Mistborn Trilogy

The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages

by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Hughes

paperback

English language

Published Oct. 1, 2001 by GOLLANCZ, imusti.

ISBN:: 978-1-4732-1369-2

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(52 reviews)

1 edition

Eduardo Santiago reviewed Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Review of 'Mistborn Trilogy' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Abandoned at 12% with apologies to my loved ones who adore his work. I’m finding it heavyhanded, with overly simple language and godawful clunky dialog (“Tell me, what has your rebellion accomplished during its thousand-year struggle? Where are your successes and victories? The Massacre of Tougier three centuries ago, where seven thousand skaa rebels were slaughtered?”). The storyline is formulaic and so far banal: Mistreated Orphan, Unsuspected Magic Powers, Rescued From Horrible Weasleys Whatever, presumably a Hero’s Journey to follow.

I tried, was really going to give it an honest go, but was saved by this timely reddit thread: redd.it/ti0aer (TL;DR his writing is not for everyone)

Paul Kater reviewed Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Review of 'Mistborn Trilogy' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was a big book. Big in size and big in surprises. I discovered surprises behind many a corner, and each flip of a coin (yes, this relates to the story in so many places) bounced me to new places and allowed me to meet new characters.

The only thing I sometimes wondered about while reading this book was: would it be possible to convey the same information in this story with fewer details. I think that is what turned this book into such a long one. Don't get me wrong: the book was never boring. I just wonder about this as I am a writer who tries to keep as many details away from people. I think it's good for the reader to develop their own interpretation of a world, a building or a person.

chadkoh reviewed Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Review of 'Mistborn Trilogy' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Although I thought the writing was a bit weak, I really enjoyed Sanderson's imagination. He has trouble writing dialogue and falls too quickly into exposition, but I understand that this is an early book for him, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

The world-building is really what got me. He has an intricate rule system, and has obviously put a lot of thought into it. Most importantly, he seems to want to obey that system. This is the first book of the Cosmere that I have read, and I look forward to learning more.

Ikwezi reviewed Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Review of 'Mistborn Trilogy' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

An excellent new world to explore

And a terrific main character with whom to do it in subsequent books. And he writes great fight scenes, too.

Leaf reviewed Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Review of 'Mistborn Trilogy' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Things Sanderson excels at:
World building (overall), characterization, creativity, and plot.

Things he's sort of terrible at:
Language (get the man a thesaurus, the word 'stone' three time in one sentence? Really? And 'maladroit' starts standing out when you use it multiple times per chapter. Or paragraph.)
Pacing.
There are also a number of minor issues of continuity.
Also, I got extremely tired of Sanderson using child labor/cruelty to children every time he wanted to evoke pathos. EVERY TIME.

Then there's the fact that I still have no clue how women are regarded in this world. You have them being treated worse than male Skaa, what with the constant rape/murder by nobles threat, and in noble society they seem to be more or less where Victorian English women were as far as lack of basic rights went. Yet as soon as Vin gets out of her thieving crew, she'd treated like a complete equal by everyone. There's not even a breath of sexism. Not the tiniest hint, not even from servants or recruits. And you get the idea that Mare was treated the same way. Yet every other woman is next to faceless, and you don't get any dialogue from women other than Vin until 300 pages in. The biggest world building fail in the book.

All in all... I feel like the book suffered from length fatigue. Like, it needed a few more intensive editing sessions with a really good editor, but maybe its size prevented that from happening.
I enjoyed it overall. It was a good plot, and I liked the world and the mystery and the characters.
I'll read the next one, and hope that Sanderson improved by then.