Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson
The Final Empire:
I have to say before I go over my thoughts that I happen to be extremely biased on this count. I love Brandon Sanderson’s writings, The Stormlight Archives are what singlehandedly got me back into reading for fun after several years of high school English drilled any sense of joy out of the activity, and the Cosmere is my favorite connected universe of all time. I do intend to try and examine this work, flaws and all, but I have to say that I’m irrevocably inclined to like this book, and that that might show in my thoughts.
That being said, The Final Empire is a really, genuinely excellent story.
For a basic plot synopsis, TFE (or sometimes just Mistborn) is the story of Vin, a street thief in Luthadel, the capital of the titular Final Empire, a thousand-year-old fascist bureaucracy run by the Lord Ruler, an immortal tyrant. The society of the Final Empire is split into two distinct castes; the nobles and the Skaa. The nobility are supposedly the descendents of those who supported the Lord Ruler’s rise to power a millennium ago, and the Skaa are meant to be the remains of his political rivals, now forced to be the Empire’s manual laborers. After finding out that she’s a mistborn, one of the few people able to gain supernatural abilities by ingesting metals, Vin joins a group of con men who plan to overthrow the Final Empire, and end the Lord Ruler’s oppressive regime.
The book spends a lot of time on the Final Empire as a society, which is quite nice, as the worldbuilding is really fascinating. A lot of real world societies have tried to justify the oppression of certain groups of people by claiming that they or one of their ancestors had done something to upset god, and The Final Empire asks the question, what if the one making those claims, was a god? A real, tangible god with a home address and a three-day skincare routine? Mistborn comes to the obvious conclusion that this would be bad for almost everyone involved. The ways that the working people of this world are beaten down both physically and emotionally are explored in intense detail. For a thousand years, the Skaa have been forced to work in inhumane conditions from the moment they were born, while the church and god himself have repeatedly hammered home that ‘yes, this is just, you deserve this’, and the way that breaks a person is the main obstacle of this crew as they try to put together their revolution. How can you raise morale for a people that have been so thoroughly beaten? Honestly, the grimdark and depressing state of this world can come off a little too strong at times. This world does have a lot of really interesting history, Sanderson’s strength has always been strong worldbuilding, but a lot of it is sort of dampened by the fact that everyone involved was probably miserable from living in such a bleak and hopeless world. Ham fisted though it may be, this bleak world does set up a fascinating exception in the form of Kelsier.
Kelsier is Vin’s mentor, and the leader of this effort to overthrow the Lord Ruler. He’s also one of the best examples I can think of of worldbuilding enhancing a character-based story. See, in this world of ash and mist, brutality and oppression, Kelsier decides to be an optimist. Having been captured as a thief and forced into labor in a mine for extremely valuable metal, where he lost his wife to the torturous working conditions, Kelsier sees smiling and hoping as an act of rebellion against the world, which I find fascinating. Throughout the entire story, Kelsier is the emotional core of the team, and the only one that seems to actually believe that this revolution is even possible. The way he makes the conscious decision to remain hopeful and optimistic in such a grimdark world makes him not only enjoyable, but genuinely compelling as a character, to the point that he’s essentially the costar of the book, alongside Vin.
Which, speaking of, let’s make a transition real quick. Vin is an amazing protagonist,and the story of her abuse is seriously moving. As someone who hasn’t been through this sort of abuse myself, I’m not sure if I can accurately touch on the nuances of her arc, but I’ll say that the way she learned to form close bonds again was moving in a way that I can’t quite describe. Especially in how she doesn’t actually leave behind her trauma fully. By the end of the book she still hears the voice of her abusive older brother, and still feels anxiety about the friends she’s made betraying and leaving her, but she resolves to continue on trusting in those friends regardless, was genuinely touching, it’s one of the best main character arcs I’ve ever read, the only real issue I can think of is with the romance.
So, back to synopsis-ville for a quick moment, for the middle section of the book, Vin needs to go undercover as a noblewoman to spread misinformation and try to destabilize the noble pecking order. During this time she meets and falls in love with Elend Venture, heir to the most powerful house in the city. And, of course, they fall in love. Now, I like Elend, I think his character is charming, funny, maybe even charismatic, but his and Vin’s relationship never really moved beyond mild flirting at the occasional ball until the climax hit and they were suddenly risking their lives to save each other because they’re apparently so in love. And this is really pretty annoying, because I do like both of these characters in isolation, Elend is a noble looking for ways to improve the Skaa’s lives, and Vin is a Skaa trying to sneak into noble court life, their dynamic is super interesting, but the switch from that to “in a relationship” really got rushed to tie in to the end of the book. We never even get to really see Vin tell Elend about who she really is, he just sort of finds out, and then it isn’t addressed again. It’s not enough to really hurt the book, as the romance isn’t really the main draw of the story, but it is still a flaw big enough to mention.
Honestly, at the end of the day, The Final Empire is a really great book, I’m having trouble finding any concrete negatives to mention as I wrap up. The only thing I can really say is that, as Brandon Sanderson’s second published book, it still really carries a lot of his early jankiness. Many Cosmere fans will dog on Elantris for not being as clean as his other stories, but after a reread of Mistborn I can say that many of the same flaws are here, if a bit less prominent. The pacing can be kind of odd at times, the worldbuilding is detailed, but a little unsubtle, and the romance is tacked-on, and I don’t know if I’d be so willing to brush these criticisms aside if I didn’t love Sanderson’s other works as much as I do. These flaws make sense, they’re signs of an author at the beginning of their career, but they do still bring the experience down somewhat. What I do know for certain is that the characters, their interactions and their personal arcs are genuinely amazing and compelling, enough to make this book a flagship of Sanderson’s writing career.