The Final Empire: Mistborn Book One (Cosmere Universe) (Mistborn, #1)

by Brandon Sanderson

Michael Kramer (Narrator)

Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy trilogy overturns the expectations of readers and then goes on to tell the epic story of evil overturned in a richly imagined world.

A thousand years ago evil came to the land and has ruled with an iron hand ever since. The sun shines fitfully under clouds of ash that float down endlessly from the constant eruption of volcanoes. A dark lord rules through the aristocratic families and ordinary folk are condemned to lives in servitude, sold as goods, labouring in the ash fields.

But now a troublemaker has arrived and there is rumour of revolt. A revolt that depends on criminal that no-one can trust and a young girl who must master Allomancy - the magic that lies in all metals.

A word of mouth success in the states the Mistborn trilogy has, this year, broken onto the New York Times Bestseller list. The time is ripe for its success to cross the Atlantic.

Read by Michael Kramer

(p) 2009 Macmillan Audio

• ISBN10: 1409141144
• ISBN13: 9781409141143
• Publish Date: 3 March 2011 (first published 25 July 2006)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (MP3)
• Duration: 24 hours
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

This is a story about how my life was ruined forever by a fantasy book that was not Harry Potter. I knew The Final Empire was going to be good, but I didn't know just how brilliant it was going to be until I finally started reading it. Prior to buying it, I hadn't heard too much about it. I know, I don't know where I've been. And once I had bought it, it sat on my shelf for about a year before I finally decided to pick it up. And picking it up was one of the best decisions I made in 2014.

Brandon Sanderson is a fantastic writer. Since discovering his work, I have read a good few books by him, and all of them have been great, but The Final Empire is the one that truly stands out due to the setting and the characters, plus the heist storyline that so many people adore.

The story mostly focusses on two main characters, Kelsier (3) and Vin, although there are a bunch of other characters who also get page time and who are incredibly important. Kelsier is the leader of a crew of people who want to take down the Lord Ruler, aka the guy who is in charge of the Final Empire and keeping rich people in business with slavery, fear, and a metal called Atium. And then Vin is the young woman who stumbles into Kelsier and joins his crew, and later helps them on their mission to end the bad guy and free the Empire. And I totally shipped these two together even with the age difference and if you find that creepy then you would definitely hate most of my other ships. They have chemistry! I regret nothing.

Metals are very important in this book because they're what give people their powers. Some people, that is, because not everyone has the ability to weild metals, and fewer people still can actually use all the metals like Vin and Kelsier can. This power is called Allomancy, and the people who have it are called either Mistlings or Mistborns, depending on how powerful they are. This is the foundation of the magic system in this book, but it's so much more complex than that. Sanderson has done a phenomenal job of creating a system here that works; one that has power and also limitations. It's probably one of the best magic systems that I have ever read about, and I love that there is so much more to explore after this first book.

Kelsier and Vin are both amazing characters. Kelsier is the bestest person, even though he is morally grey at times because some of the things he does are like, woah. But he has an amazing backstory that I like to compare to Spartacus, and he wants to take out the Lord Ruler who has been oppressing and killing innocent people for years. Kelsier is a force to be reckoned with, and he's my favourite character out of all of the ones I've met through Sanderson's books so far.

Vin is also a very complex character, although she doesn't really come into her own until towards the end. She has spent her whole life being controlled, oppressed, and abused by either her family or her elders. She's had a shit life, but she's still come out of it strong and determined. I love her, and I love the way her character is heading by the end of this book. All the Vin, guys, all the Vin.

While this is an epic fantasy with entirely new world-building, it wasn't a slow read at all. It took me no time to get into it and to get used to the characters and their personalities, and the world was explained patiently and clearly, while also leaving you wanting to know more. Unlike a lot of epic or high fantasy (looking at you, ASOIAF) there was no slow moment or any moment that I felt could have been explained a lot better. I was hooked from the start and, while The Final Empire is over 600 pages long, I didn't want it to end once I'd started. I could read about this world and these characters forever, and I'm incredibly sad that it's only a trilogy because I want ALLLLL the books. All of them.

CAN I JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO SHOUT AT YOU ALL ABOUT THE ENDING BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST SOUL DESTROYING THING I HAVE EVER READ AND I WASN'T EXPECTING IT SO FUCK ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LET ME GO THROUGH IT WITHOUT WARNING ME (I'm joking, I don't actually want to know what's going to happen or have any warnings at all) I WAS A SOBBING MESS AND I WILL NEVER EVER RECOVER I HAVE BEEN SCARRED FOR LIFE MY HEART HAS BEEN RIPPED OUT OF MY CHEST AND I WILL NEVER FORGIVE ANYBODY FOR DOING THIS TO ME

Ehem.

My one complaint would be the lack of female characters. Vin is the only one. Although one (or two?) more get introduced in the sequel, I've noticed that Sanderson's books in general lack female main characters and it's hard to ignore. That said, I haven't read Warbreaker yet, which sounds promising, and also The Alloy of Law. Fingers crossed for more diversity and improvement!

I could ramble on about The Final Empire to you all day, or you could just take my (flawless) advice and go and buy a copy right now. I would recommend it to fans of Sarah J. Maas, because the level of feels felt for Heir of Fire and this are just about equal. Also consider reading this if you love Fire and Thorns, because the world building is everything you could have ever wanted. Just... just read this book, guys. It's one of the best things I've read in the past year, and I don't think you will regret it.

[Nany]

If it hadn't been for Kelsier I would have DNF this book, even though I really like the plot. I just couldn't stand Vin and her infatuation with Elden, I didn't get how they fell in love if they barely interact in the whole book. But whatever I just don't like her at all.

[celinenyx]

My feelings about Mistborn can easily be summarised: fantastic worldbuilding, predictable plot, and cardboard characters. I know this book has a very dedicated fan base though. If you're a huge fan, this review might not be for you.

*hides from the pitchforks*

The premise of Mistborn is a well-known fantasy cliché. Young person from the lower social ranks (farmer/thief/orphan) is told he/she has awesome powers which will help overthrow the evil ruler dude. Think Harry Potter, Eragon, Sword of Truth, even Lord of the Rings in a way. The particular flavour of Mistborn is that our special snowflake is Vin, a skaa thief living on the streets of the capitol of the Final Empire.

Vin is found by Kelsier, and he trains her into her Mistborn powers. He adopts her into his own crew and teaches her that people can actually trust other people.

I've got plenty of material to discuss in this review, but I'll start with Vin's character. We spend most of our time in her mind, seeing her development from abused street urchin into confident assassin. At least, that is the idea. For me Mistborn read completely different. At first Vin is distrustful, broken, a whisp of a person. She's interesting. Then she spends a lot of time with the nobility, spying at balls, dancing at candlelight, and the whole shebang. And she turns into a shallow, overly trusting person. I didn't believe her for a second. At the beginning of the story, Vin doesn't even take a drink from someone. After some glitter and glamor with people who would have literally walked over her months ago, she suddenly thinks things like "but they are so nice at balls, they must be good people". We started with Arya, and ended up with Sansa. Yuck. Vin is supposed to be an assassin, but in the entire book she only kills two people, neither of which she truly plans beforehand. Saying Vin is an assassin is like saying someone is a pâtissier after whipping up a cake at home.

Kelsier is the other person whose point of view is shown consistently throughout the book. He has had a tough life - his wife betrayed him to the Lord Ruler and he had to work in mines at terrible conditions. The problem with Kelsier's point of view is that it's clear that he's keeping something from the reader. This secret that's constantly between the reader and the character made me feel very distant from him. If we can't truly know him, what is the point of being in his thoughts?

My biggest issue is with the plot of Mistborn. It's really, really, really boring. Seriously. At around page fifty, the crew members outline what they're going to be doing. They go pretty in-depth, discussing their plans. And for the next four hundred pages they do what they outlined in a few pages. Hardly anything goes wrong. There is no conflict. Nothing interesting happens. They collect weapons, they recruit people, Vin goes to a ball. Vin and Kelsier have a touching moment. They collect weapons, they recruit people, Vin goes to a ball. Vin and Kelsier have a touching moment. Rinse and repeat over and over again. Only at the five-hundred page mark does something else than this happen. And when it does, it's actually quite great. It's full of twists and suspense. If Sanderson can do this at the end, why isn't the rest of the book like it?

Let's move on to a positive note. Sanderson is a great world-builder. I really like what he did with the magic system - burning certain metals give Allomancers certain powers. Some people can only burn one metal (Mistings), while others can burn all of them (Mistborns). The system was incredibly thought-through, and it gave him some great material to work with in the action scenes. Which are really good, by the way. It makes me sad there is almost no action until the last part. We see Vin and Kelsier playing around with some Allomancy, but there are very little situations in which the stakes are high.

I really wanted to like Mistborn. So many of my online bookish friends love it, but I was disappointed. It's okay if I don't like a certain aspect of a book, but when I'm bored for hundreds of pages on end, it's clearly not working for me. I might read the next book in the series, or not. I saw the big reveal of Mistborn coming from page two hundred or so (Sanderson - you're not as sneaky as you think you are), so I might just opt for looking up spoilers instead.

[leahrosereads]

2019 Re-read - Still fucking spectacular!

Did I really just read my favorite book of 2015? I don’t know what other books that may be able to top THE FINAL EMPIRE, but whichever book that may be, it’s going to have to beat the following things that this one did flawlessly:

Exceptionally written characters;
Character development that made logical sense;
A plot with zero holes;
A setting that felt grand and realistic;
The characters, seriously, the characters guys;
A different take on abilities/magic;
World building that was detailed but not daunting;
A kick-ass female character;
No insta-love;
Relationships that felt honest and accurately depicted;
The true meaning of friendship;
A big bad that felt grandiose and undefeatable;
BAMFs doing what BAMFs do;

Yes, yes to all.

The hype was strong with this one, and I felt like it was 100% deserved.


This story takes place in The Final Empire where the majority of the population (the skaa) are looked down upon, abused repeatedly, and forced into slave labor by the Lord Ruler and the nobles. They don’t have any hope, because it has literally been beaten out of them for a thousand years.

A thousand years. Of abuse. Of being told that you’re worthless. Of believing you’re not worth a damn. How do you even attempt to combat something so large as that?

Well, if you’re Kelsier, the answer is a rebellion.


Kelsier is a half-breed. He’s skaa, but his father was a nobleman. In The Final Empire, it’s forbidden to father half-breed children, and the mothers are killed before they can carry to term. Usually. Kelsier knows what it is to be skaa. He’d been all but destroyed by the Lord Ruler. When he was captured trying to break into the Lord Ruler’s Keep, Kredik Shaw in Luthadel (the major city of the Empire), Kelsier and his wife, Mare were thrown into the Pits of Hathsin. However, instead of staying defeated or getting himself killed, he rose up, and Snapped after his wife was killed in the Pits.

Snapping is what happens to those that can gain access to the ability to burn metals (use metals they consume). Most people that Snap are Mistings. They are able to burn one type of metal, but Kelsier, is Mistborn. He has access to all the abilities that burning metals give.

Confused? I was, but don’t worry, here's a picture:




So, Kelsier takes his new found freedom from the Pits, and his discovery of being a Mistborn and decides he’s going to overthrow the Lord Ruler. It’s a daunting task, but luckily he enlists the help of his old thieving crew, and Vin (a Mistborn discovered by a member of thieving crew).

This is where the story goes from interesting to amazingly interesting, epic and fantastic.


Although I loved THE FINAL EMPIRE’s plot, setting, and Brandon Sanderson’s storytelling in general, his ability to create characters that were flawed, but spectacular, was amazing. I genuinely cared for all of the good guys, and they all felt necessary. Secondary characters can sometimes feel like filler or fodder for the author to kill off, but that wasn’t the case here.

I want to just write in vivid details how spectacular each of these characters are, but I won’t. I really don’t think I would do these characters justice, no matter how glowingly I talked about them. All I will say was that they each had their place, and that each character filled their roles in a flawless manner.

Mistakes were made, of course, to drive plot and character developments, but what I mean is that Sanderson created characters that were human and fallible, but they were each important. Good guys, bad guys, they all had their place, and even really minor characters helped drive character developments of main characters.

It was just a great experience being able to read about all of these characters and their faults and their improvements and their lives throughout the book.


I mentioned the fact that there was no insta-love, and that the relationships in this book were also done incredibly well.

So for the insta-love, I mentioned Vin above. She’s a street kid who has stayed alive by keeping her head down and using her “Luck” (burning metals instinctively). When Kelsier recruits her to his team, he gives Vin the important task of spying on the noblemen in Luthadel. While in her role as Lady Valette Renoux, she meets Lord Elend Venture, the heir to the Venture House (the ruling/superior noble house in Luthadel). Elend annoys her at first (for the longest time), and it’s not that pseudo-annoyance that turns into love the next page. No, Elend gets on Vin’s nerves. She’s skaa, and he’s a nobleman, and she really dislikes everything about nobleman. He may seem a little different to her, but Vin’s a street kid, and she doesn’t let down her guard easily.

I really enjoyed reading their interactions and how their friendship grew into something more. Like a lot of novels though, that friendship is tested, but it felt extremely realistic and necessary for the story progression.


The relationships between all the crew members also felt realistic. I know that Kelsier had worked with them all in the past, but there was this trust that was believable. Even with the disagreements, there was no underhandedness between the crew members and Kelsier.

I kept waiting for it. I assumed it would happen for drama sake, but it didn't.


Really our good guys had enough to worry about than what deceits their friends may cause them.



I may post more on this review later, so please don't hate me if this gets updated a couple more times. I have more thoughts, and maybe I'll try to clean this up a bit. We'll see.


But seriously guys, if you haven't read this series, you really should. I recommend it to you all!

[flybymoonlight]

This book was my read-at-work book of the week. It may not have been the best choice considering I couldn't put it down. Glares were sent to the phone every time it rang.

This book was amazing. There was nothing about it I didn't like. Vin was such a likeable character. I found myself rooting for her the whole way. Her encounters with Elend left me smiling. The thieving crew was filled with well developed characters. From the nobility to the inquisitors, everything was masterfully created.

I loved the use of different metals giving different powers. It was very unique and fun to read about.

I highly recommend Mistborn. Can't wait to start on book 2!

[vagasker]

THIS. WAS. SO GOOD.

[Rinn]

Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

This book was chosen as the Fantasy Book of the Month for February 2014 by my book group, Dragons & Jetpacks, and thank goodness it was – I would have taken a while getting round to reading it otherwise.

The synopsis above doesn’t really do the book much justice, in fact it makes it sound like a pretty generic fantasy novel. Which this is definitely not. Whilst it may have some of those common fantasy fiction tropes, it also has plenty of content that makes it totally unique – not to mention Sanderson’s brilliant writing that just keeps dragging the reader further in.

The story is mostly shown through the (third person) eyes of Vin, a young girl living with a street gang. Due to her way of life, she’s reserved and nervous around others, and thanks to some advice from her brother, doesn’t trust a soul. At the beginning of the book I found her a difficult character to connect with or even to understand; she was just as withdrawn from the reader as she was from the other fictional characters around her. However, that all changed when she met Kelsier. A Mistborn, meaning he can use all forms of Allomancy, Kelsier helped Vin to come into her own powers. It was as she learnt to control her own strength that Vin really opened up and developed as a character. She became more confident, comfortable around others and much more likeable. It’s not that her shy self was disagreeable, it’s just that she was hard to feel any real emotion for.

Allomancy was one of my absolute favourite things about the book. A type of magic that relies on metals, Sanderson has created a brilliant and truly unique system. Most people can only ‘burn’ one or two metals, and their powers depend on the types of metal – but some people, known as Mistborn, can use all. The way that Kelsier and Vin can practically fly around the city, using their Allomancy to Push and Pull themselves away and towards metal objects summoned up the most epic mental images, and I just absolutely loved the idea of how they could use their powers. The book, although very enjoyable before, really picked up when Vin began training.

And now for the few things that bugged me. One was Elend Venture, the object of Vin’s affections. I just don’t understand the appeal of Elend – he was a foppish, spoiled brat. The only way I would understand it is if there is a Scarlet Pimpernel type reveal in the next book, where we find out that this rich boy image was just a facade. Here’s hoping! The other minor annoyance was the way one character (Spook) spoke: I get that he wasn’t from the same country as the others, and that his native tongue was different. But his garbled speech was REALLY difficult to read sometimes and it annoyed me.

However, Sanderson produces some shocking moments and makes some controversial decisions that work really well – as well as crafting a wonderfully told story packed full of detailed world-building and well developed characters. I completely and utterly loved this book – and Allomancy most of all. A definite recommendation, particularly for fans of epic fantasy – although I get the feeling most of you would have read this one already!

[adamfortuna]

One of the best fantasy books I've ever read. The concept in this one is a fantasy world that is slightly different from our own with the inclusion of allomancers, people born with a special ability to manipulate the world (or themselves) in some way. These include things like being able to push/pull steel, refine your senses or incease your strength. "Mistborns" can use all of these abilities.

The characters and world drew me in with its mysteries and hints at epic problems rotating around our central players. The magical element for this world was the most memorable I can imagine, and I would highly recommend it. You could go with this one on your own, but books 2 & 3 expand on the world.

[KitsuneBae]

This review also appeared on Thoughts and Pens

I read The Final Empire out of challenge. I may have mentioned that my experience with Tolkien’s LOTR was quite traumatic and left me a prejudiced reader. Let me clear things first. LOTR was not a bad book but Tolkien’s antiquated prose and verbose descriptions of even the mundane things have made me wary around epic fantasy stories. It didn’t help that after LOTR’s popularity, a lot of LOTR copy cat books have gradually saturated the market. Hence, I found myself avoiding the genre more. It’s only in 2013, after 7 years of ignoring EFs, that I finally took the courage to try again. For my first attempt, I read His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman and it was a success. So I decided to pick up another one and this was it.

The Final Empire, with its 1800s era setting, one of a kind and intricate magic system and a plot that seamlessly fuses the epic fantasy with the heist aspect proved to be a challenging and refreshing read.

Basically, The Final Empire’s story spins around a group of highly skilled skaa (slaves) thieves who attempt to overthrow the dictatorship of the immortal god, the Lord Ruler. While this summary doesn’t look very promising, The Final Empire was able to demonstrate the truth behind the saying, “don’t judge a book by its synopsis.”

Told from two POVs, Vin and Kelsier’s, one of the strongest points of The Final Empire was the characterization. It showcases a large cast of fleshed out, lovable, interesting and flawed characters. Vin, who had been a slave since time immemorial, is a cynic badass heroine. Despite her being a slave for almost 17 years, she’s not the type who wallows on self-pity and helplessness. She’s realistic, blunt and has accepted that her life would always be riddled with betrayal and misery. Meanwhile, Kelsier is an enigma that needed to be cracked. On one hand, he’s this vengeful, ruthless criminal mastermind who wouldn’t hesitate to murder people in cold blood. On the other, he’s just so cuddly, carefree and so full of himself.

The antagonist, though he only appeared near the end, accomplished to weave a suspenseful air into the whole story. In this book, we would only get to know the Lord Ruler through the accounts of our protagonists but that didn’t prevent the tyrant to show how powerful he is.

Another reason that made this monster of a novel a worthy read was its very unique and complex magical system. Instead of wizardry/sorcery and other hocus pocus, Sanderson went for Allomancy. In the world that he created, few individuals are born either a Misting or a Mistborn. These individuals, collectively known as Allomancers, are granted the ability to consume metals and transform it to magical powers. To me, understanding the allomancy business was confusing at first but good gracious, Sanderson explained it well to the point that I am saying to myself, “this is gonna be the new trend in magic.” And I suppose that Allomancers will give Magneto a run for his money. But I wouldn’t deny the fact that eating coins, drinking alloy flakes and burning them afterwards are not something that would make a delicious read. It’s really gross.

The Final Empire’s world building was also given a lot of effort. It was rich, conceivable and nicely fitted the era from whence the story took place.

The plot was also thickly woven that it was hard to guess what would happen in the end. In the Final Empire, it’s not just about mindless hack and slash. It wonderfully tackled the politics, intrigues and corruptions, misery and economy of the Final Empire. Interspersed into these elements are the inner struggles of our protagonists that the whole story felt tangible. Also add the fact that Sanderson made awesome battle scenes that would really make your blood pump.

At the beginning, Mistborn might appear like a young adult novel. But as you delve deeper into it, its depth will just overwhelm anyone not mature enough to comprehend a crisis of faith and heartbreaking martyrdom. The Final Empire is not something to be considered as a happy adventure to a world where people upholds the good over evil. It is more than that. This book is just…EPIC!

All in all, do yourself a favor and read this book.

[jnikkir]

I've read this book twice now (in the middle of rereading the series after discovering it in November 2011), and it's still as good as the first time I read it. Brandon Sanderson describes the series best on his site: "A hybrid fantasy, heist story, kung-fu epic!" If you're a fan of action-packed fantasy with FANTASTIC characters and an awesome magic system, this is for you.