Scan barcode
liandra_bell's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
"Sempre há outro segredo." — Kelsier
A história de um bando de ladrões que decide tentar cumprir a tarefa impossível de derrubar seu imperador tirano, imortal e extremamente poderoso, que continua inabalável mesmo depois de mil anos no poder.
A história se passa num mundo com sistemas mágico e político bastante complexos e interessantes, que vão sendo apresentados e explorados gradualmente de uma forma que não se tornou confusa ou cansativa, ao mesmo tempo que me mantinha sempre curiosa para saber mais a respeito.
O grupo de personagens principais também é muito carismático e interessante de acompanhar. Fiquei até um pouco surpresa com o quanto as discussões que eles têm ao longo de todo o livro, organizando seus planos de ação e problemas a resolver conseguiram ser muito envolventes e divertidas de se ler, e acredito que principalmente porque eu gostei muito das dinâmicas existentes entre os personagens, além das personalidades individuais de cada um deles.
Eu amo acompanhar boas relações de amizade em livros, e nesse livro eu gostei muito de como essas relações foram mostradas entre o grupo principal de personagens. Boa parte deles, inclusive, são amigos já de muitos anos, e é especialmente legal ver como eles se conhecem bem, como se complementam, como têm piadas internas e outras coisas do tipo que demonstram intimidade e confiança.
Eles estão todos juntos seguindo um plano que nenhum deles parece realmente acreditar que vai dar certo e, mesmo assim, eles continuam tentando e confiando uns nos outros (enquanto ainda têm humor e energia para fazer várias piadas uns com os outros e com tudo o que acontece de errado 😂).
E além disso tudo, também gostei bastante do clímax e do final. Para mim, ambos foram muito emocionantes e surpreendentes, me fizeram chorar e ao mesmo tempo ficar tão feliz...
A história de um bando de ladrões que decide tentar cumprir a tarefa impossível de derrubar seu imperador tirano, imortal e extremamente poderoso, que continua inabalável mesmo depois de mil anos no poder.
A história se passa num mundo com sistemas mágico e político bastante complexos e interessantes, que vão sendo apresentados e explorados gradualmente de uma forma que não se tornou confusa ou cansativa, ao mesmo tempo que me mantinha sempre curiosa para saber mais a respeito.
O grupo de personagens principais também é muito carismático e interessante de acompanhar. Fiquei até um pouco surpresa com o quanto as discussões que eles têm ao longo de todo o livro, organizando seus planos de ação e problemas a resolver conseguiram ser muito envolventes e divertidas de se ler, e acredito que principalmente porque eu gostei muito das dinâmicas existentes entre os personagens, além das personalidades individuais de cada um deles.
Eu amo acompanhar boas relações de amizade em livros, e nesse livro eu gostei muito de como essas relações foram mostradas entre o grupo principal de personagens. Boa parte deles, inclusive, são amigos já de muitos anos, e é especialmente legal ver como eles se conhecem bem, como se complementam, como têm piadas internas e outras coisas do tipo que demonstram intimidade e confiança.
Eles estão todos juntos seguindo um plano que nenhum deles parece realmente acreditar que vai dar certo e, mesmo assim, eles continuam tentando e confiando uns nos outros (enquanto ainda têm humor e energia para fazer várias piadas uns com os outros e com tudo o que acontece de errado 😂).
E além disso tudo, também gostei bastante do clímax e do final. Para mim, ambos foram muito emocionantes e surpreendentes, me fizeram chorar e ao mesmo tempo ficar tão feliz...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Blood and Murder
blynecessity's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Y'all, this read felt reeeal tone-deaf when it came to the topics of poverty and dealing with trauma. Also, very clunky writing. And why was there basically one woman in this whole book? Outside of random socialites, a couple of unnamed maids, and a girl who was about to be assaulted (who was also not named, just referred to as so-and-so's child), there are basically no women in this book. And the main woman was inexplicably and instantly in love with a mediocre and kinda rude man, who btw was a 21 years old to her 16 years old. Anywaaaayyy, non-noble women also seem to have almost no role in society aside from literally popping out "a dozen children"??? Where were they all the rest of the time?? Every background character seemed to be a man, and (with one exception) every foreground character was a man too. I just did not love this book, tbh. Maybe this was really progressive to the cis-het white men who were looking to expand their grimdark fantasy reads when it first came out, but this has nooot aged well!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Minor: Death of parent, Infidelity, Stalking, and Trafficking
justabridge's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
This book really could be summed up in the wise words of Monty Python: "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
I very nearly gave up on this book 200 pages in, but I'm really glad I didn't. Somewhere between halfway and three quarters this absolutely snowballed into a wild ride that I really enjoyed. The worldbuilding is brilliant and the writing is engaging, if quite bare bones. However, I do think the first part of this book really needed some work - for a heist novel, some of the planning stages of this were far too simplistic, and in places I really wanted Sanderson to sink his teeth further in to some of the subplots that he'd set up. Saying that the characters really grew on me and the end section of this took me in places I absolutely was not expecting. I loved the themes and the little 'past perspective' snippets at the beginning of each chapter, and I'm really looking forward to the next book!
I very nearly gave up on this book 200 pages in, but I'm really glad I didn't. Somewhere between halfway and three quarters this absolutely snowballed into a wild ride that I really enjoyed. The worldbuilding is brilliant and the writing is engaging, if quite bare bones. However, I do think the first part of this book really needed some work - for a heist novel, some of the planning stages of this were far too simplistic, and in places I really wanted Sanderson to sink his teeth further in to some of the subplots that he'd set up. Saying that the characters really grew on me and the end section of this took me in places I absolutely was not expecting. I loved the themes and the little 'past perspective' snippets at the beginning of each chapter, and I'm really looking forward to the next book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Murder, Gore, Death, Body horror, and Blood
Moderate: Genocide, Physical abuse, and Torture
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
thevietvegan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
High fantasy, unique characters, politics, classism, magical science and humanity... SO FUN!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Slavery, Murder, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Racism
Moderate: Sexual violence
michelleleistadravelet's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, and Violence
Minor: Genocide, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry
padme's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Alright, so this book was totally fine. It was a perfectly serviceable fantasy novel, and I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy it, because it did.
However, it falls into the trap many fantasy books fall into of having a whole bunch of characters and then never developing them. Kell and Vin (and maybe Saze) are the only characters we really spend a substantial amount of time with. Nearly everyone else is extremely one-note, and there isn't a lot of investment in them as people.
Take Dockson, for example. He's Kell's right-hand man and one of the leaders of the rebellion. And what do we know about him? We get one scene in which he exposits his backstory to Vin, though this is really moreso to remind Vin that not all noblemen are good than to actually provide some depth to his character. He explains that he was a slave, that he was in love with a woman, that she was taken from him, and then he ran away and came to the city. And that's all we really end up learning about Dockson, even though he's a major figure in the rebellion.
Most of the characters are simply defined by their roles, with the exception of Vin and Kell. Dockson is a bureaucrat. Marsh is interested in the inquisitors. Ham is a soldier. Yeden is a rebel leader. Breeze... wears fancy clothes.
Nothing about these characters really inspired anything in me. So many characters died or potentially died without me caring at all about them or their situation. And so many major character deaths were fairly anticlimactic.
And that doesn't even get into the gender and race dynamics in this book: let's discuss.
In terms of women, we have Vin! And that's great. She's a reasonably well-rounded character, with a fleshed-out backstory, an interesting point of view. She has motivation, she's interesting, and she's not there to further anyone else's plotline - she's undeniably the main character of the story.
However, my issue comes with the other women in the story. Or, rather, the lack of them. You'll notice above that every single character I've mentioned so far, every single member of the rebellion is male. And there are very few female characters in this book that is filled with a ton of characters.
The first female we meet isn't given a name, as far as I remember. She appears in the prologue, and she exists so that Kell can save her, we can be introduced to Kell, and he can go on his way.
The next female character we meet is around... 150-200 pages in? It's the hairdresser that does Vin's hair. The woman barely speaks, and most certainly isn't a character. As far as I can recall, the only thing she talks about is how ugly Vin's hair is.
But wait, Vin goes to balls! Certainly there were women at the balls! Yes, yes there were. Most are nameless, most do not speak. The only two women other than Vin that I can remember having any impact on the story are Shan, a jealous and vindictive woman who is nothing but cruel to Vin and everyone else and who is undeniably a villain, and a girl whose name I can't remember who gossips a lot.
There's also Kell's dead wife, but since she's dead before the story begins, I'm not really sure she counts as a second well-rounded female character.
And that's it! That's the grand sum of all the female characters in this massive book with a ton of characters. We have Vin, a nameless slave that Kell saves from a terrible fate, a hairdresser who barely speaks, a one-note villain who is nothing but antagonistic to Vin and appears in around four scenes, a gossip who shows up a few times at the balls, and a long-dead woman who is defined by her relationship to a man. This is an issue. I know Brandon Sanderson is a man, and I know it was considered somewhat revolutionary to have a female character like Vin be the lead in a high fantasy series such as this one. But it's an issue that she never has a meaningful interaction with a female character other than Shan, with whom her relationship is antagonistic. There are around six rebel leaders, and a fair number of other minor characters in the book, and all of them are male. Every single one.
And I haven't even gotten into the race dynamics yet. Now, I'm no expert on the subject, so I'll leave it to people who know better than me to speak more expansively on this topic, but this book reeked of "what if white people were treated like black people?" to me. There isn't a single person of colour in the book to my knowledge (given that Vin and others are easily able to pass as nobles despite being Skaa, and certain Terrisman characters are also able to pass as non-Terrisman). And yet it deals with topics like oppression and genocide and slavery. It was weird to me, to say the least.e
However, it falls into the trap many fantasy books fall into of having a whole bunch of characters and then never developing them. Kell and Vin (and maybe Saze) are the only characters we really spend a substantial amount of time with. Nearly everyone else is extremely one-note, and there isn't a lot of investment in them as people.
Take Dockson, for example. He's Kell's right-hand man and one of the leaders of the rebellion. And what do we know about him? We get one scene in which he exposits his backstory to Vin, though this is really moreso to remind Vin that not all noblemen are good than to actually provide some depth to his character. He explains that he was a slave, that he was in love with a woman, that she was taken from him, and then he ran away and came to the city. And that's all we really end up learning about Dockson, even though he's a major figure in the rebellion.
Most of the characters are simply defined by their roles, with the exception of Vin and Kell. Dockson is a bureaucrat. Marsh is interested in the inquisitors. Ham is a soldier. Yeden is a rebel leader. Breeze... wears fancy clothes.
Nothing about these characters really inspired anything in me. So many characters died or potentially died without me caring at all about them or their situation. And so many major character deaths were fairly anticlimactic.
And that doesn't even get into the gender and race dynamics in this book: let's discuss.
In terms of women, we have Vin! And that's great. She's a reasonably well-rounded character, with a fleshed-out backstory, an interesting point of view. She has motivation, she's interesting, and she's not there to further anyone else's plotline - she's undeniably the main character of the story.
However, my issue comes with the other women in the story. Or, rather, the lack of them. You'll notice above that every single character I've mentioned so far, every single member of the rebellion is male. And there are very few female characters in this book that is filled with a ton of characters.
The first female we meet isn't given a name, as far as I remember. She appears in the prologue, and she exists so that Kell can save her, we can be introduced to Kell, and he can go on his way.
The next female character we meet is around... 150-200 pages in? It's the hairdresser that does Vin's hair. The woman barely speaks, and most certainly isn't a character. As far as I can recall, the only thing she talks about is how ugly Vin's hair is.
But wait, Vin goes to balls! Certainly there were women at the balls! Yes, yes there were. Most are nameless, most do not speak. The only two women other than Vin that I can remember having any impact on the story are Shan, a jealous and vindictive woman who is nothing but cruel to Vin and everyone else and who is undeniably a villain, and a girl whose name I can't remember who gossips a lot.
There's also Kell's dead wife, but since she's dead before the story begins, I'm not really sure she counts as a second well-rounded female character.
And that's it! That's the grand sum of all the female characters in this massive book with a ton of characters. We have Vin, a nameless slave that Kell saves from a terrible fate, a hairdresser who barely speaks, a one-note villain who is nothing but antagonistic to Vin and appears in around four scenes, a gossip who shows up a few times at the balls, and a long-dead woman who is defined by her relationship to a man. This is an issue. I know Brandon Sanderson is a man, and I know it was considered somewhat revolutionary to have a female character like Vin be the lead in a high fantasy series such as this one. But it's an issue that she never has a meaningful interaction with a female character other than Shan, with whom her relationship is antagonistic. There are around six rebel leaders, and a fair number of other minor characters in the book, and all of them are male. Every single one.
And I haven't even gotten into the race dynamics yet. Now, I'm no expert on the subject, so I'll leave it to people who know better than me to speak more expansively on this topic, but this book reeked of "what if white people were treated like black people?" to me. There isn't a single person of colour in the book to my knowledge (given that Vin and others are easily able to pass as nobles despite being Skaa, and certain Terrisman characters are also able to pass as non-Terrisman). And yet it deals with topics like oppression and genocide and slavery. It was weird to me, to say the least.e
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and Violence
emily_j's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This is an engaging story (I mean, I read half of it in about twelve hours which is a feat I haven't really been able to manage this year), but it's very obvious that it's written by a white person. Brandon Sanderson's grasp of privilege as it functions in the world he's created is shaky at best and the novel is frustrating as a result. I'm especially frustrated by The Lord Ruler turning out to be a Terrisman, which positions being angry about the people oppressing you as a wrong which will turn you evil, and Elend's role in the climax, which tells readers that minority-lead social movements will devolve into violence without a benevolent oppressor to restore order.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Slavery, Racism, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Genocide
More...