Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

O Império Final by Brandon Sanderson

10 reviews

queermothman's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

2025 Reread:

I enjoyed this much more than I did almost 10 years ago. Brandon, when I catch you. 

I still think this thing is slow as hell, especially the first 50%, but I understand why it was written this way. The Jesus/religious paralleling was a little too on the nose by the end, but I can appreciate how it was handled overall. Especially since I found out that Sanderson is a Mormon asdfghj; 

I did get kind of lost trying to keep track of side characters, but that could also have been bc I was listening to the audiobook this time around. 

One major ick for me is Vin and her love interest. I just don't like age gaps, especially when one is a teenager. I'm interested to see how they're handled in future installments, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Infertility and Alcohol

shadow_cat94's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If you love outcasts banding together to plot a revolution with a dash of magic, then have I got a fantastic book recommendation for you!

I am so excited to learn that there are 7 - technically 8 - books in this series currently, because I just can't wait to see what happens to Vin and our crew. I have so many questions, but mainly

is Kelsier really dead or was that all a plan of his for inspiring his troops with a fake-out

?

Not everyone in the crew has deep backgrounds, but they feel fleshed out enough to where I didn't feel bothered by it and it made sense with the 3rd person style of writing Sanderson used.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Torture, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Infertility, and Death of parent

kayabaj's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Infertility, Racism, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Rape, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

passionatereader78's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

This is a re-read and now that I have read more of the cosmere the little bits that nod and hint to other things are actually really fun to notice.  I still love the world building and the magic system but the characters are pretty meh.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ikiteahill's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The beginning of the book felt quite slow. Trying to follow the politicking and planning was a little convoluted and boring. But then the action picks up in the second half of the book and there's some really well written action scenes. I love the magic systems in this book and the concept of the world is really interesting (even if I don't fully understand how they grow food if all the plants are dead and brown... like, supposedly there are no flowers but they do eat fruit??). I really enjoyed watching Vin

grow into her allomantic powers

. And I loved Kelsier as a character and his relationship with Vin. Seized also became one of my favorite characters.

I don't know if I'll enjoy the next book with the two of them not in it. I would hope that Seized comes back from his journey soon to help Vin or that he gets some of his own main character time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Infertility, Misogyny, and Rape

Minor: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

tilo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was my first book by Brandon Sanderson and I understand the praise. The magic system is fascinating and I love that you do not only learn along with the protagonist(s) but discover that there are many mysteries revolving around it that even the characters have not figured out yet. Every storyline is intriguing and by the end, when all of them came together, the plottwists - some of them excruciatingly casually dropped (in a good way) - had me audibly gasping. The plot unfolds in such a clever and seamless way - truly inspiring for my own creative writing! 
I enjoyed the characters. For a good first part of the novel, I found them not very likeable (which is not something I need in a novel, anyway) but that made them seem more real and complex. From the first page, I wanted to learn more about them and became very attached to their plans and hopes.
The ending finished the main story line of the book but kept so many mysteries open and introduced new problems that I cannot wait to read more about in the second novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Rape and Sexism

itsjustbethg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Infertility

karolinaxyz's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

Minor: Child death, Infertility, Torture, and Death of parent

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It was good but there were some logical inconsistencies that I found rather annoying. Sanderson didn’t really think through the characterization of his own characters. That said the magic system is cool and the story is interesting. It left a lot of unanswered questions that set it up perfectly for a sequel but not sure I’ll finish the series 

Spoiler:
The vin Eleni relationship was really underformed but of course they said they loved each other. Typical fantasy romance timeline but still a bit cringe 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail