Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

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

by Brandon Sanderson

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?

Reviewed by inlibrisveritas on

4 of 5 stars

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The Final Empire has been on my TBR for years, and it's always been one of those books that I look at each year and swear I'm going to get to...and then never do. Thank goodness for my book club, which voted for this one and effectively forced me to pick it up.

The Final Empire is very much a story about revolution and the machinations of an empire full of class & social issues that oppress some and elevate other; at the center of this Kelsier, a man determined to take the empire and right centuries of wrongs, and Vin, a girl who has grown up on the streets and finds she is more than she thought. This on the surface is your standard fantasy fight against oppression, but where it sets itself apart is Sanderson's excellent world building and incredibly unique magic system. I love love love the magic happening in The Final Empire! It'down s rooted in a person ability to "burn" metals, and from those metals, they gain abilities like super strength or heightened senses. The fights involving these powers were so cool, and I even had moments where I actually went back and listened to fights scenes over because I just needed to 'see' that happen again. I think the story overall is pretty interesting, with a lot of build up involving politics and careful maneuvering, but it does have some pacing issues that can be a bit disorienting. There were sections where the story slowed down considerably and while interesting didn't have a ton happening on the page.

Another thing that kept this from reaching that 5-star rating lies in the characterization. For the most part, I enjoyed the vast majority of the characters or at least their overall idea, but there were so many that I felt like I didn't quite 'know' by the end of it. This is a problem I was expecting though because there were similar issues with Elantris. There were two characters that I felt I grasped, Vin and Sazad, and they ended up becoming my favorites very quickly with Keilser close behind. It feels as if much of the effort of backstory was focused on these three, which means that many of the other crew while likable were sort of flat in areas. Sazad is an absolute stand out though, and I spent much of my time puzzling over him and his people. I love the uniqueness of his abilities and how his people value collecting knowledge, and I'd be lying if I said that part of the reason I'm so excited for book two had nothing to do with finding out more about him.

So overall, I found The Final Empire to be a really fun read and an excellent start of a series. I'm definitely going to grab the second book, The Well of Ascension because I can't wait to see where the story goes.

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  • Started reading
  • 1 March, 2019: Finished reading
  • 1 March, 2019: Reviewed