for context, I am very new to any of Brandon Sanderson's works I have only read the first era (Mistborn, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages) as well as the Alloy of Law.  So the question is should I go back and read The Eleventh Metal, Elantris, Warbreaker, etc or continue reading the Wax and Wayne era, and  then backtrack before I read Secret History 

I break down my reading recommendations here, as well as my reasons for such. @alder24 is correct in that there is no single "right answer" as there are too many factors to weigh. However, having recommended and helped a score of people into the Cosmere, I've had friends try a number of different paths. The one that has yielded the most consistent satisfaction and comprehension of "the stories behind the stories" (which you may or may-not even care about) is starting with Mistborn Era 1 (which you have) then Elantris, Warbreaker and Emperor's Soul in whatever order intrigues you most.

Continue from there with personal preference, noting in the linked post where I mention which stories have spoilers for other stories.

Unlike Alder, I would not suggest continuing to Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning right away. But every person's reading order is personal choice - just know that you risk missing some references or understanding some of the context without the grounding that books named above provide.