Scan barcode
A review by elkanor
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
5.0
Not sure how often this word is used to described fantasy novels, but this one is a banger. I had just finished Eye of the World before starting it, and Sanderson’s simple prose, plain dialogue and gripping action scenes were incredibly refreshing.
This book is a masterclass in building a magic system and world and then using them to drive forward the plot. The setting is overtly dark, but the characters and their motivations are not. There is room for naive ideals like hope, friendship and love to prevail despite overwhelming odds. That being said, there aren’t any cardinal sins of plot armor or super corny character motivations at play either, which goes a long way toward making this book feel “mature” despite not diving very deep into mature themes.
For someone with a short attention span like myself, the pacing is absolutely perfect. I didn’t find any part of this book to be a slog and finished it much faster than my usual reading speed.
The only downsides to this book are the very obvious tricks Sanderson uses to do exposition which can make some of the dialogue feel forced or unnecessary. Some of the exposition could be delivered more elegantly, but the payoff of this exposition is also often worth it. The prose isn’t beautiful, but it’s super readable and gets the job done.
This was just a fun read all around, a lot of the stuff I like such as magical battles, and very little of the stuff I don’t like, like female characters existing for the sake of Romance alone or villains motivated by pure evil. Our protagonist, Vin, is incredibly sympathetic and relatable no matter who you are, and we’ve all probably had someone like Kelsier in our lives to some extent. The ending was pretty awesome and left me excited to read the next book. Like I said, banger.
This book is a masterclass in building a magic system and world and then using them to drive forward the plot. The setting is overtly dark, but the characters and their motivations are not. There is room for naive ideals like hope, friendship and love to prevail despite overwhelming odds. That being said, there aren’t any cardinal sins of plot armor or super corny character motivations at play either, which goes a long way toward making this book feel “mature” despite not diving very deep into mature themes.
For someone with a short attention span like myself, the pacing is absolutely perfect. I didn’t find any part of this book to be a slog and finished it much faster than my usual reading speed.
The only downsides to this book are the very obvious tricks Sanderson uses to do exposition which can make some of the dialogue feel forced or unnecessary. Some of the exposition could be delivered more elegantly, but the payoff of this exposition is also often worth it. The prose isn’t beautiful, but it’s super readable and gets the job done.
This was just a fun read all around, a lot of the stuff I like such as magical battles, and very little of the stuff I don’t like, like female characters existing for the sake of Romance alone or villains motivated by pure evil. Our protagonist, Vin, is incredibly sympathetic and relatable no matter who you are, and we’ve all probably had someone like Kelsier in our lives to some extent. The ending was pretty awesome and left me excited to read the next book. Like I said, banger.