Mistborn [spoilers]

Starfox

It's a little Locke Lamora, a little Prince of Nothing, a little Madoka. Upon finishing the first 3 books, my main thoughts were, "that ending was much more satisfying than I expected," and "holy shit dude planned out everything." There's mad foreshadowing up ins. The magic system works. Pretty much everyone is smart.

I'm serious about the foreshadowing, both in each book and the series as a whole. It's nonstop. It was quite enjoyable to figure out where things were going.

I haven't heard too much about this series, aside from my one friend who's been trying to get me to read it for a while. It is quite long, so I guess that hurts it some. I see there's 3 more out now, anyone read those? I'm actually inclined not to, because of the finality of the ending. I wouldn't mind more stories from the Final Empire, though.

Pilitus

They're worth a read. The timeline jumps forward so much that you're not watching the characters, you watching the world change. The second trilogy (plus a one book intro, dunno why, but that's how he frames it), moves the world forward enough that you see the world in a kind of Victorian-era cops and robbers drama.

All of his Cosmere stuff is really good, and there's a crazy amount of planning and overlap between all of the stories. The Stormlight Saga is probably the other big series that he's got in that multiverse, and it's also worth a read.

Nuri

I love me some Sanderson, and Mistborn was the first trilogy of his I listened to. I've only listened to the original trilogy though; I own the rest of the books, but haven't gotten to them yet. Still working my way through the Honor Harrington books.

One of the things he does really well is to introduce a complex social and political system without too much rote exposition. I love it.

jabrams007

I honestly don't mean to poop on this thread, or the Mistborn Trilogy, but when talking about it with a friend a while ago, she said I summed up the series best when I described it as: "a completely generic fantasy series with an innovative and cool magic system."

Luke Burrage

The first book in the trilogy surprised me by being slightly more clever than just generic fantasy with attached magic system.

I liked the concept that the blurbs that intro each chapter give a bit of the history of the world, and how things happened in the distant past, turn out to be a lie! I sort of worked it out, but only about one or two chapters before the end. The same type of thing happens in Dune, with unreliable narration in the pre-chapt blurbs, but Mistborn takes it up to a different level. It's very well done, and made me think "Very clever, Sanderson, very clever." I'd have preferred it to be attached to a slightly better story overall, I think the twist had to rely on it being a bit genero-fantasy to work at all.

I didn't read the next two books in the trilogy, but I did read the in-the-middle book before the second trilogy. It was stupid but fun enough. Lots of silly magic action at the end.

Starfox

jabrams007 said:

I honestly don't mean to poop on this thread, or the Mistborn Trilogy, but when talking about it with a friend a while ago, she said I summed up the series best when I described it as: "a completely generic fantasy series with an innovative and cool magic system."

Eh, really? I haven't read tons and tons of fantasy, but having a strong female protagonist already puts it in fairly rare company.

Luke Burrage said:

I liked the concept that the blurbs that intro each chapter give a bit of the history of the world, and how things happened in the distant past, turn out to be a lie!

I think it's even more subtle than that! It's not actually a lie, it's just not who you think it is. True from a certain point of view, you might say. I think Sanderson was definitely playing on expectations there.

Kate Monster

Starfox said:

I haven't read tons and tons of fantasy, but having a strong female protagonist already puts it in fairly rare company.

Not so much these days.

While some of the characters, the magic, and a bit of the world build was interesting, the writing was tough to get through, the characters became annoying, and the dialogue was tragic. I read the first book and listened to the other two as audio books while doing chores and driving. If I had to devote my full attention to it, I would not have finished the trilogy.

My husband listened to a follow-up audio book set in the same universe. I gave it a shot, but after one chapter I abandoned it.

Some of Brian Sanderson's more recent works are better, but they are still light and fun audio book while doing something material, in my opinion. I do not foresee myself actually reading one of his books in the near future.

Nuri

I like generic fantasy. Nearly every story is generic if you break it down, anyway. It's the details that make it interesting. Hence my affinity for complex politics and world-building.

So yeah, I don't think "oh it's just generic X with special details" is a valid criticism of anything.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a generic fantasy with a special magic system, too. The reason it's good is because of the details.

Kate Monster

Nuri said:

I like generic fantasy. Nearly every story is generic if you break it down, anyway. It's the details that make it interesting. Hence my affinity for complex politics and world-building.

So yeah, I don't think "oh it's just generic X with special details" is a valid criticism of anything.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a generic fantasy with a special magic system, too. The reason it's good is because of the details.

I agree, Nuri. While I didn't love the series, I would not call it generic.

GreatTeacherMacRoss

Alloy of Law felt very much like a popcorn summer blockbuster movie. Not terrible well written, but a fun romp with some twists on the magic system and clever characters using powers in clever ways.

That being said, the book wasn't actually that good. I finished it because I was curious to see how it wrapped up, but the characters ended up a bit cliche, and there was a great deal of predictability.

I really like Sanderson's world building because of how well planned it is, the systems of magic are interesting, and the level of things beyond the character's knowledge is great too. He has trouble with his characters and his dialogue though.