Speculative Fiction Junkie

Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson's name is so ubiquitous these days that it's practically impossible to avoid him. Between hearing constant praise for his standalone novel Elantris and his Mistborn Trilogy, seeing his most recent novel Warbreaker in bookstores, and constantly hearing about his completion of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, his name seems to be everywhere. Somehow, though, I've managed to avoid reading any of his work up to this point.

Why has it taken me so long, you ask? I'm not entirely sure. Part of it, I think, is that once hype for an author reaches a certain point I sometimes start to become more skeptical than curious. In Mr. Sanderson's case, in particular, however, other things kept me away. The first was the other authors he is often compared to. A quote on the back of the second Mistborn novel, for example, assures the reader that fans of Terry Brooks and Terry Goodkind will love Mr. Sanderson's work. No thanks. Similarly, the endorsement Mr. Sanderson's work received from Romantic Times Book Reviews didn't help much either. Even his association with the Wheel of Time series, which I never really got into, led me to keep moving along whenever I saw his books in the bookstore. Eventually, though, I decided that I at least wanted to be fleetingly familiar with the work of this author I was repeatedly passing up.

Mistborn: The Final Empire is the story of a thieving crew whose leader decides to accept the daunting job of overthrowing the ash-covered Final Empire, which has stood for a thousand years. Its equally ancient leader, the Lord Ruler, allows a small nobility to exist but the vast majority of persons belong to the serf-like population of Skaa who toil under the nobles' whips and live at their mercy. The crew consists of a handful of individuals known as Mistings who each have abilities in one of the eight varieties of magic known as allomancy. Additionally, the crew's leader, Kelsier, and its newest recruit, Vin, are both Mistborn, meaning that they have abilities in all eight types of allomancy. Their efforts to overthrow the Final Empire require that they recruit and train an army, keep their plan a secret, defend themselves against the empire's inquisitors, and infiltrate and politick with the nobility.

The most celebrated thing about the Mistborn Trilogy is almost certainly the system of magic it employs, and indeed this is the most striking aspect of the early part of the book. Each of the eight types of allomancy is based on a particular metal. For example, pewter is associated with the enhancement of physical abilities, bronze can reveal the use of allomancy by others, etc. Allomancers access their powers by ingesting and then "burning" bits of the appropriate metal. The fact that most allomancers only possess one type of allomancy can often lead to the creation of some interesting alliances. For example, an allomancer who can burn pewter might be able to break open a lock with her bare hands but she may be in trouble without the assistance of someone who can burn Copper, which hides the use of allomancy from prying eyes.

Mr. Sanderson thoroughly and completely explores the use and implications of such a system of magic and does more with the eight types of allomancy than I would have thought possible. It is, without question, the most inherently interesting and thoroughly explored system of magic I have ever encountered. Even so, somewhere around page 200 I started to feel like the initial overhead required to explain it was stretching on a bit too long at the expense of the story itself. No sooner had I reached this conclusion then things started to pick up.

The story initially felt a lot like Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora (review here). Both books, after all, involve bands of thieves attempting to pull off the ultimate job. But Mistborn: The Final Empire quickly distinguished itself. The story may start off rather slow but it gets better and better as the book progresses. Mr. Sanderson eventually finds a near perfect balance of allomancy-laden action, political intrigue, and worldbuilding (although I could have definitely used a bit more of the latter).

I do have a few minor quibbles with the book. Every now and then minor improbable things would happen. For example, there is recruitment for a secret rebellion in public taverns all over a city. In another instance, Vin confronts one of the Lord Ruler's guards who responds by ripping the insignia of his station from his clothes, abandoning his post, and joining Vin's side. These things just seemed a bit unlikely. Even so, these anomalies are reduced to almost complete insignificance by the overwhelming quality of the book as a whole.

The first book in the Mistborn trilogy is a near perfect blend of the conventional and the innovative and belongs to that class of books that are just plain fun to read. In this respect, it reminded me a lot of the work of the Peter F. Hamilton. Mistborn: The Final Empire completely sold me on Mr. Sanderson. It took all the willpower I possess not to dive into the next book in the trilogy right away, and I can assure you that I'll be getting to it shortly.

Rating: 9/10

The True First

Mistborn: The Final Empire was first published by Tor in 2006.

[This review was based on a review copy]