A review by lucybbookstuff
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Weeeeell I didn't dislike this, but I gotta say, I was expecting to love it!

I do think it was good. A solid introduction to both the trilogy and the Cosmere. I give it a lot of slack for being not only book 1 of a trilogy but also one of Sanderson's earliest books.

It has me intrigued about where the story will go and I will definitely continue. But I was expecting more from this book, and I'm really hoping the next books are an improvement!

The only thing this book can particularly boast about, in my opinion, is a very unique magic system. Allomancy was pretty cool, if a bit confusing. My eyes definitely glazed over trying to keep track of some of the fight scenes, but it was still impressive.
Feruchemy, on the other hand, is still a complete mystery to me lol.


The plot felt both cliche and a bit of a drag. Looking back at the size of this book, I can't think of what all happened to justify it being 650 pages. Lots of repetition and unnecessary fluff. There was an interesting climax and a couple twists that surprised me, but I never really got excited.

Lastly, and most importantly for me, the characters were quite flat. I felt very little emotion while reading this book, and that comes down to characters that didn't inspire it. I like Vin a lot and I am interested in her trajectory, but I never quite fell in love with her. She definitely falls into a lot of Super Special Heroine cliches.

Elend was okay, but kind of disappointing. I really wanted more from him. And Sazed was cool, if a little too good at conveniently saving the day lol.

Kelsier I borderline disliked. Which I don't think was the intended feeling toward him. 😅 I found him an incredibly boring hero. And when he wasn't boring, he was annoying. He was just too good. Good-hearted, good-natured, good at allomancy (especially for someone who only Snapped a couple years ago), good at planning a revolution.
Speaking of which, his secret plan would have been a lot more impressive if there had been a single hint dropped about it. Maybe I'm just dumb and missed them, but I think this comes back to the underwhelming plotting. Relatedly, I wish I cared when he died lol but I didn't bat an eye. If anything, I'm glad he's mostly gone. I think I'll enjoy getting to know the crew without him in it.


Anywho. That is a lot of complaints, but I do think it's a good story, and I'm looking forward to continuing. I just really hope it gets better!!