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

[Mr Ares]

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.

I don't see why you have that impression. What makes you think the Lord Ruler would be easy prey for Rand, for example? We have no direct way to compare the strengths of Allomancy and the One Power. I don't know how powerful the people are in the fantasy books you read, but for me they range from ordinary humans (who could be bested by Vin and company easily) to gods (who would completely overpower Rand, Vin, or any mere mortal if they really tried.

 

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.

So you expect people to read your mind and know that when you state things that are factually incorrect, you actually meant something different? Because the way you wrote it did not come across as "they'll know what I mean", but as "I didn't really read this properly." The guy was not going to be the Lord Ruler. He was going to banish the Deepness. Alendi and Rashek were quite different people, and that is actually important to the series. So it was not a meaningless fact, it was just you being wrong.

 

 

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.

I never claimed that it did change anything about the book. But if you say that you predicted something, and that the book was too predictable, but what actually happened doesn't match up with your predictions it gives the impression you're not a very good reader. And I hardly think it's fair to slag off a book that you haven't read properly. If you don't like it, you don't like it. But do you dislike for its failings as a book or due to your failings as a reader? Personally I never got along with Jane Austen. Does my personal dislike of her books mean she is unworthy of being considered a great writer, that her books don't deserve to be considered classics? Of course not. Now, Mistborn 1 is competently written, its main character has a well defined arc and the supporting cast are well drawn, it is well paced and with an exciting and dramatic conclusion. It's not Dostoyevsky, but it is perfectly readable. It simply failed to engage you, which does not make it a bad book, just a book you didn't like.

 

 

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.

Given that Sanderson has said that a Feruchemist with sufficient reserves has the advantage over an Allomancer, and the Lord Ruler is both, the idea that he would be easy prey for anyone in Randland with no supporting argument is ridiculous.

 

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.

Many metals wouldn't require her to.

A channeler could also turn her metals into cuandullar killing her.

That's just absurd. Cuendillar takes time to make, and the weave is complicated. The idea that a channeler could, in the course of a fight, kill someone by changing small particles of metal inside someone to hearstone is ridiculous.

 

As far as comparing power though again, thats not what I was getting at.

Then you must be clearer in what you are saying.

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.

What obvious hole is that? I realize that you don't like the idea that metals inside ones body being difficult to affect, but "I don't like it" does not constitue a hole. In fact, the rules of Allomancy are far more clear than just about any other magic system out there. The rules may contain some level of "because I say so", but the same is true of any created world, if you look hard enough. Why can't men use the Power to form a bridge longer than a certain distance? Because RJ said so. That isn't a hole. As for how weak a magic system it is, such things are relative. Rand would likely be outclassed against someone from Malazan, such as Tayschrenn or Rake. How does that consitute a criticism of WoT? It doesn't. Vin would likely have the edge over any magician in ASoIaF, as the magic in Mistborn appears stronger than that of Westeros. Second Sons trilogy has no magic at all, and it is dying out in First Law, tot he extent that an Allomancer would likely have the advantage over any save the best prepared mages. As it goes, you have a migc system that has very clearly defined rules, that are always obeyed, that is weaker than some froms of magic, but stronger than others. If anything, Sanderson deserves credit for his imaginative system. Criticism is not justified in this instance.