A review by brooketreads
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The magic system in Mistborn is very unique and interesting. At first though, I wasn’t to sure about it. I found it a little weird, but as Vin began to learn to use it I came around. The characters… well. Our two main characters Vin and Kelsier were fine. They had some great moments sprinkled throughout. I needed Vin to be stronger though. I mean I know she’s technically still a kid (17?), but dang, the harsh world she lives in and her boss… I needed more than just spending the majority of her time going to balls and spinning some political drama toward the end. My favorite character was Sazad. I hated how he seemed pushed to the background even though he was probably the strongest person (magically speaking). I felt he had an unfair shake of things from his religious(?)/ethnic(?) background to basically acting as the creed servant down to calling Vin “Mistress.” I also didn’t like that listening to the audiobook, I felt that the narrator was delivering a slight Asian accent. I may be completely wrong on this, but it felt insensitive. The rest of Kelsier’s crew fell flat for me. They just had no personalities, and I found myself confusing a couple of them a few times. I wanted to love Lord Ellend with that meet cute. But, then he fell just as flat as the crew. The Lord Rule was giving generic bad guy, because we basically didn’t even see him. He was just this looming power that needs to be ended. But, I needed to see it, not just hear about it. Finally, we arrive at the pacing. I found this so terribly long and slow I nearly DNFed. I feel like it didn’t really start to pick up until maybe 60ish percent. This may be a me problem, because someone said it’s high fantasy and building a complex world and magic system takes time. Maybe high fantasy just isn’t my thing. Since finishing the book, I have found myself wondering if it was the audiobook version that caused all my issues. Maybe I would have had a different outcome if I had read a physical copy for myself. At this point, I’m unsure that I will continue the series. 
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