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Mistborn (The Mistborn Saga, 1) Paperback – May 13, 2014

by Sanderson (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 39,704 ratings
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Now with over 10 million copies sold, The Mistborn Series has the thrills of a heist story, the twistiness of political intrigue, and the epic scale of a landmark fantasy saga.

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?

Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson

The Cosmere

The Stormlight Archive
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (Novella)
Oathbringer

The Mistborn trilogy
Mistborn: The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages

Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series
Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
Bands of Mourning

Collection
Arcanum Unbounded

Other Cosmere novels
Elantris
Warbreaker

The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
The Scrivener's Bones
The Knights of Crystallia
The Shattered Lens
The Dark Talent

The Rithmatist series
The Rithmatist

Other books by Brandon Sanderson

The Reckoners
Steelheart
Firefight
Calamity

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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 7
    Mistborn
  2. Print length
    669 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    May 13, 2014
  5. Grade level
    10 - 12
  6. Reading age
    13 - 18 years
  7. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.15 x 8.2 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    9780765377135
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0765377135
  10. Lexile measure
    HL740L
  11. See all details
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  1. “Belief isn’t simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief—what is faith—if you don’t continue in it after failure?”
    Highlighted by 6,162 Kindle readers
  2. “You don’t stop loving someone just because they hurt you,” he said. “It would certainly make things easier if you did.”
    Highlighted by 4,393 Kindle readers
  3. “The best liars are those who tell the truth most of the time.”
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Intrigue, politics, and conspiracies mesh complexly in a world Sanderson realizes in satisfying depth and peoples with impressive characters.” ―Booklist on Mistborn

“This entertaining read will especially please those who always wanted to know what happened after the good guys won.” ―Publishers Weekly on The Well of Ascension

“Sanderson is an evil genius. There is simply no other way to describe what he's managed to pull off in this transcendent final volume of his Mistborn trilogy.” ―RT Book Reviews, Gold Medal, Top Pick, on The Hero of Ages

About the Author

Brandon Sanderson grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He lives in Utah with his wife and children and teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. His bestsellers have sold 30 million copies worldwide and include the Mistborn® Trilogy and its sequels; the Stormlight Archive novels; and other novels, including The Rithmatist, Steelheart, and Skyward. He won a Hugo Award for for The Emperor's Soul, a novella set in the world of his acclaimed first novel, Elantris. Additionally, he was chosen to complete Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time® sequence. For behind-the-scenes information on all his books, visit brandonsanderson.com.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0765377136
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Trade; Reprint edition (May 13, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 669 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780765377135
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765377135
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 - 18 years
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ HL740L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 10 - 12
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.15 x 8.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 39,704 ratings

About the author

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Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

I’m Brandon Sanderson, and I write stories of the fantastic: fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers.

Defiant, the fourth and final volume of the series that started with Skyward in 2018, comes out in November 2023, capping an already book-filled year that will see the releases of all four Secret Projects: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and Secret Project Four (with its official title reveal coming October 2023). These four books were all initially offered to backers of the #1 Kickstarter campaign of all time.

November 2022 saw the release of The Lost Metal, the seventh volume in the Mistborn saga, and the final volume of the Mistborn Era Two featuring Wax & Wayne. The third era of Mistborn is slated to be written after the first arc of the Stormlight Archive wraps up.

In November 2020 we saw the release of Rhythm of War—the fourth massive book in the New York Times #1 bestselling Stormlight Archive series that began with The Way of Kings—and Dawnshard (book 3.5), a novella set in the same world that bridges the gaps between the main releases. This series is my love letter to the epic fantasy genre, and it’s the type of story I always dreamed epic fantasy could be. The fifth volume, Wind and Truth, is set for release in fall 2024.

Most readers have noticed that my adult fantasy novels are in a connected universe called the Cosmere. This includes The Stormlight Archive, both Mistborn series, Elantris, Warbreaker, and various novellas available on Amazon, including The Emperor’s Soul, which won a Hugo Award in 2013. In November 2016 all of the existing Cosmere short fiction was released in one volume called Arcanum Unbounded. If you’ve read all of my adult fantasy novels and want to see some behind-the-scenes information, that collection is a must-read.

I also have three YA series: The Rithmatist (currently at one book), The Reckoners (a trilogy beginning with Steelheart), and Skyward. For young readers I also have my humorous series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, which had its final book, Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, come out in 2022. Many of my adult readers enjoy all of those books as well, and many of my YA readers enjoy my adult books, usually starting with Mistborn.

Additionally, I have a few other novellas that are more on the thriller/sci-fi side. These include the Legion series, as well as Perfect State and Snapshot. There’s a lot of material to go around!

Good starting places are Mistborn (a.k.a. The Final Empire), Skyward, Steelheart,The Emperor’s Soul, and Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. If you’re already a fan of big fat fantasies, you can jump right into The Way of Kings.

I was also honored to be able to complete the final three volumes of The Wheel of Time, beginning with The Gathering Storm, using Robert Jordan’s notes.

Sample chapters from all of my books are available at brandonsanderson.com—and check out the rest of my site for chapter-by-chapter annotations, deleted scenes, and more.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
39,704 global ratings
Wow
5 Stars
Wow
WOWI didn’t know if Sanderson could match the quality of the Stormlight archives but I was wrong for doubting, The Final Empire is brilliant on so many levels!Here is a buckshot of what I loved.- the whole cast of characters were amazing. The side characters are all memorable and lovable and even given decent time to develop in this book and the leads (Kelsier and Vin) are top tier protagonists! Love Kelsier specifically.- the villain is awesome, he is intimidating, mysterious and truly evil. There are also many great twists and turns with his story that I loved!- the story is great: this is a story about rebellion and hope with elements of espionage, thievery, and assassination. It’s a brilliant tale with many great twists and turns. The last 100 pages had me gripping my book so hard! Sanderson does a good job of letting his characters fail, I think this is a quality that authors often lack. This book’s plot it great, well paced, and consistently engaging.- The book explores many themes that I found interesting, mainly the exploration of charismatic leaders, the effect of religion on a population, and hope vs oppression. The book is actually extremely thought provoking.- the magic system, the magic system, the magic system! Sanderson writes the coolest magic systems and this one steals the cake maybe for my favorite magic system in all of fantasy! So cool and different. The way it plays into the combat as well is awesome.- Really well done and exciting combat.Negatives- I struggle to find a critique, many say Sanderson lacks prose but I don’t need fancy prose to make a book spectacular. It’s the story, characters, and execution of the book’s themes that matter not thous and thys. I think what The Final Empire lacks in prose Sanderson makes up for with style and clever structure, which I think are often more important than drippy sentences.5/5 full send recommend!
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Top reviews from the United States

Gamerguy
5.0 out of 5 stars Brandon Sanderson is a Gem!!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2024
Verified Purchase
This was my entry novel into the Cosmere series by Brandon Sanderson. It took me a while to get into this book, and if I'm being honest, I imagined a normal world and not a red world, but this series is absolutely a gem. Not only this, but the whole cosmere is genuinely the best world building I have experienced in any series at all. This is a GREAT place to start the Cosmere and you really should. You are missing out if you're not checking out the cosmere! This first trilogy of Mistborn sets up a lot of world building for the entire series and brings in a lot of very important characters. Era 2 Mistborn is even better, and its because of this first era trilogy that it is as good as it is.

Going through Mistborn: The Final Empire, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, and Mistborn: The Hero of Ages is worth it. There are several great reading orders with graphs on Reddit, or even websites suggesting what books to read when and I can't recommend these enough. I've convinced many of my friends to grab up all of these and listen to audio books or read them. The best thing about the cosmere is that the more you read, it only gets better. I've read 23 of these books so far, and it is still blowing my mind. People call the big lore bombs and surprises "Sandersavalanches" (combination of Sanderson and Avalanche) and I couldn't agree more. There is so much excitement and interesting stuff going on that it really does feel overwhelmingly positive and exciting at times.

By far my favorite series in the Cosmere is the Stormlight Archive series, but Mistborn Era 2 comes right after that, and this book is the start of all of mistborn. Era 1 Book 1! This book has a sort of heist feel to it, and the next two that come after it only improve and expound upon everything in this book. It's great, check it out.

I bought the kindle edition, so to rate the product as I received it, it was very easy to read. Kindle allows great customization so the experience was solid, and the book itself is fantastic. The start to the best series I've ever encountered anywhere, an easy 5 star for me.
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Sara Machado Silva
5.0 out of 5 stars “Plots behind plots, plans behind plans. There was always another secret.”
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is a very hyped book and because of that, and of how much I loved Elantris, I was afraid of feeling disappointed.
Against most opinions, I still think Elantris is a better book. However, I did enjoy this one very much.

“Plots behind plots, plans behind plans. There was always another secret.”

Brandon Sanderson created a very interesting world and I was particularly impressed with the magic system. Allomancy and Feruchemy felt very original and will probably stay as one of my favourite magic systems. His writing style is simple but engaging and creates a story that is coherent and feels complete.

Mistborn trilogy was written straight through, and it notices. It's refreshing to start reading a fantasy trilogy where you can tell the story has been thought through and will remain consistent.

What I loved about the book:
- The characters. This book has a lot of strong and interesting characters and I loved all of them. I enjoyed the banter between the group, especially Breeze and Ham but my favourite characters, so far, are Sazed and Marsh and I can’t wait to learn more about them.
- I think it is something quite special to have characters whose magic is focused on preserving knowledge to teach future generations.
- I liked to read the epigraphs and see its parallelism with bits of the story
- How the story slowly builds to reach its climax in the last part. I said it on Elantris and it still applies to this case. I’m very impressed how Sanderson is able to make so many things happen in the story and still tie those ends, completing the book with no cliff-hangers. Mistborn is indeed a trilogy, but you can easily read The Final Empire as a standalone and not commit to the series if you find it is not for you.

What I think it could have been done better:
- Vin and Elend's connection does not feel very profound/ strong / believable. I hope it develops further in the next book.
- Sanderson could have included more female characters in the central group of characters. However, he did include strong female characters in the story and I don’t think it is really fair to complaint on this issue when so many writers still don’t do it.
- To some, this book might feel too slow paced as the action is condensed in the end of the book. Not to me however, I do love Sanderlanches.

Overall 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
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Sublime Dissonance
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly good story
Reviewed in Canada on January 22, 2022
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Recently, I’ve been getting more and more into Epic Fantasy and since that is the case, it is not surprising that I would eventually read one of the works of the highly acclaimed author Brandon Sanderson. I was aware that he is regarded, by many, as one of the biggest names in modern fantasy, and my expectations were reasonably high for it. Nevertheless, The Final Empire managed to surpass all of them. The first entry into the Mistborn trilogy is undoubtedly one of the cleverest and most satisfying fantasy books that I have ever read.

Amidst the dystopian world in which the Final Empire sets itself, we get to experience the introduction of the outstanding cast of revolutionary thieves. They are solidly built from the get-go, but that is further deepened with the amount of attention put into their development throughout the story. The character development is so subtle and justifiable that I caught myself exiting from the immersive read solely to inwardly praise how well it is conducted by Sanderson. There are clear arcs of progression regarding Vin’s psyche and how it affects her interaction with the harsh world around her as well as the people living in it. The other characters react to the changes in her behavior in a way that makes the story presented feel organic and realistic to an astonishing degree, while distinctively not losing the magical atmosphere of the setting. If you have also read this book, I can not leave Kelsier unmentioned. He was the most captivating character that I have had the pleasure of reading as of yet, possessing mysterious depth in motivation, supernatural charisma, and personality that is just downright enjoyable to read.

The plot revolves around the massive undertaking of overthrowing an empire that has been ruling the lands for over one thousand years, and the way it is executed is just brilliant. The main band of thieves is resourceful, cunning, adaptative, and charismatic, but even with all those qualities, few things go according to their idealistic plan—as often happens in real life. That makes up for constant plot twists and the introduction of new threats that must be dealt with—if Kelsier’s group wants to succeed in their endeavor—which naturally translates into an unpredictable yet clever story that always has the reader on their toes. The final lengths of the revolutionaries’ plan are executed in a beautifully sad way that is sure to leave bittersweet memories. In a way, if you are attentive enough, it is possible to speculate how the majority of the event may play out, but that only serves to demonstrate how nuanced and thoughtful the plot of The Final Empire really is.

If there is an area that I found lacking, it would be how little detail the fauna receives. Besides the people and the occasional supernatural and magical beings, there is little to no mention of animals and how they are affected by such harsh environments. Perhaps all the animals died and, given the circumstances, I would not be contrary to that idea, but the lack of mention still makes it a somewhat dissatisfying aspect in this book. That, however, is literally the only criticism I can give this book. Everything else—plot, characters, prose, worldbuilding—is as good as I could expect.

The Final Empire was my introduction to Sanderson’s universe, and I can safely say it became my absolute favorite Epic Fantasy book. Though I confess to not having read such an extensive list of books as some of the more experienced readers out there, I don’t see how a fantasy book can get any better than this. I will be continuing to read more of Brandon Sanderson, and I seriously can not describe how much I anticipate the eventual re-read of the Mistborn trilogy. Trying out his other highly regarded series are also things that make me look forward to this year's readings.
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Pablo
5.0 out of 5 stars <3
Reviewed in Spain on March 30, 2024
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Fue mi introducción al Cosmere.
Celebro el día en que me compré este libro. Desde entonces el autor (Brandon Sanderson) es sin duda mi favorito.
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Rashmit M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
Reviewed in India on February 27, 2024
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This is arguably one of THE best first book of a series , i have read in a very very long time . Despite it's flaws , i loved it for all it's gloriousness and all it's flaws in fact i had to stop and force myself to think about things that were flaws in this books . I usually review books immediately , but i have taken nearly 10 hours after finishing this , to reading it

WHAT I LIKED :

First up , Goodreads has tagged it as a YA fantasy , and i seriously question if it really is YA , the level pf gore , death , grim content in this book is not YA appropriate, that out of the way There was so much i loved in this book , The world although grim is very much unique , and i could see the inspiration taken from Wheel of time , on which Sanderson worked upon , in fact i was fascinated with the "what If" scenario of Wheel of time and the resulting world though grim , was fascinating .

Said world and the power structure involing a God Ruler , a Ministry , Oblogators , Nobels , Thieving crew and finally oppressed skaa , it was all so well planned out. Meanwhile the world was further enhanced by the creatures and characters living in it . Meanwhile the magic system is superb and so unique , I can't even start to process the fact that there are people put there who can think of such systems and even incorporate some physics in them . Oh and talking of characters , while Vin is one of the best female lead i have come across in fantasy ( yeah Screw Egwene ! i hate her ) Kelsier as a character was one of best character i have read . I could feel his confidence and reading him inspired me into putting faith upon him , something the character was trying to do all book to his fellows and the skaa .

Kel aside the side characters , Dox , Ham , Club , spook , Breeze all come across really likable and for a change we even have Elend who swaps in for the usually tower trapped lady in distress to become a lord , in fact Elend often arrives to muddle the scenario and makes a mess of them .

But hey the plot is the real selling point , and i really dug into the plot. I mean this is a fantasy book with a heist for premise , and i have always loved my heist stories , even Ocean 12 . (There ! I said it ! And i am sticking to it !). There were many a scenario where the author could have bought in an ex-machina element but he resists the temptation and from the beginning keeps things well organised and it all makes sense like the pieces of a puzzle completing a portrait .

The book was well paced , with almost no dull moments in the story and many absolutely stand-up-and-shout-coz-its-so-damn-cool moments . I also The final two parts of the book really stunned me with the twists just keep coming one after another , and i was all eager for more .

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE :

I am stretching things , but i think there were a few plot convenience points throught out the book for Kelsier's plan to work out and i guess some people have pointed put that a few dialogue interchanges were a bit tacky.

CONCLUSION :

There's awesome magic , Super character , Grim and thought provoking premise , and just overall fun throughout the book . I simply can't gush more about this book , i love it . It's not perfect but it's entertainment at it's best
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Alexandra Bytchkova
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous book!
Reviewed in Germany on February 11, 2024
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Wow!! Such a great read! Would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy.
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NIcoletta
4.0 out of 5 stars Cool story, characters, and worldbuilding
Reviewed in Italy on March 16, 2022
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Very enjoyable to read through, didn't leave me with much after I finished it though.

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