#95 The Final Empire

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

I finally did it! I finally read this absolute beast of a book. I read it a few years ago but wasn't a big fan of fantasy then and just couldn't wrap my head around the story, flash forward 6 years and fantasy is my favourite genre so it was only right that i gave this series another whirl, especially after reading Skyward and Starsight and loving them both so much.

The Final Empire follows the story of Vin who is raised by her brother as a thief, she also has the abilities of an allomancer meaning she can use the power of ingested metal to alter other peoples feelings. When her abilities are discovered by Kelsier who is a vigilante type character who is determined to take down the empire and the antagonist the Lord Ruler. Kelsier is a mistborn meaning he can burn metals by ingesting them which grants him supernatural abilities as a result.

Kelsier takes Vin under his wing and teaches her how to ingest more metals to unlock and use other abilities. He also sends her on a dangerous mission undercover to attend fancy balls in order to spy on members of the court and to gain information that might be useful. The skaa are very oppressed in this world and have been living in the shadows in fear of the empire and the Lord Ruler. Kelsier is the figurehead for the skaa rebels that he has gathered as a secret army to take down the Lord Ruler, hes very talented and charismatic leading the army to believe they have a chance as defeating the empire.

The characters are really well written, each with their own distinct personality and flaws they read as very real and relatable. I particularly enjoyed Vin as a character, her growth throughout the book was really well done. As Vin grew up on the streets she has this no nonsense trust no one attitude and it was great to see Kelsier break down those walls and become a father figure to her. The main strength of this novel and it was no surprise to me was the astonishing world building, it is so vast and rich and you can really picture it as you are reading. Allomancy as a magic system was really unique and cool and unlike anything ive ever read about in fantasy before, it was probably the most unique thing about the book as there was a lot of standard tropes that you find in epic fantasy novels although i must say those tropes were executed superbly. The villains are really interesting and well done i must say as a huge fan of villains, the inquisitors are bogeymen type characters that are highly skilled and quite frankly a bit creepy. The Lord Ruler himself did not disappoint when he made an appearance after a highly built up characterisation of terror.

This book is a very quick read despite its 700 + pages, i flew through it as it was so easy to become captivated. Its so well weaved and intricate. I would recommend to everyone. Sanderson has really proven himself to be a master story teller. Im going to try and read the rest of his Mistborn series and move onto The Stormlight Archives. I never thought i would be this invested in an epic fantasy series as i am this one.