If high fantasy books are your favourite genre then look no further than the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. The world of the Mistborn Trilogy is filled with magic (in the form of forces), creatures, castes, and gods. The books are (in order): The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. The original trilogy was published between 2006 and 2008, but since then four more books in the series have been published, with one currently in production. The synopsis:
‘Once, a hero arose to save the world. A young man with a mysterious heritage courageously challenged the darkness that strangled the land.
He failed.
For a thousand years since, the world has been a wasteland of ash and mist ruled by the immortal emperor known as the Lord Ruler. Every revolt has failed miserably. Yet somehow, hope survives. Hope that dares to dream of ending the empire and even the Lord Ruler himself. A new kind of uprising is being planned, one built around the ultimate caper, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the determination of an unlikely heroine, a street urchin who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a Mistborn.’
The third sentence of that had me completely hooked, I needed to read the books. If a hero already tried to save the world, and failed, then how would this heroic duo’s attempt be any different? Not often do you come across a book series that dangles the possibility of a not so happy outcome for the main characters, and that is what intrigued me to the core.
Our two main protagonists are Vin and Kelsier. Vin is a young, thieving woman who started with practically nothing -no family, friends, home, or any sense of belonging. While her character seemed distant, distrustful, and quiet in the beginning, we watch her grow into an unlikely heroine thanks to the guidance of Kelsier, her new Mistborn abilities, and some TLC from new friends. Kelsier is also a Mistborn, but that is where the similarities end. Kelsier is a cocky mastermind, who remains optimistic about defeating the Lord Ruler and The Final Empire, despite numerous setbacks. There are many other characters that become main protagonists over time, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.
Our main antagonist is the Lord Ruler. He controls the Final Empire through the use of his unnatural power, which is why everyone believes him to be a god. The “skaa” who are basically the peasant class, work unpaid for the nobility who give them food tokens in return. The nobility trade amongst themselves and have fancy balls, all while paying taxes to the Lord Ruler. No one dares oppose the Lord Ruler, and he rarely makes public appearances, which only increases his deity reputation.
Onwards to the cool magic system! There are three magic disciplines in the Misborn world: Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. Allomancy is the ability to metabolize metals in order to “burn” them, and gain magical powers of enhanced physical or mental attributes. Since our protagonists Vin and Keliser are Mistborn, they can use Allomancy to burn any metals (each of the 16 metals pertains to a unique ability). Mistings on the other hand can only burn one metal specific to them. Feruchemy is like Allomancy, except instead of digesting the metals, a Feruchemist wears the metals to “tap” into them and use them. (If you’re planning on reading the books, don’t read the rest of this paragraph). While reading the books, I felt like Hemalurgy was the equivalent of forbidden dark magic from the Harry Potter series, and for a good reason too. A metal spike must be driven through a human body, into another person’s body in order for him/her to get power. Oh, and it has to remain there for the enhanced power to work. Yeah, gross I know.
There’s so many more interesting things in this series, be it the unique creatures or the Neo-like badassery of the fight scenes (and believe me there’s a lot of them). Sometimes they’re across rooftops, other times battlefields, either way you’ll get your full share of them. There’s even a sub-plot romance which isn’t forced, which makes us think more realistically about Cinderella’s rags-to-riches transition. So many secrets and new snippets of clues unfold page after page, I couldn’t put the books down. Sanderson did an amazing job at writing this masterpiece, and fooling the readers till the very end. Speaking of which, the ending left me feeling bitter-sweet. I was happy for the resolution, but I felt sad knowing that some characters were gone forever. I could ramble on and on about how epic this fantasy series is, but hopefully you’ll find some spare time to read it.
Rating: 8/10.
Favourite Quote: “Belief isn’t simply a thing for fair times and bright days…What is belief – what is faith – if you don’t continue in it after failure?…Anyone can believe in someone, or something that always succeeds…But failure…ah, now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly.”
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