If The Final Empire is any indication, Jordan's masterpiece is in good hands.
The Lord Ruler is the immortal and invincible god-king of the Final Empire. He maintains his iron grip with his mastery of Allomancy, a form of magic that is available primarily to noblemen, but also (occasionally) to the serf-like skaa. Basically, Allomancers "burn" trace metals that they ingest to exert their magical will. Each metal has a specific effect: tin enhances the senses; pewter strengthens the body; etc. Most Allomancers can burn only one of the metals. Very rarely, some Allomancers are able to master all of the metals, giving them unparalleled power -- and the title of Mistborn.
The Final Empire relates the story of two skaa Mistborn -- Kelsier, a lovable rogue; and Vin, a street urchin whom Kelsier discovers -- and follows their attempts to incite a skaa rebellion against the awe-inspiring Lord Ruler. The characters are all cliches, and most (outside of Kelsier and Vin) are superficially drawn even for stock characters. But their shallowness allows Sanderson to focus on the novel's real strength, which is its superb world-building.
The Mistborn world has a deep history and an oppressive present. A political myth defines the history: one thousand years ago, the Lord Ruler defeated the Deepness (whose exact nature is a mystery), saved the world, and thus established his right to rule the Final Empire. In the present, the Lord Ruler dominates his kingdom with the aid of the terrifying Steel Ministry, the unsteady support of his nobles, and the subjugation of the skaa. The pall cast over the Empire is not wholly political. During the day, the Ashmounts (a ring of volcanoes) spew smoke and blot out the sky; at night, the mists emerge.
What makes the Mistborn world so intriguing is the intimation that all of these disparate pieces -- Allomancy, the Lord Ruler's immortality, the Ashmounts, the mists -- have a shared origin that has been lost (or perhaps obscured) in the Lord Ruler's relentless mythmaking. Sanderson, wisely, does not reveal too much in this opening volume, except to hint that things are not what they seem. The promise of future revelations is tantalizing, and frankly very enjoyable.
Sanderson's magic system, Allomancy, has received a lot of attention. To Sanderson's credit, Allomancy is well thought out and internally consistent, and he does a good job integrating its rules with the plot -- a welcome contrast from the ad hoc systems of other novels. But the very intricacy of Allomancy's rules also bogs the narrative down with frequent, overly technical descriptions, which at times read like a D&D rulebook.
Equally intricate, but better constructed, is the story of Kelsier's plot to overthrow the Lord Ruler. The plot is not really that surprising, but that's not a bad thing: it can be fun -- even exciting -- to watch a well-oiled machine roll over the obstacles in its path.
Although I very much enjoyed The Final Empire, I do think it lacks the indefinable element that separates very good fantasy novels (like this one) from the classics, like Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy or George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. The problem, I think, is Sanderson's lack of seriousness about his ideas. Don't get me wrong: grim things happen in this book. But Sanderson's depiction of an evil government never gave me the gut punch of despair that I feel when I read about 1984's England -- not to mention historical iniquities like the Jim Crow South or Stalinist Russia. The reason, I think, is that Sanderson is not really interested in exploring oppression for its own sake. Instead, the Lord Ruler's dictatorship is just one element of the clever background that Sanderson is itching to reveal. That background is interesting, and fun. But it's not profound.
Copyright © 2009 Steven Wu 