Book #6: Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Oh man. I can't believe I haven't read more Brandon Sanderson before last year. It is just so enjoyable and so much fun to get into the worlds he has created. Mistborn is the start of a trilogy, about a group of peasants and con men rising up to take over the tyrannical and immortal Lord Ruler of their empire. One of the main characters is Vin, a young street urchin who has spent her life cowering in street corners and trying not to die. She is discovered eventually to be a Mistborn, meaning that she has Allomantic powers, where she can burn metals inside her and use them to do all sorts of magical things. She becomes part of the crew that is training to overthrow the Empire, and her whole life changes. By the end of the book, the rebellion happens, along with all sorts of dramatic things (like the death of the Lord Ruler)--but it's unsure where things are going to go from there (leading on to the next sequel!).

I really enjoyed this book. Just like The Way of Kings by Sanderson, it took me a few chapters to get into it and to really understand what was going on. But I think that's probably how all fantasy books work, since there's a whole world that you need to be introduced to. Once I got into it, though, I was super happy about it and very invested in the plot, which moved really quickly and kept me hooked the whole time. My one complaint was that maybe the characters weren't as well developed in this book as they were in The Way of Kings. I know that the other books are bigger, heavier, and meant to be a whole epic ten-book series, which gives a lot more space for character development. But I was not quite believing how Vin could change so rapidly from a terrified, untrusting, abandoned orphan street urchin to fitting in so well with the new crew as she did. She did struggle for a little bit, but the transition seemed to happen way more quickly than it probably should have to overcome her previous ENTIRE LIFE. I also was a little annoyed with the romantic storyline about Vin and her nobleman, Elend, she falls in love with. They met like twice and they both were totally interested in the other? It just seems a little too convenient and not quite believable to me. It was the sort of quick romance you only read about in books, which is to say, not uncommon in books and not an absolutely terrible thing about this book, but not something that sold me on it. Elend had basically no personality in this book either--I couldn't really figure out what he was about or why Vin was so interested in him.

Regardless, I am definitely heading on to read the other two books in the trilogy next. There is apparently another trilogy--or set of four books, whatever that would be called--set in the same world, but just a couple of centuries later, but we'll see if I enjoy these books enough to sign up to read another four books on the same thing. I have so many other things on my to-read list.