Book #2 in The Hardest Reading Challenge I’ll Ever Do
Challenges Complete
- A-Z Challenge (B for Brandon in author’s first name)
- Spell Your Full Name (B for Brandon in the author’s first name)
- The Genre Challenge (Fantasy)
- The Rainbow Challenge (Brown)
This second book in my super difficult reading challenge also happened to be the primary book for my Sci-Fi/Fantasy book club.
Even though fantasy is my favorite genre to read, I’ve never read and of Brandon Sanderson’s books before. I know, it’s pretty shocking.
So, when one of my fellow club members finally got his longtime wish to make it our book of the month, I was excited to dive in.
I’m in awe of Sanderson’s world-building. The city of Luthadel is richly drawn, as are the various estates where our heroine Vin, posing as Lady Valette, spends time gathering intel.
The magic system is also imaginative and unique. Vin and Kelsier, as Mistborn, ingest metals and use their properties to burn those metals and release their Allomantic powers. Other Allomancers may have access to only one metal’s abilities, but Vin and Kelsier can work with them all.
Vin learns her way through their properties through the course of the book, as she discovers her rare hereditary skill only after Kelsier takes her under his wing.
Their purpose is to find freedom from the Lord Ruler, a cruel tyrant who is invested in keeping the peasantry oppressed.
Kelsier is a gem of a character, charismatic though also so bent on his goals that he forgets to consider the people who get hurt or destroyed along the way.
On the other hand, Vin – the only female in the book other than a few side characters – is as thin a character as the paper she’s written on.
Ultimately, I was disappointed in that lack of representation, and I also wished that Vin wasn’t thrust into a romance, where she essentially falls in love at first sight.
I’m glad I read The Final Empire, though I’m not sure if I’ll keep moving forward with the series. I’ll decide once we discuss it in our book club – maybe the devotees can convince me!
Next up: Midnight Rooms, by Donyae Coles
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