Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Dec 09, 2016 Sayan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cosmere, mistborn

For so long I've been trying to avoid Brandon Sanderson books. But I knew someday I would read them. So, according to a suggestion by a fierce BranSan fan, I entered the Cosmere universe.

The Final Empire truly deserves the five stars, more the the amazing story and super amazing magic systems. The magic of Allomancy and Feruchemy, are by far the best magic systems I ever read. Who would have thought to give metals magical properties? Of course, Mr. Sanderson! ...more

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Feb 15, 2018 Adrian G Hilder rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've heard the Mistborn series described as swords and sorcery. It has sorcery "in spades" - the fascinating and innovative Allomancy. Think magical power from metals. I'm not sure the swords part really qualifies. The setting strikes me as more 19th century than the traditional psuedo-medieval worlds we most often find in fantasy. The Final Empire is a fun magical romp through a world broken by past events still shrouded in mystery that I'm keen to penetrate by reading more books in this series I've heard the Mistborn series described as swords and sorcery. It has sorcery "in spades" - the fascinating and innovative Allomancy. Think magical power from metals. I'm not sure the swords part really qualifies. The setting strikes me as more 19th century than the traditional psuedo-medieval worlds we most often find in fantasy. The Final Empire is a fun magical romp through a world broken by past events still shrouded in mystery that I'm keen to penetrate by reading more books in this series.
The overall style and the age of the heroine (16) make me think YA Fantasy but with enough sophistication to appeal to an adult audience. I would have liked more showing in the writing style, especially in action sequences, than the telling we often get. As a result, there were times I felt force fed events rather than experiencing them. I'm done with criticisms now.
The Final Empire was thoroughly enjoyable. The main character Vin is a wonderful blend of strength and naivety with a special but unschooled ability in Allomancy. Her world view is delightfully distorted by her tragic backstory. This gives her an understandable problem trusting anyone and she must overcome this on her quest to end The Final Empire. The Lord Ruler (the Emporer if you will) is immortal and apparently invincible. How can they possibly succeed?
This is a trope Sanderson also uses in Steelheart. If you love Mistborn The Final Empire and have not read Steelheart yet I recommend adding it to your "want to read" list.
Ever envied Spiderman's ability to swing through the buildings on his web strings? Wait until you discover how the Allomancers use their ability to travel with speed and style...
Vin's mentor Kelsier teaches her much about Allomancy and sends her to learn from others with different specialist skills. The story never gets bogged down in this training. It's woven into the storyline. Of course, there are some things a true hero/heroine is going to have to figure out for themselves. Kelsier is a key player in this story are there are many scenes from his point of view. The grand plan at work in this story is his, but he can't do it alone.
Mistborn The Final Empire takes a street urchin and member of a gang of thieves into a world of nobility and espionage, magic and mist. Vin takes on a second identity, Vallette, the only identity her love interest, a son of the enemy ruling class, knows her by. What could possibly go wrong...
The right questions are answered in this book by the end but there are plenty of others left open for future books. Vin grows as a character but there is still plenty of room to see her grow more.
This is a fantastic story that will keep you guessing until the end - how can you kill the invincible Lord Ruler and exactly what is the power of the eleventh metal?

4.5 stars from me overall, but rounded up to a well deserved 5 here. ...more

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Dec 03, 2015 Lanko rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, favorites, bingo16, rc2016n-e

Finally read Mistborn. I'm impressed by Sanderson's cohesive plot and plot twists, but found characterization, specially regarding dialogue, lacking. And just like in Elantris, lots of telling instead of showing.

The magic system is great. Plenty of abilities gained through various metals, that can even be used at the same time by certain people. The fights are very graphical, fast paced and totally satisfactory.

The worldbuilding. It's great in how Allomancers can interact with metals, there's t ...more

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Mar 31, 2015 Tom Owens rated it it was amazing

The Final Empire: 5 out of 5 stars
The Well of Ascension: 4 out of 5 stars
The Hero of Ages: 4.5 out of 5 stars

I can safely say that the Mistborn Trilogy will always have a special place in my reading world. I was given the first one by a friend during a prolonged hospital stay and it rekindled my love of books and where they can take you. At that point I was more of a gamer and TV watcher but within minutes of beginning the Final Empire I felt a whole new, different world stretching out in front The Final Empire: 5 out of 5 stars
The Well of Ascension: 4 out of 5 stars
The Hero of Ages: 4.5 out of 5 stars

I can safely say that the Mistborn Trilogy will always have a special place in my reading world. I was given the first one by a friend during a prolonged hospital stay and it rekindled my love of books and where they can take you. At that point I was more of a gamer and TV watcher but within minutes of beginning the Final Empire I felt a whole new, different world stretching out in front of me. I read probably 8 hours straight that night (pausing only for sleep) and devoured the rest of it over a few short days. It was my first exposure to the world of Brandon Sanderson and I’ll forever be grateful to Dan for introducing me.

It has been a good while since I read these books but they still remain fresh in my mind, helped by the release of the recent Mistborn novella (Secret History) which filled in a few gaps I didn’t even know existed.

I still remember the initial few chapters as Sanderson begins to set everything up, particularly the thrill of learning all about Allomancy alongside Vin as she took her tentative first steps into a brave new world. I absolutely loved the concept of the magic system; it seemed so simple that I was convinced someone else must have thought of it previously! But as we go deeper in Sanderson’s world and start to learn about the other elements of the magic it becomes more complex, more layered and more subtle. This is what I’ve come to expect and love from Sanderson over the years, nothing is ever one (or indeed two-) dimensional.

From a plot point of view I actually found the first book the most compelling. Kelsier as a character carries the story magnificently and the latter books suffer slightly from his absence. It’s not that the other characters don’t work, it is just that Kelsier’s sense of purpose drags the narrative forward throughout that first book in a way that doesn’t quite happen with the second and third ones. Vin, Elend and Sazed are good characters in their own right but The Well of Ascension particularly feels a little bit like the morning after a great party when you realise that you’ve got to clear up all the mess and get back to reality!

It is a similar situation with the characters. The ensemble “crew” in the first book gives way to a more Vin/Elend-heavy approach as their importance becomes more obvious to the tale as a whole. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this shift initially but as we move further into the narrative and the end-game becomes more obvious you being to realise the necessity of it. The characters are still lovingly created and you do find yourself engaged in their struggles and their successes, but I found myself drawn more towards the story and away from the characters as we move towards the conclusion. Is this a bad thing? Probably not, it is essentially just a shift away from a people-based story to a narrative-based one.

Despite this, and the slight feeling of “after the Lord Mayor’s show” following the climax of The Final Empire, there is no doubt that the series as a whole works. The concept of removing the “bad” guy in the first of a trilogy only to find out that actually he might not have been the biggest problem is a clever little plot angle. I did feel things laboured a little bit through the middle book, though I appreciate (a) the effort to which Sanderson goes to create depth and breadth to his works and (b) his fondness for slowly and methodically arranging pieces on the board before throwing the dice (might be slightly mixing my metaphors here).

As the events of the trilogy begin to shake out and the real antagonist begins to become apparent, the narrative begins to quicken its pace. Sanderson does have a great skill for pacing and once the pieces are in place he expertly manoeuvres them around so they all arrive where they should, when they should. He is so in control of his world (and its rules) that he is able to bring everything together in such an organic fashion; managing to surprise without contrivance. And the denouement itself is clever enough without trying too hard to be so.

Overall Mistborn really is a fantastic series. Yes it dips a little in the middle after the rollicking action of the first book but it holds its own with the best of the genre. Fantastic pacing, a compelling magic system and an overall narrative that keeps you entertained through the ebbs and flows. Throw in a good bunch of characters (and in Kelsier one of the best protagonists for a long time) and you’ve got the recipe for a very successful series. And, from my perspective, the start of an exceptional body of work. ...more

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Sep 14, 2015 Laura Hughes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Sanderson’s Laws of Magic. Those four words right there are one of two main reasons I’ve shied away from reading anything by Brandon Sanderson until now (the other reason being a contrary streak in my nature that makes me resist recommendations of prolific, well-loved authors until I bloody well choose to read them – against all logic and good sense, I know). To me, the words ‘laws’ and ‘magic’ have no right being in such close proximity to one another: magic, by its very definition, is nebulous Sanderson’s Laws of Magic. Those four words right there are one of two main reasons I’ve shied away from reading anything by Brandon Sanderson until now (the other reason being a contrary streak in my nature that makes me resist recommendations of prolific, well-loved authors until I bloody well choose to read them – against all logic and good sense, I know). To me, the words ‘laws’ and ‘magic’ have no right being in such close proximity to one another: magic, by its very definition, is nebulous, mysterious and unknowable. Fair enough, most fantasy stories wouldn’t be very interesting if magic didn’t have limitations and consequences; however, imposing strict rules and providing detailed definitions turns magic . . . into science. And correct me if I’m wrong, but most people who read fantasy are drawn to its, well, fantastical nature. They want to read about what is possible, not what isn’t.

Anyway. The disgruntled part of me – the part that knows that amazing books such as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell are awesome precisely because of magic’s vagueness and unpredictability – expected to dislike this first outing with Sanderson, and to feel fully justified in continuing my grumbles about ‘laws’ and ‘magic’ into the foreseeable future. However . . . I really, really enjoyed The Final Empire.

The first book in Sanderson’s bestselling Mistborn series, The Final Empire is of course based around a strongly defined magic system. ‘Allomancy’ is the practice of swallowing metal and then ‘burning’ it in order to access magical powers, with different types of metal granting different kinds of power. It sounds ridiculous (I myself spent much of the novel with a nagging voice in the back of my mind whispering, “that can’t be healthy!”) but it’s actually very innovative, though at times it feels as though we’re being lectured about it in place of seeing it in action. Indeed there are large parts of the beginning of the story that consist of pages of exposition regarding the finer points of allomancy, giving it the feel of a scientific journal rather than an exciting fantasy (there’s even a helpful table included as an appendix, in case readers want to brush up on internal vs. external metals, and which ‘group’ they fall into). There’s too much telling and not enough showing, at least at the beginning.

I found myself feeling similarly spoon-fed as the main characters first came together to discuss the ‘grand plan’ that is the focus of the story. Not only do characters repeat certain points over and over again, but the main character also writes the main points of this super-secret plan in clear bullet points on a big blackboard, as though spelling things out s-l-o-w-l-y for us dull-witted readers. I also found the first few demonstrations of allomancy in action to be similarly repetitive, with almost each new paragraph of a fight scene beginning with the phrase, “Kelsier burned [insert appropriate metal here] and then [insert appropriate action here],” which became somewhat tedious.

Happily, the novel improves vastly as it progresses, and as we become more involved with its main characters. The two protagonists of The Final Empire are radically different: one is a reckless, egotistical man, cocky and confident in his mastery of allomancy; the other is a young fearful street girl, struggling to accept that she too has powers, and fighting against her natural instinct to distrust everyone around her. Although I know plenty of people are huge fans of Kelsier I found him to be irritating and unsympathetic for the majority of the novel, despite his tragic background and supposed charisma. My favourite character by far is Vin, and I really liked the way her character is developed: she gradually comes into her own as a main character rather than being thrust into the limelight, and I enjoyed the way that Kelsier begins to take a narrative backseat to allow Vin to come to the forefront instead. The allomantic combat scenes also become much more complex and exciting as the story focuses more and more on Vin, who is discovering new and interesting ways to apply her myriad powers to any problem she encounters.

Aside from the numerous exposition scenes at the beginning there is never a dull moment in The Final Empire. The characters are always busy setting things in motion, and the settings they occupy are varied and vivid, whether it’s a dingy mine, a royal ballroom or a mist-shrouded city street. The steadily increasing pace makes for an especially climactic build-up to the final events, and there are a few surprises along the way that keep the momentum rolling along nicely. The last couple of hundred pages in particular are full of just one more chapter-type excitement – not at all the stuffy, rule-obsessed pedantry I thought it would be – and I can’t wait to get hold of the next Mistborn book, The Well of Ascension. Against all expectations I now openly declare myself a Sanderson convert, and highly recommend The Final Empire to anyone who hasn’t yet tried his books. ...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Gabriel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

There are 3 years since I've read this book but I can still remember it very clearly, I still feel that excitement I had then when I discovered this book. The world Sanderson manages to create is unique, same is the magic system that he uses in here - which may look complicated at first - but it is very cleavery crafted; the characters are real with details that manage to distinguishe them from one another, without plain characterizations; the plot is full of twists and unforeseeable actions wit ...more

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