Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson

⭐ 5/10

For my first review I decided that I would start off with a tremendously average book by Brandon Sanderson, namely, Mistborn. I will try my best at not coming across as wildly pretentious in this review but I make no promises.

Essentially, this book is a heist story set in a fantasy world ruled by a vicious, authoritarian god known as the Lord Ruler. In this world, people are segregated into two castes, the Skaa, and the Nobleman. We could spend a very long time going through the specifics of what is all involved in being in each of these two castes but the basics are that the Nobleman are the upper class, serving the Lord Ruler by being the pillars that stabilize the economy, and the Skaa are a slave population who carry out the painful (often deadly) labour to support the general industry of the world. Being a Skaa means harsh labour, intensive poverty, and random, mandatory executions perpetrated by the henchmen of the Lord Ruler known as Inquisitors. That being said, life as a Nobleman isn't without its difficulties. Life is lived more lavishly, that is true, however the life of a Nobleman is one of fear and mistrust, constantly wondering who will betray you to get ahead in the political sphere dominated by the Lord Ruler. 

It is in this setting that we find our main character, Vin. Vin starts in the book as a common thief with a mild gift that allows her to manipulate how "lucky" she is, however it isn't long before she finds the true magnitude of her power. Through a small time thieving job that goes wrong, Vin becomes acquainted with a rag-tag group of thieves with magical gifts that allow them to use metals to do a variety of things. Emotion manipulation, strength increasing, sensory increasing, are only a few of the abilities Vin finds among the group but it isn't until she meets Kelsier, the charismatic leader of the group, that she learns what she is. Kelsier reveals that she, like he, is a Mistborn. One who can use all of the basic magic based metals to perform any of the basic metal based powers that she has observed. It is at this point in the story that things begin ramping up. Vin quickly goes from being a lowly criminal, to an extremely talented Mistborn "allomancer" (name given to those who can manipulate metals to do magical things.) Through training with Kelsier, disguising herself as a Nobleman, and a lot of planning, Vin and her team set out to pull off an extremely ambitious task, that being, to destroy the Lord Ruler and his empire.

Sounds like a really fun time right? What a premise! Even in this minuscule summary of the 670 page novel, you can see why people would be interested in such a story. The only problem, is that it ends up feeling really mid tier. Don't get me wrong, the magical systems in the book are pretty cool. They are honestly refreshingly original, and interesting in and of themselves. And the world building, also very cool! The Lord Ruler serves as this mad god who seemingly can never die and the way his governance is carried out and overseen is also very interesting to read about! These two elements are pretty great and I must give credit to Sanderson for creating these systems. My main gripe with the book is that his writing doesn't really do the story justice. For one, Sanderson is quite unfunny, and yet, really really tries to add jokes to his book that he, undoubtedly, probably thinks are pretty hilarious, however they really just end up being flat and kind of cringy. Sanderson also tends to use a lot of cliches in his writing. Me saying that this story is a heist might actually inadvertently be a spoiler because every cliche you could think of in a heist, happens at some point in the novel. I will admit that there are some elements that Sanderson throws in there to "spice things up" and for the most part, they do just that, however the cliches that persist make the story really predictable (you can pretty much figure out the main twist of the ending by around the half way mark in the book with a pretty good degree of accuracy). The final gripe I have with the book is more of a personal one so I can't slight him too much for this, but Sanderson doesn't write well. What I mean is that his prose isn't great. Now for many this isn't a bad thing, but actually kind of a positive. It makes the story really easy to follow, it makes it feel like you could crank out a large chunk of the book in one sitting (which you'll want to do to get through the middle act of the book), it doesn't make you think very much, I can totally understand that appeal to people.  I just don't care for simplistic prose. When I read, I appreciate an author's ability to use words in beautiful and poetic ways, I enjoy trying to visualize the scenes as they take place, I like having my own depictions in my mind of what characters look and sound like. Sanderson doesn't give that to you. I think the best way to describe this would be to say that he tells you what's happening, he doesn't show you.

All in all, I find this book quite average. If it were a shirt in a store, I think it would be sized XM for extra medium. The magic is cool, the world is interesting, there are some really good characters and some really good twists and turns in this book. However you do have to trudge through some really boring, unfunny stuff to get there. I think that a 5/10 is the perfect rating for this book. There is probably just as much to like as dislike.