A review by ladybugwrites
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

 It took me a while to decide to start reading Brandon Sanderson, and if I remember correctly, I only bought the boxed set with the Mistborn trilogy last year. For this, I am ashamed.

Despite a few annoyances with the writing in some instances, I was floored by how much I liked this book. I wasn’t grasped as I read the prologue, but from the first few pages of the first chapter, I was hooked.

This is a story full of intrigue, with great characters that I couldn’t help but fall in love with. The worldbuilding is immaculate and drew me in from the first few mentions. Sanderson’s way of explaining things in little tidbits of information disguised as a conversation was perfect. I kept wanting them to show up because every little bit of information, whether about a carefully and well-crafted magic system, or the ways the world within works was highly interesting. 

I have seen a review saying that the book seems like someones’ D&D fantasy in novel form, and that is one of the things I loved about it. The fact that there’s rhyme and reason to everything that happens, like some kind of a very full-scale heist, made me more excited than I can possibly explain. Not only that, but when you’ve reached the end and you think back to all those little pieces you saw, everything makes sense and you realize how great the foreshadowing is. Fantastically done.

This is what I want from a story. To be fully immersed enough that I sit up until 5 am to finish it because I have only 150 pages left and I cannot put it down because I need to know what happens. I realized, reading this book, it’s something I’ve missed.

I should have picked up Sanderson long ago, because if the rest of his books are as good as this one, I have so many good stories to read in the future and I can’t wait to read them all.