Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

16 reviews

mads_reads_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Does not pass The Bechdel Test

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nikkihill22's review

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

i really liked the plot and characters of this book. i hated the pacing of it. i cant decide if i hate the pacing of it more as a stand alone, or more as the first part of a trilogy. i listened to the audiobook, which i think was majorly helpful in finishing the book. the chapters are very long, which i don't mind in audio format, but if i were reading a physical book i think it would have been difficult to convince myself to pick it up as i typically like to make sure i have enough time to read at least one chapter any time i sit down to read. The audiobook was nearly 25 hours long (no complaints about long books, i love big books), and for whatever reason, the last 30 minutes of it were an epilogue? this makes me think the book was written as if it may never get a sequel. because a 25 hour book with a 29 hour sequel and a 27.5 hour sequel after that one in no way shape or form needs a 30 minute epilogue.

But the characters were utterly charming, i definitely started and ended the book for them, and i'm so excited to see where they go in the rest of the story. My one complaint about characterization is about the minor romance in the book, i don't fully understand why the character we follow falls in love with someone as quickly as they do, but love is love and it happens like that sometimes i suppose. I just don't think this character would have necessarily.

Sometimes i like to play "spot the mormon" when i read a book by a mormon author, and i definitely think you can find Sanderson's mormon background all throughout this book, especially with the log book entries and the Lord Ruler, as well as some of the importance stressed around family structures. But it wasn't quite as bad as some other mormon authors' works are.

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caskraft's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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louisallama's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

While I did enjoy this book, and I feel like the ending elevated it from three stars to three and a half stars, I think that it really would have benefited from losing about a hundred pages. 640 pages was just too long and while there was stuff happening the whole time, the book still felt slow paced. Not a specific hundred pages, I just don't think that we needed to see everything in such detail.
I did enjoy the ending, I thought it was a rather satisfying conclusion. I'm not sure Brandon Sanderson is the author for me though, because I personally find his writing very 'telling rather than showing' and while I don't always need a lot of flowery descriptions and deep character introspection, again, 640 pages is a lot to just be told what is happening. If you like books where you just turn your brain off and have the story happen at you, then you'll like this book.
And while I definitely didn't predict all of the plot twists, the one about
the Lord Ruler not being the one who wrote the logbook
was kind of obvious by the time it was revealed.
Also the extreme amount of parallels between
this book and Brandon Sanderson's own Steelheart
just made me kind of mad.
At the end it felt like I'd just read the same book in a different font.

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anahisa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think I enjoyed the build up more than I did the payoff, but you know what, a win is a win!!!!!

Genuinely loved so much about this read. Found family, coming of age, learning to trust — I ate it right the fuck up!! It’s been a while since I purposefully sought out moments of free time just to read, so I thank Sanderson for letting me indulge the minor obsession that was completing this book <3 

The characters were engaging, there was rarely any POV I didn’t care for, and the world building was very neat!! 

My only complaint(s) revolve a certain character and a particular age gap (🤔) in a potential relationship and said character being put into an extremely powerful position (🤨) despite only ever reading political theory prior to their appointment and rarely acting on those principles in reality (😐) BUT! I digress, there’s more story to tell, and perhaps I’ll come around to them.

Regardless, Vin is everything to me and I can’t wait to continue the series!

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allisonmenck's review

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.5


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headinthepages's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75


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chrism6's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.75


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angstifies's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book was great, but very much not extraordinary or “life changing” like i was constantly told it would be. 

i loved the world building, the magic system, and how the plot developed; but i did not connect much with the characters, and i wished the side characters had been more “flashed out”, and i also can’t say that i was very invested in the story for the first half of the novel. 

the latter 50% of the book however was amazing! it was much more interesting and i was truly pulled into the story. 

i know this was one of Sanderson’s first published works so i wasn’t too surprised at the slightly weak writing, but the dialogue made me cringe several times, and the lack of female characters & a terrible forced straight romance (that was unbearable for me and had absolutely ZERO chemistry + why is a 21yo dude not leaving this 16yo girl alone???) bothered me. 

don’t know if i’ll be reading the sequels of this specific series but i’ll definitely be checking out Brandon Sanderson’s other books. 

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boglord's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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