Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages [Paperback]

With a bit of encouragement I have recently been getting back into reading. I thought I would take the time to review each book and give some passing thoughts to help anyone who may be thinking of buying this set -- I will make sure not to include any spoilers! The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson has been labelled as some sort of "modern classic" - so based entirely on the strength of the numerous positive reviews I thought I would give it a read. Brandon Sanderson is a relatively new and upcoming author and the Mistborn trilogy marks among his first efforts which earned him some credibility within the fantasy genre/scene. In some respects I would wholeheartedly agree.

However, let me first explain the negatives: Unfortunately, The Mistborn Trilogy suffers slightly by Sanderson's own writing. You can immediately tell that Sanderson is a novice here, and is trying to find himself as an author. His often clunky way of depicting a scene or naivety in displaying a characters emotions can be off-putting. I find his characterisation in particular is really lacking: It is somewhat refreshing that the main character Vin (a girl grown-up in the streets) is this tough-but-vulnerable female. Unfortunately Sanderson approaches all his characters quite naively. Embarrassingly almost all of the characters are based on fantasy stereotypes and there is a lack of originality between the dialogue. My biggest grievance however with this trilogy is that with careful re-editing, Sanderson could have easily tied loose ends and told a compelling (yet different!) story within one book. The following books suffer greatly from being mostly redundant and dragging a story longer than what I felt was entirely necessary. The second book in particular, suffers from the infamous "middle-book" syndrome, where not a lot actually happens!

Now for the positives: Where Sanderson shines as a writer is that his actual ideas are quite novel and interesting. The setting of an almost-apocalyptic world where ash falls incessantly gives you this black and white imagery which is beautiful yet also quite chilling. I generally don't like fantasy stories which rely heavily on the use of magic. Sanderson's idea of magic (while predominantly an important element of the story), whose characters ingest different metals to inherit different powers temporarily is quite unique and strikes a good balance. The story (at least to begin with) is tense and atmospheric with plenty of action to keep the book going at a good pace.

To summarise: The first book in particular was action-packed and gripping from beginning to end. The story unfortunately tails off greatly afterwards. Sanderson spends the next two books to twist an already good story and pad it out with a lot of guff. How much I recommend this trilogy depends on whether you are willing to invest the time reading through what I consider to be a lot of redundancy. The important thing is that Sanderson, despite his sometimes clumsy storytelling, still manages to tell an unforgettable and compelling story.

(While the first book (The Final Empire) leaves many questions open and is far from being complete, the story is more thought-provoking if you choose to stop here. I suggest that unless you have already read the trilogy and want to buy this as a nice boxed set, to only buy the first book and see for yourself whether you want to continue through Sanderson's story and trudge through what I consider are two fairly mediocre books.)

Book One: The Final Empire: 4.5 Stars
Book Two: The Well of Ascension: 3 Stars
Book Three: The Hero of Ages: 3.5 Stars

I avidly followed this series as it was written, but my advice is to buy and read the first novel before committing to a boxset - it works out at around the same price.

There has been a resurgence in fantasy literature over the last couple of years with plenty of new talent (Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Peter V Brett, Patrick Rothfuss....) writing gritty, realistic and grounded fantasy. Sanderson really should belong to this group.

Brandon Sandersons first Mistborn novel is nothing short of excellent - great characters, great plot and real imagination and innovation behind its concepts. The problem, for me, was that books 2 and 3 of this trilogy just dragged on and on and on. They just feel totally superfluous and written because the publisher demanded them. Whilst their timeline moves on, the characters do not evolve at all. It becomes fantasy by numbers I'm afraid.

If you are a fan of the Matrix, you will know what I mean when I say that you should know when to end a briliiant story......

Disappointing.

As never having written a review before, I found I really needed to say something about this series. It is superb, a captivating original story that grips from the first page to the last.

As a big fan of the Wheel of Time series, I really only bought these books to see how Brandon Sanderson writes, and now that I have finished, I have no doubt of Brandon's ability to conclude to the Wheel of Time series in style.

I easily put this series in my top 10, possilby top 5 alongside the likes of the Wheel of Time, The Night's Dawn Trilogy, Dune & the Wars of Light & Shadow.