Mistborn: A Review

This book was something special. As always, Sanderson’s writing is fantastic, but this was also a vastly creative concept, rife with intellectual and theological themes that really got the gears turning. If you want a story full of twists and turns, political intruige, and a heist crew, this one might be for you.

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the “Sliver of Infinity,” reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler’s most hellish prison. Kelsier “snapped” and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld’s elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel’s plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she’s a half-Skaa orphan, but she’s lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?

Amazon Blurb

The reader will have to be wary of some language — there’s one character we meet in the second book of the trilogy who gets a kick out of being unconventional and generally rude. As with the Stormlight Archives, Sanderson invents a whole religious system which the Christian will disagree with. However, if viewed as a concept or closely scrutinized, it makes for an interesting analysis, as Sanderson tackles the topics of various religions in a thought-provoking way. Indeed, his work is often similar to Greek and Roman mythology in its portrayal of gods — one might think of how Socrates argued that a God must necessarily be the greatest and goodest being in the world to be God and thus worthy of worship.

There’s also romance, but nothing steamy. Here and there in the first book are discussions of how the upper class will treat lower class slave women (evil, but no sensory descriptions.) There’s also an evil warlord with a bunch of concubines, who thinks of them and treats them like objects. The biggest problem one might have with the series is probably the violence. I must say Sanderson has my admiration for his creative and memorable fight scenes, never seeming to reuse a move or trick. In this series in particular, there’s an evil group, the Inquisitors, that have some nasty habits and witchcraft-like rites. Mistborn is certainly high on the violence scale — I would recommend for older teenagers.

However, if you want a book that is more than just passive entertainment, that really rivets you and causes you to think critically, while also drawing you in with touching mentor-apprentice relationships and powerful themes, check out the Mistborn trilogy.

Anyone read this series and want to discuss it? Have any other thoughts? Leave a comment, I’d love to chat.

Have a good week, my friends! Hasta luego!