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  • The Final Empire

  • Mistborn Book 1
  • Written by: Brandon Sanderson
  • Narrated by: Michael Kramer
  • Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (2,715 ratings)

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The Final Empire

Written by: Brandon Sanderson
Narrated by: Michael Kramer
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Publisher's Summary

From number one New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action. 

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 
©2006 Brandon Sanderson (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

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What listeners say about The Final Empire

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Flawed but entertaining

Imagine Ocean's Eleven set in Mordor. Magic wielding thieves plan an elaborate mission to overthrow their oppressive ruler's regime. Sounds exciting! The only problem is that elaborate missions actually require a lot of planning and preparation, and reading through scenes filled with nothing but brainstorming and troubleshooting can quickly become tiresome. Throw on top of that many scenes of one character's comprehensive training in The Final Empire's complicated magic system and you begin to feel like the world of Mistborn is being tediously explained, rather than shown, to you. Even outside of scenes devoted to lessons or planning sessions, the characters often hold unnatural sounding conversations clearly only meant to explicate some part of the world.

While there are many dramatic and entertaining moments here, and the world and magic system are definitely interesting, there's also just a lot of sloppy writing on Sanderson's part. He often tells rather than shows. He doesn't vary his diction enough. His dialogue is often clunky. He's sometimes painfully corny. His characters are often underdeveloped. The list goes on. Even taken as a whole these issues aren't a deal breaker, but it's a shame to see Sanderson's good ideas weighed down by bad execution.

On balance, I did enjoy The Final Empire. Kramer's narration is reliably good and there are enough cool ideas here to sustain an entertaining read. But if you're here because you were drawn in by Sanderson's brilliant Stormlight Archive (as I was) you may leave disappointed.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

overlooking this book is a mist opportunity

amazing book, amazing performance. each character feels so real and the story is incredible. 10/10

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

So close, and yet...

Reads like a writing workshop exercise. You can see the formulae poking through the skin.

Plot is decent, world-building is rather impressive (though the author feels far too pleased with it and takes every spare moment to point it out to you), characters are thin and rote.

Worst sin: the author doesn't trust the reader, and steps out time and again to re-tell things previously told (even just a page before), or _tell_ things already (as in "just! now!") _shown_. Generic example - two characters disagree, and a third, overhearing, gives one of them a look. (So far, so good). Author then spends a few sentences explicitly describing what that look was meant to convey. (Sigh).

Hint: if you're going to "show" us character development, trust us to catch it, otherwise this is just an exercise in insulting your audience's intelligence.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brandon Sanderson is amazing

The performance was superb and the book was another amazing example of Sanderson's genius writing. highly recommended!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful story line

loved the story, it kept moving with lots of twists and unexpected turns. the characters were personable!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Vin Frowned

like the world building and the overall story. But it takes a while to get into this book and even when you do, it's a slow burn. the book honestly could have been half the length it was

The author uses the same words a lot. "Vin Frowned" he always says X frowned, regardless of the emotion. frustration, sadness, anger, confusion? nope, just frown. It is not the biggest deal but makes it feel stale.

I really wanted to like this book because the world building and magic system is cool, but I will definitely not be listening to nor reading the sequels unfortunately. I really want to because I am invested in some of the characters, the overall story, and the world. But I know I will just be counting the hours until the books are over as I did with this one.

Also, the narration is so slow. I like the voice actor, but I listened at 1.25 speed. a first for me with audio books

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

This story is so very different, and so very interesting. I am also very impressed that I was not able to figure out what was going to happen. The author was able to continually surprise me.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

Incredible story with an epic voice to give it life. I wish I had more stars to to give this is just *chefs kiss* magnificent.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Kicking myself for not starting sooner!

I had this book on my Audible shelf for YEARS without listening. Don't be like me! If you love fantasy, amazing magical systems and a few dashes of political intrigue: this is the book for you.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Solid Novel

I found the narration to be a bit flat at the start but quickly grew accustomed to it. This was my first Sanderson novel, and I look forward to more.

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