I turned 30 this year and, as I get older, it can sometimes feel like I’ve moved past the ability to get truly obsessed with something. When I think back to the fun I had discoveringThe Lord of the Ringsmovies or the Calvin and Hobbes comics as a kid, I find those interests have a real purity that it’s tough to match as an adult when new hobbies are often accompanied by thoughts about how to monetize them. I remember doodling mountains on notecards in middle school, then decorating those notecards with all the Middle-Earth-related words I could think of. Adult interests are rarely that — and I mean this in the best way — pointless.
It would be easy to think that, as a grown-up, I can’t feel that same depth of excitement about something anymore. And to be sure, it is rarer. But occasionally, something comes along and sets off my “I need to know everything about this” impulse, and I feel as compelled as I ever have to fixate on something for months at a time.
Currently, that fixation is the Cosmere. If you’re not familiar, it’s the interconnected universe created by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson that includes his best-selling series The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn, alongside various standalone novels like Elantris and Warbreaker. Though each series and standalone takes place in their own world, those worlds are connected by certain characters who can travel between them.
I’m still very early into my exploration of the Cosmere — I’ve read Elantris, Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and half of The Way of Kings — but it’s already consuming much of my free time. This weekend, I spent about an hour playing video games and, like, eight hours reading The Way of Kings. The last time a book took over that much of my leisure time was probably ten years ago, at least; sometime in early college or late high school.
As you can tell from that reading list, I haven’t even touched Mistborn. There are whole, big worlds within the Cosmere that I have no real knowledge about yet.
Part of the draw is the interconnectedness of the universe. I got sick of theMCUyears ago, so I’m surprised that I’m drawn to this series, given that Sanderson’s books, like Marvel movies, increasingly include Easter eggs that reference the other worlds within the Cosmere. I’m still early, so I may end up getting tired of Sanderson’s work for the same reason.
But there are some key differences that make it easier to get on board with this than the MCU’s long standing multimedia project. For one, the fact that this story is being told entirely by one author — rather than containing multiple writers’ and directors’ work that must be pounded into place by a producer who oversees the whole enterprise — makes it possible for the Cosmere to achieve higher quality and a more coherent, singular vision.
Regardless of why I like it so much, I’m stoked that Idolike it so much to begin with. Normally, getting into a series that contains nearly two dozen books would be daunting. In this case, it hasn’t been. I’ve been excited at the prospect of reading all the novels and hopefully getting caught up on the whole universe by the time the fifth Stormlight Archive book, Wind and Truth, releases in December. This interest is hitting its stride just as another interest comes to an end, as my wife and I just finished watching through Succession. It’s easier to say goodbye to something I’ve really loved knowing that a new obsession is right there waiting. There’s more to life than movies, books, or video games, of course, but this has been a reminder of how fun it can be to find a new thing to get excited about.
