The Final Empire

Book Title: The Final Empire

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Mistborn #1

Date Started: February 4th 2017

Date Completed: February 19th 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five stars

Review:

As usual, I don't know why I took so long to get around to this book. The Final Empire is exactly the kind of thing that I love: traditional high fantasy with a couple of awesome protagonists in a mentor/student relationship and a loveable cast of side characters, but with original and modern twists. Within the first couple of pages I knew it would be a favourite, but after finishing it I don't really know what I did with my life before I read it.

The make or break moment for most high fantasy books is the reveal of worldbuilding - sometimes it can be pinned down to a single moment, at best it's sprinkled the whole way through the book for you to absorb gradually. Sanderson did both. We're given a lot of information at the start to establish our idea of the what's going on, but we have this lovely slow and intuitive worldbuilding throughout the story that pulls on all these little ties and expectations we already have with high fantasy. On its own, it's arguably a rather standard fantasy world, but what makes The Final Empire different is the use of magic. The magic system in this book is so original and interesting the second it started being explored it was onto a winner. The idea revolves around different metals being able to grant Allomancers different powers, but Sanderson ties the politics in so closely that the magic system doesn't feel like deus ex machina as we're so often used to in books that contain magic. It's an integral part of this world and how its society works, as well as being exciting.

I was very happy for The Final Empire to catch me off guard as it so often did. I love reading diversely, and I love reading a whole manner of genres, levels and styles, but it's been a while since I've had something that was just right for me that I could sink my teeth into. Sanderson reminded me why I love high fantasy so much, and how good it is to be truly surprised when you can't predict the direction of a story.

This story takes place over a big time frame in which a lot of things happen. It's dealt with masterfully, so there's a clear passing of time, but it doesn't lose the sense of scale as a result. The things that happen in this book are big. We all love those rebellion narratives that are supposedly changing the world, but they often fail to feel as big and important as they're made out to be. The Final Empire - both the book and the empire itself - felt so solid in its worldbuilding right from the off that I could feel the political and social tensions immediately. By the time the big events started to happen I was entirely sold on it.

Much to my satisfaction, The Final Empire had a wonderful, varied and loveable cast of characters. There was depth to everyone, and even the evil characters I found myself admiring, but of course, it was our protagonists Kell and Vin that stole the show.

For a protagonist who I was reasonably flippant about to start with, Vin gave me so much pride. She grows an incredible amount throughout the book and I really admired the way she began as scared, timid and used to being used, and grew into a brave, independent, inquisitive woman. We so often see protagonists who start off reckless or stubborn and become well grounded, but it's a harder to find the development starting from a place of true fear. We're introduced to Vin when she is in a constant place of fear, so to see her place in the narrative develop into the hero that she grows to be really got to me. Towards the end, I was close to tears for pride, and the final words given to her in faith of her abilities really got to me.

And if we're going down the traditional fantasy route, you've got to have the sassy troublemaker and the wise mentor. With Kell we get both in one. He's so easy to love and easy to hate, his personality had me rooting for him straight away. He was a brilliant match for Vin, not only to balance out her initial uncertainness but to pick up her spirits and courage later on as well. And while a lot of exposition around a character is usually a negative point for me, Kell's history got me right in the heart and added so much to his character that I can't speak ill of it.

Brandon Sanderson isn't the father of modern fantasy for nothing. The Final Empire stands wonderfully on its own, but is clearly part of a huge world and story. It had me literally cursing and gasping out loud, clenching my fists and nearly turned me into Bradley Cooper from Silver Linings Playbook towards the end. It's 100% a new favourite of mine, and I desperately want to get my hands on the next books as soon as possible.