Book Review: Mistborn: The Final Empire

“Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days… What is belief—what is faith—if you don't continue in it after failure? Anyone can believe in someone or something that always succeeds… But failure… ah, now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly.”

Though this review won’t be filled with spoilers for The Final Empire, there will be small details that could easily be considered spoilers in order for me to properly talk about the book. If you’re not hypersensitive to spoilers, this won’t be a problem. If you are, consider this your warning.

You’re probably reading this because you’re like me. You love fantasy fiction, and this book is either one of your favorites or it’s been on your radar for some time now and you need a reason to give it a shot.

I’m a Brandon Sanderson fanboy; I admit it. Sanderson’s writing is right up my alley. He writes with elegant clarity while keeping us grounded deep within his character’s experiences. He builds worlds that engage the imagination. He describes magic in a way that makes a reader want those same abilities.

This is the first novel in the first trilogy of Mistborn books, and Sanderson doesn’t hold back any creativity. 

The Final Empire is a world dominated by a dark lord: The Lord Ruler—an immortal who has controlled the world for far longer than anyone alive can truly account for. In his rise to power, there were some who refused to support the Lord Ruler, so when he came to power, he punished those who opposed him, creating a broadly two-tier class system: the Nobles and those Skaa. The Skaa are primarily laborers in this world, slaving away on plantations or mines while the Nobles reap the benefits of the underclass’s labor. 

And to many of the Nobles, the Skaa aren’t even people… which… I don’t know… sounds kind of familiar… 

Honestly, I love the worldbuilding here. From the culture, to the primal fear of the mists that haunt the night, to the ash that falls from the sky as if the world itself is on fire.

It’s a world that compels the imagination and conjures evocative imagery.

The story primarily follows Vin, a street rat who is given the chance of a lifetime: to help a revolutionary and his band of thieves topple this oppressive empire. Vin is smart, dangerous, and a joy to read. Her experiences have led her to be deeply untrusting, relying on herself to survive her dystopian nightmare. 

Even after agreeing to work with Kelsier’s crew, she spies on him as well as anyone else she’s tempted to place her trust into. It’s a very relatable impulse. Even I can admit to googling someone I’ve met just to soothe the fear of betrayal.

This level of paranoia is built on a foundation of abandonment. Vin feels that everyone important in her life has abandoned her. Her father, her mother—who almost killed her—and even Reen, who physically and emotionally abused her, constantly reinforcing that no one can be trusted.

Vin’s ability to fade away from notice and the weaponization of paranoia are the only tools of survival she has been given.

We’re also introduced to several other characters with distinct and fantastic personalities. While many writers might struggle to balance a cast of this size, Sanderson handles it with deft aptitude.

And the character I appreciated most was Kelsier.

“Attacking a provincial lord in his manor house, surrounded by guards...Honestly, Kell, I’d nearly forgotten how foolhardy you can be.”

“Foolhardy?” Kelsier asked with a laugh. “That wasn’t foolhardy—that was just a small diversion. You should see some of the things I’m planning to do!”

Dockson stood for a moment then he laughed too. “By the Lord Ruler, it’s good to have you back, Kell! I'm afraid I've grown rather boring during the last few years.”

“We’ll fix that,” Kelsier promised.

The legendary Survivor of Hathsin, Kelsier, the Mistborn, is a complicated character. His incredibly ambitious goal to liberate the world from the Lord Ruler’s oppression is admirable and leads him to be a fantastic mentor for Vin.

But there’s more to him than just altruism. He thinks highly of himself. The man wants to be a legend. It’s a self-centered desire that is incredibly human and flawed, but I easily excused these less desirable personality traits because he redirects that desire to uplift his people.

It’s almost a Du Boisian approach to racial uplift via personal success. It’s not a direct parallel to early 20th-century thought leaders of racial equality, but it deepens Kelsier as an individual in a way that makes him fantastically three-dimensional.

Perhaps what struck me the most was that the action scenes in this story are surprisingly compelling. In the hands of a less capable author, the action scenes could have easily become boring—a burden to the pacing that prompts the reader to skim ahead. Sanderson describes his fight scenes with allure, holding you arrested on the edge of your reading nook.

And the novel’s magic system is put to good use in both the plot and the action. 

Based on the consumption and metabolization of metal alloys, an Allomancer is granted a certain magical ability, and each metal has its pair.

Steel and Iron are Push and Pull metals, Bronze can helps you scope out Allamancers while Copper can help you hide, and so on.

A lucky few Allomancers are born with the ability to metabolize all viable alloys. These Allomancers are called Mistborn. Both Vin and Kelsier fall into this category.

There’s also the system of Feruchemy which allows you to store certain abilities for later use, but I don’t want to dump too much on you. It’s all very well explained in the narrative.

“But you can’t kill me, Lord Tyrant. I represent that one thing you’ve never been able to kill, no matter how hard you try. I am hope.”

The beating heart of the novel is Vin’s journey of self-discovery and her acceptance of hope for herself and for the future. 

For years she’s only seen herself as a street rat who can’t trust anyone but herself and her late brother, but when she joins Kelsier’s band of misfits, she’s forced to re-evaluate whether or not she can place her trust in someone else, if it’s worth the risk to build friendships, to stand up for what’s right, to fall in love.

Vin’s story straddles the line between Adult and YA fiction. While this book can be found in the general SF&F section, a younger reader could read this story without the worry of inappropriate content. It’s a perfect novel to give a 12 or 13-year-old to introduce them to epic fantasy storytelling.

The one flaw with this story is that I figured out the solution to the ending before I should have. I’ve asked around, and it doesn’t seem like this is common. Perhaps being an author myself made me a bit sensitive to detecting the final reveal. 

Though I managed to uncover the solution prematurely, the novel is still leaps and bounds better than so many fantasy stories I’ve read.

If you’d like to embark on a new adventure, check out my book, The Seventh Cadence. It’s an epic fantasy adventure that blends science into its magic system, and if you like Sanderson’s books, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this one too.