Many people know about Brandon Sanderson because he’s finishing up the Wheel of Time series, but I had sadly never heard of him before last year. Thankfully, a friend remedied this by loaning me the first in the Mistborn trilogy, and now I’m definitely addicted to Sanderson. He actually was at a convention in my area last year and I’m so upset with myself that I didn’t know about him and therefore was not motivated to go!
Title: The series is Mistborn trilogy, and the first book is also called Mistborn
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Length: Trilogy, each book is about 650 pages (paperback)
Strengths:
- Unexpected but totally fitting plot twists
- The first book stands alone wonderfully, and only at the end do you realize how much more there is to know about this world
- Completely new (as far as I’m aware) magic systems! Metal is used as a fuel/storage for eight (to begin with) super human powers. Physics is also taken into account :D
- Completely new and interesting cultures and races that are definitely not traditional fantasy.
- Amazing battle scenes, wow can Sanderson write!
- The characters are entertaining, and they get much better developed later on
Weaknesses:
- I didn’t get as attached to the characters as I do with some books, Sanderson is clearly a plot writer
- The first book focuses a lot on political stuff as they work to bring down a dictatorship, and I had trouble keeping with it at first.
- There is a lot of death and Sanderson does not always spare the details
- Sanderson really wants you to fear and despise his bad guys, so he plays upon modern day fears with his Inquisitors (they have spikes through their eyes, gross)
Summary: Really, really amazing books that I highly recommend, as long as you have the stomach for it. Sometimes they are scary, often they are a bit gory, but it’s totally worth it for the amazing world that Sanderson has come up with.
PS: That friend that lent me the first book also worked with me on a programming project that we used Mistborn as inspiration for :D.
-A
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