Book Review : Mistborn

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Series: The Mistborn Saga #1
Published by Tor on February 14, 2023
Pages: 576
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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the first book in the wildly successful Mistborn trilogy, now in trade paperback. For a thousand years, 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 reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when all hope was lost, the scarred, heartbroken half-Skaa Kelsier found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, Kelsier recruits the underworld's smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, who each share one of his many powers and 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 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. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers that she’s never dreamed of.
Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson

The Cosmere
The Stormlight Archive The Way of Kings Words of Radiance Edgedancer (Novella) Oathbringer Dawnshard (Novella) Rhythm of War
The Mistborn trilogy Mistborn: The Final Empire The Well of Ascension The Hero of Ages
Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series Alloy of Law Shadows of Self Bands of Mourning The Lost Metal
Collection Arcanum Unbounded
Other Cosmere novels Elantris Warbreaker

The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians The Scrivener's Bones The Knights of Crystallia The Shattered Lens The Dark Talent Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians

The Rithmatist series
The Rithmatist
Other books by Brandon Sanderson

The Reckoners
Steelheart Firefight Calamity

With word of the latest Stormlight Archive book coming out, it would’ve been a great time to start rereading that series, but instead, I decided to reread Mistborn. With some novels that I reread, I am dismayed to find that I don’t like the novel quite as much as the first time that I had read it. Happily, that was not the case at all with Mistborn, even though I am rereading the novel almost a decade later. From the very first page, I was incredibly invested in the characters and the world. I read a very large portion of this novel on a plane experiencing turbulence and I was still super invested and didn’t want to put it down (despite wanting to vomit).

“Kelsier smiled. ‘It means that you, Vin, are a very special person. You have a power that most high noblemen envy. It is a power that, had you been born an aristocrat, would have made you one of the most deadly and influential people in all of the Final Empire. . . .But you weren’t born an aristocrat. You’re not noble, Vin. You don’t have to play by their rules—and that makes you even more powerful.’”

Main protagonist Vin is a wonderfully complex character. If I didn’t know she was written by a man, I wouldn’t know she was written by a man, which I think is a huge compliment, personally. I loved that Vin wasn’t reduced to a stone cold bitch type of woman and was allowed to keep her femininity, to explore different parts of herself, and also to develop feelings for a man. There was none of this deranged belief that women have to be alone, with no one to rely on in order to be a tough and capable woman. Instead, Vin finds a great support network in Kelsier, the leader of the Skaa Rebellion who seeks to overthrow the god of their world, the immortal Lord Ruler.

“‘By the Lord Ruler,” Vin whispered. ‘You’re serious. You really mean to do this.’
‘Don’t use his name as an oath, Vin,’ Kelsier said. ‘Even blasphemy honors him—when you curse by that creature’s name, you acknowledge him as your god.’”

I really loved Kelsier and Vin’s relationship. I was thankful that it wasn’t romantic and still managed to be one of the most defining relationships of Vin’s young life. Their bond was a fatherly and daughter bond that wasn’t too restrictive or overly protective. I loved how observant Kelsier was and how he instinctively had so much insight on the state of Vin’s well-being. I am a huge sucker for the found family trope and Mistborn really ticked every box here and pulled at my heartstrings.

It probably goes without saying that like all of Sanderson’s works, the world-building and magical systems are absolutely phenomenal. Mistborn shows off the mastery of Sanderson’s craft in a way that makes it look effortlessly easy. Only Sanderson could make burning metals internally or flipping a coin to fly through the air seem absolutely reasonable and even scientific. Plus, despite the intricate world-building, it doesn’t ever feel like information dumping, as readers learn all of the information at the same time as newcomer Vin.

Vin is perfectly positioned in the story as a former homeless thief and half noble to provide a relatively objective viewpoint on both the Skaa rebels and the nobility that she must rub coattails with in order to gain information for the rebellion. Though there’s not really anything new with the nobility—they are divided into great houses, with some more powerful than others due to their wealth or closeness to The Lord Ruler—Mistborn still somehow manages to make the system of grasping nobles feel fresh. Perhaps it’s simply the magic of a young woman being able to enjoy a few luxuries in her life for the first time, whether it’s simply having her own room or having a new gown to wear to a ball.

“If they want to stand against me like noblemen, then they can die like noblemen.”

Underlying this system is the great mystery of how the world came to be how it is, with falling ash, red skies, and an immortal Lord Ruler. Even after reading the entire first novel in the series, I am still dying to get answers to more of the mysteries surrounding the world. And though I normally am not a huge fan of action sequences in books, finding them hard to imagine and even harder to follow, I found these fight scenes easy to comprehend and suitably exciting. It didn’t hurt matters either that the entire premise of killing God and the bad guys winning had my interest incredibly piqued.

The only con I can think of in Mistborn is that the emotional attachment just wasn’t quite there for me. There is a very big, tragic scene that should have broken my heart, but instead, I took it in stride, which is practically unheard of for me. The connection to the characters just isn’t quite as deep as it could be, which means that scenes that should be incredibly impactful fall a bit flat, which is a shame. Similarly, I know a lot of readers find Sanderson’s prose lacking, but I personally don’t have the same problem. I like the directness of his writing and the absence of floweriness allows for the plot to keep moving at a steady pace.  

 

I am super intrigued by how Mistborn ended. I can’t wait to see the far reaching consequences of the groups’ actions for the world and am very invested in seeing how they move forward after the events of Mistborn. I hope to read the sequel as soon as I finish my other ARCs. 

 

 

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