Do not read this book unless you want emotions you didn’t know you had twisted ways you didn’t know they could be.
Brandon Sanderson wrote Mistborn in such a way that you don’t know if you want to kill him, or hug him. Mistborn is a dark fantasy book with real world parallels. It is set in the Final Empire, ruled by the Lord Ruler. The empire is divided into noblemen and Skaa, the Skaa work as slaves for the noblemen, except for the thieving crews who hide themselves in buildings disguised as shops. The noblemen supposedly have pure blood, and some of them are Allomancers. Allomancers get powers from ‘burning’ different types of metals, most can only burn a select type, these are mistings, but some, the Mistborn, can burn all 10 metals. Skaa are not supposed to be able to be Allomancers, but there has been some interbreeding, causing some exceptions. This book is about a 17 year old girl named Vin who has spent her life on the streets as part of a Skaa thieving crew that scams noblemen, she is one of the exceptions.
Kelsier is a Mistborn who has spent his life as a leader of a thieving crew. Because his wife was killed by the Lord Ruler’s men he has been planing to topple the empire. To do this he gathers a select team, Dockson, the only sane one on the team, Breeze, a misting with the ability to sooth emotions, Ham, also a misting, but with the ability to enhance physical ability, Clubs, a misting with the ability to hide Allomacers from Seekers, Marsh, Kelsier’s brother, a misting with the ability to detect other Allomancers (a Seeker), and Vin, a young Mistborn discovering her powers, and the idea of trust. Kelsier devises a seemingly impossible plan to start a Skaa rebellion, a war among the noblemen, and topple the Final Empire.
This book leads you along like a dog follows a treat, once you’re in there’s no way out. There is no way to think of anything except this book, be prepared to forget your life, it doesn’t matter any more. You won’t care. The characters are developed and complicated to a degree to make you believe that they are real. This is not a story. It is someone’s life. This book makes you care about the characters and their goals, it gets you invested in their quest. This book should be read by any fantasy or science fiction fan, I would not recommend it to someone who doesn’t want to think. It is not an easy read. The language is fairly simple, but the ideas are not. There are some very heavy themes that some people may not want to deal with, such as slavery, sexual assault, nepotism, and faith.