Good Morning dear obscure readers of the interwebs, how about we talk about an epic fantasy by one of the best in the business, “The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson. It’s got a whole complex mythos and rigorously detailed magic system.
***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***
What I love about this book:
As the first book of the Mistborn trilogy, “The Final Empire,” serves to introduce this sweeping epic world and its strange magic called Allomancy. As one of the all-time best world builders I’ve read, how Brandon Sanderson sets up the world of the Mistborn is immensely impressive. There is a depth of world history and a complexity to not only how that world works, but he builds fine-tuned cultures that inhabit this world.
Sanderson’s character work is also first-rate, this skill, combined with his talents as a worldbuilder, is what makes him one of the best fantasy writers of today. Each of the characters, from the primary protagonist Vin, her mentor Kelsier, to Kelsier’s crew of thieves, are all exquisitely fleshed out and polished to a gleam. No two characters sound the same, and they all have their distinctive roles within the narrative.
I find the antagonist of this novel, the Lord Ruler himself, to be the most interesting character of the story. The protagonists find the journal of this malevolent figure, who once held ultimate power and changed the very world itself with the power of a god and created the first allomancers. He’s a figure that has lived for thousands of years, enslaved generations of people, and ruled as a tyrant since the beginning of his reign. But in the journal, the Lord Ruler seems like a kind soul. He’s a man who doesn’t shrink from violence but wants what is best for all. It’s an interesting mystery of how the past idealistic man in the journal became the despot tyrant of the present.
What I don’t love about this book:
More a critique about all of Brandon Sanderson’s epic fantasy work, then just this novel specifically—but he has a way of meandering in one location for way, way too long. Sanderson creates sandboxes the size of continents, populated with diverse and exciting people, and then—especially in this novel—we spend almost all our time in the same twenty square miles of that continent-sized sandbox. Luthadel, where we spend most of that time, is an interesting city, don’t get me wrong, Sanderson packs so much into it it’s like a fantasy version of old New York City—but it is still just one city, and the Final Empire covers a whole planet.
For me, the revelation of how the Lord Ruler became the way that he is, felt like a massive cop-out and was ultimately disappointing. It’s the main reason I didn’t enjoy the ending of “The Final Empire” as much as I thought I would. Well, that’s not entirely true, at the time that I read it I thought I liked the ending, but then I stewed on it for a few days and was horrified to realize that I didn’t like the end. Horrified because I enjoyed the rest of the book so much, and endings are my favorite parts of stories—so how could I not love the ending? It was a whole existential crisis for me, well, as first-world reading problems go, that is, I mean, it’s no scavenging for food in the wilderness kind of problem.
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Author's Website: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/
***The Spoiler part of this review***
***Ye be warned to turn back now***