Retro Review: Mistborn - The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Read in April, 2009

This is one of my earliest reviews from Goodreads, and is to this date it is far and away my most popular. I'm not sure why, really. It's not my best, I don't think. But I'll post it here.

Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It reminds me of Ocean's Eleven meets The Italian Job, but set in Mordor after Sauron has ruled for 1000 years or so. In many fantasy stories, a dark lord is rising and it is up to our heroes to defeat him before that happens. In this, the Dark Lord is already set in place as the status quo and the heroes have to motivate others to want a change.....Yet there is a noble class of The Lord Ruler's flunkies who will need to be scammed and robbed along the way, to finance this big revolt.....I love it...

The pace, style, and grand-heist-scheme-in-a-fantasy-setting plot remind me of Michael J. Sullivan's The Crown Conspiracy while the characters and rags-to-revolutionary story make me think of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Certainly a great blending, as both of these were recent 5-star reviews for me....

Okay, now I've finished it. All I can say is WOW. Why did I wait so long to read this? I must read the other two books in the series very soon.......

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Driving to Geronimo's Grave: and Other Stories

Image
Driving to Geronimo's Grave: and Other Stories by Joe R. Lansdale My rating: 5 of 5 stars Review copy eARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley Joe R. Lansdale has been on my radar for many years, and always seemed to be an author I’d enjoy. But the shame of it is that until now, I’ve only read one or two short stories of his. This collection was fantastic, and if it’s any indication of a consistent writing style from Lansdale, I’ll certainly be reading more of his work in short order. “Driving to Geronimo’s Grave” – I had no idea where this story was going as it got started, but wasn’t disappointed. Terri was the best part of this. I really got a feel for the Great Depression setting here. “In the Mad Mountains” – You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually read an HP Lovecraft story. But even so, I recognize when something is “Lovecraftian”, and this is certainly it (confirmed by the author’s notes after the story). Besides that, it remin
Read more

Review: The Trials of Empire

Image
The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received an eARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley. This really brings everything full circle and packs a punch, wrapping up the trilogy. The way things were unraveling through the last book and a half or so, I didn't expect the ending to satisfy, but was surprised that it wrapped up the story pretty well. View all my reviews
Read more

Review: Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Fiction of Joe R. Lansdale

Image
Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Fiction of Joe R. Lansdale by Joe R. Lansdale My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received an eARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley... Joe R. Lansdale knows how to craft a story, with an instinctive grasp of character development. His language is such that he connects with readers and makes the task of reading an enjoyable escape. While all of the stories in this book fall into the "crime" category, this is a very loose grouping. There is such a mixed bag of offerings here, from the noir to the really freaking weird. As with most collections, some stories hit with me better than others, but there really aren't any duds here. View all my reviews
Read more