Three books in eight days. Not bad huh? I picked up the Mistborn trilogy after finishing Jane Eyreby Charlotte Brontë. I usually alternate between classical literature and fantasy. The former keeps me down to earth and provides some deep reading, and the second gives me a nice escape from reality. Brandon Sanderson’s three book series certainly did that. I was looking forward to it for a long time after hearing about it from the website suvudu.com. At the end of hectic reading for just over a week, I’ quite positive about the series. I felt there were many things that were less than stellar, but on the whole the good points more or less make up for the bad ones.
Let’s start with the negatives. I felt the second book in the trilogy was pretty redundant. Nothing much happens and only the last hundred pages or so seem to have any direct relation to the plot. Too much time spent bickering and politicking. I also began to get quite irritated with some of the main characters, namely Vin and Elend. The first book was great – simply spectacular. In that one, Kelsier absolutely steals the show. His personality and his motivations make everything else fade in to the background. And Vin was cool too. As for Elend, well he was nice enough chap in a geeky sort of way. You could always make out from the start that he and Vin were going to end up together, so it wasn’t a surprise.
In the second book though both Vin and Elend begin to get damn irritating. Too much teenage angst. A lot of time spent uselessly ruminating, thinking, second-guessing etc. Zane was a great addition though. Elend however just didn’t fit in to the image of a king. I personally don’t think there’s any way that such a withdrawn, shy and geeky person can suddenly take on the attributes of a monarch. I doubt if it works that way. Sazed was one of the book’s more interesting characters.
Even Sazed however began to lose it in the third book. There are quite literally pages and pages of his own doubts and internal thoughts. This is particularly frustrating because we come to love him as a caring, nice, and solid kind of guy. Though the end of the book demonstrates why so much emphasis was placed on Sazed, it really does become very monotonous.
A few really cool characters like Breeze and Allriane provide a lot of variety for the book. And the Inquisitors make for an absolutely chilling picture. The Lord Ruler is one of the most ambiguous characters in the book. It’s pretty clear that he’s the villain at the beginning, but as the series progresses, we begin to understand his motivations and reasons for what he does – even if he’s driven somewhat insane by forces he can’t fight and therefore perverts everything that he does.
The magic system however is what makes the Mistborn trilogy really shine. The science and art of Allomancy – the ability to draw power from various metals to do incredible things is really the heart of the books. It provides for some very interesting scenarios and methods of fighting. Moreover, it’s tied in to a truly grand story arc that we understand once we go towards the end. Even the third book suffered from a lot of fluff, but it really began to pick up as it was finishing. The ending is quite poignant. I feel quite sad actually.
While The Mistborn Trilogy isn’t in the same league as The Malazan Book of the Fallen, it’s short length makes it a tempting read since you know you’re not really committing yourself to anything truly long term.