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nedjemet 's review for:
The Final Empire
by Brandon Sanderson
The Final Empire is one of the best rebellion stories that I've ever read. Usually, when the plot of a story revolves around trying to overthrow an empire, you have to set aside logic and just enjoy the ride. That's not true here, which is part of why the book is so long. It needs its length in order to weave together all the pieces and to set up the world of Mistborn, which has one of my favorite magic systems of all time. I'm a huge fan of hard magic systems (magic systems based on clear rules) and this one is masterfully crafted.
All that being said, I do have one major criticism: the book's prologue is a terrible hook. It's great on a reread where you know the characters, but on the first pass? Not so much. My original review from a few years back actually encouraged readers to skip the prologue and that's still fair advice. If the prologue doesn't grab you, skip to chapter one and read from there instead. You won't miss much and the first chapter is a far better representation of what the book's narrative style is like.
If Sanderson's style suits your tastes and you enjoy well-told stories, then you're in for a wonderful ride. Sanderson has a true talent for logical, clear plots where twists actually make sense instead of being something thrown at you for shock value.
One final warning: I'm writing this during my reread of the series as I finally venture into the full realms of Cosmere (the universe where this story takes place). On my first read of Mistborn 1-3, I was not impressed by book 2 and it took me almost a full year to get around to reading book 3, which ended up blowing me away. I'm super curious to see if this is going to be a prologue situation for me because I liked this book's prologue on the reread. Even if it's not, book 3 is so good that I still strongly recommend the series, but I wanted to give that warning to first timers. The middle book syndrome is strong here.
All that being said, I do have one major criticism: the book's prologue is a terrible hook. It's great on a reread where you know the characters, but on the first pass? Not so much. My original review from a few years back actually encouraged readers to skip the prologue and that's still fair advice. If the prologue doesn't grab you, skip to chapter one and read from there instead. You won't miss much and the first chapter is a far better representation of what the book's narrative style is like.
If Sanderson's style suits your tastes and you enjoy well-told stories, then you're in for a wonderful ride. Sanderson has a true talent for logical, clear plots where twists actually make sense instead of being something thrown at you for shock value.
One final warning: I'm writing this during my reread of the series as I finally venture into the full realms of Cosmere (the universe where this story takes place). On my first read of Mistborn 1-3, I was not impressed by book 2 and it took me almost a full year to get around to reading book 3, which ended up blowing me away. I'm super curious to see if this is going to be a prologue situation for me because I liked this book's prologue on the reread. Even if it's not, book 3 is so good that I still strongly recommend the series, but I wanted to give that warning to first timers. The middle book syndrome is strong here.