nielsonmanga's Full Review: Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn: The Final Empire
I actually bought this book on a whim. I happened to be in a bookstore that had a sign-up list to reserve a signed copy of Mistborn. I was skeptical but the title intrigued me. Then the clerks showed me what the cover looked like. My reaction was, "Dude! That's looks awesome!" so I signed the list. Boy, was I right.
Mistborn takes place in a world where ash falls like rain, flowers are extinct, and plants are a sickly brown instead of their proper green. A world under the terrible thousand year reign of the immortal Lord Ruler and his inhuman enforcers, the Steel Inquisitors. Sounds like a fun life, doesn't it. It is, for those of noble birth. However, most of the population is skaa. With much fear and no hope, they are slaves who work to sustain those in power. That is, until Kelsier arrives.
Kelsier, a brilliant thief and natural leader, did the impossible and escaped the Lord Ruler's most torturous prison when he "snapped", awakening within him the powers of a Mistborn. Recruiting the best, most trustworthy underworld allomancers, each with one of his many abilities, Kelsier hatches a plan to finally bring an end to the Final Empire and take down the Lord Ruler himself.
Into all of this comes Vin, a young woman who, simply put, had had an incredibly crappy life. She had been taught by her older brother to always expect betrayal from everyone and proved his own words by doing just that and abandoning her. However, she happens to have the powers of a Mistborn, and because of this she gets found by Kelsier and adopted into his crew where she must learn to trust if she ever wants to learn to master her powers.
However there are many questions about their quest. Why did the Lord Ruler turn into a tyrant when he was supposed to be the hero prophesied about in legends? What exactly was the Deepness he was supposed to destroy? And how exactly do you kill someone who is immortal?
I've read many books and gotten attached to many characters and I must say Kelsier is easily my favorite of them all.
This is such a fun book. For some reason, I kind of expected it to be serious, but it is quite comical. This is mainly due to Kelsier's ever-smiling, optimistic personality. As he once told Vin, "I've always been very confident in my immaturity." Just that phrase made me love him. He's always full of little quirks that make you either grin or laugh out loud. But Kelsier isn't just fun and goofy, he's an amazing fighter and allomancer. The first time the book really tells much about allomancy Kelsier was going on a raid. The way it described his battle was so fascinating; I'd never imagined something that sounded so rediculously cool.
One reason I love allomancy so much is because it's not your typical Harry Potter type magic. It's very specific and unique. With this magic you swallow metals and then burn them in your stomach. Yummy. Actually you can't just burn any metal otherwise you might end up sick or dead. There are 8 basic metals grouped into twos: metal pulling iron and metal pushing steel, sense enhancing tin and physical ability enhancing pewter, emotion soothing zinc and emotion rioting brass, allomancy concealing copper and allomancy revealing bronze. Then there are less commonly used and more expensive ones like gold and atium and there's also the legendary 11th metal Kelsier has that can supposedly take down the Lord Ruler. My favorite metals are the pushing and pulling metals. You not only can push and pull them to yourself, you can use them as an anchor and make yourself fly.
I'll stop here although there are so many wonderful qualities about Mistborn that I could probably go on forever. This book solves many of the mysteries but not nearly all of them. I am so glad that it's going to have a sequel, apparently it's part of a trilogy.
Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale spinner, author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple ...More at HotBookSale
From the author of the acclaimed Elantris comes the first novel in his Mistborn trilogy--a story which dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a s...More at Buy.com
From the author of the acclaimed Elantris comes the first novel in his Mistborn trilogy--a story which dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a s...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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