As a new fantasy reader, whose greatest foray into the genre has been Narnia and The Hunger games, I asked TikTok for suggestions and got a resounding “Mistborn” in return. And so I went to the bookstore to get my ticket to the city of Luthadel.

(Allow me to share my experience as a complete noob, may it be helpful to other beginners.)

I got the first book in the series –  which in some versions is called “Mistborn” and other versions called “The final empire” – if you’re new at this, that is the same book. I ONLY got the first one, because I wanted to see if the writing style and story was anything for me before committing to the whole series. 

Many told me that the first Mistborn book is self-contained, and can stand very well on its own, but the second and the third are more connected. And to this, I would have to agree. I didn’t feel an immediate rush to the next book after reading Mistborn, but after reading book 2 – I immediately picked up book 3.

Mistborn eases you into the universe so well that you’ll have no trouble following Kelsier into the mists as he bands together his crew. Together with his second in command Dockson, he picks up a young street girl named Vin who he suspects is a mistborn. They bring her to their lair where she meets Ham the thug, Breeze the soother, Clubs the smoker and his nephew Spook who’s a tineye, and the Terrisman Sazed who memorizes and collects all religions. 

As Kelsier tests and teaches Vin to use her powers also known as allomancy, we learn alongside Vin what all the metals can do and how they work. But don’t worry, you don’t have to memorize this, since Sanderson is good at reminding us what everything does. He knows our generation is a bunch of procrastinating ADHD kids who can’t retain this information to save our lives. So he tells us everytime they burn a metal, what power it enhances. It’s comforting to have that security blanket. Sanderson’s got your back. 

So what is this world we’ve entered? It’s been snowing ash and the whole kingdom has been grey since. Not a single thing has bloomed for a thousand years, which makes it hard to keep up with food supplies and such. But the skaa – aka slaves aka “normal people” – keep at it in the fields. The Lord ruler is the God of the final empire and rumor has it he’s immortal. He’s the creator of it all, but it’s not a religion per se, it’s a ministry with ministry officials such as steel inquisitors and Obligators handling bureaucracy and policing the empire. They are an allround terrible gang that keep the skaa in line and only benefits the top 1% – the noble class. The noble class have their houses that divide up the empire and they do trade and politics to further their own gain while enslaving the skaa. Now and then they throw big balls to socialize and strengthen alliances. 

The story mostly follows Vin as she becomes a part of Kelsiers group of misfits as they plan to overthrow the Lord Ruler, free the skaa and save the world. The group has a set of charming characters that all carry their own weight with different powers. Kelsier the leader is the most powerful mistborn. Mistborns are rare, as they hold all the allomantic powers as opposed to only one. 

Vin learns to use her powers and infiltrates the noble by going to their balls under an alias. As she gets to know the nobles, she wonders if there are allies to be found within their midst also.

She learns about shapeshifting creatures like Kandra and Mistwraits, which will play a large role in her path forward. 

It’s hard to review these books together as the story goes on, because there will eventually be spoilers. So I’ll leave it at that. I will say though, that it does have many connections to religion without being about any one religion in particular. 

If you’re looking for a journey into fantasy, this is a paved path that’s easy to walk. And it seems to be more about the journey than it is about the destination. But the destination is also very much worth the 700+ pages each book gives you. It’s definitely a slow burn, and a lot of pieces that need to be connected before you get there. But I feel like that’s what makes a good book like this, you get to spend a lot of time with the characters, you start to care about them and root for them and that’s when the story will really hit you. So if you’re patient and enjoying the journey then I believe you’ll enjoy this trilogy. 

If however, you are a person who needs instant gratification, then you might find this road too long.

The books are 85% build up and 15% climax, so if you want something that you can really sink your teeth into and enjoy the ride for while, then this is it!

And if that wasn’t enough Mistborn has an era 2 with 4 more books and the cosmere has 32 books in total.

And as I found out after I started reading this – Mistborn is actually the recommended start to the entire cosmere. As if you needed another reason to pick up mistborn. It’s also trending on Tiktok right now, or maybe that’s just my algorithm feeding me. If it wasn’t clear yet – I highly recommend this book.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. 

Protip: DO NOT under any circumstances enter the mistborn wiki or search up mistborn fanart or you will get spoilers. I got so heavily spoiled when I wanted to add some photos to my bulletjournal and it sort of ruined a large resolution for me. Would not recommend. I’ll leave a photo here that I found and kept in my book while reading. (I would tag the creator but it wasn’t mentioned in the reddit post.)