Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson – Series Review

Series rating: 5/5 stars

Genre: Fantasy

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Synopsis: What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord?

For a thousand years the ash fell.

For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousend years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.

Yet hope survives.

An new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of an unlikely heroine who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.

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I already did a spoiler free review for The Final Empire, as well as a spoilery rave, however, because I read books 2 and 3 in rapid succession, I’d rather do a series review. This review of only of the original trilogy, as I have not yet read the second trilogy. I’ve already covered the main points about the world and magic system in my review of The Final Empire, so I won’t go through that again. You can go and check that out if you’re interested. I’m going to focus more on the series as a whole.

As you can tell from the rating, I freaking loved this series. Everything about it was awesome. The world, the magic system, the characters, the plot. Let me tell you about the plot! It was… wow. I mean I would never have seen that coming in a thousand years. The way it just evolved from one book to the next, the way seemingly insignificant details from the first book became so important in later books. The way you’re given just the right amount of information at every step so that you’re not totally confused, but the plot twists are also not glaringly obvious so you can still be surprised and there’s still that tension and anticipation of “What’s gonna happen next!?”. Just top rate storytelling!

The magic system also gets expanded throughout the series as we learn more about the history of the world and the magic in it and it’s just mind-blowing how seemingly unrelated things connect. It’s amazing.

The story arcs for most characters are also great. You get to watch them grow and learn and change and become more mature. I will say I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about a couple of character development points particularly regarding one character in the second book. I’m kind of okay with it by the end of the series, but also… I don’t know. It’s not bad in itself, it’s just personal preference I think. Some of the things that I enjoyed the most about that particular character changed, so I’m not entirely happy about that. And actually I think that applies to two characters, but one of them more than the other.

I’m also not sure how I feel about the ending. It’s been a few months since I finished the series (I’m really behind with reviews, what’s new?), and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It makes sense, but at the same time… I’m like… but… buuuuuuuuttttt no. And again, that comes from me being really invested with all of the characters in this series and wanting them all to be happy and okay. But that’s impossible and I’m kind of bitter about it.

Having said that, this series is masterful. I love it so much, I cannot recommend it enough for fans of epic fantasy. I will say that if you’re not used to epic fantasy, this isn’t the place to start. It’s a bit heavy for beginners. But if you’ve already dipped your toes into the world of epic fantasy, this series is awesome.