The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

[lightreads]

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Epic fantasy of the street urchin with great powers joins a thieving crew intent on overthrowing the evil empire variety. Y'know.

Entertaining in a juvenile and rather clumsy way. This series was sold to me as having a "really original" magic system. Uh . . . no. Some of the finer details – powers granted by digesting certain metals – might be unique, but when you come right down to it, this is the sort of writing about magic where I keep expecting a pop-up window in the middle of the text that says, "to activate this power, hold down the B button and push the joystick forward." I was also told this series is "philosophical," which is painfully not the case either. Well, unless you consider the investigation of such deep and interesting questions as, "Are all rich people evil or just some of them?" to be philosophical.

So it is nothing I was told, but still entertained me in a brainless sort of way.




View all my reviews

Comments

[rivkat]

I enjoyed Mistborn too, though I got increasingly dissatisfied with the sequels. What I thought was different about the magic system was that it was so obviously using video game logic. I thought of the book as an attempt to translate one medium to another, as some rap artists have said sampling was a way of translating cutting from the movies. I don't believe in originality, but I don't play video games and I did like the novelty of having the characters essentially learn how to combine sequences to get the result they wanted.

[kate_nepveu]

Heh. I was told it was a single-volume heist novel, which may have been a little more to the point? (I haven't read it yet. Yes, I know it has sequels now, but it didn't at the time and I believe still stands alone?)

[lightreads]

I got it packaged as a trilogy, and while this story does complete, it is clearly set up for a broader conflict, featuring most of the same characters, I believe. I have the sequels on the maybe pile -- the mood might strike, but if it doesn't within a year or so, out they go. Also, I think calling it a "heist" novel is misleading -- there is the setup of a caper, but none of the follow through or fun switches and reversals of a real heist.