Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn parts 1 and 2

I have a love-hate relationship with series. Not just book series, but series in general. There's a whole scale in my head, going from love to hate. There are three main types.

First, it’s the Twilight type. This happens when I don’t even like the first book in the series, but I still force myself to read the rest. Just because I either still hope that the sequels will be better or because I just don’t want to give up in the middle. I do the same with candy: even when I’m not really hungry and don’t even like the taste of it, I’m damn sure gonna finish it.

Second it’s the hunger games reason. This means that the series starts off fantastically and it makes me fall in love with it and go on a fishing trip with it and convince it to create a steam account so that then we will never be far apart. But then at some point, things change. In the case of hunger games that point was book three. It let me down, betrayed my trust and we had to break up. It looked a little something like this:

Me: You were the chosen one! You were to bring balance to me, not leave me in darkness.
HG: [shouts] I hate you!
Me: You were my brother, HG. I loved you. 

And then there was that whole lava business. It was not pretty.

The third reason is the Harry Potter reason. This type is similar to the second one, except without the betrayal. That occurs when the series is perfect from the start to the end. And even when it screws up sometimes, it doesn’t really matter. These are the series that stay with me, the ones that are just pure love. But when they end, I guess these are the ones that really break my heart.

So when I start reading a new series I'm always a bit nervous that it'll end up being the second type. Me and Brandon Sanderson's the Final Empire (Mistborn #1) hit it off like in a dream. It wasn't as good as the Way of Kings, but it was still better than a lot o fantasy I've recently read.

Here’s a quick overview: We’re in a world that is ruled by in immortal god called the Lord Ruler. He is thousands of years old, has god-like powers and is, naturally, an oppressor. And there are some people who want him dead. But how do you kill a god? Good question. A man called Kelsier might have an answer to that, but you’ll have to read the book yourselves to find out.

 

The good thing about this particular series is that it's already finished, so as soon as I've read the first part I dived into the second one (the Well of Ascension). And well. Ugh.  First there’s Vin. I wasn’t a big fan of Vin in the first book, but in the second one she really got on my nerves. The constant whining and the inability to talk to her boyfriend really annoyed me. I’m not worthy of him, he should be with someone more suitable to his position, he’s a nobleman, I’m not, I shouldn’t be with him, but he loves me, I love him, but I’ve never been in love before so how do I know this is love  and yadayadayada. Girl, there’s a war going on. Focus. Second, the pace is slow, too slow. It was wonderful in the first book, fast and exiting, but in the second one I felt it just came to a sudden stop. With the exception of a few parts there was very little action, save for the last 200 pages all the tings happen.

Third, the characters that aren’t exactly main are not very well created. I know there are Breeze, Ham, Dockson, Clubs and Marsh, but they’re all mixed in my mind, I have no idea which one is which, despite the fact that a portion of the book is narrated by them. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.

All in all, I was disappointed, and I’m not sure what to expect from the third book. Some have said that they hated it; others said that the third one is the best of the three. I guess I’ll just have to read and see. Yet the fact that I was disappointed doesn't mean that the series isn't worth reading. Despite all the flaws I would still say that it's pretty decent. It just let me down, so I'm a bit bitter.

The Final Empire

The Well of Ascension

The Way of Kings (Book 1 of The Stormlight Archive) by Brandon Sanderson

Speak again the ancient oaths,

Life before death.

Strength before weakness.

Journey before destination.

        It was a pleasant, if a bit cold November day in the Steam chat room  when fate introduced me to The Way of Kings. Technically speaking it was my friend Tam, and the introduction went something like this:

Tam: My mum is sulking

Me: lol, why?

Tam: cos I was reading during lunch. And then she was all like: is this book more important than me? And I kinda said yes

Me: lol, evil

Tam: You’re gonna read it too btw

Me: I am?

Tam: It’s not debatable

Me: lol, k

        A few days later, I had the book at home. Two books, technically speaking, because I was reading the Gollantz edition, which is divided into two parts.The reason for that has something to do with the publishers making people buy two books instead of one. But Sanderson intended for them to be read as one, so I'm reviewing them as such.

        Sanderson takes us into the world of Roshar, more specifically into the kingdoms of Alethkar and Jah Keved. It is an exciting new world in which hurricanes are called highstorms and their stormlight can infuse gemstones with a glowing light. There are also rare blades that can cut through anything inanimate and kill by cutting - not flesh - but the soul. And these blades – shardblades – are used in fighting a war between the Alethi and the Parshendi, who are fighting because of the Parshendi assassination of the Alethi king. Are you lost yet? Introducing a whole new world is always a tricky thing. There are so many things the author wants to say and show, but are often not really important for the story. Readers can get overwhelmed by the amount of new information, but if there isn't enough of it, the book can become boring. Sanderson, however, managed to find that perfect line between too much and too little. Moreover, he doesn't simply tell us how the land looks and what its traditions are, but he shows everything through many different characters. That is how we learn the small but still important details of the world, from the fact that women always have their left hand covered or gloved - it is their safe hand – to the fact that it is considered shameful for a man to know how to read or be an inventor or an engineer.

 

        There are four main characters through whose perspective we get to view most of the world and follow the story.  The first is Kaladin, a former soldier, now a slave given up on running. The second is Szeth-son-son-Vallano, an enslaved assassin who kills against his will. The third is Shallan, a young woman who wants to become a scholar, but needs to become a thief. The last is Dalinar, a warlord and a highprince who doesn't do so well during highstorms. Sanderson lets these characters grow and change beautifully throughout the book, he lets them make bad choices, do bad things, give up and try again, lets them be treated badly, all in order for them to grow and change. As I read I really felt their pain, threatened them not to do what they were about to do and begged them not to give up when all seemed hopeless. Sometimes they listened, sometimes they didn't.

        The four main characters, however, are not the only ones that have their own chapters. There are several others who appear to narrate just one chapter, but even those are unique, interesting and intriguing. They serve to present some new aspect or new information about the world and my favourite among these was definitely Axies the Collector, a scholar who studies spren (a kind of elementals that appear around certain events). I really hope Sanderson brings him back for the next book, because those few pages of his narration were a real treat. I especially loved the way Axies couldn't decide whether he actually witnessed intoxication spren, or just imagined them because he was drunk.

        If I have one negative thing to say, it’s this: the elevated lord-of-the-rings type of speech annoyed me a few times. Very few times for sure and even that mostly at the beginning, when I was still a bit reluctant to let the book pull me in and the inner critic in me wanted to find something to criticise. But in the end this made no effect on my overall satisfaction with the book. I absolutely loved it and I would recommend it to anyone who's not afraid to fall in love with fictional characters. Oh Kaladin. But as it is often the case with these things, the second book, Highprince of War isn't out yet. Why do I always fall for the ones who make me wait? The anticipation spren are already buzzing all around me!

“Everything is a contest. All dealings among men are a contest in which some will succeed and others fail. And some are failing quite spectacularly.”