The Final Empire

Mistborn Book 1

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

From number one New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action.

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison.

Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark. Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot. But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life.

Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?

Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson

• The Cosmere
• The Stormlight Archive
• The Way of Kings
• Words of Radiance
• Edgedancer (Novella)
• Oathbringer

The Mistborn trilogy:

• Mistborn: The Final Empire
• The Well of Ascension
• The Hero of Ages

Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series:

• Alloy of Law
• Shadows of Self
• Bands of Mourning
• Collection
• Arcanum Unbounded

Other Cosmere novels

• Elantris
• Warbreaker

The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series:

• Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
• The Scrivener's Bones
• The Knights of Crystallia
• The Shattered Lens
• The Dark Talent

The Rithmatist series:

• The Rithmatist

Other books by Brandon Sanderson

• The Reckoners
• Steelheart
• Firefight
• Calamity

©2006 Brandon Sanderson (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Prepare for sleepless nights

You will feel like you need to pull all-nighters. Your social life will suffer. If you use audio books while at the gym, you'll reach your goal weight as you easily lose track of four hours on a treadmill. You will be tired and dependent on coffee. This was me and it was worth it.

Enter Sanderson's Cosmere at your own risk. I regret nothing.

Engaging Read

My first experience with Brandon Sanderson didn't disappoint. The story of the Skaa rebellion, led by Kelsier with serious backup from Vin, the female Mistborn, is entertaining, engaging, and slightly different from other fantasies. At its foundation is good versus evil. And then Sanderson throws in some fantasy, magic, conflict and sprinkles in just a bit of romance. Thieves, Dark Rulers, Obligators, Secret Keepers, and even Inquisitors are supporting characters that keep the plot moving forward without causing confusion to the reader. Kelsier, also known as the legendary Survivor of Hathcin, is a nearly mythical being to the Skaa and he is the mastermind behind the rebellion. But Vin, the newest of his thieving crew who joins their network to infiltrate the nobility, begins to learn she has quite a few Mistborn powers of her own. By the end of this first of three books she becomes legendary in her own right. The book may have benefited from a little additional editing because there is repetition of things the reader knows. We learn how the power of the metals and they work over and over again. We even get a recap of previous action in the book multiple times. It's almost as if Sanderson believes his reader can't remember from one chapter to the next. While this can be somewhat annoying, it doesn't really detract from the overall good plot and well developed characters. There is foreshadowing that is critical to the plot, so the reader has to pay attention. And in fact, some foreshadowing in Book One comes into play in Book Two, The Well of Ascension. But the book keeps the reader pretty riveted, so this isn't too much of a problem. Michael Kramer is an apt reader and once you learn the timbre of his voice, there is no problem differentiating among the characters, including the reading of someone's diary which is inserted between chapters. His pace is good and enunciation excellent. I highly recommend the book.

Solid Fantasy

This book is exactly what fantasy should be and often isn't. Rather than trying to write the most unique mysterious gritty violent book ever this author sets up a good solid fantasy world with easily understandable rules and proceeds to tell an excellent and exciting story. The magic system is refreshingly understandable and usually sticks to its own rules. The action scenes are extremely well choreographed (think The Matrix in a fantasy setting) For a first book in a series the conclusion is remarkably conclusive for a change. Rather than leaving a bunch of loose ends this author nicely ties up the original questions the story starts with while still leaving enough of the world unexplored to make you want more. The narration is first class.

Not what I expected

Overall this book was your average young adult fantasy novel. Not a lot of twist and turns. Very dry characters supporting the main two we're meant to care about.

Seems more like a setup for books 2 & 3.
I personally won't be continuing this series but it might be worth the read/listen for others.

Excellent Fantasy Series

Got this to check out Brandon Sanderson back when we learned he'd be finishing the Wheel of Time series, ended up getting the whole series, and loving it! Honestly, I'd give this one 4.5 stars - but it's good enough that I can't just give it 4! I've said it before, but Brandon Sanderson really knows how to write - not just new and very interesting ideas (like Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy), but also how to keep a reader/listener engaged (and he gets even better at this in the future...). If you're a fantasy fan and haven't read this series, you should get it! If you're new to the genre, add this to your wish list - you'll thank me later.

Really unique and magical...with a good twist.

Loved the character development, unique and clever magical ways, and especially the mystery of who the enemy really is. I want to read more because I fell in love with the characters.

There is nothing I did not love about this book

Loved the magical system Sanderson has created. The way the “allomancers” burn metals to unleash their magical powers makes them the coolest creations since the Jedi. Unlike the Harry Potter books, in which the magic made absolutely no sense, here the magic feels like it has been thought out and could almost actually exist. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. Even fiction needs to feel like it could be real, otherwise what you are reading is a metaphor or an allegory, or maybe religion.

Which brings me to another thing I loved about the book: there is a place in this world for religion. Or rather there was a place, before the Lord Ruler, the Ultimate Bad Guy, outlawed all forms of religion. But one of the main characters, who belongs to a fascinating group of people called “Terrismen,” has spent his life collecting what information he can of the lost religions of this world.

Speaking of religion, there are Inquisitors in this world, and they are the baddest baddies since the Ringwraiths or maybe the Shrike (Dan Simmons’ Hyperion). I cannot get the image of these evildoers out of my head: they have metal spikes driven right through their eyes and out the backs of their heads! Sanderson definitely has a gift for creepy images, because there is another being in the Mistborn world that is nearly as terrifying as the Inquisitors, and that is the Mistwraiths. These beings wander in the mists of night, scavengers who pick up old bones, absorb them and form them into weird bodies that combine everything they have absorbed. A single mistwraith can have animal bones, human bones, multiple heads, multiple limbs . . . altogether a unique and disgusting concept that is terrifically well described by Sanderson.

Also unique is that the protagonist of the book is a woman, and Sanderson does a great job of portraying her realistically. Even though she gains enormous power over the course of the narrative, the author does not forget her origins, and her origins continue to define how she reacts to her circumstances throughout the book. In fact, all of the characters, even the minor ones, display realistic motivations for their actions, and come across as very real. Another couple of notches in the “loved it” column.

This book was so good, I didn’t even notice how long it was (24 hours in the audio version). When I finished, I immediately downloaded the next book in the series and started it. Thank goodness for long car rides!

[I listened to this as an audio book read by Michael Kramer, who is AMAZING.]

Good Read

If you could sum up The Final Empire in three words, what would they be?

It was a good read. Not blow my socks off, but worth the purchase. It would be a PG-13 rated movie, mild violence.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, never engaged me that strongly.

Pretty Good.

This novel is...pretty good for a first installment of a trilogy. It took about three chapters before the story caught my attention and started to pull me in, which I usually say is a no-go. The beginning of a book should have some kind of attention grabber. However, once my attention was grabbed I was moderately intrigued by the premise of the story line.

I was not at all intrigued by the narration, though. Kramer has a tonal quality that is somewhat off-putting to my eardrums.

A weak effort

In fairness, I read The Way of Kings first. To me this book felt like a warmup to what Kings would become. It’s a solid first effort but far from his best work.