Book review:
THE FINAL EMPIRE, Book 1 of The
Mistborn Trilogy (2006) by Brandon Sanderson
Summary: An
utterly mediocre Generic Fantasy ”epic” for American young
adults.
That I'm not a habitual reader of Fantasy literature
doesn't mean I can't review such books. I know that genre literature
comes with certain tropes and unspoken agreements – the hero always
wins, the detective always solves the case, etc. So I don't arrive at
a Fantasy novel with the wrong expectations. If the author handles
the genre well within its boundaries, I can appreciate that.
So... THE FINAL EMPIRE is a badly written fantasy novel, I think.
Let
me explain why.
1. If I had been 13 years old the prose
would've been okay, and easy to follow. But I'm past 50... and ye
gods, the writing is clunky. Overlong, wooden dialogue, manic
repetition of plot points, cardboard characters, cliché on top of
cliché. Everything is explained and spelled out (over and over),
frequently from characters who deliver infodumps in the same flat,
bland manner as the narrator.
The English used in this book
is a rather basic form of Standard American English, with a modern
vocabulary. The kind of ”faux high style” that is so common to
Generic Fantasy is absent here. Unfortunately the author's language
and use of vocabulary is also flat, unimaginative and bland.
(Try
the game ”Kelsier Bingo” with your friends! Start reading THE
FINAL EMPIRE and shout ”Bingo!” when you've spotted five
instances of the sentence ”Kelsier smiled.” You should be able
to reach ”Bingo!” in 2 to 3 pages.)
2. The plot is built
on one original idea: What if the ”Dark Lord” won? (It even says
so on the cover.) Which might have been interesting. However,
Sanderson can only execute this idea in the most generic fashion
possible. Everything about the narrative just feels... flat. Nothing
shines.
You know what ”mood” is in literature? Brandon
Sanderson may know it, but he cannot write in a way that creates a
mood. The result is a lack of affect; I cannot get involved in this
fictional world.
3. The story depends on a system of sorcery
called ”allomancy,” which is laid out and described in a way that
is mechanical, functional and frankly dull. ”Input X produces
result Y” etc.
(I understand that in some ”fan” circles, such
”system building” is highly appreciated. The magic system in
this trilogy is described in great detail on the Mistborn Trilogy
Wikipedia page – make of that what you will...)
But there is
no sense of the magic being in any way ”magical” – it works
pretty much like in a video game. (The visual description of magical
”force lines” in THE FINAL EMPIRE is an almost perfect match of a
similar ”magic system” in LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE
WILD.)
The author had the opportunity to evoke mystery and
wonder, but he does the opposite. He manages to make magic
boring.
4. The relationships between characters are
uninspired, failing to engage me, and the ”romance” is chaste
bordering on frigid.
Considering that sex is a ”thing”
in this fictional world – there are at least spoken references to
love affairs, prostitution, abuse and rape – the spunky young
heroine is weirdly asexual, and so are the other ”good”
characters. A cloying prudery hangs over the narrative, as if the
author was consciously writing for tweens or a narrow-minded
audience.
The prudery stands in jarring contrast to the detailed
descriptions of death, violence and torture.
5. I'm certain
that a good editor could have cut the dialogue and repetitive
exposition by at least a third. As it is, THE FINAL EMPIRE is
bloated by excessive padding that severely tested my patience.
I
could reluctantly recommend this to 13-year-old readers who are
already into Generic Fantasy... but even they ought to be guided
toward much better books in the same genre.
THE FINAL EMPIRE
is an example of ”perfect mediocrity,” the literary equivalent of
eating a Quarter Pounder with extra everything. If you want a meal to
remember, you're dining at the wrong place. This book left me feeling
somehow both empty and overstuffed.
FOOTNOTE: I trudged
through the sequel THE WELL OF ASCENSION but had to stop halfway
through. Its bloated repetitiveness and listless pacing finally
overwhelmed my patience. All the flaws of the first book only got
worse.
If you'd like to read some
proper fantasy I would
recommend – off the top of my head – writers like Fritz Leiber,
Susanna Clarke, Peter S. Beagle, Tove Jansson or Ursula K. LeGuin.
#bookstagram #bookstagrammers #bookreviews #bookreview
#books #literature #fantasy #brandonsanderson #mistborntrilogy
