Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

10 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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naomi_k's review against another edition

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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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toastyghosty13's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I have heard a lot of great things about Brandon Sanderson, so I gave this book a try. Although I did find it slow at the beginning, the magic system, the world building, the main characters, and the mystery were what kept me reading until the end. It was completely worth it, because the ending left me wanting so much more, but in a good way. 

The prologue sucked me in, starting with the point of view of an unnamed character and giving us a glimpse of the class hierarchy of this world. Slavery of a race for the nobility is the main driving force of the economy, and this unnamed hero is trying to change that. He goes on to become one of the main characters.

The other main character is a 17 year old girl named Vin, who starts off as a street urchin and thief trying her best to get through life unscathed. She grew up with a bad home life, having a mother who tried to kill her and succeeded in killing her younger sister, and a brother who physically abused her but taught her everything she knows about thievery. Her father was some nobility out of the picture. Vin is smart and capable of taking care of herself, but is stuck indentured to a thieving crew desperately looking for a way out. 

Vin and
Kelsier
, the previously unnamed hero cross paths and this is where the story begins. There is hope, betrayal, fights, romance, and found family themes in this story, which makes it so enjoyable. The magic system adds to this, since it is something unique and has so much to build off of. The mystery behind the entity known as the Lord Ruler, is strange but also enticing. There is a lot of world building that made it a bit slow sometimes, but then the story takes off and doesn't stop. I have heard that this series only goes up from there, so I am extremely excited to read more of it once I get through some other books on my TBR.

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nflamel's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

If the single female character (and protagonist) was not the only one who is subject the male gaze, this would be a much better book.

It is still fun though.

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elfaz's review against another edition

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4.0


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missgarceau's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? No

3.75


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maulikki's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

The whole time reading this book I had a sense of regret for not finding this when I was in my most active reading years, around 12 or 13. It would've made a larger impact of me, even as I think as an adult I can definitely get more out of it now than I would've as a teenager. I see why this has been recommended to me, the book and the storytelling felt real in a way I seldom encounter. Of course it's very subjective, and I understand why to someone this might fall into the "yet another female protagonist's adventure with magic and learning lessons" category of books saturated with the ACOTAR-like books many of us don't enjoy in the slightest. This books has the it factor of fantasy books. No idea how to describe how and why, someone way smarter than me has probably put it in words somewhere on the internet. 

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mayr3adsab00k's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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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andreia's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

i did it! finally! i've had this book sitting in my shelf for a while, i was afraid to pick it up because i thought it wouldn't live up to the hype. i think it did, although it definitely wasn't perfect.

this is one of sanderson's earlier works, published in 2006, which is now a long time ago when we consider how the fantasy genre has evolved in recent years. in the context that this was published in, i'd say this is a pretty great story, with a very satisfying progression of events, interesting enough characters, and it even holds up well as a standalone book. in short, it's understandable why it's one of sanderson's most beloved works. the complexity of the world-building is fascinating and i know there's still so much more to discover about this world in the next books.

although i haven't read anything else by him, i'm sure sanderson has improved a lot as a writer since publishing this, as he's claimed himself. so for now i guess i can excuse the things i didn't love about this. i also know that most people seem to prefer his more recent books, so i'm excited to keep reading!

things i didn't love so much (with some mild spoilers):

- vin's character was infuriating at times and the worst part was how painfully clear it was that some of her actions / thoughts were just poor writing choices and not actually a reflection of her character. how is it believable that someone who suffered so much all her life, is constantly battling her instinct to not trust anyone (not even people who clearly want to help her), suddenly goes to a ball, has some meaningless superficial conversations with people who would literally kill her without batting an eye, and decides that the nobility are good and deserve redemption? just because they have pretty dresses and houses? it's just so contradicting to the basis of her character that reading her inner monologues when it comes to the nobility feels like a completely different character.

- in general, the other characters don't really stand out much aside from kelsier and sazed. and this is a big cast of characters. the rest of the crew, although lovable, were honestly very forgettable at times. also, the fact that vin is basically the only significant female character in a cast of 8+ important characters is very, well, 2006-fantasy-written-by-a-man, i guess. not to mention the only other women (2) who occasionally make an appearance, are all antagonists.

- this definitely didn't need to be 600+ pages long. it was a little repetitive at times, with the characters having the same inner monologues time and time again. also, i didn't feel that there was much info-dumping, but there were definitely moments way past half of the book where we were revisiting concepts of this fantasy world for the second, third time, as if to make sure the reader didn't forget it.  

- some small cliche moments like
the villain turning in his chair to face the protagonist, the villain being defeated and having one last speech about how he was "saving everyone" and "you don't know what you've done"


i'm hoping these are all aspects that will be improved in the next books or, at least, in other sanderson series. other than that, i'm very excited to read the next one since i have no clue where it's going! 

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thevietvegan's review against another edition

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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! 

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