The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson {Book Review}
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Hello Readers,
Have you ever begun reading the first book in a series and within a few chapters, just known that it was going to become one of your new favourite series of all time? That’s how I felt when I decided to dive head first into Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Saga!
{Though this review will only cover the trilogy of the first books: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages. I also have the next three books in this saga and at the time of writing this, I’m currently reading book 6, The Band of Mourning. There’s also a companion book and I know that a seventh novel is being published later this year. I won’t delve too deeply into the storyline as I don’t want to give away any spoilers.}
As a non-fantasy reader, but now, thanks to Skyward, a big Brandon Sanderson fan, I’m so glad I decided to give this series a try. It’s an incredible story and the Mistborn world is wonderfully epic, extensive and emotional. But before I begin to ramble about all the ways in which these books broke me, let me give you the synopsis of the first book:
“The Mists rule the night…
The Lord ruler owns the world.
For a though sand years the ash fell. for a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Rule reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.
Yet somehow hope survives. A new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of a unlikely heroine, a Skaa street urchin, who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.
What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn trilogy, a saga of surprise that begins here.”
I’m really picky when it comes to Fantasy and that’s why I don’t tend to read it; you see I’m not a fan of witches and wizards and the magic systems that go with them. But I was wanting to give another of Brandon Sanderson’s books a try and the idea of people gaining abilities through metals, known as Allomancy, was interesting. So I decided to use one of my Audible credits and got the first book, The Final Empire. {My library doesn’t have it available on audio.} By around chapter 10, I knew I was falling head first into this world and was going to enjoy it. So I used my remaining credits to get the rest of the books in the series and purchased physical copies of the books as well. Once they arrived, I began to read along with the audiobooks when I could, which is something I love to do at times. I read and listened to all three books in just over a week and these are some chonky books ~ all over 700 pages!
Although there is plenty of action throughout all three books, the first and second books do have a slightly slower pace to them than the third, where the story reaches its climax and ending. But I loved the slow burn because I felt it helped me become more immersed in the story and the world it’s set in due to Sanderson’s wonderful descriptions. At times I could imagine being stood out in the mists as the ash fell around me or sitting on a rooftop with Kelsier and Vin looking out over the city of Lutherdel.
The cast of characters in this trilogy are all interesting and I think what I loved the most was that group that were essentially the “heroes” of the story, were flawed; they were morally grey, sometimes doubting that they could pull off what they planned to do and even questioning their own motives behind their actions. These aspects to their personalities gave them depth and made them a really likeable bunch and from the main group, there wasn’t a character I didn’t like. Though I certainly had my favourites.
Of course Vin was basically at the top of my list. As the main character, she was wonderful and her struggles to come to terms with who she is as a person and Allomancer, along with her self doubt at times was really interesting to read and Sanderson has done a wonderful job of developing her character throughout the series.
Kelsier was another of my favourites, he’s the leader of the main group trying to overthrow the Lord Ruler. He’s written as such a dynamic, impulsive person and yet the way he takes Vin under his wing, also showed his softer side as a father figure to her. It’s Kelsier that teaches Vin more about her Allomancy and helps her learn that she’s something known as a Mistborn, like he is. This means that Vin and Kelsier can use all the known metals to give them certain abilities and not just one.
Vin’s education as a Mistborn is used to give the reader more information and understanding of the different metals and what they do. It’s also used a way to get to know Kelsier’s crew more as all but one of them are Allomancers known as Mistings, they can only use one sort of metal. I found this really helpful as there were moments when I struggled to remember which metal did what. The physical books also have an added chart in the back of them listing them all, which was also really helpful.
There’s just so much to this story as a whole and as you can imagine and not every character gets through all the books unscathed; we do lose some along the way. But what I loved was they weren’t forgotten from one book to the other and each mention made my heart ache a little. I’m not a big crier when it comes to reading books but I did sob my little heart out when a few of these characters died, yep I was THAT attached to some of these fictional characters! {I know my fellow book lovers completely understand!}
While I love Skyward, I feel you can really see the brilliance of Brandon Sanderson’s writing and world building within this series and that contributed to the Mistborn series becoming one of my all time favourites and Vin is definitely one of my favourite main characters as well. Once I’ve finished reading the extra novels in this series, I’ll write a review on them. As I’m sure you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy and I’m really enjoying the other novels as they build wonderfully on the original books.
This has made me realise that there are fantasy books out there that I may enjoy. So I’m now looking for more epic fantasy books that I might enjoy and if you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them ~ but remember nothing with witches or wizards and things generally associated with them please.
Have you read the Mistborn series? If you have, I’d love to know what you thought of it.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
