I am a late comer when it comes to Brandon Sanderson. The only book of his that I’ve read from start to finish is Tress of the Emerald Sea. That was a great book, and it sparked my interest enough to try to really get into Sanderson’s work.
But if you know anything about Brandon Sanderson, you’ll know that there are many places you can start. The consensus among most, and even from the author himself, is to start with the first Mistborn saga. So, I did.
Now, I always do a bit of research when I start a new series. Not for spoilers so much, but to see what the book is about in general so that I don’t get too many surprises. I don’t like to start a book completely blind as to what it is about. Basically, it is a deeper read of the summary.
The thing I heard over and over again about the first Mistborn novel is that it is a great heist story. The comparison I read the most was Ocean’s 11.
And, of course, that drew me in. I adore the first Ocean film and have probably watched it 100 times or more since it came out. I love other heist novels too, even subpar efforts like The Dark Fable. So I was understandably hyped going into Mistborn, especially having come from Tress, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My first mistake was starting my Sanderson journey with Tress. It’s a great book, but it has little resemblance to Mistborn in terms of writing, prose, or style. Now, I didn’t expect them to be the same, but I did expect that I’d at least be interested in Mistborn right from the start, as I was with Tress.
One thing that I almost always require in books that I enjoy, is that it hooks me right from the start. And it doesn’t have to be action or a catchy hook in the first chapter. I want to like the character. I want the author to make me care as quick as possible.
Mistborn does not do this. I’ve been trying to read it for months now, and I’m currently about 50% through, and I still don’t really care about any of the characters.
Making Me Care
Part of the problem that Mistborn has presented is that the characters are fighting such an uphill battle, and their solution to the ultimate showdown seems idiotic. The entire premise is that they’re going to cause havoc, while training a small army, and then will somehow lure the Empire’s army away and then kill the bad guy. Or steal from the bad guy. Or both. The intentions of the characters are not well laid out.
So much of the book so far has been aimed at this very obscure goal. And none of the things that have happened so far have gotten us any closer to that goal. And that would normally be okay, but the plot just makes no sense. Some of that is due to the magic system, which I will talk about later. But some of it is because the main leader, Kel, seems to be a fly by the seat of his pants type of fella. Or he’s paranoid to the point of not telling people what’s going on—which leads to the readers having no ability to make sense of his actions. Or, he’s a moron.
Add on top of that, the reason they are all fighting, supposedly, is because half of the population are slaves. But the main characters all seem to have an awful lot of freedom, which makes the why of the fight a bit dubious. These people are supposedly fighting to free the repressed class, and are all supposedly of that class, yet none seem too impoverished and seem to move about the evil empire with a great deal of ease.
But the biggest problem in gaining my attention has been the “heists” themselves. So far there have been three heists. I wouldn’t really call them that, as none of them were really thought out or planned, but were all instead seemingly spur of the moment. Worse, they were all horrible.
Bad Heists
When you compare something to one of the greatest heist movies ever made, you need to deliver. To be fair, Sanderson himself has never compared the two, but many others have.
Mistborn sucks at heists. At least so far. The MMC (Kel) is seemingly inept, but people look up to him as this strong man who can do everything. Yet, in the two heists that have happened so far, he has gotten his ass kicked both times. Add onto that the seems to have no plan for anything, and it just makes him look like a dumbass with some powerful (maybe) magic.
Now, I didn’t expect the heist to happen at the beginning of the book. This is a three book series, and I expect a lot of build up. But, for everything to seem so inconsequential at this stage, is just disappointing. There have been three major action scenes so far, the rest has been filler. I like filler if it is done right. Filler can begin expanding the world building or developing the characters and their relationships.
And to be fair, there is some of that, but not nearly enough. I still don’t really care about the characters. Kel is not a good leader or character. Vin, our lead female character, is supposedly our diamond in the rough, but has so far played no role in the story at all except to go to parties and look pretty. The rest of the characters are both inconsequential and forgettable.
Where Are We Going?
Part of reading a book is looking forward to the end. Good books make you dread the ending while simultaneously looking forward to it because you really, really want to know exactly what happens at the end.
Mistborn is so poorly put together in this regard, I am only looking forward to the ending because that will mean I can finally leave it behind. It isn’t pleasurable to read, because I just don’t care about the characters or their goals at all.
Remember back, I said that I like even poorly written heist novels, that is true. It wouldn’t take much to draw me into Mistborn if only they had good heists. I could overlook the poor characters or the nonsensical plot if only the heists were good. Show me the planning, the anticipation that the characters get before they break into the safe, show me how and why each step of the plan matters and how the characters are important to those steps.
In Ocean’s 11 every character had their part to play. Without every single one of them, the plan would have failed. Every step they took to plan out the heist was laid out for the audience, while leaving just enough to chance to make it interesting.
Mistborn does none of these things. Even if there is some grand heist at the end, which supposedly there is, the steps leading us there have all been duds, and that makes it really hard to care.
The Magic
I knew going in that the magic would be unique. Tress showed me that Sanderson likes to make his magic systems very fascinating. I like a good unique magic system, and I enjoy learning about the magic that is in the world that the author is building for us.
But the thing about Tress is that the magic played a secondary role. And the bits that we did see all came from how the world functioned. Those bits were exposed to us as the characters interacted with them, and that made me pay attention. It made the magic matter. Spores that will kill you if you come into contact with them, and a character that seems to have the best luck ever in interacting with that magic? That’s awesome.
In Mistborn, the magic is inconsequential for the most part, just like the rest of the story. It’s not uninteresting, but most of our exposure to it happens when nothing else is going on, therefore making it harder for the magic toe to seem like something that actually plays a role in where the story is heading.
The few times that magic has been used for action or something that is worthwhile, we see just how powerful our characters really are. That is: not very. Kel for all his supposed might barely gets by his first heist (this may be because he is crap at planning) and in the second he gets led into a trap and escapes. The problem is, how escapes happens off camera. We see Vin in that same heist get nearly killed and is only saved because someone else from the crew followed her.
In other words, the magic played such an insignificant role in that second scene that it might not have existed at all. The first heist, which is done by Kel in solo mode, does have a lot of magic thrown around, but there is no tension. We know that nothing bad is going to happen. Add onto that, the magic seems at that point to be basically just the ability to make one’s self stronger and able to throw things around. There are also emotional powers, but other than to manipulate their own people, the characters don’t seem to use them as much.
This all leads to the magic system seeming to be pointless. Despite a training montage, the magic doesn’t seem to give our crew much of an advantage, given that the opponents they have faced so far (especially in the second heist) were much more powerful.
Slogging Through
I will finish this book, though it won’t be with my usual speed. I think part of my problem is that this book was built up so much by those on BookTUBE and BookTOK, that I am just finding it not measuring up.
I just want to care about the characters or get to see them actually do something. Until then, this is going to be a painful read. And that sucks, because almost everyone seems to love Brandon Sanderson’s work and there is so much out there to read from him. This bad experience has made it much more likely I read nothing else from a supposedly great writer.
What are your thoughts? Do you like Brandon Sanderson and Mistborn? Let me know in the comments.
