Anyone will betray you. Everyone will betray you.
The Final Empire
by Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Adult Fantasy
About: Vin is scrawny and weak, beat down by her brother, by her thieving crew, by everyone. There's nothing good, or 'lucky' about her life, except that she has this strange ability to change something about a person's emotions. It makes her a good luck charm for thieving jobs. But when she gets recruited by a new crew - one that relies on trust and friendship (like that can work), she'll need far more than luck. In fact she'll need to be mad as the crew's job is nothing short of destroying The Final Empire and God himself.
The Good
This is action packed. The crew have a great camaraderie with some really interesting characters that I just loved. Kelsier, of course, being the leader is the one I found myself naturally drawn more to. He's full of flaws, intrigue and is basically a loveable rogue. There are also several different (and fairly layered) magic systems that we learn about through certain characters. This is done bit by bit and all add something to the twists that start to unfold towards the end, in very brilliant ways. I really loved how the pieces all came together and although we don't see much of the Lord Ruler, having the extracts of the logbook pages at the start of each chapter worked really well in setting up that character arc.
The Bad
I found this a difficult book to get into for the first two hundred or so pages. The writing is good and there's nothing wrong with the pace of the plot, it's just that Vin's character dragged for me. The repetitiveness of her brother's voice in her head, the distrust she has for the crew... I could see that this was all needed character work, and yet it didn't really interest me because you just know that she's going to end up trusting the crew. When the main character is on such a different page emotionally to the reader, it can feel like a drag. Of course by the end of the story I did feel the importance of all that build up. I loved the twist about her brother, as well as how her relationship with the crew developed over time, I just wished it hadn't been such a large chunk of the beginning or over emphasized the way it was.
The Somewhat Iffy
There were a few things that made me pause. Nothing that took away from my enjoyment of the story or the characters, but were just things I was left wondering about.
- Such as when Vin first gets injured by an Inquisitor her cover of Valette should have been easily seen through. The Inquisitor's are searching everywhere for this Mistborn girl and they don't think to look closely at possible spies among the nobility?
- Yeden leading a battle knowing Kelsier wouldn't be there didn't make sense to me. True, Kelsier was deliberately vague about how he could 'transfer' power to the army, but why Yeden thought the army would be invincible without Kelsier or any Mistborn around was next level stupid for the rebel leader.
- The comment the Lord Venture makes about 'when the Lord Ruler discovers The Pits were destroyed he'll seek payback on their House'. But Kelsier seems to think the slaughter that happened was because of his actions in destroying The Pit, meaning the Lord Ruler was already well aware of it.
- Did Marsh give up Renoux to become an Inquisitor? Because it seemed shockingly fast how quickly he was trusted into such a high position and given that he can't lie in front of the Lord Ruler, I don't see how he could have shown his loyalty otherwise. Or why else Renoux and his household would have been captured.
- The Steel Inquisitor powers were necessarily mysterious, though I didn't understand how they were able to 'track' Vin the way they did. When they found her old hideout and then Theron's too, it's suggested that it's because they have her scent. And yet they never find Club's hideout despite the fact that they can pierce through copper clouds?
Overall
Great characters, lots of intriguing magic and so many amazing twists. The story all pulls together at the end, it's an epic ride, and although it's a trilogy, the first book does almost feel like a standalone.
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