A review by sergek94
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 

“Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days...What is belief - what is faith - if you don't continue in it after failure?...Anyone can believe in someone, or something that always succeeds...But failure...ah, now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly. Difficult enough to have value. Sometimes we just have to wait long enough...then we find out why exactly it was that we kept believing...There's always another secret.”


It's been 1,000 years since the Dark Lord took over. Evil has won, and the people are broken, accepting their defeat and yielding to the brutal iron fist of the Lord Ruler's tyranny. However, not all hope is lost. A band of thieves, led by their charismatic leader Kelsier, wish to overthrow the Lord Ruler and topple his empire. Among these band of thieves is a young street urchin named Vin, who became an unlikely newest member of Kelsier's crew. Vin is as strong-willed as Kelsier, and her hidden powers, that even she herself isn't aware of, might just as well surpass Kelsier's.

This is the second novel I read by Brandon Sanderson, the first one having been Elantris, which I liked, despite people saying that as his debut, it was far behind his later books. Sanderson is known for his hard-magic system, meaning that magic in this world isn't an allusive, mysterious phenomenon that we struggle to understand. On the contrary, it is akin to science, with clear rules and logic that must be followed to be able to work properly. The magic system in this novel is called Allomancy, which is a metal based magic. People can ingest certain metals and have access to certain powers, such as manipulating people's emotions or being able to have super strength. However, most people who have access to this power can only use one metal they specialize in, while a rarer portion of the population, called "Mistborns", can use all the metals at the same time, which gives them a significant advantage. Kelsier and Vin are Mistborns.

The nature of this hard magic system gives this book a very different feel than other fantasy works, making it a bit closer to fantasy's distant relative, science-fiction. If you're a fan of rigid and well-defined magic rules, then this book would be enjoyable for you. Sanderson spends quite a bit of pages explaining the magic system in the book, so if you aren't into this sort of thing, this book can also be a bit boring. I found the magic system to be interesting and I was interested in seeing how the characters utilize it, because the rigid nature of magic also ups the stakes during battle, since sometimes, it's not possible to use the magic efficiently based on certain circumstances, like metal reserves running out of your body.

This book also has a fair amount of political intrigue, since a great part of the story revolves around infiltrating balls and sowing discord among the great noble houses by spreading rumours and gossip. This adds a certain degree of political complexity to the novel, adding to its depth. Since this novel is quite long, I did find myself getting a bit bored during these parts of the story, craving a bit more action, but if you are into political manoeuvring, this book will satisfy that itch.

Fortunately, there are a lot of action scenes and explosive plot twists that make up for the slower parts of the novel, which I really enjoyed.

I would say that the character work isn't really that exceptional, since a lot of characters seem to be typical manifestations of their archetypes. They also lack the grit and edge you would see in works such as Joe Abercrombie's novels, but it's important to remember that Sanderson isn't trying to be Abercrombie, and he is not writing a grimdark story. On the contrary, certain ideals, such as hope, and the desire for goodness to triumph, and the role of religion and its importance, are key aspects of this work.

I would have preferred a much more atmospheric writing style, since the writing was generally bland and to-the-point, and given the atmospheric nature of the world, with a red sun and ashes falling down from the sky and blackened nature, there was a potential for really atmospheric writing, even though Sanderson is not known for that.

This is a decent work of fantasy overall, despite not being something extremely exceptional. It still merits 4 stars from me, because the story is very memorable. Looking forward to reading the sequel!

“But you can't kill me, Lord Tyrant. I represent that one thing you've never been able to kill, no matter how hard you try. I am hope.”