FantasyEpic FantasyScience Fiction

Brandon Sanderson

American · b. 1975

24 books reviewed Avg rating 4.4 / 5 Top rating 4.7 / 5

Hugo Award winner, David Gemmell Legend Award

Brandon Sanderson is an American epic fantasy author whose meticulously constructed magic systems and vast interconnected Cosmere universe have made him the most productive major fantasy writer of his generation.

Brandon Sanderson teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University and writes at a pace that has astonished his peers: he has published more than 25 novels, completed Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time after Jordan’s death, and maintains an active schedule of novellas and short fiction. He has built one of fantasy’s most devoted readerships through a combination of ambitious world-building, transparent engagement with his audience, and a genuine commitment to delivering on the promises his books make.

The Stormlight Archive — represented in our catalog by The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer — is his magnum opus, and The Final Empire (Mistborn) is perhaps the best entry point for new readers. Sanderson’s magic systems are famous for being internally consistent, richly detailed, and deeply integrated into his plots: the principle that his magic systems follow discoverable rules, so that readers can engage with them intellectually rather than simply accepting them, is central to his appeal. His characters go through genuine transformations, and his books reward patient, attentive reading. The final act payoffs — what his fans call “Sanderson Avalanches” — are genuinely earned by careful setup.

The honest criticism is that Sanderson’s prose is functional rather than literary, and his books are very long. Some readers find his writing style flat, his humor occasionally forced, and his worlds sometimes more interesting as intellectual constructs than as inhabited fictional places. These are real limitations. But for readers who want rigorous, internally coherent epic fantasy that keeps its promises at enormous scale, Sanderson is unmatched.

24 Books Reviewed

The Way of Kings book cover
Editor's Pick

The Way of Kings

by Brandon Sanderson

4.7

The first book in Brandon Sanderson's epic Stormlight Archive series, set on the storm-ravaged world of Roshar and following three protagonists navigating war, politics, and the discovery of ancient magic.

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Wind and Truth book cover
Bestseller

Wind and Truth

by Brandon Sanderson

4.7

The fifth and culminating volume of the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, bringing Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar to their final confrontation with Odium's champion in a battle for the fate of Roshar.

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Words of Radiance book cover

Words of Radiance

by Brandon Sanderson

4.7

The second volume of The Stormlight Archive follows Shallan and Kaladin as ancient evils stir and the order of Knights Radiant must be reborn to face an apocalyptic threat.

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Oathbringer book cover

Oathbringer

by Brandon Sanderson

4.6

The third Stormlight Archive novel follows Dalinar Kholin's attempt to unite the nations of Roshar as ancient evils return and the secrets of his past are finally revealed.

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The Final Empire book cover
Bestseller

The Final Empire

by Brandon Sanderson

4.6

In a world where ash falls from the sky and the Dark Lord won a thousand years ago, a young thief with extraordinary magical ability joins a crew planning the most audacious heist in history.

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The Hero of Ages book cover

The Hero of Ages

by Brandon Sanderson

4.6

As the world begins to end, Vin, Elend, and their companions race to find the Hero of Ages and uncover the true nature of the powers that have shaped their world from the beginning.

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Tress of the Emerald Sea book cover
Editor's Pick

Tress of the Emerald Sea

by Brandon Sanderson

4.6

Tress has never left her small island. When the boy she loves is kidnapped and taken across the deadly spore seas, she sets out to rescue him — becoming a sailor, a pirate, and eventually a hero on a world she's never seen.

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Rhythm of War book cover

Rhythm of War

by Brandon Sanderson

4.5

The fourth Stormlight Archive novel follows the war against the Fused as Kaladin confronts depression, Navani discovers the nature of anti-Stormlight, and Eshonai's past is finally told.

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The Bands of Mourning book cover

The Bands of Mourning

by Brandon Sanderson

4.5

Wax and Wayne pursue the legendary Bands of Mourning — a set of metalminds said to grant any user the full power of the Lord Ruler — leading them into uncharted lands and the revelation of a hidden civilization.

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The Lost Metal book cover

The Lost Metal

by Brandon Sanderson

4.5

The finale of the Wax and Wayne series pits Elendel against an existential threat while the Cosmere's larger machinations come into direct contact with the Scadrian world for the first time.

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Yumi and the Nightmare Painter book cover

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

by Brandon Sanderson

4.5

Yumi is a yoki-hijo on a world of geothermal heat, summoning spirits through elaborate rituals. Painter is an artist on a world of perpetual darkness, holding back nightmare creatures with his brush. When their lives inexplicably intersect, each must learn from the other while solving the mystery of their connection.

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Defiant book cover

Defiant

by Brandon Sanderson

4.4

Spensa returns from the Nowhere with new understanding of her cytonic abilities as humanity makes its final stand against the Superiority, and the truth about the Delvers and the nature of consciousness itself must be resolved.

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Shadows of Self book cover

Shadows of Self

by Brandon Sanderson

4.4

A shape-shifting kandra is orchestrating political unrest in the city of Elendel, and Wax and Wayne must stop an assassin who can wear any face before the city tears itself apart.

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Skyward book cover

Skyward

by Brandon Sanderson

4.4

Spensa dreams of becoming a pilot in humanity's fight against the alien Krell, but her father's disgrace as a supposed coward has barred her from flight school. When she discovers a crashed, ancient starfighter with an unlikely AI, she finds a path to the sky — and to truths about the war her society would rather keep buried.

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The Alloy of Law book cover

The Alloy of Law

by Brandon Sanderson

4.4

Set 300 years after the events of the original Mistborn trilogy, Waxillium Ladrian is a lawman who returns to the city to find himself caught up in a series of mysterious robberies with allomantic involvement.

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The Sunlit Man book cover

The Sunlit Man

by Brandon Sanderson

4.4

Nomad is a man who can never stop moving — on a world where the sun kills everything it touches, and the only survival is to keep ahead of the terminator line. When he's drawn into the struggles of the planet's oppressed population, stopping means death, but abandoning them feels like its own kind of dying.

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The Well of Ascension book cover

The Well of Ascension

by Brandon Sanderson

4.4

With the Lord Ruler dead, Elend Venture struggles to hold together a fragile new government while Vin faces threats from within and without — and begins to question the prophecy that supposedly guides them.

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Firefight book cover

Firefight

by Brandon Sanderson

4.3

The Reckoners take their fight to Babylon Restored — the flooded ruins of Manhattan — pursuing the Epic known as Regalia while David confronts the possibility that not all Epics are irredeemably corrupt.

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Starsight book cover

Starsight

by Brandon Sanderson

4.3

Spensa goes undercover among the alien Superiority to discover the truth behind their war against humanity, only to find that the conflict — and her own abilities — are far more complicated than she was told.

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Steelheart book cover

Steelheart

by Brandon Sanderson

4.3

Ten years after a cosmic event granted ordinary people superhuman abilities, the Epics have taken over as tyrants rather than heroes. David Charleston joins the Reckoners — ordinary humans who hunt Epics — to kill Steelheart, the most powerful Epic alive.

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Warbreaker book cover

Warbreaker

by Brandon Sanderson

4.3

Two sisters from a conservative mountain kingdom are sent to the colorful, decadent city of the Gods, where the divine Returned don't believe in their own religion and a war is being engineered by forces neither fully understands.

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Calamity book cover

Calamity

by Brandon Sanderson

4.2

The Reckoners track the source of Epic powers to Ildithia — the former Atlanta — and David confronts the cosmic force behind Calamity itself, with the future of both Epics and ordinary humans at stake.

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Cytonic book cover

Cytonic

by Brandon Sanderson

4.2

Spensa enters the Nowhere — a dimension outside normal space-time — to master her cytonic abilities and find a way to save humanity from the Superiority, encountering fragments of ancient civilizations and the truth about why cytonics are feared.

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Elantris book cover

Elantris

by Brandon Sanderson

4.2

In a world where a magical city of gods has fallen and its inhabitants are cursed with a living death, a prince, a princess, and a priest navigate politics, religion, and the mystery of what destroyed Elantris.

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