Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
My 14yo daughter recently got the Mistborn trilogy for her birthday, and encouraged me to read it, so I delved into the first book. Turns out I struggle a lot more with 700 page books than 30 years ago. I don't know why but it took me nearly a month to get through it. Mistborn is not high literature, but it's fluid and easy to read. There is no style per so, but it has the merit of clarity. In a world where a seemingly eternal god emperor, having accessed to power to counter an existential threat to the world, rules with an iron fist, a caste of disenfranchised robbers decide to take the emperor down. That's the pitch. We're quite far from Tolkien, Howard or Vance with Mistborn, which is a plus. The main issue I had is that it lacks brevity in a massive way. It did not need 700 pages to get where it goes, as pleasant to read as they may be. Furthermore, Sanderson does take the easy route more than once, stretching my suspension of disbelief not quite to the breaking point, but very near. Still, it's decent fantasy, and considering that 80% of the fantasy I've read over the years doesn't even qualify as decent, that's an achievement in and of itself. Will I read the sequels? Probably, but not just yet.
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