From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action.
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.
Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.
But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.
This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?
- ISBN10 076531178X
- ISBN13 9780765311788
- Publish Date 25 July 2006
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Tor Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 544
- Language English
Reviews
HekArtemis
Suz @ Bookish Revelations
luddite
Good world-building, strong characters, sensible physics for the magic elements, very plausible political system, a satisfying end, and a good hook for the next book.
Sanderson's prose felt a little underwhelming for me though, but that's mostly nitpicking. His story development is very good.
On to the next book!
sa090
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I find this book difficult to talk about without spoiling it but I'll try my best. I always hear great things about Sanderson and this is the first book of his that I ever read so I'm having a pretty good idea of why he earns so much praise with his writing. I wish I actually wrote down the quotes I liked because damn were they so many here and I don't want to ruin the beauty of them while trying to guess and remember but I'm definitely going to do this for the sequel novels.
There are a lot of things that I loved in this book and the major one would be the usage of Allomancy, such a unique and complex magical system that I would love to see more of. I'm really glad that even though he at first just showed me some of its applications with how some characters used it, he later on basically taught me more about it with Vin's journey. The Pushes and Pulls with the apposing metals and how each one affected something with all the rules and whatnot puts Brandon Sanderson in a tier higher than what I first thought of him and gives a very clear idea about why he earns all the praise he gets.
Another thing I really enjoyed was seeing Vin grow up from the weak and broken girl we started it with into one badass warrior who I'm sure is going to grow even more later on. However, while I'm happy about this just like I said there is a certain thing that made me really dislike Vin at times and it was whenever romance was being the main focus of the series, I do understand where she's coming from, I really do but I kind of wish that she didn't appear so desperate and fragile in them at times because it made me associate her with the pathetic romance oriented Shoujo manga heroines and I definitely didn't want to see that in abundance, which thankfully didn't happen.
I'm sure that in the later books this element in the story will be addressed again and I don't really know how much of it will appear but I honestly hope that it's going to be a few instances (as evident by my writing I really dislike romance) while they deal with more important stuff. Important stuff like the lore of the world, Brandon Sanderson did an awesome job in this one with how he explained the Allomancy for example amongst other things like Mistborns... but he also gave so many hints about other secrets in their world that we didn't hear a thing about like more about the Eleventh Metal, more about the Keepers, the Deepness, how Allomancy started in the first place and especially why does their world look like it does at the moment
That last one is very important to me, his world building was wonderful in a few things while lacking in others and I'm sure it's because of what's being handled in the book at the time so I don't really hold it against him. Judging by the name of the sequel "The Well of Ascension" and the fact that an accompanying book called the "Secret History" exists to be read after the initial trilogy promises great things for the world building I crave to read about.
Other things I sort of disliked about the book would probably be that it felt stretched out at times with all their planning (justified but doesn't change what I think about it) and the passage of time wasn't clear cut at times either. However like I said other than these very minor issues I did enjoy it a lot and I'm looking forward to the rest of it. When is the film for this going to be released anyway? All the Allomancy action would look epic to see live :)
Final rating: 4/5
Mercy
Lo que alabo más de Sanderson y creo que es la principal causa de su fama son los originales sistemas mágicos en sus historias, con tres leyes creadas por él y una variedad enorme de formas de magia; no es la típica fantasía a la que estamos acostumbrados, es decir esa donde hay dragones y variedad de criaturas, brujas, magos, castillos, etc. Sino que es algo completamente original, Elantris tiene un tipo de magia (AonDor), mientras que en Nacidos de la bruma, tenemos otros tipos de magia derivados de lo que se llama Artes metálicas; tenemos la alomancia, la ferruquimia y la hemalurgia que consisten en extraer o usar los metales para acceder a diversos poderes como tirar o empujar objetos, ampliar los sentidos, tener más fortaleza física, entre otros o como en la serie El archivo de las tormentas que me parece que tiene un tipo de magia donde los poderes son extraídos de piedras preciosas. Puede que este equivocada con algo porque apenas estoy descubriendo todo esto, así que mis disculpas. Lo que quiero decir es que en cada historia hay algo completamente nuevo y eso es absolutamente genial y bienvenido en estos tiempos donde hay ya poco que no se haya inventado.
El imperio final ha sido un inicio de serie espectacular, admito que tiene cosillas que no me convencieron del todo, a saber, una especie de insta-love pero que luego se difumina bastante y no es de la mayor importancia, también tuve algún problema con frases que se repiten a menudo pero al final, la grandeza de la historia hizo que le diera una valoración más global y me olvidara de esos detalles. La novela tiene dosis adecuadas de intriga y acción, con un buen puñado de personajes carismáticos, un villano como pocos y un world building tan detallado que es imposible no imaginar cada elemento del ambiente donde se desarrolla; desde las brumas que llenan la tierra cada noche, la ceniza que cae durante el día, las granjas y minas o cuando describe el poder omnipotente del Lord Legislador y, especialmente, las escenas de lucha entre alománticos, que son muy logradas y el lector es capaz de visualizar cada uno de los movimientos aunque al principio cueste un poco cogerle el truco al funcionamiento de la alomancia, pronto el autor se encarga que entendamos todo perfectamente.
Quiero alabar el final, yo no esperaba que terminara así para nada y es que todo el libro es una sucesión de sorpresas, una tras otra, cada vez que se descubre algo nuevo es para emocionarse y querer saber más, y como dice Kelsier: "siempre hay otro secreto". Pero madre mía, nunca espere esos secretos revelados al final que dan un giro enorme a la novela y deja el listón muy alto para el siguiente (acá puedo decir que el resto cumple con creces). En fin, ha sido una gran idea decidirme a dar una oportunidad a este libro y puedo ahora decir sin pena que será de mis mejores lecturas del año y Brandon Sanderson se une a las filas de mis escritores favoritos. Si ya lo leyeron y les gustó, estoy segura que concuerdan conmigo, y si aún no leen nada de él y les gustaría experimentar un nuevo tipo de fantasía, no duden en leer esta serie, seguro les encantará.
Reseña completa en: http://thebooksaremylife.blogspot.com/2017/02/resena-el-imperio-final-brandon.html
bestmessever
ross91
Elend is my bae. 3
nitzan_schwarz
Click on the image for the blog post!
Admittedly, the Mistborn trilogy hasn't been on my radar for long, I didn't even know it existed before last year, but then it cropped up on BookTube and seemed to be everywhere. And everyone were saying how good it was and I wanted it. Gosh how much I wanted it.
After some mishaps with TBD shipment, I finally had it in my hands. And then proceeded to abandon one of my most anticipated reads ever, Winter, in order to read it.
I was not disappointed! I was sucked into this fantastic world from the first paragraph, falling in love with the writing and the characters almost as soon as each was introduced. They were just such a likable band of misfits, brave and daring where those qualities are oppressed, joyful and cheerful where there shouldn't be any reason to be, and flawed to the point of perfection.
Firstly, we have Kelsier. Has there ever been a more charming bandleader? The fact he sometimes really really really really worried me, as the rest of the crew worried, somehow just added to everything. Because I felt myself willing to believe him, in him, alongside everybody else.
Then there's Vin, the only woman in the crew, and the youngest by many many years. She's sixteen, has lived her life trying to be invisible in a landscape that only meant her harm, trusting no one. And she has a unique ability. She becomes Kelsier's apprentice, in a way, and she is the true hero in this story for me.
I loved, loved, loved her. Loved watching her slowly open up to her friends. Loved watching her come to put her faith in something so intangible as "trust".
Not to mention all their abilities as Mistborns! They were so interesting to read of, definitely one of the more interesting magic systems I've ever encountered. I can't wait to learn how the mistborns were created, because this book hints that we're going to discover all that in this series.
The whole novel spans around a year in time, and that year is spent planning and hatching plans--some of which misfire, some of which succeed--on how to overthrown the evil ruler of this world. And let me tell you this - you will believe it all. Sometimes, these things seem too easy or too far fetched. But Sanderson definitely worked hard to make sure every bit of it made sense and could, possibly, happen in RL.
Now, the weakest point of this novel is probably the romance. Not because I didn't like the love interest, because I adored his keen mind and dishevelment, but because Sanderson spent no time establishing them.
We're told they've been hanging out for a few weeks and stuff, but we see very few of these conversations and interactions, leaving us to wonder why the heck everyone say they're in love when all you can see is attraction and the possibility of more.
Romance is not a big factor in a novel like this, but if you're already putting it in I feel like you should at least give it some thought and not just throw in "yep, they're in love".
Aside for this, there were a few other points that didn't make sense to me while reading this novel. Make sure to come back tomorrow for spoilery discussion questions that I'd love to brainstorm with you!
But overall, a fantastic read that I couldn't put down!
Joséphine
Much as I loved Vin and Kelsier too, I've a quiet adoration for Sazed. His knowledge and wisdom contributed so much and I enjoyed reading every passage that outlined his explanations of history and culture. Above all, the fiercest loyalty among this group of amazing people made me care for them so much more. It's no wonder my heart ached through their trials and losses, while their triumphs made me smile and feel incredible warmth within.