Review: Mistborn Book 1
A Review Of Brandon Sanderson’s Latest Offering
Brandon Sanderson is a new author of fantasy, and his sophomore release is just as exciting and intriguing as his first.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Brandon Sanderson, please allow a quick, down-and-dirty plug: Read his stuff.
His career kicked off with the amazing fantasy novel Elantris a couple of years back, then managed a deal with the publishing house, Tor Fantasy, to write a few more books for them. An intriguing departure from the Elantris premise gives us Mistborn: The Final Empire, the first in a trilogy about the Final Empire.
The book revolves around a young woman named Vin who has special Allomantic powers. Allomancy is the book’s magic system, and it definitely is unique. It allows those who are Allomancers to ingest basic metals—copper, tin, bronze, etc.—and then burn them. When they burn these metals, special powers are given them, such as enhanced senses, extra strength, or the ability to Push or Pull on nearby metals. It’s a fascinating magic system, though it does take a little getting used to.
The world it’s set in is built upon the idea that the Dark Lord—you know, the ubiquitous “bad guy” that the heroes are always trying to stop—actually had not been defeated, that the legendary Hero had failed. What would the world be like then?
The novel is, essentially, a heist novel—a collection of ne’er-do-wells are trying to strike back at the Lord Ruler by stealing something valuable—but it actually moves beyond that. The entire book pulls and coaxes the reader until the denouement, when everything seems to happen at once, and the reader is almost compelled to finish.
Sanderson has taken great pains to make an internally consistent world, with identifiable character classes—the peons of the world, the subjugated and beaten, are called“skaa”, and their plight is reminiscent of 19th century Southern Plantations in the USA—and a detailed economy/governmental system that whispers of deeper possibilities and complexities, but doesn’t go into them just yet.
Another wonderful aspect of reading a Sanderson work, is that he has given the reader, for lack of a better term, a whole slew of “extras” on his website, www.brandonsanderson.com. While the website itself lacks the quality of craft that his books exhibit, the content on the site is superb. Not only is there the obligatory bibliography and biography, but Sanderson has done chapter-by-chapter annotations of every book that he writes (think of the director’s commentary on your favorite DVD and you’ll start to see the result). Not only that, but there are additional, free books and stories that he has published on his site for his fans to read and enjoy. While these hardly make him an excellent author (his books do that for him), they do allow the reader to gain insights into his thinking, and aspiring writers to learn how a burgeoning master controls his craft.
As a whole the book is a satisfying read, and it also avoids the tired fantasy cliché of leaving the story in a cliffhanger moment. Instead, it can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone novel, though a number of questions will still resound and curiosities will remain piqued. Nevertheless, the adventure is high, the stakes are higher, and the adulation of Sanderson’s abilities are well founded. Mistborn: The Final Empire is a great read, and comes highly recommended.
