This thread is as good a place as any to ask: what is the best Sanderson book to read (actually, listen to on Audible)? I bounced off Mistborn a few years ago but he gets a lot of love so I am willing to give him another chance. Plus I live his Writing Excuses podcast so I feel like I owe him.
Mistborn is where I started, on audible, and I have proceeded to collect every one of his Cosmere books on Audible. Got the last one just last month. I highly recommend listening to the whole series. If by "Bounced off of" means you didn't get far it, trust me, it'll hook you and pull you all the way through. And I haven't read a climactic ending like Mistborn's first trilogy's ending in book 3. It is just absolutely astounding. The second trilogy is just as good, but much, much shorter.
The Stormlight Archive is another good series of books. He has three out so far, and is planning another seven (for two five-book archs). They are utterly fantastic and appropriately epic. Sanderson's worlds are phenomenally detailed.
However, if you are looking for an introduction that doesn't include such a huge commitment, Elantris is a good stand alone that should be getting a sequel sometime in the next ten years, though it doesn't need one. Another standalone book is Warbreaker. Both of these are in the Cosmere, so they are connected to Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive, but you wouldn't know that unless you know that.
[sblock=Cosmere]Basically, the Cosmere is Sanderson's universe, and all these books take place on different planets within that universe, and each one as its own magic system. The backstory is that Adonalsium, a god like being from thousands of years ago, shattered somehow into 16 shards, and 16 people picked up those shards, basically becoming gods themselves. Each one settled on a different planet, and invested their power in that planet, and that investiture, as magic is called, manifests different ways depending on the type of shard that settled there.
in other words, there are different planets with different types of magic for each one.
Right now, each series of books are separate and stand by themselves, though there is one side character that appears in all of them (you have to watch for him, though, sometimes his cameo is quick). Sanderson took great care so that people who are unaware of the Cosmere could still enjoy his books as individuals. Eventually though, if Sanderson doesn't die first, he's going to have a sci fi series that spans the different planets, mixing their magics in unique ways. But that's decades off. [/sblock]
So if all that is too intimidating, let me actually answer your question: Read Elantris. That's his first published book in the Cosmere, and it is a standalone. And a good read. If you like it, pick up Mistborn again. Read all of them. Then Warbreaker. Then Stormlight Archive.
And that is my suggestion.
