The Final Empire
(Mistborn 1)
by Brandon Sanderson
fantasy
copyright 2006
read in November 2016
rated 8/10: really quite good
What can I say? Another great novel by Sanderson. Another book in a series -- yet the book is complete in itself. Another set of likeable characters doing gung-ho stuff to save their world :-)
The copy that I read is a tenth anniversary republishing. So there is room at the front for an introduction by the author. Why has Mistborn been so successful? he wonders. Because, he suggests, Mistborn upends many of the established fantasy tropes. And because each book is a complete novel on its own.
Yes, each book is a complete novel. A novel worth reading on its own Each book may be read alone, with no prior knowledge of the series. Yay !!
It's more that ten years since I first grew annoyed at continuing fantasy sagas. My annoyance gelled with a standard story of science world, fantasy world at odds. There's a promised saviour. By the end of book one there are hints that the hero will become the saviour. By the end of book two it is clear that the saviour will be the child of the hero. By book three... the promised saviour is so many generations into the future that I swore off reading any more of that series. It's like the fees to an insurance broker: while money flows in there is no intention to ever end.
Sanderson knows how to end a story. At the end of *each* novel the reader is well satisfied -- yet still hoping for more.
More recently, I read a book set in the middle of a fantasy epic. There were three or four threads following three or four different sets of characters, rotating characters with each chapter. Very little actually happened... In the worst case, two characters spent all of their chapters travelling. From one unknown point to another named yet unexplained point. Why? No idea. Interesting? Not at all.
Oh and one more small positive point for Sanderson: Lots of fantasy books begin with a prologue. Perhaps that's one of the fantasy tropes...? Sanderson is able to begin with a prologue -- which actually relates to the story! A. May. Zing. And, Well done.
Time to read more Mistborn :-)
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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Omne ignotum pro magnifico est" … Tacitus: Agricola
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