Reviews

I got nearly to the end of this book thinking I'd just rate it a three or four, but the last three chapters really blew my mind and made the slog that was the rest of the book so worth it. I haven't experienced something like this since reading the Count of Monte Cristo.

The book is not perfect - I think it could've been cut by about 25% because there was so much redundancy. How many times do I need to hear Vin's unchanged opinion on dresses? And do I really need to read her exact same thoughts on betrayal three times in a single page? Speaking of, Vin's POV felt unpleasantly melodramatic to me at times.

But I stuck around because the magic system (allomancy) was very clever and thoughtful. Sanderson clearly has a way of intricately weaving his plots together as well.

I was also pleasantly surprised that a male fantasy author (in a book from 2006 no less) wrote zero uncomfortable descriptions of female characters. It's refreshing.

I'm very late to the party, but looking forward to reading more of his work.

forthewyn's review against another edition

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3.0

I sat on this review for a while, and perhaps I’ve downed the stars to 3 from 4 as a result of that. Really, I try my hardest to refrain from immediately reviewing a book after reading it to allow it soaking time. Unfortunately for Mistborn, the more I pondered it, the more my enthusiasm about its content fell.

Sanderson isn’t a wickedly talented writer that will blow you away with his prose, but his writing is simplistic enough to follow and purple enough to enjoy. The plot was jam packed with scenes and worldbuilding that I tended to really enjoy, but the characters had me reeling back in disbelief. I try to believe in most cases we can separate the art from the artist, but it is unfortunate to see how much Sanderson’s cult culture impacted the positives of this book; pairing a fifteen year old child with a grown man, for instance, may be a pleasure in his culture, but I personally (like others) don’t take too kindly to it.

The finale of this book was unfortunately predictably, and I don’t feel particularly enthralled with picking up the second book, so I guess my adventure through Mistborn ends here as well. Though for the most part, I did enjoy the writing and general plot, merely faltering at lack of character development, uncomfortable relationships between children and grown men, predictable ending, and honestly at one point I felt like I was begging for the book to end - it almost seemed too packed.

mabfred's review against another edition

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5.0

My relationship with fantasy is quite complicated. I really loved reading fantasy when I started playing tabletop fantasy RPGs in my tweens. But I soon found it very repetitive and derivative. Nothing was as good as LOTR. Well with the exception of Discworld, but that is a category of its own. So I switched to SF. Time to time, I read a fantasy novel - sometimes I confirm my opinion, that it is not really for me (even if it is a good book - e.g., Game of Thrones), but other times I find a book, that really catches my attention. I really liked reading The Final Empire - it was readable, characters weren't too cliched, and I did not see all the plot point resolving in advance. There were many welcome surprises. At the beginning, I felt a bit like reading a let's play of some videogame - the way allomancy works and is presented both to the main character and reader. But overall, I liked the book and I'm planning to read the further entries in the series. One day or the other :-)

brunzzzzz's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

ash_bohn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

anu_sh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

manda_moo_cow's review against another edition

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4.5

The second time I read it, I was mainly annoyed by how personality-less Vin is and how ill thought out their overarching strategies are. More like a 3.75 the second time, bit of a slog.

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