Review: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Published: 2006

Genre: Fantasy




                                                                                    


Synopsis:
     In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with colour once more?
In Brandon Sanderson's intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage - Allomancy, a magic of the metals.

Thoughts:

Like any great heist, a crew get assembled, a crazy plan gets made and the crew has to come together to make their intricate scheme work.  But this isn’t a heist.  No.  They’re going to overthrow the Final Empire. 

The Final Empire exceeded my expectations by 1000%. I had heard fantastic things, of course, but nothing compared to how amazing it actually was. I just wasn't expecting to love it this much.  I picked The Final Empire up rather on a whim.  Even though I love fantasy, I wasn't sure what I'd think about this one. But, I absolutely LOVED IT.

The characters and the story drew me right in.  I loved Vin and seeing how much she developed throughout the book was great.  She is thrown into this world that she isn’t familiar with.  She has to learn how to control powers that she didn’t know she had.  Vin is new to all of this and seeing her go through all of these things for the first time was great.  It made her so relatable.  Seeing her interact with the nobles in court life was so interesting because it was so different from the world she grew up in, yet she fit in well. 

And can I just say – Elend is such a sweetheart.  I love that how different he is from everyone else and he cares about important issues and wants to help people and make things better.  He reads pretty much all the time (like during balls) and I love him for that.

Vin is taken under Kelsier’s wing and I loved their relationship.  I loved how Kelsier took the time to train her and teach her all of these things that years ago, someone taught him.  Because of their circumstances, they have this bond that nobody else in the crew has. 

Let’s talk about Kelsier.   I LOVED KELSIER.  His personality was just so great.  He is smart and charismatic and MAN does he know how to scheme.  He brings life to the crew and gives people hope.   He’s such an incredible Mistborn and he’s been through so much.  Kelsier has pretty much been through hell and back, yet he’s still here.  Kelsier is really a survivor and I admire him so much for that.  Even if at times he can get a little dark, and is kind of callous when it comes to killing nobles.  He too goes through a lot of development in this book even if it’s a little hard to realize.  His viewpoints and attitudes on certain things change and it makes him better.  Kelsier is my favorite character in this book and he’s just amazing.  I really can’t explain it.  Especially at the end of the book you realize just how incredible he is. 

 

I loved each and every member of their crew.  Each person had their own purpose and personality and they fit so well.  Each and every person was there for a reason and crucial to the plan.  I liked how at times each of them would take Vin aside and teach her something.  They all trusted and looked out for each other and it really felt like a family. 

But now to the magic.  The magic system was unlike anything I’d ever heard of before.  The idea of ingesting metal and “burning” it is so cool.  Each metal lets you do something different or gives you a different power.  Some people can’t do this at all, and some people specialize in one certain thing.  But the people that can burn all 8 metals, that’s what they call a Mistborn. 

The “Lord Ruler” completely baffled me and yet intrigued me.  Who really is he?  What is he doing?  How is he controlling these people?  The whole government was creepy and I just am still wondering HOW. 

I loved the world in The Final Empire.  I feel like there’s so many aspects of it to explore and learn about.  SO many other lands, stories, and people to discover.  The Terrismen especially shocked me and I think that they’re SO AMAZING.  

But honestly, I’m not even going to try to explain too much more to you because I can’t do it justice.  I think it’s best just to go into this book not knowing a lot about it. 

Rating:

In Short:

I immensely enjoyed each and every second of this book.  The world building and writing was absolutely incredible.  I loved each and every one of the characters.  And even though this book was around 800 pages, it still seemed to short.  I never wanted it to end.  This was by far one of the best fantasy books I’ve ever read.  Reading The Final Empire really reminded me why Fantasy is my favorite genre and made me love it a little more.  I’m so excited about continuing on with this series and reading more Brandon Sanderson books.  

Olivia

Have you read this series?  If you have, what were your thoughts?  What other Brandon Sanderson books would you recommend?