The Final Empire (Mistborn #1)

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 2/5

Sixteen-year-old Vin has known no life other than that of a thief. She’s picked up by Kelsier and his crew when they learn of her abilities.

Spoilers ahead.

Detailed Summary

The book starts with Kelsier, a Mistborn (someone who can Burn all the metals), rounding up support to overthrow the Empire. He goes around the skaa plantation to generate support for his cause. We move onto Vin, a girl who was abandoned by her brother Reen. She’s a thief for Camon’s gang. She uses her Luck to persuade people Camon is working for to do as he says. An encounter with an Obligator (I think?), these people who have to witness stuff for it to be legal, confirms Marsh’s suspicion that she’s Mistborn. Marsh is Kelsier’s older brother. Kelsier and Dockson aka Dox test her abilities and tell Vin the news. She is adopted into the rest of the crew who include Breeze (a Soother), Hammond (a philosophical Thug), Clubs (a Smoker) and Lestibournes/Spooks (Clubs’ nephew who’s two years younger than Vin). The plan is for Kelsier to raise an army, wreak havoc amongst the nobles and while they’re feuding, attack with the skaa army. Vin is chosen to act as Valette Renoux, niece of Lord Renoux who is working for Kelsier. The real Renoux was killed, I think. She has to attend balls and is taught how to be a noblewoman by Sazed, a Terrisman Keeper who has a LOT of knowledge about religions and stuff. At night, she’s trained by Kelsier. At a ball, she meets Elend Venture, a twenty-one-year-old nobleman, who always reads books. He is interested in reforming society and wants to know more about skaa. She falls in love with him even though everyone else, especially his former fiancee Lady Shan, think he’s just using her. Spooks has a crush on Vin (he gives her a handkerchief) but later in the book, she lets him down gently.

It’s revealed that Kelsier became a Mistborn when he was in the Pits of Hathsin where atium is mined. It’s a metal which lets you see future actions. Seven thousand skaa soldiers are hidden in caves but their leader, a skaa named Yeden, leads five thousand of them against a garrison. It’s slaughter. Kelsier and Vin manage to lead the sane two thousand soldiers back to be hidden in Luthadel (the city). Still, Kelsier et al. have managed to seed conflict amongst the noblemen. Marsh goes to become an Inquisitor so as to infiltrate the palace. A dead body is found in his room. The crew thinks he died. Vin attends the apparently last ball at the Venture palace. Elend breaks it off with her. She’s ignored by everyone else. She learns that there’s going to be an assassination attempt on Elend’s life. She immediately goes to the roof and fights two Mistborns. One of them is Lady Shan who she succeeds in killing. She returns back to the Renoux estate. Renoux’s estate is taken over by the Lord Ruler’s soldiers. Kelsier sets the skaa free but he’s killed by the Lord Ruler himself. It’s revealed that Kelsier’s plan all along was to die a martyr which would lead to a revolution. The city is overthrown.

Kelsier had talked about this Eleventh Metal but never figured out how to use it. He left some for Vin after his death. Vin goes to the palace to kill the Lord Ruler. She’s captured by Kar, an Inquisitor, who forces her to reveal who her father is (the lord prelan who is then killed). It’s revealed her brother was captured too but swore that Vin had died of starvation. Sazed helps her escape using Feruchemy. Vin fights the Lord Ruler and realises he’s Kashed, the true Hero’s servant (there’s this side plot where the crew read this journal). Marsh is alive and an Inquisitor. Vin rips the bracelets out of the Lord Ruler’s arms which causes him to age quickly. The Lord Ruler is an Allomancer and Feruchemist so he’s pretty much got eternal youth. Vin stabs the Lord Ruler and he warns her about impending doom before dying. Elend unites the city under a new government. The book ends with him and Vin embracing.

Plot and Pacing: I feel almost guilty for what I’m going to say next. Oh well, screw it. I absolutely hated this book. It was unnecessarily long. The magic system was interesting but something just didn’t feel quite right to me. The characterisation–oh boy. I was disappointed. Massively disappointed.

I love heist novels. Six of Crows is one of my favourite duologies. Also, you learn a lot about how to sneak around and stuff from those books which always comes in handy. We’re introduced to the heist in the first two hundred pages or so. Everything is laid out in boring dialogue which seems to go on and on with the characters attempting to “banter” in between. The heist itself takes another two hundred pages to get through which was completely unnecessary. A huge chunk of those pages was dedicated to explaining Allomancy with bucketloads of info-dumping about the system and the political situation. I was bored out of my bloody mind.

The Mistborn fanbase is enormous. A LOT of people go mad for the series but I really don’t understand the hype. It’s a freaking slog. I’ll admit, in the last hundred pages, things kind of start happening? Vin suddenly thinks she’s capable of using the eleventh metal despite not having ANY experience with it whatsoever and then gives the Lord Ruler a piece of her mind. Marsh totally kicking all the Inquisitors’ butts was a wonderful moment. He was my favourite character so I was glad to see him alive.

The romance is just haphazardly thrown in. Everything seems to resolve itself at the end. And there are TWO MORE BOOKS that I need to get through. Oh boy.

The most important theme, I think, is the importance of true friendship. Despite the faults of the plot and characters, I must admit that Kelsier’s crew is pretty wholesome. They trust one another completely. They rely on each other unashamedly. And they have got each others’ backs. I think Sanderson wanted to show that it is possible to find friend groups like that, even if you are a street urchin or an eccentric first-year medical student.

Characters: The characters are just slkdfjdksfj. Let’s start with Vin. She’s a street urchin before being picked up by Kelsier, totally distrustful of everyone, someone who tries to occupy the minimum amount of space–she kind of gives Arya Stark vibes. Throughout the book, her conflict is that everyone has abandoned her and no one’s ever come back. Also, that her brother Reen keeps telling her (in her head of course) that she’s always going to be betrayed. That’s the essence of her character. And when I say essence, I mean, that’s it. That’s everything. She’s got nothing more to her. Sure, she starts enjoying the balls and falls for Elend but the whole separation anxiety thing is emphasised on a LOT. To the point where it’s REALLY annoying and I wanted to wring Vin by the neck and tell her to get a hold of herself. She’s a cardboard cutout. A lot of the other characters are too, actually. But, get this, at least she’s a female! That’s right! She’s the only female character in the book. All the other main characters are males. That bothered me a lot too. I’m not man-hating or anything. It’s just having ONE woman would have been nice.

Something I could relate to with Vin though,

When regarded as static items, like a solitary plant, the dresses were only mildly impressive. However, when she considered attending the ball, the gowns took on a new meaning. They were beautiful, and they would make her beautiful. They were the face she would show to the court, and she wanted to choose the right one.

19/12/19

I can relate a LOT to this! I hate skirts and dresses. They’re uncomfortable to wear and so exposing but I do admit that when I’m dressing up for a party or dance, the dresses I deemed dumb take on a whole new meaning. They have the potential to transform me the way Hermione was at the Yule Ball. (Sadly, that doesn’t really happen because my appearance is tolerable at best.)

I don’t blame Vin for crushing on Elend. I mean, Elend was decent. I could totally relate to him!

The man sipped at his wine, focused on the book.

“Do you always read at balls?” she asked.

The young man looked up. “Whenever I can get away with it.”

19/12/19

I have a feeling this Lord Elend guy is either going to be Vin’s love interest or the villain. Whichever he turns out to be, one thing I’m sure about is he is relatable as hell. I always read at parties too! I always get told off if I don’t hide it though which makes no sense because people are always on their phones and no one says anything to them about that.

My ISSUE is that Sanderson can’t write romance at all. Well, at least at the time of writing this book, he was rubbish at it. I understand a crush. It’s easy to crush on attractive, eccentric people. But when Vin is rescuing Elend at the last ball thing, she thinks, I love him and that’s what propels her to act. What the actual hell? You’ve talked to this boy, like, five or six times at most and you freaking LOVE him? Also, the end where she’s being held by Elend and thinks this is what she’s always wanted? Are we just going to forget the abandonment issues? Her inability to make friends (at the start at least)? Her lack of family? What happened to all those variables that came into play.

I wanted Vin to be a bit more professional. After she’s indulged in a few balls, she suddenly thinks all the nobles are not too bad and all. I don’t blame her for that and in a way she was right. However, with that understanding came the lowering of shields and Vin could have caused some serious damage if she hadn’t caught herself in time. Like the whole Kliss situation. (Kliss? Was her name Kliss? I don’t even know.)

Elend was cool but his reading at parties was overly-emphasised again. While studying The Great Gatsby, my English teacher told us how Fitzgerald used selective detail to help the reader remember the characters. The way this works is one specific trait is picked on a lot so you start associating that trait with the character. Sanderson attempts to use this. The problem is this is a high fantasy novel. Just using ONE detail over and over is pointless because high fantasy gives you a lot of TIME and SPACE to develop the characters more!

It’s not just Vin and Elend. It’s everyone! Sazed is obsessed with religions. (Okay, he was pretty developed though. I liked how he stored so much information.) Dox is super organised. Breeze is a prick. Ham is philosophical. Kelsier is egotistic and impulsive. Spooks can’t speak properly and has a crush on Vin. I could go on. I will admit that Kelsier did have some development. We learn how his wife, Mare, MAY have betrayed him to the Lord Ruler (although Vin says she might not have). He does want change to occur in the city and he wants to be the force behind that change. But he was just such a typical character.

The only character who I really liked was Marsh, Kelsier’s older brother. He’s described as not being as handsome as Kell and it’s hinted that he might have loved Mare too and she chose Kell over him. I tend to always root for the underdog and Marsh read like an underdog. I was impressed by how far he was willing to go (becoming an Inquisitor and having goddamn spikes poked through his eyeballs and chest–yikes), his quiet rage and his love for family and friends. He was loyal to the end, I think. I was so glad to see him alive.

Regarding Lady Shan,

20/12/19

On page 302, Lady Shan has “long, dark hair” but here, her hair is auburn? Does dark mean auburn? Or did Sanderson just mess things up? On page 512, she’s back to having black hair. Great.

Writing Style: I understand Mistborn is a high fantasy trilogy. High fantasy books tend to be ginormous books with super tiny font, generously small so ants can join in the fun. HOWEVER, a lot of Sanderson’s writing was just a repetition of facts or descriptions which added nothing to the plot. The dialogue was horrendous too and dialogue is my favourite stuff to read! I’m on my December break right now so that means I can read for hours on end at the end of the day (which is what I do). With this book, I started at about 7:30 PM. At about 8:15 PM, I ALWAYS fell asleep while reading (three days in a row, my friends). I would then get up, splash water on my face, and then let my eyes burn for another three hours or so just to get through this book as quickly as possible.

The writing is truly torturous to read. Okay, that’s a bit harsh but the whole time, I was just thinking variations of, “Why am I reading this book?!??!” or “Sanderson’s supposed to be a good writer–who wrote this???” The characters always think the same things throughout the book (I know because Sanderson sometimes mentions their thoughts), the words “then” and “suddenly” are used some fifteen quintillion times.

Two more books, oh god, two more books.