| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low (although the subject comes up a good bit) Violence level: High (really, it can get pretty gruesome at times) Back Cover: “For a thousand years, the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler, the 'Sliver of Infinity,' reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier 'snapped' and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark. Kelsier recruits the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot. But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.” |
This book is just about everything I've come to expect from Brandon Sanderson. It's got adventure, danger, mystery, a little bit of romance, and a certain amount of gruesomeness. I actually really like the mystery aspect of things, because it's historical mystery. (This is common to a lot of his books.) The world has been like this for a thousand years, and nobody knows why, or what happened to cause it. I'm also impressed with the originality in the idea of Allomancy. And I love how often the team comes so close to the brink of utter disaster, and yet still manages to pull it off. Things don't go according to plan very often at all, at least not according to the stated plan. I get the feeling that Kelsier planned for just about everything to go exactly as it did.
Here's my problem, though—and the reason I haven't yet gotten around to reading the second book. My favorite character got killed off! In my opinion, the best character—possibly the only really good character—in the whole story, and he/she (see, avoiding spoilers!) has to go and die! Other fans of the series have told me that it isn't that bad, because now you get to follow the story of the other characters, who they find wonderfully interesting. I'm happy for them, but I find that apparently I was reading the story just for this one person, and without that connection I lose interest. This is why it's always a daring move to kill off one of your main cast—you have to be pretty certain that the rest of the ensemble can continue to carry the story. It seems like, for most people, this cast of characters manages it all right without my favorite. But for me, it's just a huge blow and I haven't gotten over it yet.