The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson – Review

Summary:

In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more?

In Brandon Sanderson’s intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage — Allomancy, a magic of the metals.

Review: 5 Stars

Anyone who has been following my blog recently knows that I have been searching for a 5 star fantasy and I am so pleased to say that I finally found one . This series comes highly recommended by some blogger friends of mine who share a passion for high fantasy. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read this first installment. I had never read any of Brandon Sanderson’s books before, but I had heard great things about his writing. I had no idea where to start though, so I looked on his website and found that many of the books are set in the same universe and if you want to read them all then the Mistborn trilogy is a great place to start.

The Final Empire was absolutely incredible. There is so much packed into this story. There is the overall theme of good versus evil and there is a thieving crew made up of really interesting characters who approach starting a war like it is another heist job. This book had one of the most amazing magic systems that I have ever read about. Allomancy is a power that involves ingesting metals and “burning” them for different abilities like heightened senses, increased strength or manipulating the emotions of others. Mistings can use one of these metals and have one allomancy ability, while Mistborn can use all of the metals and therefore all of the abilities. The world is built up slowly and very intricately. The politics of the world also play a large role in the story as the thieving crew tries to manipulate nobles through rumors they spread at balls. This book has everything that I didn’t know I even needed in a fantasy book all packed into one amazing story that blew my mind.

The characters were so much fun to read about. They are each a bit morally grey and none of them are perfect, but they all feel authentic. Kelsier was my favorite character, he was the leader of the thieving crew and I loved his witty remarks and even how he manipulated others. I also really liked reading about Vin as she underwent quite the change throughout the course of this novel. In the beginning she was so guarded and kept to herself, but she grew on me the more she grew into herself. I loved the idea of the thieving crew using their allomancy abilities to do cons and the way these thieves masterminded a war to overthrow the government. The ideas behind this novel were brilliant and exactly the type of fantasy that I love to read, but they were also executed extraordinarily well.

This book has made me an instant fan of Brandon Sanderson. I can’t believe that I am just now discovering his work after years of being a fantasy fan. I do have to say that the ending of this book had me emotionally wrecked, but I will be reading the rest of this series and hopefully many more books by Brandon Sanderson.

 

Want to buy the trilogy?

The Mistborn Trilogy Boxset is available through Books2Door, along with many other boxsets of children’s and YA favorites. Check it out here!