The Mistborn Saga

Well, PB complained about that I hadn’t written the post I kind of promised, but well… sometimes other stuff comes up. However, I will write this now when it’s fresh in mind. The others need some tuning (especially the Short Story with Jayde). Be warned though, if you haven’t read book one and two, it might contain some spoilers about the world’s construction which only becomes clear in the middle or near the end of the second book, I can’t really remember when, but then again I’ve only read the series once…

To begin with it’s a good series, a great book, and all that. But Brandon IS a child. He is early in his carrier and he has still a lot to improve on. And being this early he is hell of an author. Though as far as I know, Jordan¹ only wrote about four books before the Wheel of Time, at least by himself, and that was Conan books and the Fallon series (a romance). Brandon on the other hand seems to have written a great many books. But I haven’t really researched that yet, only found out recently.

If we take the good things first, at believe me there is a lot more bad things than good – even though the good heavily weighs out the bad things when they are of a more neutral nature, I need to say that Mistborn is really well done. It’s not out of the blue and it’s not improvised and just added when you happen to se how it COULD fit in. Like I’ve done with many things in RPG, in other words I do two separate things I don’t think about it and then suddenly someone sees a connection and I make that connections real and take the credit for it.

Another thing that is both good and bad is that he seems to think like I do when it comes to plot. The plot is turning here and there and it’s not easy to se what’s good or bad, evil and just. The cause and effect theme is really good even though he doesn’t use the ripple-effect here but more the brutal form which makes it easy to see it almost instantly if you think about it. He also have a lot of characters, but not too many of them like Jordan tends to have. But then he focuses on them and very seldom gives another random figure a POV. He also have short and good chapters that all makes something happen. It’s not too short or drawn-out but almost perfect even though there is a lot of cliff-hanger-chapters which almost forces you to read about four chapters or more before you get to continue from that same point…

So well, it was hard to keep out the bad stuff from this because I have a lot of opinions about his texts, generally. So I guess it’s better to just keep it flowing from top to bottom instead of trying to take out the good things first. It’s like my tutor always said; the black balls is always heavier than the white balls. You see them more clearly as if they take up more space than the white balls, and they do. Just because bad outweighs good and is easier to remember. For instance, if someone gives you a ride home one day you are grateful then but when you want a ride home and you doesn’t get it, then you will think of that event before the good event because there is more and stronger feelings in the bad stuff. So you need to do two to four times as much good as bad things to people for them to think of you as good or kind and even then, the bad might still influence people’s action just because the memory of the bad won’t go away that easy. However, enough philosophy and down to the point instead good and bad.

Brandon is too predictable. The first book was the only book where I couldn’t predict how it would turn out at all in all the parts except for the last one. Everything felt dynamic and he made it good but that was just because I still had to understand how the world worked and how he meant for the plot. That he actually killed the person I liked the most also made me think; Hey? Are you trying just to make this story unpredictable or is there a greater plan behind this. And then everything snapped and I was right about most events even though the essential last part wasn’t easy to figure out at all when yet another piece was added. This though completely changed in book two and three. Now I was in his head and I saw the pattern too quickly for my own liking.

In the second book it was obvious that he meant to build up the personality of the characters and still make some interesting points but his goal was about as visible and easy to see in the beginning as a red glowing arrow. The first thought in the first POV of the persons involved tell almost instantly what is going on and when you get different viewpoints you also find the plot easy to predict and it’s easy to order up everything. The epigraphs and the parts in the book are really good but really revealing. In the first book you got completely surprised but in the second you found out really quickly what it was all about and knew that, hey, that must be someone there? Maybe? And see, you are right my friend! As I said too predictable. Sure he gives some new things to you but its all part of a big jigsaw-puzzle that is meant for kids or maybe teenagers.

His magic system, as he himself calls it (which makes me disappointed in his consistency) is a really good idea. I’ve thought of things like that myself, mostly because the word magic is becoming so… transparent and dull somehow. But in Nianze that would never fit, my world is build upon dozens upon dozens different powers that you could break down to arts, magic’s, arcane, forces, powers, abilities and technology that is a part of my world. It’s meant to have all the elements and still be a highly epical world. But if someone here remembers Bloodeye, that story had it’s own magic’s that was only defined as mystical powers of element. This though is something he has done a great job on (as the rest of the book). By the way, I think I’ll need to sleep to have some energy for later today. I will therefore post this now and then complement it later tomorrow.

Laterz

1. or James as he actual name was ↩