Loved the Cosmere? Here are seven fantasy series with the hard magic, deep worldbuilding, and earned payoffs that Brandon Sanderson readers want next
Wind and Truth closed out the first arc of the Stormlight Archive in December 2024. The next entry is years away.
That gap is the problem. You finished the Cosmere reread and mapped every magic system. Now nothing on the shelf scratches the same itch.
So what is the itch, exactly? Sanderson fans rarely want "more fantasy." They want a few specific things. Magic that runs on rules, not vibes. Worlds built deep enough to argue about. Endings that pay off every setup from 800 pages back.
Here are seven books that deliver on those, grouped by what pulls you in.
For the hard magic systems
People quote Sanderson's first law to death for a reason. The power has limits, the limits are clear, and the payoff comes from clever use inside those limits. Two authors do this as well as anyone.
McClellan studied under Sanderson at BYU, and it shows in the cleanest way. Powder mages snort black powder to sharpen their senses, float bullets, and detonate a charge from a mile off. Each ability has a cost, and the trilogy opens on a coup that never slows down. Start here if Mistborn's heist energy is what you miss.
Drafters pull color from light and harden it into luxin, a physical substance with different properties per hue. Blue is rigid, red burns, and every drafter has a finite supply before it kills them. The accounting is exact, and Weeks builds a political thriller on top of it.
For the worldbuilding you can get lost in
Some readers come to Sanderson for the maps, the histories, the sense that the world existed before page one. These two go even further into consequence and culture.
Orogenes draw and release energy to still earthquakes, or cause them. The rules are exact, and the cost is brutal. The book opens on a world ending and slowly explains why. It won three Hugo Awards in a row, and few systems feel this load-bearing to the plot.
Jade grants warriors enhanced strength, speed, and perception, but only some people can wear it without burning out. One family controls the supply, which turns the story into a crime saga built around a magic system. The clan politics hit as hard as the duels.
For the climb and the payoff
Part of the Sanderson high is watching a character go from powerless to terrifying. Then comes the finale that cashes it in and ties off a dozen threads at once. Fans call his version the Sanderlanche.
This kicks off Cradle, twelve books of pure progression. Lindon starts at the bottom of a rigid power hierarchy and claws upward, advancement by measurable advancement. The system is transparent, the pacing is fast, and Wight already wrapped the whole series. You can binge it without waiting on a release date.
For the long haul
Maybe what you love is scope. The thousand-page tomes, the cast you live with for years. Go to the source that shaped Sanderson directly.
The Wheel of Time runs fourteen volumes, and Sanderson finished the last three after Jordan died. The One Power has firm rules, split by gender, with real risk attached to overreach. The early books are a slow burn, but the reward is the most complete epic in the genre.
For when you want something with teeth
Sanderson's books stay fairly clean, but sometimes you want the same craft pointed somewhere darker.
Rin tests into an elite military academy, then discovers she can channel a god through her own body. The price climbs with every use. Kuang builds the magic on real Chinese history and an actual atrocity, so the stakes land like a punch. Go in knowing it gets grim.
How to keep the next one straight
Most of these run long, and three of them share authors with side series or shared universes. That is half the fun and half the headache. You finish book four of Cradle and forget which thread you were chasing.
A reading tracker fixes that. With Seekquel, you can line up a series in reading order and mark where you stopped. Keep notes on a magic system too, before the next volume drops. Useful when "the next one" is a year out.
Where to start
If you want one pick: read Promise of Blood. It is the closest thing to a Sanderson book written by someone else, and the trilogy is complete.
Want the bigger swing? The Fifth Season will rewire how you think about a magic system carrying a plot.
Either way, you have enough here to cover the wait until Stormlight six.
