Review of Mistborn: Book One

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Personal Rating: 13+

What It's About

Mistborn is a fairly fast-paced fantasy book, following a young woman named Vin. Vin is a Mistborn, or someone who can eat any of 15 metals able to grant abilities and gain any and all of the powers they lend her. The story takes place in a grand city called Luthadel, which resides on a world called Scadrial. Scadrial is a bleak planet, where ash falls from the sky, erupting from volcanic things called "Ash Mounts". Vin's mission is to take down the King of Luthadel, The Lord Ruler, with the help of her loyal team of Mistings. Mistings are the people who can only consume and take the powers of one metal using the same powers as Mistborn, called Allomancy.  Although classified as a fantasy novel, Mistborn leans more towards action and adventure, in my opinion. There is definitely a large portion of the book devoted to the magic and powers of their planet, and most of the book is either following Vin as she flies into battle, or as she infiltrates the villains as a spy of sorts. 

What I Liked

Personally, I found the magical practices of Mistborn very interesting and well designed. Brandon Sanderson always develops unique abilities for his books, but Mistborn was a very creative book in particular, considering the characters need to consume metal ores in order to gain their powers. The abilities granted to the characters are very strong and erratic at the same time, giving the user an upper hand in any battle.

The characters are very well developed, as well. The book starts in the perspective of a nobleman, although it quickly shifts to Kelsier, another main character, and soon afterwards shifts again to the final perspective of Vin. Vin is quickly found by Kelsier and his men, and continues to flourish under their care until the end of the book. She is a very capable young woman, although she needs the constant supervison from her uppers to keep her powerful abilities under control. I would say that the characters are well developed because although Vin is swiftly "adopted" by Kelsier, she quickly adapts to her new surroundings, rising to the challenge of defeating the villain in a matter of weeks.

What I Disliked

In my opinion, there were only a handful of downsides to the book. The first one is that some of the characters are, I feel, underrated and not noticed enough, as well as some of the powers. I feel like some of the powers are looked down upon, mostly because they would be hard to write about and use regularly, but they could have been mentioned a little bit more throughout the book.

Another aspect that I did not like was the name of the main villain, which was "The Lord Ruler". My reasons for disliking it are painfully obvious, I think; for such a literate man, couldn't he have come up with a better name?

Conclusion

Mistborn is a fast-paced fantasy book with a good storyline, well developed characters, and little to no romance. Although there are very few gruesome details, fighting scenes are very regular. Cursing is low, and the powers and magic of the world are very complex and intricate. All in all, Mistborn is a must read!