Book Review: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1), by Brandon Sanderson

Genre: Epic Fantasy
Date Published: July 2006
Publisher: Tor books
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 541 pages/24 hours and 45 minutes

Goodreads | Audible

Synopsis: 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

My Rating:

 ★★★★★

.....For being loads of fun!

My Thoughts:

Well that was fun!

My brother has been recommending this book to me for ages! Well, I guess he was right. It was definitely a book I enjoyed. And I can definitely say, with complete confidence, that Brandon Sanderson is now officially one of my favorite fantasy authors. All of you Sanderson fans are probably reading this and thinking "well duh! He's like, totally awesome!" Well, in my defense, I have been disappointed by favorite authors before and I wanted to be absolutely sure. Now, 5 novels, and 3 shorts stories in, I have to say, Sanderson, you're pretty freaking awesome!

With this novel, I really enjoyed the plot. I mean, I was able to predict most of it, but it had quite a few surprises hidden up its sleeve. There was always something going on, something that would hold my interest for a while, which is why I was able to finish this 540-page novel in about four days.

I especially loved Vin. She was such a fun character to follow, and I really loved watching her grow from a timid and broken individual into a strong and passionate Mistborn. Kelsier was fun to read about as well, and it was interesting to view him as the hero of the story for most of the book, when really we needed to be looking for the hero somewhere else as well. It gave the novel a unique perspective on how we view heroes and primary protagonists. I really enjoyed this whole aspect of the novel.

The other characters were great as well. There's just something so genuine about them, which makes it super easy to say that this story, as a whole, was a huge success. I am super glad that this is a trilogy, because that means that I have an opportunity to continue reading about this fascinating world Sanderson created.