Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon SandersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I don't like to read fantasy. There I said it. I think a majority of the books labeled fantasy are dreck or are blatent rip offs of the Lord of the Rings. Every once in a while something will come along and I will pick it up for whatever reason and be pleasently surprised (GoT, NotW, first couple of WoT). Add Mistborn to the list. It has the chosen one cliche that pretty much all fantasy has, but it kind of puts a spin on it. The story was completely original, as far as I know, with its use of alomancy and the other thing that Terrismen can do that looks just as hard to pronounce as it is to spell. I see that there are two sequels of increasing length, but the story in this book wraps itself up in a nice tight package with a little bow. I can see where the next book would come from but it isn't a you have to read the whole series after reading the first book. I might or I might not. I have heard this described as postapocolyptic high fantasy and I think that is an apt description.
I would recommend this to people who like fantasy and even to people on the fense about it. It does take about 50-100 pages to really get into so be aware that it is a slow starter. I don't think it inclines itself more to women or men. Safe for kids that are okay with reading about violence.
Should I read the second book?
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3 comments:
I liked Mistborn well-enough -- and I liked the change up in the general "hero saves the world" paradigm. From a writing perspective, I thought the flow got bogged down in "he burns this metal to do that, and then burns this other metal to do that..."
I did like the end -- and I have had the other books for a while and haven't picked them up if that tells you anything.
And I agree -- I have steered away from most recent fantasy because it's so derivative. I loved UK LeGuin's first three Earthsea's though -- probably the first truly different take on a world that I've read in a while.
have not read earth sea, probably need to do that one day.
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