Mistborn (series)

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Mistborn is a fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson. It is a major part of the cosmere sequence and is set mostly on the planet Scadrial.

It is most well known as the trilogy of Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages, but there have been additional installments. Brandon originally planned a "trilogy of trilogies" but this has been expanded into a number of series over various eras in the history of Scadrial.

Era 1: Original TrilogyEdit

 
Artwork for the Brazilian and Spanish releases of the trilogy

The first Mistborn trilogy chronicles the efforts of a secret group of Allomancers who attempt to overthrow a dystopian empire and establish themselves in a world covered by ash.

Year
Published
Book Title Order Length In-world
Year(s)
Notes Refs
2006 Mistborn: The Final Empire #1 Novel 1022 FE
2007 The Well of Ascension #2 Novel 1024 FE
2008 The Hero of Ages #3 Novel 1025 FE
2011 The Eleventh Metal #0.5 Short Story 1019 FE Released in the core rule book of the Mistborn Adventure Game, later in Arcanum Unbounded
2016 Mistborn: Secret History #3.5 Novella 1022-1025 FE Occurs concurrently with events from the end of Mistborn: The Final Empire to the end of The Hero of Ages. Should ideally be read after The Bands of Mourning.


Era 2: Wax and Wayne SeriesEdit

Set about 300 years after Era 1, the Wax and Wayne series is about the exploits of Waxillium Ladrian, a "wild-west Deputy" forced to move into the big city who starts investigating kidnappings and robberies.

Year
Published
Book Title Order Length In-world
Year(s)
Notes Refs
2011 The Alloy of Law #1 Novel 341 PC
2015 Shadows of Self #2 Novel 342 PC
2016 The Bands of Mourning #3 Novel 342 PC
2022 The Lost Metal #4 Novel 348 PC [1]
2014 Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania N/A Short Story 342 PC Released in the Alloy of Law supplement of the Mistborn Adventure Game, later in Arcanum Unbounded [2]

The Alloy of Law was initially conceived as one of several short stories Brandon wanted to set between the first and second main trilogies that eventually grew into a full novel, and then a series.[3] The Wax and Wayne series is a single four book series; The Alloy of Law stands more-or-less alone while the rest are plotted together like a trilogy.[4]

Brandon has also said that he may do some more stories before the second trilogy, set in a 1940's society.[4]


Era 3: Ghostbloods TrilogyEdit

Mistborn: Ghostbloods, the third trilogy, will be set in the early computer age with 1980s technology. The main character is planned as a Terris woman who is a computer programmer and Nicroburst; her brother is also planned to be a character.[5][6] Peter has described her as a "brown Terris geek girl", though he does point out that this could change by the time the series is actually being written.[7] Brandon backs up this description,[8] and describes it as a sort of "how nerd culture works on Scadrial."[9] Brandon had initially planned for the trilogy to feature an Allomancer SWAT team, with a team of allomancers hired to take out a serial killer, but is now leaning more towards a spy thriller.[10][11] It will probably be released in the 2020s, after Stormlight 5 and the Elantris sequels.[12]

He will be writing it in a similar manner to the first trilogy, writing all three books before publishing so that he could properly foreshadow and edit past books.[13][14] He is greatly looking forward to writing book ten.[15] These will be returning to the length of the Mistborn Era One books.[16][17][18][19][20]

It is planned for these books to include a global map of Scadrial.[21][22][23] There are short comic books that are planned to be interspersed in them, similar to the broadsheets in Era Two.[24] There are going to be allomancy-involved sports,[25] and various characters are planned to be Twinborn with "really neat combinations."[26] It is planned to take place fifty to seventy years after Era Two,[27] by which time the Southern Scadrians will be well-known to the rest of Scadrial.[28] It will put more focus upon Kelsier and Trell.[29][30][31][32][33] MeLaan is also expected to play a role.[34]

Possible Cyberpunk Mistborn TrilogyEdit

Brandon has interest in writing a "Cyberpunk" Mistborn trilogy between Eras Three and Four.[35][36] Whether he writes it depends on how Era Three plays out[37] and if he feels he has enough time to write more books before he gets too old.[38][39] The books would be similar in length to Era Two (around 100,000 words)[20] and be written around the same time as the second half of the Stormlight Archive.[40] This trilogy would become Era Four and push space age Mistborn to Era Five[40] and put Mistborn up to a fitting sixteen books.[41] If a whole trilogy isn’t feasible he wants to at least write a novella.[42] Nothing about the characters or plot are known but Brandon wants to play with unsealed metalminds as cyberpunk-esque “metallurgic wetware”.[43]

Era 4: Fourth Mistborn TrilogyEdit

The fourth trilogy is going to be a space-opera with Allomancy-powered faster-than-light technology.[44] Hoid will be a main character in this trilogy.[45] The Sleepless, or Dysian Aimians, will also have a major role in this trilogy.[46] The Iriali are also planned to have a major role.[47]

There may be two more currently untitled cosmere series written before this trilogy.[48]

He plans for each Era 4 book to be around the length of a Stormlight book.[16]

Other mediaEdit

Cover GalleriesEdit

Era 1
Era 2

PublicationEdit

  • MISTBORN: THE FINAL EMPIRE (Tor, July 2006)
  • MISTBORN: THE WELL OF ASCENSION (Tor, Spring 2007)
  • MISTBORN: THE HERO OF AGES (Tor, Fall 2008)
  • Audio rights (entire series) to Macmillan Audio
  • Bulgarian rights (entire series) to Studio of A.
  • Chinese rights (traditional; entire series) to Fantasy Foundation
  • Chinese rights (simplified; entire series) to Shanghai Wanyu
  • Czech rights (entire series) to Talpress
  • French rights (entire series) to Calmann-Levy
  • German rights (entire series) to Heyne
  • Greek rights (entire series) to Fantastikos Kosmos
  • Hebrew rights (#1-2) to Opus Press
  • Hungarian rights (#1-3) to DeltaVision
  • Italian rights (#1-3) to Fanucci
  • Indonesian rights (#1-3) to Mizan Publishing
  • Japanese rights (entire series) to Hayakawa
  • Polish rights (entire series) to Mag
  • Russian rights (#1-2) to EKSMO
  • Russian rights (#1-3) to Azbooka-Atticus
  • Serbian rights (#1-3) to Laguna
  • Spanish rights (entire series) to Ediciones B
  • Turkish rights (#1-3) to Arkadas
  • UK rights (entire series) to Orion/Gollancz
  • Film rights for MISTBORN to Chris Geary and Paloppa Pictures LLC[49]

AwardsEdit

  • THE HERO OF AGES — #21 on NY Times hardcover list
  • THE WELL OF ASCENSION — Finalist for Romantic Times Award, Best Epic Fantasy
  • THE HERO OF AGES — Winner of the Romantic Times Award, Best Epic Fantasy
  • THE HERO OF AGES — Finalist for the inaugural David Gemmell Award
  • All three Mistborn Trilogy books are SF Book Club selections
  • THE HERO OF AGES — selected as an Indie Next List Notable for Dec. 2008[49]

NotesEdit

  1. General Reddit 2020
    Arcanum - 2020-07-01#
  2. Allomancer Jak release announcement
    Brandon's website - Oct 21, 2014#
  3. Two More Mistborn Novels
    Brandon's website - Oct 29th, 2013#
  4. a b State of the Sanderson 2014
    Arcanum - 2014-12-18#
  5. JordanCon 2016
    Arcanum - 2016-04-23#
  6. /r/fantasy AMA 2011
    Arcanum - 2011-08-31#
  7. Peter commenting on the next trilogy.
    — Twitter - Aug 19th, 2015#
  8. General Reddit 2015
    Arcanum - 2015-12-17#
  9. Oathbringer release party
    Arcanum - 2017-11-13#
  10. Stormlight Three Update #4
    Arcanum - 2016-10-04#
  11. Idaho Falls Signing
    Arcanum - 2009-06-20#
  12. State of the Sanderson 2014
    Arcanum - 2014-12-18#
  13. General Reddit 2021
    Arcanum - 2021-01-19#
  14. General Reddit 2021
    Arcanum - 2021-01-25#
  15. Mistborn: Secret History Explanation
    Arcanum - 2016-01-30#
  16. a b General Reddit 2019
    Arcanum - 2019-12-10#
  17. YouTube Livestream 30
    Arcanum - 2021-04-07#
  18. /r/books AMA 2015
    Arcanum - 2015-04-13#
  19. Bands of Mourning release party
    Arcanum - 2016-01-25#
  20. a b YouTube Livestream 3
    Arcanum - 2020-01-25#
  21. Cosmere.es Interview
    Arcanum - 2022-10-19#
  22. YouTube Livestream 35
    Arcanum - 2021-09-09#
  23. Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA
    Arcanum - 2019-10-01#
  24. MisCon 2018
    Arcanum - 2018-05-26#
  25. General Reddit 2017
    Arcanum - 2017-12-13#
  26. 17th Shard Forum Q&A
    Arcanum - 2012-09-26#
  27. Dragonmount Zoom Call
    Arcanum - 2020-12-10#
  28. Firefight San Francisco signing
    Arcanum - 2015-01-17#
  29. Idaho Falls signing
    Arcanum - 2018-12-29#
  30. Shardcast Interview
    Arcanum - 2021-01-23#
  31. JordanCon 2018
    Arcanum - 2018-04-21#
  32. Skyward release party
    Arcanum - 2018-11-06#
  33. Secret Project #4 Reveal and Livestream
    Arcanum - 2022-03-29#
  34. Calamity Seattle signing
    Arcanum - 2016-02-17#
  35. Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing
    Arcanum - 2016-12-01#
  36. Travis Gafford Interview
    Arcanum - 2020-11-12#
  37. General Reddit 2019
    Arcanum - 2019-12-10#
  38. Kraków signing
    Arcanum - 2017-03-21#
  39. General Reddit 2018
    Arcanum - 2018-08-14#
  40. a b General Reddit 2021
    Arcanum - 2021-05-27#
  41. Dragonsteel 2022
    Arcanum - 2022-11-14#
  42. General Reddit 2019
    Arcanum - 2019-12-19#
  43. YouTube Livestream 32
    Arcanum - 2021-06-03#
  44. /r/fantasy AMA 2011
    Arcanum - 2011-08-31#
  45. #SandersonChat Twitter Q&A with Audible.com
    Arcanum - 2016-02-04#
  46. Leipzig Book Fair
    Arcanum - 2017-03-24#
  47. General Reddit 2019
    Arcanum - 2019-05-28#
  48. State of the Sanderson 2014
    Arcanum - 2014-12-18#
  49. a b Brandon's Awful Agent page
    — Awful Agent #
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