I’ve decided recently to try my hand at writing book
reviews. I’ll start with works that have been out for a few years, cutting my
teeth, and perhaps working to new releases, eventually.
Mistborn is an Epic Fantasy trilogy published by Tor in 2006-2008, written by Brandon Sanderson.
I chose Mistborn as my first for a few reasons. It’s the
book series I’ve read most recently, and one about which I feel I have a real opinion. But I also chose it because
I’ve mentioned Brandon Sanderson and his efforts at teaching aspiring writers
multiple times since I’ve started the blog. It would be negligent of me not to look into the work of the man whose advice I have adopted so often.
I’m reviewing the trilogy as a whole, although I’ll offer
some thoughts about each individual work, as well. I’m going to try to avoid
spoilers, though the series is several years old at this point.
Let’s start with what Brandon Sanderson has grown famous for:
his magic systems. He deserves every bit of the praise given to him here. He
has some of the most coherent, logical, internally consistent magic systems
I’ve ever read. His strategy of putting multiple systems in a single world is
inspired, perhaps revolutionary. And Sanderson’s Laws of Magic (the first of
which is here: http://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/
) are a brilliant application of plotting rules to Fantasy.
Mistborn, perhaps even more than his other works, put this strength on full display. He creates some of
the most intriguing, world-specific problems I’ve ever seen, and has the
characters solve these problems in ingenious ways. Scenes of action and
violence enrapture the reader because he provides an innate understanding of
how the system functions. Even the quiet scenes are defined by the evolution of
the magic, which is thick with revelation throughout the entire series. There
are very few, brief moments where I thought I noticed small inconsistencies,
but they hardly served to distract from the whole.
The plotting of each book is often every bit as strong as the
magic. In Writing Excuses, Brandon has said that he thinks plot twists should
be surprising-yet-inevitable, and he succeeds far more often than he fails.
Often, a page or two before a new development, my eyes opened in sudden
understanding, which kept those developments satisfying. Each new development
is foreshadowed, and each is full of implications, some of which remain
unstated or unexplored for hundreds of pages, but most of which are given
satisfactory resolutions by the end of the series.
On the other hand, the pacing is…strange. I consistently
felt as though I were moving into the climax at the opening of the third act, with
a full hundred pages—if not more—left to go. This wasn’t bad, necessarily, but it’s something I’m not used to, and was
slightly distracting, and a bit exhausting, in places.
His main characters—I’m including any character that gets
more than one viewpoint—are all deep and nuanced, with their own conflicts,
character arcs, and specialties. They all have their own strengths and
weaknesses. They are all interesting, most of them are sympathetic, and some of
them are downright unforgettable. This is one strength that only grows as the
series develops; Hero of Ages, the final book in the series, shows impressive
growth as a writer in this department—and in fact, develops a character that
has grown to be my favorite in all of the series, and one of my favorite
characters from any series.
His side characters are more hit-and-miss. Any member of the
original crew receives enough character that it’s hard to consider any of them
anything but main characters. His one-off perspective characters and people
that are around for less than a hundred pages do not fare so well. While he is
good at developing rich, complex characters, he doesn’t seem to be as capable
of expressing that depth in a handful of sentences.
Perhaps the largest hurdle I had while reading it was that
Sanderson writes his 3rd Person Limited with just one step closer to
Omniscient than I am used to. The narrative is just a bit less inside the heads
of the characters. Because of this, I was sometimes unsure, when a viewpoint
switched, just which character’s head I was in. Bear in mind that this is
likely purely personal, and you may not notice it at all.
The single largest objective flaw, however, is almost
impossible to miss. Each book in the series relies on the next to build itself
up. The first book, read by itself, is not wholly satisfying, because so many
things are left open for the sequels to resolve. The second book is closer to complete
on its own, but there are still major plot points in this book—things that
effect the climax itself—that are not adequately explained until the final
book. To Sanderson’s credit, almost all of these main points are tied up in
satisfying ways. But the emotional impact is dampened because I often felt the
hand of the author, withholding information as I read.
On a side note Brandon’s humor in his works simply did not
work for me. But humor is subjective, and I’m sure many people greatly enjoy
what is found on the pages of Mistborn.
None of these things make Mistborn a bad series. On the
contrary. It’s both brutal and elegant, wry and tear-jerking, and above all,
unfailingly clever. A must-read for Fantasy fans.
-------------------------
What do you think? Did you notice something I didn't
mention? Did you disagree about something? Let me know in the comments!
(If you want to read the books and form your own opinion,
you can find them here: http://brandonsanderson.com/books/mistborn/)
No comments:
Post a Comment