Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to claim my way is the only or even the best way! A thousand debates have been had over the “correct” Cosmere reading order, and I personally think there is basically no “wrong” order.
I’ve just found that the people I know who started with Mistborn, often struggled to get into Elantris and/or Warbreaker. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that they are not as breezy a read as Mistborn. And that telling them “it’s a shared universe! You just gotta read these two other 600-page books before that starts mattering” is kind of a hard sell.
Both sides obviously have their merrit. I can see how mistborn would appeal to a wider fantasy audience, but I came at the cosmere looking to explore magical systems. Elantris and Warbreaker scratch that itch very well, though they can definitely be overwhelming for someone new to fantasy in general. It’s hard enough to sell anyone on long format books these days without having soft prerequisites on top of it all.
