Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

62 reviews

naomi_k's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Slavery, Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Child death, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Death of parent

tilo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was my first book by Brandon Sanderson and I understand the praise. The magic system is fascinating and I love that you do not only learn along with the protagonist(s) but discover that there are many mysteries revolving around it that even the characters have not figured out yet. Every storyline is intriguing and by the end, when all of them came together, the plottwists - some of them excruciatingly casually dropped (in a good way) - had me audibly gasping. The plot unfolds in such a clever and seamless way - truly inspiring for my own creative writing! 
I enjoyed the characters. For a good first part of the novel, I found them not very likeable (which is not something I need in a novel, anyway) but that made them seem more real and complex. From the first page, I wanted to learn more about them and became very attached to their plans and hopes.
The ending finished the main story line of the book but kept so many mysteries open and introduced new problems that I cannot wait to read more about in the second novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, Child death, Murder, Genocide, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Racism, War, Slavery, Abandonment, and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Infertility, Body horror, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexism and Rape

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Grief, Genocide, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, War, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Death

knerys's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Murder, Slavery, Child abuse, Classism, Blood, Gore, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Abandonment and Torture

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Rape

straker's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Genocide, and Child abuse

puttingwingsonwords's review

adventurous 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? No

3.0

Unique and interesting magic system, but all in all the story was... fine?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Genocide, Racial slurs, and Rape

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Slavery, War, Violence, Classism, Physical abuse, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Abandonment, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment

louisallama's review

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Abandonment, Classism, Genocide, and Slavery

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Murder, War, and Death of parent

The 16 year old main character gets into a relationship with

a man who is 4-5 years older than her and is a member of the class that oppresses her

hapalyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, and War

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

cdonegan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Classism, and Slavery

Moderate: Genocide

Minor: Rape