Mistborn: The Final Empire

Mistborn: The Final Empire (#1 in the trilogy)

                                 By Brandon Sanderson

I enjoyed different aspects and different parts of the book, but the whole thing wasn't fantastic. The storyline was really cool and was definitely the best part of the book. The story was new and exciting. The rising action had a lot of strength but the time from the climax to the denouement was a let down. After the climax everything seemed to magically fall into place, lacking any sort of tension. The story ended too quickly and too easily after such a long rising action. The book had awesome action scenes but I wish there was more. 


Sanderson's writing was mediocre. Dull and lifeless at times but he saved himself by moving the story along quickly, while continuing to add new subplots to keep the reader entertained. Sanderson did come up with awesome characters though, especially Kelsier. The character development was good because a lot of the time it took a backseat to the moving plot. The only time when the character development became tedious was when Sanderson was writing about Vin. Vin's character was the revolving point of the whole book, showing other characters through her. Vin's character becomes the contrast between trust and distrust, hope and fear, friendship and loneliness. Without her, these elements of the book would not have shown so much in Kelsier's thieving crew. Her hard upbringing was used to contrast between Kelsier's crew, showing how good of people they were. Although I understand why Vin's character was fundamental to understanding the other characters, it became tedious when Sanderson had to continually write unneeded comparisons. I also liked the progression of Vin's character but Sanderson could have gotten his point across in a much more succinct way without Vin's countless internal debates. 

Overall, I liked the books pace and the adventurous story. Sanderson brought some new elements to the table in creating this book and had some awesome ideas. Some of the flaws of this book were Vin's character development and the climax to denouement portion of this book was rushed. I felt like that whole portion could have easily been turned into either another book or another couple of hundred pages to this book. Also, I didn't particularly enjoy Sanderson's writing. It was okay but after a long period of reading, it was monotonous. I did enjoy this book, especially the new world created and the interesting storyline, but it is not without its flaws. For entertainment's sake it is good and that is why I would rate it this highly. I would read this book again, even with its flaws. It was good but could have been better. But hey, nobody is perfect. Read and enjoy!