Amy's Ratings:
Mistborn: The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
fantasy, action/suspense, (young adult)
This was a terrific series by Brandon Sanderson that did not end in a way I loved but was still worthy of high ratings. The first two novels in the series made my Best of 2017 list. I normally do not wait to read three novels in a series before blogging, but I've been trying to convince Lynnie to give them a try. She encouraged me to go ahead and blog them now and she can add to my comments later if she reads them. There are more novels in this series that, I believe, take place in the same world but are set further into the future than where these left off.
Despite having the first novel on my To Read list for a while, I put off reading it because, frankly, the cover turned me off. But, you know what they say about judging a book by its cover. Shame on me! I loved it!
In summary, this series is about a group of people with special powers pulled together in an effort to overthrow the evil dictatorship and system of enslaving the non-highborn, non-magical peoples of the world.
In the first novel, Vin is a Skaa (slave) orphan, surviving by thieving and scheming. She does not know that she possesses special powers until a Mistborn man named Kelsier takes her under his wing to train her. She becomes involved in Kelsier's plan to defeat the Lord Ruler and make life better for the Skaa. The heroine is awesome, the powers of the Misting and Terris characters are creative and interesting, the villains are evil and powerful, the good guys have spunk, guts and brains, and the story is engaging. What's not to like? The writing and story-crafting was very well done. This first-in-a-series definitely stands on its own.
In the second novel, the story of this group of well-intended friends attempting to make their world better picks up a short while after the first novel. Vin, Elend, and the rest of the crew must now face the realities and politics of running a city. This is a big challenge and brings with it new friends and foes as well as a compelling calling for Vin. The adventure is terrific. The intrigue is high. The action is gripping. The relationships are refreshing.
The third novel picks up a couple years after the second one left off. Elend and Vin are still trying to unite the Empire, save lives, and control the Koloss while fending off Ruin. The characters are still wonderful, the action is intense, the settings are well-drawn, and I remained interested and curious throughout. Our “crew” has to split into teams to, literally, divide and conquer as the world seems to be running out of time with horrific ash storms and earthquakes. However, the personification of higher powers bugged me. While religion has factored heavily in the series, this third novel deals more strongly with belief systems, religious doctrine, and all-powerful, sentient gods. I appreciated the characters’ questioning of beliefs vs. logical facts and the explained “science” of the metals. I also was happy to get answers to the biggest questions and mysteries. So, overall, it was a satisfying read but not as satisfying as the first two in the series.
(While these are not officially in the young adult genre, I think these are okay for young adults to read. The main heroine is a teenager. There is no sex or drug use in the modern sense but there is violence and cruelty.)
The narrator of all three of these audio books is Michael Kramer. I did not love his tone of voice in the first novel--it's rather gravelly--but I got used to it. He performed excellent voice acting, accents, and voices and I had no qualms about him in the second and third novels. I'll give him an average A rating for the trilogy.
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