There’s nothing too major revealed here. I try to keep this spoiler free. I decided to do this review after I’d read all of the Mistborn books, instead of doing one for each, mostly because I couldn’t put them down.

Of the three, I liked the first book best. I enjoyed the intrigue, the infiltration, and of course the magic system. The magic system expands through the three books – which I love. In my opinion, the Mistborn books have one of the best magic systems I’ve ever read. It’s very logical, and adheres to cause and effect. The concept of burning metals to enhance one’s own abilities is such a nifty idea.

All three books have a review from Romantic Times Book Review, which surprises me to no end. I don’t think that these books are very romantic. The first Mistborn book has more romance, and even that’s a stretch. I’ve read mainstream fantasy with far more than this. If you’re looking for a sweet romance, Mistborn doesn’t really hold up. It’s also a closed door romance – if you’re unfamiliar with the term, all the adult stuff is glossed over. Sanderson even struggles with describing naked people, so if you’re hoping for anything raunchy, this is not that trilogy. But there’s more important stuff going on.

I didn’t care much for the political aspect of the book. The second is all about politics, war, and stabilizing a struggling city/empire. That part bored me to no end. In my opinion, all the politics could have been removed from the books and it wouldn’t hurt the story one bit. But that probably would have reduced the trilogy to two books – most publishing houses would rather have a trilogy than a duology, so at least I can see a reason. For those of you who love a good bout of political intrigue then the Mistborn Trilogy should be right up your alley. Fortunately, it’s not so bad or boring that I couldn’t get through the books. It was tolerable, just excessive.

The Kandra species is by far my favorite creature in this world. Kandras are gelatinous creatures that can perfectly replicate any living thing as long as it has the bones. They are also fantastic doppelgangers to such a degree that finding them out is near to impossible – even for other Kandra. The second book has a Kandra who takes over the body of a wolfhound at the request of the main character. These interactions were my favorite parts. The wolfhound becomes quite anthropomorphized and some of the interactions and development between the two characters got me all emotional. I wish more of the Kandra were in the books, although the third one did satisfy much of my Kandra curiosity.

Another thing I really enjoyed was how the world is full of ash, brown plant-life and a red sun, giving it a post-apocalyptic feel. There exist rumors of a time where there used to be green plants, a blue sky and a strange thing called flowers, and reading the characters talk about how odd the concept is cracks me up. It also makes me wonder about worlds that don’t have a yellow sun, a blue sky and green plants.

The part of the trilogy that drove me nuts was the fight scenes. They are confusing as all hell. Most of it seems to happen in bullet time – or at least, that’s how it reads. But so much happens within a paragraph, it’s very hard to keep up, or sort out, without multiple reads. I will say that by the third book the fight scenes were much better, so that gives me hope for some of his other books.

By the third book it’s very hard to figure out who’s the main character, and frankly, it doesn’t matter. Each viewpoint has something interesting that adds to the overall plot. I’ve read a few books that have this style, so it didn’t bother me that much. Although it did make me disconnect from whomever the main character should have been. Frankly by the third book I kept reading to see how it would turn out.

The end was very unexpected. I liked it. I love to be surprised. The best part of the surprise is that it all made sense. In a very round-about way it had been leading to it all along. Overall, I was quite satisfied by these books, and thoroughly enjoyed reading. I’m very interested to read what else he’s done. Fortunately a great guy named DoomOtter donated a few more of Brandon Sanderson’s books.

Special thanks to Goldedge for donating the Mistborn trilogy. I really loved reading them. It’s been great for my imagination.

If you’ve ever read the Mistborn Trilogy, what did you think of it? Try to keep your comments free of spoilers please.

If you haven’t, are you interested in picking it up?

My next book review will be of Sandman Slim. Also donated by Goldedge. Thanks again to everyone who donates books. You guys are full of win! You keep this bibliophile very happy. ^^