Philip Kneller’s Reviews > Mistborn: The Final Empire > Status Update

Things are getting good. Not like they weren't already, so I guess they're getting BETTER.

This is like his writing skills shot straight into puberty. He actually takes time on his various scenes, but rarely wastes it. Events are now written to be/function as more than the sum of their parts. Even still, there's the passing shadow of Elantris' directness/lack of tact floating in a dark corner somewhere. If Elantris walked in its prose, The Final Empire jumps between rocks, looking for its next target.

Things are happening. Really cool things. I love his macabre visualizations, which thus far have been the mistwraiths. He doesn't shy away from the gross, the dead, the dark, something I wish I saw more among the "cleaner" authors out nowadays. I will say it's almost too cinematic, or else my sense for this is bad. I can hear and see the music, voices, and scenes and whatnot in my head. Lovely.

Notably faster-paced than Elantris. He also switches POV characters quite quickly. Allomancy is excellent, 10/10. As they set up the main conflict of the book, there's an interaction written to frame one of the main questions the book asks, and it's handled so very well. Perhaps this book is simpler than Elantris, but I'm enjoying it far more, and Elantris was excellent, in my opinion. Can't wait for the movie.

Again, little to do, and again, it's cinematic nature is enthralling. I remember Sanderson speaking on how movies like Ocean's 11 and The Italian Job inspired this book, and it shows. I don't have much of a profile, as it were, on Kelsier, but I can hear how smarmy and wisecracking he is, in the George Clooney way. Already headfirst into a great story.

I apologize. I have little to do. That said, I am so abundantly clear on everything leading into Ch. 1. With Elantris, it was a largely silent, but here I can imagine music, editing and scenery as if it were a movie. Fantastic! This is an absurdly small nitpick, but the only complaint is how he reveals the magic system. It feels far too blunt. I suppose I think it could have used more intrigue. Instantly gripping.

Note - technically already started, and I'm reading the first trilogy's omnibus, on the off-chance you care, lol. However, my recollection if the first scene where the servant girl is saved makes me recall how cinematic it seemed compared to Elantris.