Alex Recommends Mistborn
Dec. 29th, 2008 11:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteDespite reading a lot over a given year, I rarely recommend any books. Most of what I read tends towards non-fiction, and most of what I read tends towards readable but not great.
Also, most of what I read - especially if it's fiction - tends not to be new.
Today, I am here to tell you that something new is great. That something is the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. This trilogy - the first debuted in 2006 and the last just two months ago - is a fantasy that eschews the usual swords and sorcery for fresh ideas and magicks, and that features a fascinating and well-rounded cast of heroes and rogues and villains. The books came highly recommended to Batya by friends, and while I normally don't like high fantasy, there was something in the way Sanderson began his tale that grabbed me. And, to my surprise and delight, didn't let go.
No, I am not saying much about the plot. I don't want to spoil it at all (though the descriptions at Amazon are accurate, if you want to know more). Suffice it to say, after getting the first book from the library last spring, we promptly bought the first two in the series and look forward to getting the third when it comes out in paperback. And to re-reading them and seeing all the pieces that became clear in the last book being laid out in the first.
Sanderson, as some of you may know, was hired to bring together the pieces that make up the unfinished parts of (and notes for) the last Wheel of Time novel. I think that WoT fans need not worry about his talents. And that fans of fantasy in general have someone to watch in the coming years.
Also, most of what I read - especially if it's fiction - tends not to be new.
Today, I am here to tell you that something new is great. That something is the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. This trilogy - the first debuted in 2006 and the last just two months ago - is a fantasy that eschews the usual swords and sorcery for fresh ideas and magicks, and that features a fascinating and well-rounded cast of heroes and rogues and villains. The books came highly recommended to Batya by friends, and while I normally don't like high fantasy, there was something in the way Sanderson began his tale that grabbed me. And, to my surprise and delight, didn't let go.
No, I am not saying much about the plot. I don't want to spoil it at all (though the descriptions at Amazon are accurate, if you want to know more). Suffice it to say, after getting the first book from the library last spring, we promptly bought the first two in the series and look forward to getting the third when it comes out in paperback. And to re-reading them and seeing all the pieces that became clear in the last book being laid out in the first.
Sanderson, as some of you may know, was hired to bring together the pieces that make up the unfinished parts of (and notes for) the last Wheel of Time novel. I think that WoT fans need not worry about his talents. And that fans of fantasy in general have someone to watch in the coming years.
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Date: Dec. 29th, 2008 05:59 pm (UTC)I mean, Mistborn's a cross between lyric fantasy, hard fantasy, and wuxia fantasy (oddly enough, when I talked to Saunderson's editor on the subject, he confirmed that wuxia was a deliberate source; I so want to see Mistborn filmed), but it's a -great- blend -- and much better as a series than it was as the first (admittedly, quite good) book.
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Date: Dec. 29th, 2008 07:24 pm (UTC)I felt a lot better. (Plus on his blog recap of WoT he's all I LIKE NYNAEVE--which. Is one of my chief worries. Was. That he would not like her and she would get short shrift, because her characterization in the series is all over the place a lot. *wry* But I have hope!)
(no subject)
Date: Dec. 30th, 2008 12:49 am (UTC)Personally I'm looking forward to Warbreaker, as I've been wanting to find out what happens to poor Siri since 2001.
He has an lj as well
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Date: Dec. 30th, 2008 02:10 am (UTC)