Image courtesy of Tor Books.

“Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope” ~ Sazed (Mistborn: The Final Empire)

My Rating:

Started: February 15th, 2025

Finished: February 23rd, 2025

---

The Mistborn Trilogy is regarded as Brandon Sanderson’s most widely-read piece, with the first book, Mistborn: The Final Empire, ranking on Barnes and Noble’s list of Sanderson’s bestselling works. The book initially lays a foundation of the 1000 year-long social order the world has been following. We are quickly introduced to skaa, the “lower rank of humans” in this setting, portrayed as often being enslaved on plantations or as servants, factory workers, or miners. Ruling over the skaa and having a direct involvement with the Lord Ruler (the God of this empire), are the nobility. All of the happenings in this book take place in the Final Empire, which was established when the Lord Ruler took his place as the God of the people a millennium before the story begins.

The story follows Vin, a timid and traumatized 16-year-old involved in a skaa thieving crew in the capital city of the Final Empire, Luthadel. She spent her life hopping from city to city, and crew to crew, with her brother Reen before he betrayed her, leaving her to fend for herself. She has made herself useful in the abusive and cunning crew she’s involved in by tapping into her abilities, which she cannot explain. She calls it her Luck, which she uses to “reach out” and calm the emotions of someone, making them more agreeable. A useful skill indeed when you’re scamming ill-tempered representatives of the Luthadel ministry.

Everything changes for her though, when she meets Kelsier, a confident and bold skaa thief, who helps her discover that her Luck is no ordinary coincidence, and there’s more to her abilities than she could imagine. Along with Kelsier and his tight-knit crew of Allomancers, Vin finds herself involved in a heist to overthrow the Final Empire, and more importantly, the Lord Ruler himself.

---

My Thoughts:

*Massive Spoilers Ahead*

Wow. Where do I begin? Everything about this novel enchanted me from start to finish. I quickly fell in love with the characters and magic system, and I felt all the passion behind their motives. It’s one thing to create people who want to do certain things and then write it out into a story. It’s another (much harder) thing to make the reader agree, and root for the characters right alongside them. To make the reader become passionate about what the characters are passionate about, much like certain Allomancers display in the book, pushing and pulling on people’s emotions to bring them together for a certain cause. That’s how I felt all throughout this book. We’re very quickly introduced to Vin, who I feel is one of the most tolerable and realistic female main characters that I’ve read about in a long time. There was a hesitancy and reluctancy about her that made her feel very relatable, and was very appropriate for the situations she was in. Oftentimes, I feel main characters lack that sensibility and caution, so it was very refreshing to see those qualities displayed in Vin. Side characters like Dockson, Breeze, Ham, and even Spook, all had such a charm about them. All of their personalities, quirks, and traits were so well-developed that I almost felt like they were all main characters. I was very impressed with the added touches and habits that supported their Allomantic abilities. Example: Breeze frequently used terms of affection like “my dear” or “my dear man” when in conversation with someone. This supports his Allomantic ability, Soothing, in that he is artfully slick and manipulative.

While all characters were all individually well-crafted, their cooperative bond was incredibly believable. Carefully, through nicknames and familial scenes of joking and laughter amongst the crew, Sanderson curated a camaraderie that was exceedingly convincing. You grew attached not only to these characters independently, but also to the family like environment they were apart of and the care and trust they had for one another. It was special to Vin in particular, learning that not everyone ultimately had her worst interest in mind. Another character that certainly deserves mentioning is Sazed. Sanderson has really created a beloved character in Sazed. His unwavering aura of tranquility and contentedness brought such a stability in the friendship between him and Kelsier. He really is if “calm, cool, and collected” was a character.

In terms of plot, my only quip would be how initially easy it was to have the support of all of the character’s in terms of Kelsier’s grand plan. Yes, they had concerns, which were raised not only at his initial proposal, but at several times throughout the book. But, for the most part, it didn’t take an overwhelming amount of convincing the win the approval and trust of the men of this crew. Perhaps, I can personally chalk this “complaint” (though I can’t really say I have much to detest in this book) up to me being a new fantasy reader, and not being used to such fast moving plots and unrealistic circumstances. On the other hand, it may have been intentional, and used to display how Kelsier’s charm, reputation, and charisma helped him easily woo the masses.

The magic system in this book was absolutely exquisite. While it was detailed and complex, as a new fantasy reader it didn’t take me very long to catch on to it and appreciate it. Like almost every aspect of this book, it was very cleverly crafted and made for very exciting practice and fighting scenes.

I came up with a lot of different theories while reading this book, most of them incorrect. I found this book very hard to predict, especially with how fast things were moving. I had consistently detected a similarity between Kelsier and the Lord Ruler. I had a theory at some point during reading that they were one in the same. In terms of the kandras, I had suspected that there must be some way that you can “shapeshift” in this world, the Lord Renoux situation provided a lot of evidence for that. I think Vin’s incessant expectation of mistrust and betrayal almost rubs off on the reader in a way, because I often found myself feeling that Kelsier is too good to be true. I was constantly waiting for some massive reveal of a secret regarding Kelsier that never came. I put it together in the scene where Kelsier and Sazed are having a conversation about the similarities in religion, where Sazed explains that they all had something (mostly dead) to put hope in, that Kelsier was not going to make it through the end of this book. I kind of forgot about that though, when the time actually came.

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t get teary-eyed at Kelsier’s death scene. Don’t even get me started on the letter he left behind for them. “Please don’t be angry at me for abandoning you.”

Let’s just say the tears were FLOWING by then.

Kelsier’s death was anticlimactic in the most climactic way possible. I was expecting a ten page fight scene and an epic battle. Maybe even involving Vin, or some of the other crew members. It went, however, nothing like that. He didn’t put up a fight against the Lord Ruler. He didn’t have an outburst of anger. He quite literally got slapped in the face and that was it. I had a bit of denial throughout this part of the book, I was sort of waiting for some psyche moment where Kelsier was going to pop up and smack the Lord Ruler or something. It never happened obviously, and he was gone for real, which was super sad.

A BIG shocker for me was Marsh being an INQUISITOR. I did not expect that one coming, and it made me sad as we will never have the old Marsh return. The sacrifices he was willing to make for his brother, and the ultimate sacrifice Kelsier made motivated further by Marsh’s faked death. UGH. Big emotions here.

The romance subplot in this book was slightly underdeveloped and underwhelming for me. It felt a bit shallow, though that may be attributed not only to Vin and Elend’s ages, but also the generalized superficialness of the nobility. I just feel like it was girl who is literally scheming to take down the nobility meets her first noble and says “You know what, nevermind, I’m in love so we shouldn’t be so harsh on these people.” For a girl who was hyper-skeptical of everything and everyone this felt a little reckless. Again, she’s only sixteen or seventeen when she meets Elend, and her delusions are met with more sensible voices belonging to the members of the crew. Plus, in terms of writing, I would recognize Vin as a dynamic character (meaning she changes throughout the book), and this may be a way of simply conveying the changes the crew has had on her in terms of trust.

I really can’t find an issue with this book without finding a supporting quality on why it’s really not a con.

If I had to pick a favorite character it would probably be Kelsier, but again I felt very attached to all of the characters in this book. I think the charisma and charm that affected the people in the book carries through the pages really well, and his constant adventures make him very exciting to read about. My least favorite character was honestly the Lord Ruler. Besides the fact that he’s a literal villain and everyone’s enemy, I just felt like his character was slightly underdeveloped and I never understood his motives for anything. I wish that this book contained a little more backstory on the reasoning for his tyrannical nature. I’m hoping to get a better understanding on that in the next two books, though.

All of that being said, this was probably one of the best books I have ever spent my time reading. I am so excited to read further into this trilogy and uncover more of those secrets that Kelsier is always talking about.

Happy Reading!

~Lauren ❤