Item: Mistborn: The Final Empire
Rating: 3.00
Author: keking

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?

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i'm honestly not sure how to review this, at least succinctly.

i've known of sanderson for a while - i own starters to three of his series - but this is the first work i've sat down and read. he enjoys a pretty positive reputation amongst fantasy fans, which is why i feel...conflicted.

see, this book DRAGGED. at ~640 pages, it is no small meal. i would say that for about 400 (nonconsecutive) pages i was waiting for it to get to a point, to lead somewhere, to hook me. i kept reading because a) i'm stubborn af, b) this is part of my challenge and one of my rules to myself was that i can only abandon one book and i didn't want to waste it on this, and c) i kept hoping it would get better.

and it did get better! i was really into the last 150 pages or so! so much happened (perhaps too much) and was revealed, i told myself "finally, this is what you've been waiting for."

besides the overall length (jfc man) and the lackluster parts in the middle, i also feel conflicted about the ending. no spoilers but, it seemed extremely convenient and somewhat OP in how it all turned out. i'm also unsure what this means for the second book...there are some loose ends but not....many? hmm.

will i read the second book? honestly...probably. i will at least buy it and try it out, but as long as it's not part of a challenge, i will permit myself to put it down if i feel that's best.

will i read more of sanderson? absolutely.

also...this is my first read book in my booklr challenge!!

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

by Brandon Sanderson

Reviewed by Katie King on Jan 8, 2020

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