Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn: Is It Worth Reading?

Mistborn (Mistborn #1)

Mistborn is an epic fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson. If you’re looking for high fantasy written post 2000, Sanderson is basically the go-to author for the genre, so I was curious to read some of his work.

Published in 2006, Mistborn is the first novel in the original Mistborn trilogy. There’s a second series of books released more recently that also takes place in the same universe as these ones, and the author is also currently working on more Mistborn books.

After reading this first Mistborn book, I can clearly see why Sanderson is so popular. It’s not that I think this novel is particularly great – I think it’s good, solid fantasy, but not excellent by any means – it’s that Mistborn sort of checks all the fantasy story boxes without offering anything too out there that certain readers might not enjoy.

Mistborn is a well-written and fun, yet generic, book. It’s kind of like how most people enjoy regular cheese pizza. Almost everyone will agree that pizza is at least pretty good. (If someone does not like pizza, then you should steer clear of them!) When you get into whether or not to add certain toppings though, you’ll get drastically different tastes and opinions. Misborn is the regular cheese pizza of epic fantasy. Most people will like it, but it’s not really special.

The story itself centers on an unexpected hero undertaking a quest with a band of outsiders to overthrow a brutal ruler. There’s a magic system called Allomancy that involves users burning different types of metals they digest to get certain abilities. It’s interesting enough.

Still, I didn’t read Mistborn quite as fast as I’ve read some of the other books I’ve gone over recently. It didn’t have that so good you can’t put it down feeling that I had with Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga or the books in Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy.

That’s not to say that I won’t be reading the next two novels shortly to see if they take the story to the next level. Mistborn though, falls firmly in the good, not great fantasy category for me.

Grade: 7/10

The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2)

So, I mentioned that the first book in the Mistborn trilogy didn’t have that so good you can’t put it down feeling. Well, this second book has the same issue, but to a far greater degree. I just could not get into this story. I have probably picked up The Well of Ascension a dozen times at this point, simply to put it down after a few pages due to not being hooked.

The first book took a while to really get going, so I wanted to give this one a fair chance before giving up on it. I ultimately read over 100 pages, and now, I’m ready to definitively say that I won’t be attempting to read any further. 

I don’t think that what I’ve read of The Well of Ascension is necessarily bad. It’s written totally fine, and if you loved that first book, you might enjoy this continuation of the story. The characters and plot, to me, just aren’t interesting enough though.

Vin, as our main protagonist, is fine (she’s not a great character, but not awful). I don’t find Elend Venture, her love interest who’s (so far) had a more major role than he did in that first novel, to be at all compelling. Vin and Elend’s relationship also doesn’t feel complex/exciting to any degree.

Overall, the story is pretty boring and I don’t feel compelled to read onward. I think that first Mistborn novel provided me with enough of a taste of Brandon Sanderson’s work that I can understand why he’s so popular. At the same time, I don’t personally enjoy this story or characters enough to be able to read more than one novel’s worth of plot. Maybe I’ll try another book of his sometime in the future, but for the time being, I’ll be looking for another fantasy author to read.

Grade: Did Not Finish/Do Not Recommend