The Mistborn Trilogy: Unconventional Fantasy

As you all may have noticed, I’ve fallen a bit behind in my 2019 reading challenge. Part of that has to do with my lack of devotion as other things come up, but the biggest reason is that I find myself reading outside the genre requirements for the challenge.

As I was perusing the shelves at The Tattered Cover, one of my favorite bookstores, a friend of mine recommended a Brandon Sanderson trilogy, Mistborn. I was wary at first because I had already fulfilled my fantasy category for the challenge, which you can read more about here, but also because fantasy is not my go to genre.

Well, as with most book suggestions from fellow readers, my friend Daniel’s suggestion proved to be well worth the read. Mistborn: The Final Empire is so much more than another fantasy story, but rather a story of political sabotage set in a world of magic, battle, and the ever-present war between good and evil.

In this world, magic is hereditary and separates the noblemen from the peasants, or skaa as they are called in Sanderson’s world. But not all noblemen have magic, and some skaa do because the noblemen didn’t kill off their prostitutes. To add another layer to the magic, those who have magic are called allomancers, and they harness their abilities by burning swallowed beads or flakes of metal. Most allomancers only possess the ability to burn one metal (see chart below), but there are a select few who can burn all eight of the basic metals as well as the higher metals; these are called “mistborns.”

Used with reuse permission by https://mistborn.fandom.com/wiki/Allomancy

Mistborns are the most powerful alommancers. Vin, the main heroine of our story, is one of them. After living on the streets for 16 years, fighting for food and shelter within her gang of thieves, Vin joins a gang of allomancers whose goal is to overthrow the Lord Ruler and bring justice to the skaa people.

Among this band of thieves is a Tineye, a Thug, a Soother, a Smoke, a Terrisman Keeper, and a Kandra, all brought together by one charismatic man with a crazy plan, Kelsier, a Mistborn and survivor of the Pits. As Vin is taught how to use her magic by each of the members of the crew, she becomes one of the most powerful allomancers. Slowly, she realizes that trust is vital to the operation and for the first time in her life, she has people around her who she believes have her back.

In this novel of intrigue, action, and imposters, the crew tries to pull off their greatest job yet. Going against the most dangerous creature of all, the god of the Central Dominance, the Lord Ruler, might just get them all killed, or it might be the start of a revolution.

In a synopsis of Mistborn, Sanderson explains that this book was a fusion of two main ideas for the plot. “The first was that of a heist story, like Ocean’s Eleven involving a gang of gentlemen thieves who each had a distinctive magic power. I wanted to tell the story of how their different magics and abilities worked together for them to pull an incredible caper. The second idea was to write a story about a world where the good guys lost.”

Sanderson takes the standard fantasy story and turns it on its head. His world building is something I have never seen before and the plot progression always keeps me on my toes. I have no idea what he’s going to do next, which is why I struggled to put the book down. Predictable is not a word I would use to describe the Mistborn trilogy or Sanderson's writing, and his multifaceted characters emotionally bind you to their journey.

Mistborn is the first book of the trilogy and only some of the stories that exist in this world. I’m currently reading The Hero of Ages, the final book in this trilogy, and am more than happy with my choice to veer off the genre specific path for my 2019 reading challenge. As long as I keep reading and find new series and authors to love, I consider that a success.

Have you read any of Sanderson’s books? What did you think?

Either way, I encourage you to expand your reading scope and try something new for a change. If you need a suggestion and are interested in giving fantasy a shot, try Mistborn, easily my new favorite world and one of my new favorite authors to follow.

Happy reading,

~M