Evaluation of Mistborn

Yes, I finished the book yesterday though I didn’t print it out. When I finally got to the store to buy the toner-cassette the price intimidated me. I don’t need this right now when I might have a really turbulent financial future ahead in the next couple of weeks. One other thing that is a little bit of irony to this is that one the lessons yesterday was about the effects and order of the financial system from a legal viewpoint. I noticed that I actually know pretty much about that system already, enough to actually be able to use it to my benefit… the only problem is that it might backfire and then it will hurt, a lot.

Well, now for the review, be cautious though, it might contain spoilers even though very small ones that I need to exploit to be able to give my full opinion, objective and subjective.

Mistborn – The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
This is the first in the trilogy of Mistborn. The Well of Ascension and the Hero of Ages is the other two books written by Sanderson in this series.

The Series start of pretty good, even though the first outcasts of the prologue are actually a lot worse than the final draft. As many successful fantasy authors he uses a PoV which actually makes it easier for the author to early implement the elements of his world so we as readers quickly will become familiar with the worlds way of functioning. If you really try to be the person in the text you actually will be quite confused in the chapters to come until you’ve adjusted yourself.

My way of reading is that I actually try to really live into the character of the text, to see and live through his eyes. That way I will be able to get more from the book, even if it’s bad. I will be able to see the elements that I need to create a world I want. In other words I try to adapt from others, more talented than me.

However, the setting of the world is obviously a really dark world; one would even think that this world is on the brink of extinction just because of all the dark gloomy elements of the world. But as the book continues you understand that this isn’t what’s happening, not really anyway. It’s more that a post-apocalyptic fantasy world that ended up with a twisted world. It reminds me of the early Sancho, even though half-way through the books I changed that opinion.

The characters in the book are pretty good, even though some of them is VERY stereotypical in my opinion. Though this world is more than perfect for a role-playing game, which Brandon just recently just announced that they’ve started making. But if we go back to the characters, they are a varied bunch of people. Though you mostly spend your time inside of the “good ones” heads which are the main characters, you get a few glimpses from the “other side”, a much select few. The characters are actually pretty shallow with just a couple of secrets each and if you compare this to Jordan… it’s nothing. The story focuses around the characters, and their efforts but you get almost nothing about them. Okay we have the whiny one there, the brute there, the annoying one there and the charmer there. Oh, he has a family, he hasn’t, he have lost his family and he… well we don’t even know about him but it doesn’t seem of interest… so regardless to say, in this first book I think that most characters are too shallow. Which is a BIG flaw if you ask me.

The setting about the story, as I said before, is this fantasy post-apocalyptic world with a gloomy and depressing touch. Everything is useless, it’s no use doing this, we can’t do that, we can’t do this… well, sounds a lot like PB. Though in this world, they actually have the right to do it =). You get a slim part of the society and the world but you also get the feeling that most of what you get is what it is. Here we have this, there we have that and everything in-between is nothing. The system is divided into these factions, hang on now, we give you everything in a short line! Then you will have to recognize it later, and then become familiar with it towards the end. Don’t get me wrong, the world is not bad, but the way he puts up some things are too hasty and then he supplement it later with trying to get the reader familiar with the world in and orderly fashion, one thing at a time. But you almost don’t get it, before the book ends. However, the world in a whole seems very good with many elements and still some questions.

Then we come to the story…
Let me sum it up without spoiling something too important. We have this dark world, a couple of characters, some unsatisfied people and some daring people, let’s call them heroes. The world isn’t about to end, it has already ended but some walked out of this ending with a less than ideal situation. The ruler of the world, is a mean person that kills people that goes against him (hey, that’s what being a ruler is all about, DUH!), and some people is tired of being on the absolute bottom so they try to just tilt the ruler over saying; Hey, now we can rule! Heh, that’s might be a little bit unfair description but in a whole, it’s about a tyrant and some people who want to change the world for the better. We have some minor focus on the characters in this story. The heroes are talented, most likely the best, and they seem greedy but are willing to be greedy to help some people, like the rest of the world, to get what they want too.

Even though this might sound weak, they use one of the very regular concepts in fantasy world and make it interesting. The world has some very new elements that you probably haven’t seen in other fantasy series. The world doesn’t seem as realistic and good as Jordan’s but it still feels realistic. Even though the characters aren’t as deep and complex as they could have been the book focuses more on the story to make it interesting, and as I try to tell both myself and others when they watch a movie or read a book; this book is about when THIS actually happened so no matter all the coincides, this is when it happened like this and therefore it’s acceptable if it’s good. And it is good, the story and the world setting. The characters are perfect for this story and they aren’t inhumane, not even for this world (see Jordan where it’s not like that).

So in the end I say that this book is good. They have most elements I want, mystique, power, intrigue (even though it’s to light), originality, emotions and development. And no doubt they will manage to keep some of this up in a second book. Though I’m still a little worried about what will become of A Memory of Light. Brandon haven’t proved himself worthy of writing Jordan’s book. If this is the best he can do then we’re all doomed…

Best regards,
Herid Fel