So I just got book one of Mistborn series...

[Goramier]

I went to get me a new book. I actually went to get that book Song of Fire and Ice or something like that as I have heard alot about it. I didn't see it though and came across BS's book one for Mistborn. So I got it and read the prologue and chapter one. I got to say, I have no idea whats going on. They got these slave dudes running around scared and mentally beaten. They got ash falling from the sky and all kinds of stuff I just don't get. I am sure it will make sense later. Oh I think they are called Skaa or something. We got some new ranks of leaders and some immortal leader who loves his people, clearly.

 

Anyways it will be fun to see where this goes. At one point this dude uses tin in his stomach or something to do some crazy half warlock half Jason Bourne type stuff on one of the dudes houses.

 

I read a few books some time ago. They were very different from what I was used to. I stopped after like book three because they were intended for a female reader and although good I just wasn't interested enough to read more. I forget the names but it had something to do with the Cumrians and this dude who licked the air and could sense heart beats. Anyways so far this seems like that. Way out in left field until you get accustomed to what the world is.

 

 

 

[Rinkai]

I think Sanderson called himself a post modern deconstructionist. He likes to play with classical plot mechanisms and archetypes. But the series isn't too out there. I thought they were pretty fun to read, if a little quick.

 

-rin

[egwenes#1hater]

i think i'm one of the very few people who didn't like Mistborn. i only got halfway through the first book and then stopped, i just lost interest. its actually strange because i loved Warbreaker and Elantris. and TGS of course, but i couldn't make myself finish Mistborn. 

[Rufae]

Mistborn grew on me. By the end of book 1, Vin had really grown on me and is now one of my favorite characters. To make a quote from the book, the series if like an onion - there is always another layer to peel away. Just when you think you have it figured out, another twist takes it another diection.

 

Only complaint is that some of the fight scenes can get confusing to read at normal speed.

 

Overall a good book and it has a nice finish in HERO OF AGES.

 

 

 

[galderon]

 

I really enjoyed the series. The subtle bread crumbs leading up to the end come to together in an ending i didn't see coming. That doesn't happen very often. 

 

  egwenes#1hater, you should really try and tough it through cause I thought it really finished strong. IMO anyway. Sanderson knows how to close. Looking forward to what he does in The way of Kings

 

[Alys Kinch]

I thought the first book started kind of weird. It was like a tease. It finished plenty strong enough to be a stand alone as well, so I was kind of confused by it being a series. Just checked the second out at the library; waiting for hubby to finish reading it.

[Rinkai]

Ah, but there is the ever nagging quote. "You fools have doomed yourselves. You don't know what I do for you." After the first book, the scope of the series widens up quite a bit.

[Rufae]

Ah, but there is the ever nagging quote. "You fools have doomed yourselves. You don't know what I do for you." After the first book, the scope of the series widens up quite a bit.

 

The end of Book 1 is really just the beginning of the story.  ;D  ;)

[Mr Ares]

I thought the first book started kind of weird. It was like a tease. It finished plenty strong enough to be a stand alone as well, so I was kind of confused by it being a series. Just checked the second out at the library; waiting for hubby to finish reading it.

You should get yourself a faster reading husband. As it happens, I'm available. Yes, the first book does function very well as a standalone. The second wasn't as strong, although it did have a good ending. I'm currently reading the third.

[Alys Kinch]

*laughs* Did you really just petition to become my husband? Be aware, this is right after my boss told me to stay away from knives. :P

 

He finished; now, I just have to finish reading the book I am on. And if you thought Mistborn was weird... It's Margaret Weiss Hickman, so yeah.

[Mr Ares]

Well, there are a few women on here I've not yet propositioned, and I didn't want anyone feeling left out. And none of my bosses have had the good sense to tell me to stay away from knives. So much blood. Good times.

[Goramier]

Well I am nearing the 200 page mark and its already picked up nicely. As I suspected, once I came to understand the world more it would become less weird. I am getting into the big job they are pulling. It's making for interesting reading. I am yet unsure about Vin though. I don't know if I like her character or not. I could see her becoming another character's love interest, becoming some great and powerful character later or is being set up for a wonderful death by the author. I am hoping she is going to die. I like it when characters die. Although mayhaps its Kell who will die and Vin shall then take lead role. Hmmm.... At this point I am assuming its either Kell or Vin who is going to have to become the new Lord Leader later and I can only guess that which ever it is, won't want it but in some way be almost forced to take it. Who knows. I hope Vin dies. Then I hope Kells dies. Then the entire gang die trying to pull off the plan. I am a fan of the Lord Ruler dude. I hope he wins.

[Alys Kinch]

Got the author wrong and it's bugging me. It's actual Tracy and Laura Hickman, not Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. :S

 

As for the book, I think it had some interesting twists but most points were guessable. It was the one thing that drove me nuts.

[Mr Ares]

I am a fan of the Lord Ruler dude. I hope he wins.

Most authors are far too chicken to have evil win.

[Alys Kinch]

It's more like the emotional investment that fans have put in. They don't want to destroy that. Most of the time the medium point is for the good to die and come back some how. Or for the good and evil to be evenly matched.

[Goramier]

**Spoilers**

 

So I finished the book.

 

It was decent. I didn’t love it but I didn’t dislike it either. I found the basis of the magic to be very different and cool, but a bit...boring. Some books like LoTR use basic magic. Randland used channeling and in this book we got Alomancy. Very different but not that cool either. I kinda thought it was a very weak form of magic and it just kinda felt like it would have been awkward. To me the idea that they use metals kinda kept me thinking about Magnito and I found it hard to swallow that metals in ones body couldn’t be affected. It seemed like he had to make a logical stretch to cover a large hole in the entire idea. Channeling is done perfectly by RJ and magic is just magic. Magic may be a cheap way to do it since you just say poof and it happens without any need for explaining but IMO if an author is going to invent something new like that, then perhaps BS could have done better.

 

One thought I had often was that Drizzt or Rand would have killed the Lord Ruler without breaking a sweat and the characters to me just seemed really weaker then what you usually get.

 

The oppression idea was good. I liked Kell, he was a cool guy and I enjoyed the character. The ending to him was very well done though it kinda hit me like one of the Jigsaw movies where we find out that everything was planned and all that. Or like Law Abiding Citizen where at the end we find out the whole thing had been engineered from the get-go type of thing.

 

I considered the rest of the characters as decent support characters but nothing really awesome. Vin was probably my least favorite of the group of thieves. I read a couple books, I think Rhapsody or something like that where the female character was much better done and thought out and RJ’s female characters I think have a lot more depth as well. She was kinda boring but not overly so.

 

The end I thought the same about. It was decent. Nothing great. Nothing bad either. Much of the story was very predictable. I figured Vin would become a love interest and she did. I had realized that the writings before each chapter was that of The Lord Ruler early on and by page 200’ish had already started to think that he was using the other form...…I forget but the kind Saze uses to get things done, rather then Alomancy.

 

I would grade the book a C+. At this point I have no reason to get book two. It just wasn’t a good enough book to get me interested in a follow up. The big remaining question as to what that deepness is, well its hardly enough to get me to continue the series and Vin just isn’t a cool enough character for me to care to follow.

 

At this point, I plan on going back to the book store and looking again for that book "A Song of Fire and Ice" and checking it out. Seems like a lot of interest out there in it. BS is a good author and I really like how he stepped up the pace in the latest WoT book but it seems for now, my time reading his books have concluded. Maybe after I finish WoT I will see if he has any others out there I may be interested in.

[Norm]

Just FYI "A Song of Ice and Fire" is the overarching title. The first actual title you need is A Game of Thrones. Very cool series (if it EVER gets finished). Well worth the read.

 

I felt a little underwhelmed by the Mistborn trilogy myself, but I think I liked it alot better than you did apparently. I think it had alot more potential than was actually displayed in the books. I think BS is the kind of author that likes to "get to the point" which often leaves out alot of the richness in the world he creates. That being said, he was probably an ideal choice to wrap up WoT just for that reason...

[Rinkai]

Goramier, I think the phrase is "you don't know what you don't know." You've written off the series and you don't even know who the antagonist is yet.

 

-rin

[Goramier]

Goramier, I think the phrase is "you don't know what you don't know." You've written off the series and you don't even know who the antagonist is yet.

 

-rin

 

The point is, that I read book 1 and I am unconcerned who that may be. BS lost my interest after book one. I read it fully and gave it a fair shake. It came up lackluster to me. If you happen to love the books thats fine. I am not saying they are not good and can fully understand if some one thinks they are. But I don't. I have read several fantasy titles over the years and I have almost always gone on to read the follow ups. Even though those Rhapsody books were not for me, I was curious as to what happened and read 3 of them. Mistborn just didn't cut it for me. I am moving on to another book I got and then will get the Fire and Ice ones. IMO Mistborn was just to bland and there is no reason I have to read another. Sure there me be some major antagonist out there, I just don't have the interest after book 1 to find out about it.

[Mr Ares]

One thought I had often was that Drizzt or Rand would have killed the Lord Ruler without breaking a sweat and the characters to me just seemed really weaker then what you usually get.

Having good guys who can kill someone as powerful as the Lord Ruler without breaking a sweat usually requires that you have bad guys who are significantly more powerful even than him or things get boring. Good guy wins easily every time? Yawn.

 

I had realized that the writings before each chapter was that of The Lord Ruler early on

Might want to try comparing your predictions against what was actually written. They thought it was the Lord Ruler when they got the log book. Turns out it wasn't, it was Alendi, a guy the Lord Ruler killed shortly before becoming the Lord Ruler.

and by page 200’ish had already started to think that he was using the other form...…I forget but the kind Saze uses to get things done, rather then Alomancy.

Feruchemy. And it was as well as Allomancy, not instead of.

[Rinkai]

I think he used hemalurgy too.

[Goramier]

Having good guys who can kill someone as powerful as the Lord Ruler without breaking a sweat usually requires that you have bad guys who are significantly more powerful even than him or things get boring. Good guy wins easily every time? Yawn.

 

Well this really doesn't matter as to what I was saying. I was noting that the people in this world seem significantly less powerful then what I am used to in fantasy books. Kinda like, you drop these dudes in the middle of Randland and these guys seem like they would be far weaker. I was not talking about an imbalance within their own world at all, nor did it have anything to do with the good guys winning easily.

 

 

Might want to try comparing your predictions against what was actually written. They thought it was the Lord Ruler when they got the log book. Turns out it wasn't, it was Alendi, a guy the Lord Ruler killed shortly before becoming the Lord Ruler.

 

I am very well aware of that. The dude was going to be the Lord Ruler until he was killed. Same difference. I was so under whelmed by the books that when I wrote my personal review of it, I felt no need to be specific and exact since I figured the readers would know what I was referring to anyways. Thanks for pointing out that meaningless fact, lol.

 

 

Feruchemy. And it was as well as Allomancy, not instead of.

 

Yes. I am aware of that as well. As said above it doesn’t change a single thing about the book. It was still mostly bland and dull. I am sure anyone who read my post knew as much as well.

[Rinkai]

 

Well this really doesn't matter as to what I was saying. I was noting that the people in this world seem significantly less powerful then what I am used to in fantasy books. Kinda like, you drop these dudes in the middle of Randland and these guys seem like they would be far weaker. I was not talking about an imbalance within their own world at all, nor did it have anything to do with the good guys winning easily.

 

 

*SPOILERS kind of*

 

Just for fun, I'd like to pit Vin against The forces of Randland. She has powers not even the chosen can sense. Not, only that, she cannot be shielded. She is faster and stronger than anyone. And every army and warrior fight with metal weapons. And she can see brief glimpses of the future, which not even rand can do, this would make channeling against here very difficult. And once she is at her best at the end of book three, she is basically un-killable. In retrospect, vin becomes probably one of the most powerful characters ever written.

 

Think of how powerful Rand in at book # 3. He's not very strong at all and his grip on the one power is tenuous at best. It doesn't make sense to have an invincible protagonist in the beginning.

[Goramier]

That was a great post Rinkai.

 

I would just suggest that if your going to compare them, don't forget that a channeler can simply wrap them up in air. Vin would be unable to even move. It would be as effective as shielding her. One could also use compulsion on her if you include forsaken. Again, she would be useless. Balefire would destroy her. Even a temporary blinding would make her ability to use those blue lines (iron pushing/pulling?) ineffective. A channeler could also turn her metals into cuandullar killing her. If she lept through the air, one could also remove the coin she dropped under herself and completely take away her ability ot safely land. I think a channeler would absolutely destroy her.

 

As far as comparing power though again, thats not what I was getting at. I wasn't comparing them and saying that she is weak early in the book. So was Rand. Thats just good story telling. My thoughts reflected that Allomancy was IMO a far weaker power then channeling or magic and seems to have at least one obvious hole in its reasoning. I think that if you put Rand or any Forsaken (why did you say Chosen? hmm....) in their world even when they are weaker they would be able to destroy most there (if not just walking up to the Lord Ruler and slapping him across the face in chapter 1). I kinda see that my analogy was misplaced in some ways though.

[Rinkai]

Keep in mind, the lord ruler was decapitated a few times, and burned to the point of being a skeleton. and was still fine. He would be pretty hard to kill.

 

And on Vin, there are some metals you don't know about yet. Through combining a few she can move fast enough that you can't track, and would make it hard to hit her with BF. And wrapped up in air, she could just pull the iron in the channelers blood and make them explode. Or, she could dampen the emotions so much that they become dead inside, and totally stunned. And Again, she can see into the future.