So I finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson this afternoon. The book is written posing the question “What if the prophesied Hero failed to kill the dark lord?”
1000 years ago, The Lord Ruler defeated the deepness which was killing the world, in doing so he became a sliver of god, immortal, however not omnicient or omnipotent. To punish the people for not believing in him, he caused that the ashmounts spew ash. In a world where plants struggle to grow, and buildings are stained black by the ash, we meet our hero on a plantation, trying to build a rebellion of the slave class the Skaa who had been the people who didn’t support the Lord Ruler when he first made his trek to banish the deepness.
The nobility who are the heirs of The Lord Ruler’s supporters, were granted the gift of Allomancy. Allomancers are able to use one of the 8 basic metals, Iron (Lurcher: grants the ability to pull on nearby metals), Steel (Coinshot: grants the ability to push on nearby metals), Pewter (Thug: Enhances physical abilites), Tin (Tineye: Enhances sences), Brass (Soother: Soothes Emotions), Zinc (Rioter: Riots emotions), Copper (Smoker: Hides the use of Allomancy) and Bronze (Seeker: Allows you to see the use of Allomancy). Most Allomancers can use only one of the 8 abilites, however quite rarely an individual is born who is able to use not just one, but all 8 these abilites. These people are called Mistborn.
I found this book to be well written, and the allomancy (magic) used to be quite refreshing. Finally an author who creates a magic based on physics. I loved the explanation given to our Heroine by the hero training her to use her abilities… You can not make things turn and twist (speaking in regards to ironpulling and steelpushing), because that’s not how physics are. You can only push things in straight lines from you or pull to you in straight lines. If you push or on something weighing less than you, the item moves, unless it is pushed up against or attached to something weighing more than you, in which case you would move.
I also found it refreshing that the allomancy powers have a reasonable realistic range based off the person’s strength. If you push yourself off a metal object you can only go so far before you have to push or pull with another. People who were soothers or rioters, could not read the minds of the people they tried to enfluence, and so they had to watch to make sure that when they tried to push or pull on emotions, that they didn’t go against what someone thought, because the person if you tried too hard to drastically change their mood would rebel and sence what you had done. Even with special abilities when the metals ran out, the hero and heroine were far from immortal. They could while burning pewter, withstand wounds that were fatal, but once the pewter was used, if they had not had the wound delt with, they would die.
What I enjoyed the most was that all of the people were individuals that you could relate to because of their faults and imperfections.
I highly recommend this book to those who like Fantasy books. Again I will not spoil the story, as you will need to read the book to find out how this book ends.
I now find that I am anxiously awaiting the release of the paperback The Well of Ascention which comes out next month the second book of this series. For now I will return to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series which I am currently re-reading the series. I will write reviews on these books as I move through them.
