Hi again! Going off of yesterday's post about The Stormlight Archive, today I'll be writing a review of another one of Brandon Sanderson's series, Mistborn.
The Mistborn books are much shorter than the Stormlight Archive books (roughly 500 pages each), but there are more of them. There's actually two separate trilogies currently set in the Mistborn world, and there are more incoming.
The first trilogy takes place in a world where most of the population are essentially starving slaves, called skaa, ruled over by a wealthy aristocracy, and, more imporantly, an immortal supreme emperor. Ash constantly falls from the sky, and at the start of the first novel, things are getting so bad that it is becoming difficult to survive oustide of cities.
Some people in this world have the ability to use magic, but the ability is hereditary; only nobles can use it.
The magic system is pretty unique: there are different types of metals that, when ingested by someone who can use them (called an allomancer), they can use the ability for that specific metal. Most allomancers can only use one metal, and therefore are given nicknames associated with the metal they can use. For example, Coinshots can use steel when ingested to push off of metal; essentially allowing them to fly by pushing off of coins. It works by basic physics: you're pushing your weight against the weight of the coin, and so to push more weight, you need more weight on the other side in return. Every metal has an opposite metal. For example, Lurchers can pull on iron, doing the opposite of Coinshots.
A few rare allomancers, however, can use every metal, as long as they ingest it. That's where two of the main characters of the books come in - Vin, a street urchin who doesn't realize that she's an allomancer, and Kelsier, a half-skaa thief who finds her and develops a bold plan: to take down the emperor himself.
There are many other interesting characters in these books; mostly the thief crew itself, but also various nobles (some of whom are intergral to the plot).
These books are really good, especially if you're looking for a distopian epic fantasy, with a unique magic system, that takes the traditional hero's journey story and tells it from a strong female perspective.
One more thing - without giving too much away, the second trilogy takes place in the same world as Mistborn, but in more modern times, with technology equivilant to the roaring twenties in our world.
That's all for today. See you next time!
-- Bradley