Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you all today? I hope you’re well!
I’ve just finished The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson and I’m VERY, VERY surprised to say that I LOVED it!
5 Stars!
We follow a young girl called Vin. At first she’s just a normal person or a skaa in this world. But then she finds out that she’s a Mistborn, someone who’s worth a lot more than a regular skaa/working person. She gets recruited by a gang of criminals in this world, lead by Kelsier, the main male character of this book, I’d say. They want her to help them overthrow the Final Empire and defeat the Lord Ruler. Can they do this? You’ll need to read to find out!
I read The Final Empire for a few readathons. These were:
Reading Rivalry: Murder weapon on the cover - Vin is carrying a bit of metal on the cover that looks like a knife!
Spookopolothon: Present - The Final Empire is told in the present tense, as if what is happening is happening now!
Always Fully Booked Reading Rainbow challenge - Indigo. My cover of The Final Empire is the hardcover. I’d call it indigo in certain aspects, although there are other colours there too.
Always Fully Booked Genre Reading Challenge - Fantasy - I’m surprised that I haven’t filled this already so I’ll put The Final Empire here because it’s obviously fantasy!
Spoilers Below
“Kelsier nodded. “Well, that’s where l’ll go then. They’re certain to have your atium.” He pulled the pack, then whipped out a dark grey cloak. Large and enveloping, the cloak wasn’t constructed from a single piece of cloth—rather, it was made up of hundreds of long, ribbbonlike strips. They were sewn together at the shoulders and across the chest, but mostly they hung separate from one another, like overlapping streamers.
Kelsier threw on the garment, its strips of cloth twisting and curling, almost like the mists themselves.
Dockson exhaled slowly. “I’ve never been so close to someone wearing one of those.”
“What is it?” Vin asked, her quiet voice almost haunting in the night mists.
“A Mistborn cloak,” Dockson said. “They all wear the things—it’s kind of like a . . . sign of membership in their club.
“It’s colored and designed to hide you in the mist,” Kelsier said.”
Kelsier is trying to find atium, a precious metal in the world of the The Final Empire. To do this he’s going to use his allomancy cloak as it’ll hide him in the mist. In Luthadel, the main setting or city of The Final Empire, he needs to hide himself because to take atium is illegal. He and his band of skaa need it, to defeat the Lord Ruler however, and he’ll do whatever he needs to to ensure that happens…or does he?
The quote above is significant because it’s one of the first times Kelsier teaches Vin, our young and impressionable female protagonist in The Final Empire how to hide from evil. He also teaches her how to use Allomancy, the magic of burning metals from within. This is significant because the magic system in the world of the Final Empire is burning metals. For example, burning the precious metal, Atium, the one they’re after the most gives a lot of power, or so Kelsier thinks. “Atium lets you see into the future. Or at least, it lets you see what people are going to do a little bit into the future. In addition, it enhances your mind, allowing you to deal with the new information, allowing you to react more quickly and collectedly.” This is significant because Kelsier doesn’t actually know this, he just thinks it. No one has ever actually found a lot of Atium because the Lord Ruler has it stocked somewhere for his use only. Kelsier’s crew need to find it. That’s really what the main plot of The Final Empire is, finding this lost metal. Do they find it and the answers they need? You’ll need to read to find out…
A part of The Final Empire that I loved was the romance subplot between Vin and Elend, House Venture’s nobleman. In the world of the Final Empire there’s a war brewing between the Houses. There are plenty of Houses vying for the top of the pecking order. House Venture is there at the moment but will it be on top by the end of this book and series? The significant Houses are: House Venture, House Hasting, House Elariel, House Tekiel and House Lekal, in the first book in the series anyway. Vin has to fight one of these Houses in order to save Elend. Which one? I’ll let you read for yourself, but it’s good! I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing where Vin and Elend go in The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages, books 2 and 3 in The Final Empire series. I didn’t think Brandon Sanderson wrote romance, so I was very surprised but happy to see a little in this first book!
“I think I’m going to kiss you.”
Vin shivered slightly. “I don’t think you want to do that, Elend.”
“Why?”
“How much do you really know about me?”
“Not as much as I’d like to,” he said.
“Not as much as I need you to, either,” Vin said, looking up into his eyes.
“So tell me,” he said.
“I can’t. Not right now.”
Elend stood for a moment, then nodded slightly and pulled away. He walked out onto the balcony walkway. “So, shall we go for a stroll, then?”
“Yes,” Vin said, relieved—just a bit disappointed as well.”
This is the culmination of the romance in The Final Empire. Does Elend actually kiss Vin? Or do we have to wait? Unfortunately, we have to wait. But I’m excited to see where this relationship goes in books 2 and 3. This isn’t a romance series so I was shocked to see any type of relationship/flirting. Vin meets Elend at parties she attends as a fake noblewoman. She does this to gather information for her band of Skaa warriors. Does she feel guilty about falling in love too? Yes, but at the same time she knows she can’t help it. She’s at the parties to infiltrate her way into nobility, not to fall in love. Vin plays the part of Valette at these parties. Elend has no idea she’s playing a part at first. In the end does he feel betrayed? You’ll need to read for yourself?
Elend loves reading books. They often have a joke about this. This was cute. Elend’s father is the head of House Venture and he does NOT want to lose top spot in the House War. I found Lord Venture to be horrible to his son. All he’s interested in is keeping his House on top, not his family. He doesn’t give a damn about that!
“Lord Elend,” Vin said, looking down, seeming a bit embarrassed. “Sazed already doesn’t like him, so I didn’t want to mention this in front of the others. But I did find something strange tonight.”
“What?” Kelsier asked curiously, leaning back against his bureau.
“Elend had a stack of books with him,” Vin said.
First name, Kelsier thought with disapproval. She is falling for the boy.
“He’s known to read a lot,” Vin continued, “but some of these books, well, when he was gone, I picked through them.”
Good girl. The streets have you at least a few good instincts.
“One of them drew my attention,” she said. “The title was something about the weather, but the words inside spoke about the Final Empire and its flaws.”
Kelsier raised an eyebrow. “What exactly did it say?”
Vin shrugged. “Something about how the Lord Ruler is immortal, his empire should be more advanced and peaceful.”
Kelsier smiled. “Book of the False Dawn…” Here, we have Vin telling Kelsier what she’s found out about Lord Elend Venture. Even Kelsier can see that she’s in love with Elend. She knows that Elend loves his books. Maybe there’s information in one of them to help the skaa? Will we learn more about this and other elements of the Final Empire in the following books? I hope so!
The last thing I’ll note quickly here is the death of one of the main characters in The Final Empire, Kelsier. Kelsier is, I’d say the main male protagonist so I expected a lot more from his death than just a few words telling us he’d died. We do see it happen but hardly. The plot certainly could have done with a little excitement just to amp it up to a 5 star read for me. Therefore I’m giving The Final Empire a solid 4 star rating. I thought it would be 5 stars, until Kelsier’s death as I said. I did really enjoy it, though. It was surprisingly a very quick read for me. It kept me hooked, which is always what I want when reading. It felt like I was going through the chapters like they were only a page.
I can’t wait to see what I’m reading for Spookopoly next.
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