Review: Mistborn

Title: Mistborn
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, High Fantasy

See it at Amazon


Once, a hero arose to save the world. A young man with a mysterious heritage courageously challenged the darkness that strangled the land.

He failed.

For a thousand years since, the world has been a wasteland of ash and mist ruled by the immortal emperor known as the Lord Ruler. Every revolt has failed miserably.

Yet somehow, hope survives. Hope that dares to dream of ending the empire and even the Lord Ruler himself. A new kind of uprising is being planned, one built around the ultimate caper, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the determination of an unlikely heroine, a street urchin who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a Mistborn.


This might be one of my harder reviews to write. Maybe even more difficult to write than The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, which many of my readers already know is one of my favorite reads of the year and I gushed insanely over it. I’d never come across any other book that’d struck me so deep until I started reading Mistborn.

Okay, let me admit this before I go into the review: I didn’t always love Epic Fantasy. In fact, I almost always avoided it. With the exception of reading Beowulf, The Hobbit, and part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I read the first and part of the second--I didn’t even finish the trilogy…Ack!) when I was younger, I just was never into the genre much for a long time. It wasn’t until the last couple of years, probably around the same time I also got into more Contemporary because I wanted to give myseslf more of a variety, that I started to get more into it. I remembered how much I really loved Beowulf and The Hobbit especially, and wanted to find more books to give me those feelings all over again--to give me new worlds, characters, quests, and battles. And for the last couple of years, I've had this intense craving to read so much more fantasy and contemporary that they're quickly becoming my top genres.

This was my first foray into reading anything by Sanderson. Earlier this year, I’d read the first Wheel of Time book (Robert Jordan) and as many of the series’ fans know, he took over the later books after Jordan’s passing. But of course, I can’t count Eye of the World as being a Sanderson read, because it wasn’t only the first book of the series, but it’s still all Jordan’s work anyway--even if I’d continued all the way through (since Sanderson uses all of Jordan’s notes and such) I still wouldn’t have counted it. Ack. I’m getting sooo off-topic. Sorry!

Anyways, you get the idea. Mistborn broke my Sanderson virginity. And I loved every word that found its way into my heart. Not to mention the characters that will live long into my memory. For this being my first Sanderson book, I was whisked away immediately into his imaginative world of Luthadel with skies of ash and cobble-stone streets. Characters that used metals for special abilities and powers fascinated me. It was fresh and unique. I didn't want it to end.

From the first page, I was met with bone-chilling descriptions of a world I wouldn’t have been comfortable living in. Ash falls from the sky by day like a dirty, dusty annoyance--and by night the land is covered in thick, dark mists. I wasn’t stuck waiting long on some drawn-out build-up of anything before the story kicked off within the first few pages--and let me tell you, I was hooked right away to what was happening around these people and their world. I couldn’t put it down. I sat in awe. I smiled. I laughed. I cried. IT RIPPED MY HEART TO SHREDS. I smiled some more. I can’t wait to get to the store soon so that I can buy everything with Sanderson’s name on it.

I was attached to Kelsier from his first appearance on the pages. Admittedly, his character was a surprise to me before I reached the halfway point of reading because I realized he wasn’t going to be any kind of romantic interest for the story (no matter how much I loved him as the reader). Of course, this is understandable through reading--and I’m not going to go into further detail on that note because of possible spoilers. Vin, our other lead, is the heroine of Mistborn. When she made her appearance at first, I have to say that I nearly cried for her and the situation she’d been put in. The immediate sympathy I felt for her character was shocking, but she had personality--an edge--and I liked her. I was certainly happy to watch her development and growth through the book, and cheered for her by the end.

I’d like to ramble about all of the characters, but that would probably take too much time and make this review even longer than it already is. There are many characters, and a complex storyline to follow them along in their adventure, but I didn’t find myself confused like I often did when trying to read an epic fantasy in the past. Sanderson writes with such an easy style that while it’s simple to understand and follow along with, at the same time it’s otherworldly and timeless feeling.

This is one book that will live long in my memory as being a favorite, and will be re-read many times. There's just really not much more I can say than that other than gushing like a giddy fangirl. Which I already have been doing since I finished reading. ;)