Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1) in Overdue Podcast

Jun 23, 2018 Chandler rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: epic-fantasy, adult-fiction, books-for-boys, books-i-own, 500-699pgs, 2-star

This is a book that I should love, but I just don’t...and I’m having a hard time accepting this. When it comes to Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, I thought it would be an awesome book that I could really enjoy. Back years ago, I had loved his Steelheart series. It had simplistic characters, and X-Men like powers, but there was a charm to the series that I found intriguing. I did not really care that some of the characters were archetypes that I had seen before, I loved the world they were i This is a book that I should love, but I just don’t...and I’m having a hard time accepting this. When it comes to Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, I thought it would be an awesome book that I could really enjoy. Back years ago, I had loved his Steelheart series. It had simplistic characters, and X-Men like powers, but there was a charm to the series that I found intriguing. I did not really care that some of the characters were archetypes that I had seen before, I loved the world they were in, including the different cities that were taken over by the villains. Sanderson knew how to have each villan make each city their own. For example, Steelheart, a man who could control and turn things to metal, in an epic blast of power the size of a small nuclear bomb, manages to turn everything above ground into solid steel. Then, another villain, Regalia, who has the ability to control water, even to the point of controlling the tides, takes what was once Manhattan, and manages to put half of it under water, so that people live in the skyscrapers to survive, using rope bridges, and canoes to move from building to building. This, along with all the cool fight scenes made this series dumb fun, but still fun, nonetheless. If you haven’t read this book series, I highly recommend it.

Everything that was in the Steelheart series is here in the Mistborn series that he published 6 years before. It has simple characters, an interesting magic system, and a cool idea for a story. The basic premise is that there is a boy who is told that he has to destroy an ultimate evil, because he is prophesied to do so. Except...he fails. This somehow turns him evil. He becomes The Lord Ruler, and he begins to rule the city of Luthadel and the surrounding country with an iron fist. Almost a thousand years later, we meet up with a street urchin named Vin. She doesn’t think much of herself, and as a member of the slave class of society, the skaa, she shouldn’t. That is, until she meets a man called Kelsier. He is someone who has an ambitious plan- kill the Lord Ruler. He has what he claims is a special kind of metal, and with it, he plans to kill him, and restore the skaa to their rightful place. But he can’t do it alone, and he soon recruits Vin and a cast of other characters to help him.

The magic system very unique. It revolves around these people who are called Mistings. These people can swallow a mix of 10 different metals and alcohol to gain certain abilities. Those who swallow copper, for example, can become super strong for a short period. Those who swallow iron can push or pull metal toward them. There are quite a few people who can control one metal at a time, and are used by nobles and skaa gangs alike for certain tasks. Then there are those who can control all 10 metals, called mistborn. It turns out that Vin is a mistborn, and she decides to be trained by Kelsier. In return, Kelsier asks her to spy at various balls put on by the nobility, to make sure that they are disrupting the everyday life of the nobel houses in Luthadel, so that the Lord Ruler will be distracted when the group tries to kill him.

This premise is very interesting and one that got me into the story, sadly, it didn’t keep me there, and I often found myself putting this book down to read something else instead. There are many things that I don’t like about this book, so I’ll devote a paragraph to each of them.

The most overarching problem of this book is the writing style. It is written in a very plain simple style, that is devoid of description. In the Steelheart series, this worked because this was a book set in the near future. It was just like ours, except as a dystopia where evil villains ruled the world. Here, however, this does not work for me. Everything from the descriptions and sensory details, to the characters are so boring, it would have not surprised me if this was a bargain bin book from the YA shelf, as it has that aesthetic. This makes the descriptions of the world so lacking. I can’t imagine anything in this world, such as the main city, Luthadel, or anything else, because it is so plain and boring. This is a major sin in terms of fantasy novels. I can remember what King’s Landing looks like in Game of Thrones, and I know what Hogwarts is like in Harry Potter, but here, nothing is made distinctive or memorable, which is almost sacrilege for a fantasy book. This plain and simple style bleeds into everything including...

...the most annoying thing about this book: the dialogue. I’ve heard a saying that we don’t notice when dialogue is competent, but we can’t help but notice it when the dialogue is off. That is the case here. Much of it is stilted, and forced, with characters saying just one extra line than is necessary, making it seem awkward to read. Next, no character seems to have a personality that shines through using the language they speak. There is no phrases, or mannerisms that they develop that we can find as we go along that can point to their character or personality. Of course, they don’t seem to have a personality, to begin with, but we’ll get there. The point is, if you were to point to a line of dialogue without the tag of who said it, I would not be able to name the character. This is something that points to the bad writing that Sanderson has for this book.

Then there is the characters. With the exception of Vin and Kelsier, we do not really get to look at any of the other members of the crew. With that said, Vin was the most interesting character, with a back story containing an abusive brother, and a mother who tried to kill her at birth. Sadly, this back story is as interesting as it gets, with her being the stereotypical Kid who finds her powers and manages to become uber powerful cliche. Kelsier is also somewhat interesting, as he has a brother who may or may not have cheated on his wife before Kelsier was sent to a famous prison that was told to be inescapable. Since he did escape, in a mysterious way, he has now become a legend as a thief who the Empire could not track. Now he wants to become a man who is famous for killing the Lord Ruler. Yet, these backstories are the only things interesting about either of these characters. The rest of the assembled crew are paper cut outs, and they do not have any major development throughout the story, which, I’d argue, is the best part of a ‘team’ style story. Discovering how each of these members are unique and interesting should be one of the best parts, but instead they are all only used for their powers and little else is known about these side characters.

Well, is the plot of the book any good? Nope! It is dreadfully boring. Remember how I said that the team comes in and makes up a plan to destroy The Lord Ruler? Well, they go through with it, with little going wrong in the process. When you try and take down a governmental regime, things tend to get very complicated, very quickly, with people needing to become organized, and items needing to be procured, all while you run the risk of getting caught and killed. Yet, none of this is explored at all, and very little goes wrong with this plan. We do some a few times where weapons are being procured, and Kelsier does kill a few nobleman, but other than that, we are shown very little of the plan going into effect. More often than not the plot of the book is given from Vin’s perspective, which means we are devoted to showing the reader how the magic system works, and a number of not-so-interesting balls and galas, as Vin tries to spy on members of the nobility. Now, I’m not complaining that we get shown how the magic system works, in fact I’d prefer it, but when you are making such a big move like this, something has to go wrong, and with the exception of a few major things that I won’t spoil, things rarely do. The closest we get are a series of team meetings where we are told that things are going wrong, and with a sentence or two, Kelsier solves the problem. Realistic? Perhaps, but this leads to a feeling of telling, rather than showing, which is not very fun to read.

This leads to a novel that I was very excited to read. All of my friends that I talked to suggested this series, saying that it was one of Sanderson’s best. I was anticipating liking this series so much, I bought all three books in one of those special 3 pack box sets. Sadly, this first installment did not work for me. I found it to be boring and the ending to not be worth the effort. Clearly, however, I am in the minority. If you think that this book is good, then I suggest you pick it up. I would also suggest this book for teenagers who may not yet be ready for Game of Thrones. It is a long novel, yet filled with cool action scenes and a unique magic system. It is for those reasons that make me give it a two out of five. There is just enough to keep it from getting a 1 star rating. Will I read the next book? Eventually, but it will be a long time before I do. Let’s just hope that this was a bad first impression and this series is able to stick the landing. ...more

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Apr 04, 2020 Jared Miller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I just reread it after finishing it 5 years ago. This book is even better now. Knowing where the series goes but then seeing how so many things were being setup in this first book makes the rereading experience just as enjoyable.

Things I loved:
-Vin
-Kelsier
-the allomancy and how it’s explained
-Sazed always being a real one

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