Mistborn reading order: The Final Empire (2006)

Short version of the era question: Where to start Mistborn: Era 1 or Era 2?. For “which planet first?” see Where to start the Cosmere. This page is Eras 1 and 2 only.

Sanderson’s own Cosmere on-ramp page calls Alloy “an okay jumping in spot” and immediately warns that it has spoilers for the original trilogy. Era 2 is the same planet a few centuries later. It is written for people who already know what the first trilogy did to that world.

This page covers Mistborn Era 1 and Era 2 only. It is not a Cosmere reading-order guide. For Stormlight as a separate door, see the Stormlight Archive guide. For “which planet first,” see the Cosmere starter. Warbreaker and the secret-project novels are other shelves.

Era 1 — the original trilogy

Read these three in order. There is no contested start inside Era 1.

Era 2 — Wax and Wayne

Set roughly three hundred years later. Four books. The era is complete.

Era 2 is shorter, more case-shaped, and more of a partnership book. It still assumes Era 1’s history. If you bounced off Era 1’s middle book, that is a taste problem. Starting Era 2 instead will not “skip the slog” without also skipping the ending Era 2 keeps talking around.

Secret History and the extras

Mistborn: Secret History is a companion novella, not Era 1.5 in the bookstore sense.

Sanderson’s trilogy page is blunt: Secret History contains huge spoilers for the original trilogy and very minor spoilers for The Bands of Mourning. His current advice is to treat it as a companion after you have the Era 1 ending, with the BoM caveat attached.

House rule for a first read:

1. Finish Era 1.
2. Read Era 2 through The Bands of Mourning.
3. Read Secret History.
4. Read The Lost Metal.

If you are impatient and you accept a few Era 2 names leaking backward, Secret History can follow The Hero of Ages. That is the older fan habit. It is not cleaner. It is just earlier.

Other extras stay out of the numbered columns:

• The Eleventh Metal — short, collected in Arcanum Unbounded. Optional texture around Era 1.
• Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania — Era 2 magazine pastiche in the same collection. Skip on a first pass.
• Era 3 — planned; not a reading-order problem yet. Do not wait for it before reading 1 and 2.

Common mistakes

• Starting with The Alloy of Law because it is shorter and “more modern.”
• Reading Secret History before The Hero of Ages.
• Treating Arcanum Unbounded as Mistborn book 4.
• Opening a Cosmere spreadsheet and postponing Era 1 until you have a 40-book plan.
• Stopping after Era 1 because “the trilogy is the complete story” without knowing Era 2 is a finished second argument, not a teaser.

What to read next

1. The Stormlight Archive (Brandon Sanderson) — If you want the other Cosmere door Sanderson names for fantasy readers, as its own series, not a homework chart.
2. Kingkiller Chronicle (Patrick Rothfuss) — If you want another gifted-student epic that starts at book one even while book three stays unpublished.
3. The Books of Babel (Josiah Bancroft) — If you want another finite climb: one protagonist, one structure, no Cosmere homework.
4. The Craft Sequence (Max Gladstone) — If Era 2’s legal and financial aftertaste was more interesting than the heist.
5. Night Angel (Brent Weeks) — If you want another finished trilogy whose later prequel looks like book one. Start at The Way of Shadows (2008), not Perfect Shadow.

FAQ

What is the Mistborn reading order?
Start with The Final Empire (2006) — Era 1 — then Era 2 (The Alloy of Law through The Lost Metal). Do not start with Alloy. Secret History is a companion, not book 1.5.

Can I start with Era 2?
Sanderson allows it as a Cosmere jump. For Mistborn, start with Era 1. Alloy spoils the first trilogy’s outcome.

Do I need Secret History?
No. Era 2 is readable without it. Era 2 is richer if you have it before The Lost Metal.

Is this the whole Cosmere?
No. This page stops at Mistborn Eras 1 and 2 on purpose.

Where does The Lost Metal end the story?
It ends Era 2. It does not end the planet. Era 3 is a later project.

Which cover says Mistborn vs The Final Empire?
Same book. Search either.

Sources

• Brandon Sanderson, “Where do I start?” — The Final Empire as a start; Alloy warned as a spoiler for the original trilogy. Opened 2026-09-13.
• Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn original trilogy — Era 1 titles and the Secret History spoiler note. Opened 2026-09-13.