My Experience With The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

You probably stopped to read this because you’re like me. You love fantasy fiction, and this book is either one of your favorites or it’s been on your radar for some time now.

I’m a Brandon Sanderson fanboy; I admit it. Sanderson’s writing is right up my alley. He writes with elegant clarity while keeping us grounded deep within his character’s experiences. He builds worlds that engages the imagination. He describes magic in a way that makes a reader want those same abilities.

This is the first novel in the first trilogy of Mistborn books, and Sanderson doesn’t hold back any creativity. The story primarily follows Vin, a street rat who is given the chance of a lifetime: to help a revolutionary and his band of thieves topple an oppressive empire. Vin is smart, dangerous, and a joy to read. We’re also introduced to several other characters with distinct and fantastic personalities. While many writers might struggle to balance a cast of this size in an epic fantasy, Sanderson handles it with deft aptitude.

Perhaps what struck me the most was that the action scenes in this story are surprisingly compelling. In the hands of a less capable author, the action scenes could have easily become boring—a burden to the pacing that prompts the reader to skim ahead. Sanderson describes his fight scenes with allure, holding you arrested on the edge of your reading nook.

The novel’s magic system is put to good use in both the plot and the action. Based on the consumption and metabolization of metal alloys, an Allomancer is granted a certain magical ability. A lucky few Allomancers are born with the ability to metabolize all viable alloys. These Allomancers are called Mistborn.

Vin is a young character on a journey of self-discovery, allowing the book to straddle the line between Adult and YA fiction. While this book can be found in the general SF&F section, a younger reader could read this story without worry of inappropriate content. It’s a perfect novel to give a 12 or 13-year-old to introduce them to epic fantasy storytelling.

The one flaw with this story is that I figured out the solution to the ending before I should have. I’ve asked around, and it doesn’t seem like this is common. Perhaps being an author myself made me a bit sensitive detecting the final reveal. Though I managed to uncover the solution prematurely, the novel is still leaps and bounds better than so many fantasy stories I’ve read.

Dear Mr. Sanderson,

Thank you for this wonderful world.