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Mistborn - Does It Take a While to Get into It?

danr62

Sage
Brandon has said Kelsier could very easily have been a villian if circumstances were different, so yeah, he can be a bit grating.
 

Nightender

Minstrel
I'm a Sanderson fan as well. With Mistborn: The Final Empire, he focuses on establishing the setting, Vin, and Kelsier, in that order. It's a mild read at first, especially since he has to take a lot of time explaining the magic system.

Once Vin gets a handle on what she can do as a Mistborn, the story picks up a lot.
 

SineNomine

Minstrel
Brandon has said Kelsier could very easily have been a villian if circumstances were different, so yeah, he can be a bit grating.

This is somewhat explored more in The Alloy of Law, where Miles has a lot of traits in common with Kelsier. I kinda love how he treats the subjectivity of heroic/villainous traits.
 

kayd_mon

Sage
Ok, so I've now finished the book. Once the story picked up, I read through it quickly as I normally do when I really get into a book. I learned to like the Allomancy. The Feruchemy was fine, too. Since he has two inter-related magic systems, I'm wondering if the next books have more. The action was really exciting, and I finally started caring about the characters. He delivered there. I have a few gripes still about things like some of the dialog and repetitive descriptions, but they're not really that hindering once you're invested. I'll definitely be picking up the second Mistborn book in the next couple of weeks.
 

LadyCass

Scribe
I really liked Mistborn and I liked allomancy. I love when an author can create something new and no main stream.

I will say however that Mistborn, in my opinion, is the best book of that series. They get progressively worse. Sanderson begins to go overboard on showing so many character POV's that I had a hard time keeping with what was going on. I also was annoyed at the religious soap box he turned the series into by the end.
 

kayd_mon

Sage
Religious soap box? His writing is telling that he's probably a pretty religious guy himself. I'm not sure how I'll take that. I mean, I've read and enjoyed all of the Narnia books, but I liked the writing style of those a whole lot more than what I've seen of Sanderson.
 

danr62

Sage
I wouldn't call Sanderson's books a religous soap box. To me it seems more like he's exploring some ideas that are definitely inspired by his religion, but he isn't preachy about it.
 

kayd_mon

Sage
Well I suppose I'll see for myself soon. I have one book to read first (and it's short), and then I'll get to the next Mistborn.
 

MFreako

Troubadour
Just finished reading The Final Empire.

The first half of the book felt like a huge Allomantic infodump to me. Once the story picks up, it's okay, though I couldn't bring myself to really care about the characters. Even the more emotional scenes towards the end didn't really do anything for me. The thing that kept me going was wanting to find out more about the Lord Ruler and what made him become who he is. That said, Sanderson does manage to introduce some nifty ideas, and execute them quite well.

As for Sanderson's prose: I've heard some high praise for its simplistic nature. I don't know, I just found it... lacking.
 

kayd_mon

Sage
I agree that the prose is lacking - he repeats descriptors a lot (such as the word ornate, which at one point used five times in three pages) and his dialogue is awkward more often than it should be. The allomancy infodump is an understatement. The detail that he describes its usage is partly why I call it a videogame tutorial. It never feels natural, even after I started to like the ways it propelled the story. IMO, Sanderson's prose (based on this one book) is simple to the point that there is nothing special about it. It's easy to read, and it's obviously aimed at young readers, but I've read children's books where the author spent a whole lot more effort on their style, even while keeping it simple. Sanderson has a pretty good imagination, obviously, which is how he gets his fans.

In Mistborn, he did generate a lot of interest about the Lord Ruler. It's a shame that he gave away the big reveal so early in the book, though.
 
“Intrigue, politics, and conspiracies mesh complexly in a world Sanderson realizes in satisfying depth and peoples with impressive characters.”—Booklist on Mistborn

"Enjoyable, adventurous read that. . .should satisfy even easily-bored teens." --Locus on Mistborn

"A fascinating world . . . one that deserves a sequel." --The Washington Post on Mistborn

"Mistborn utilizes a well thought out system of magic. It also has a great cast of believable characters, a plausible world, an intriguing political system, and despite being the first book of The Final Empire, a very satisfying ending. In short, it's one of those great kettle books, in which the author has thrown not merely a bone of an idea and a few potatoes of originality, but half a cow and everything in the garden. And then added seasonings. Highly recommended to anyone hungry for a good read."
—Robin Hobb

Do i need to say i love this book and this series? Well i do. Stick with it, it's great! :)
 
See, I gave "Way of Kings" 10 out of 10 on my blog (it was actually my very first review I believe) and absolutely adored that book. I took issue with some of the directorial choices, but it had me enthralled the entire way through. I picked up Mistborn expecting the same sheer awesomeness or at least approaching such levels and I was crushed that I turned it back to the library BEFORE THE END OF THE PROLOGUE O_O

It was mindless and pointless and annoying and I could not stand to read another sentence. I have sworn off Sanderson in all forms except the Stormlight Archive books and the Wheel of Time ending books.
 

kayd_mon

Sage
@druidofwinter

Should start The Well of Ascension next week. I know I've been knocking Sanderson a bit, but overall I did like the story and I do want to see how it ends. I also hope there are some surprises - too many major things in The Final Empire were easy to see coming. (like the ending)
 
@druidofwinter

Should start The Well of Ascension next week. I know I've been knocking Sanderson a bit, but overall I did like the story and I do want to see how it ends. I also hope there are some surprises - too many major things in The Final Empire were easy to see coming. (like the ending)

There are many surprises coming. The last book is the best, though "Well" is great too. Glad you read the whole book. :)
 

Jessquoi

Troubadour
I've also just started it and I'm enjoying it. I agree that the characters develop slowly and seem rather vague in the beginning but in return I really like the visuals I get from the Allomancy fighting scenes. For me personally those scenes play through in my head like fantastic, visually sublime movies. I'm not saying it reads like a movie but I just got awesome visuals from it. If it picks up emotionally too I could really get it into it.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
So...it sounds like it might be worth it if you stick with it long enough. The problem for me is that my to-read stack literally has over a hundred books in it that I'd really like to get to at some point. So once I've put a book down because it bored me stiff, it is rare that I'll pick it back up instead of giving something new a shot. Happens occasionally, though. Maybe this will be one of those times.
 

Jessquoi

Troubadour
I'm stunned to find so many mixed opinions of this series. Not because I think people should think one thing or the other of it, it's just interesting.
 

Scribble

Archmage
I had watched all of Sanderson's writing lectures, and I was curious to see him "in action", so to speak. So, I began reading Mistborn. I liked the premise, with the dark lord winning and everyone living out the dirty aftermath. It was an interesting magic system, but ultimately I didn't believe it.

What really killed it was that I didn't develop enough sympathy for the characters to care what happened. I put it aside after a few chapters. I never say never, I may try other Sanderson books in the future. I may even give this another go, but I am unable to make myself "push through and keep reading" fiction that doesn't enchant me. Life is too short for that.

I say this with the reservation that I am extremely hard to please as a reader.
 
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