For over a thousand years the earth has been covered in red ash and the skaa have been kept in slavery. The hero who was prophesied to save everyone has failed and the earth is now controlled by the Lord Ruler, a terrible leader who causes suffering and pain to all under his reign. However, things are starting to change and a rebellion is brewing, but will anyone be able to overthrow the almighty power that is the Lord Ruler?
The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson, is the first book in the bestselling Mistborn trilogy. It is set in the future in a fantasy world, and focuses on the two main characters, Kelsier and Vin. Kelsier is a troublemaker who was imprisoned by the Lord Ruler and sentenced to death but was able to escape. He is sick of the way the skaa are being treated and is now the leader of the uprising against the Lord Ruler. Vin is a young skaa girl, trapped in a life of thievery she doesn’t know how to escape. That is until she meets Kelsier, and he reveals to her that she is a powerful allomancer, and her life is changed forever.
Allomancy is the type of magic used in the book and is one of my favourite features of the novel. Allomancers use different metals to give them different powers and are very rare. Brandon Sanderson has done a very good job explaining how the magic system works in this novel and made it very believable.
Another strong point of this book is world building. The world in The Final Empire is very complex but Brandon Sanderson was able to incorporate all this into the book without the reader feeling like they were being bombarded with information. Throughout the novel more and more is revealed about the world and it makes the reader feel as though they are one of the characters in the book who keeps finding out more about what the Lord Ruler has actually been doing. Fantasy books can be harder to read because you need to be introduced to a whole different world but Brandon Sanderson has done it in such a way that the reader is so intrigued that they do not notice how much information they are getting about the fantasy world.
The Final Empire is quite a long book but do not be discouraged by the length, you will definitely not get bored. This book is packed with action at all the right times and will have you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. I highly recommend this book to you. It is full of bravery, perseverance and sacrifice, and shows just how much a few people can accomplish. This is a book that if you read, you will never forget. By Natalie Lawrance