The Final Empire (a.k.a. Mistborn)
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
The Final Empire (Mistborn, Book 1) by Brandon Sanderson
There’s something about this book that I don’t like, and I can’t put my finger on it.
I love the magic system, in fact, I love all of Sanderson’s magic systems. With his “science of magic” philosophy, they are undoubtedly the best around. Easy to understand, and woven into the progression of the characters and story, it’s magic that actually makes sense, and the system’s rules prevent it from being used as a scapegoat. (I can't tell you how many stereotypical magical schoolgirl anime's I've given up on because their magic made no sense.) But more-so, the idea of ingesting metals, then burning them within the body to achieve a heightened state of a specific sense or ability depending on the metal, is... well it's beyond anything I ever would have thought of.
The story concept is all kinds of intriguing. A rogue Mistborn thief gathering his old gang of fellow allomancers back together for one final job: the ultimate heist to overthrow the Final Empire by stealing its treasury and collapsing the economy. And also, to take down the immortal tyrant, the "Sliver of Infinity", the closest thing to God there is, the Lord Ruler; said to be the same Hero of Ages that saved mankind from the Deepness a thousand years ago, and remade the world into its current form. A world where ash constantly falls from the sky, all plants are brown, and supernatural mists cloud every night.
Obviously there's no shortage of world building here, but what I love most is how the magic, the story, and the world all complement each other. A story so vastly dark only makes sense in a world this desolate, both caused by such a unique form of magic. Like pieces to a puzzle forming a beautifully immersive picture.
The only part of the story I didn’t like, was how much of it focused on Vin going to balls in order to infiltrate the nobility. It got very boring and dragged out, and felt a little unnecessary.
After writing all this out, I may have actually put my finger on it: the characters.
Just to specify, it's not WHAT they are, because WHAT they are is awesome, but rather, WHO they are. Their personalities. They didn't seem to have a whole lot of depth. Outside of the main four: Vin, Kelsier, Elend, and of course, the Lord Ruler, I kind of had a hard time keeping track of who was who. There didn't seem to be any variety among the cast. Nothing to really set them apart from each other. As far as the supporting characters go, I didn't really care about them.
And as far as the main characters go, the only one that pretty much had no flaws was the Lord Ruler. Kept at distance throughout the story to build the myth of his character, then once he makes his appearance, good or bad, he's everything you hoped he would be.
Beyond that, Vin is annoying with her trust issues constantly going back and forth, and (to me at least) having no real stake in the story, she felt like a character who was just along for the ride.
Kelsier was too closed off. Being a main character and the one planning the coup d'etat, it's obvious who Kelsier is. But, outside of these two factors, he falls right into the same category of all those supporting characters with no personality that I don't really care about.
Finally, I honestly just thought Elend would have played a bigger role. He was an interesting character, but that's about as far as that went. I kind of fell like I was teased with his distant personality and seemingly constant plotting, but in the end it didn't seem like he really did anything. I think his biggest contribution was his romance with Vin.
It's hard to judge this book because I haven’t read the whole series yet (at the very least I'll probably do the first trilogy). It's definitely not bad, and in my eyes, its only flaw is its characters, which can definitely be remedied over time as the series goes on, and I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt that it does in fact get better (especially given the hype surrounding this series).
