Dirk's Reviews > Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set

I liked parts of the series, but overall the main character was so bland it really dragged the whole series down. I still read the entire thing, and I don't regret reading it, but it's certainly not something I'd pick up again.

The main character's growth path should be seamless, not shoved in your face again, and again, and again. We get it, she's scared. But stop telling us she's scared and insecure, make her actions infer it. Whenever the book wasn't waxing poetic about the girl, it was pretty good. Unfortunately we're given a very unoriginal character development path that the author can't stop talking about:

1) Start weak and helpless
2) Her insecurities will remain with her through most of the series
3) She will gradually grow stronger until...
4) She'll triumph!

Again, that's great and all, but you cannot repeatedly write out step 2 and expect me not to want to punch someone in the face! You're doing it wrong! Whew. Sanderson's getting better though, I loved The Way of Kings and will be reading Words of Radiance soon. He churns out books like a mad man so it's fair he doesn't hit them all out of the park.

The magic system's quite nifty, but again the writing about the magic system got in the way of telling an actual story. When a story was being told, or cool things were happening with the magic system, it was a solid 4 star book. The character development was two stars.