Mistborn

 The Mistborn series consists of three books by Brandon Sanderson, "Mistborn", "The Well of Ascension", and "The Hero of Ages".

 It does has some traditional fantasy tropes, but it is not entirely a traditional fantasy novel.

 The main character, Vin, is a young girl who grew up on the streets of the Final Empire, an empire controlled by a man known as the Lord Ruler.  The Lord Ruler was once, long ago the hero of his people, but now he is an immortal force controlling them.  Vin is half Ska and half Noble, the Ska are those without power, many live virtually as slaves, and are often used and disposed of at whim.

 In this world there are powerful individuals known as Allomancers, possessing the ability to ingest special metals which temporary give them magical powers.  Sanderson creates a variety of original magical abilities, many of which require a degree of skill to use, this is not your typical magic bolt or ball of fire type stuff.

 Vin soon runs into the crew of Kelsier, known as "the survivor", because he escaped from a work-pit where people are sent to die.  This crew takes an assignment to overthrow the Lord Ruler, and what follows from that consumes the first book.

  Now to some problems.  Sanderson seems to have issues with dialog--it crops up in most of his works( except "The Way of Kings" which shows marked improvement).  On occasion dialog will seem forced, as if characters are mealy saying what they need to say in order to move the plot along, not because it is what they would naturally say.
  Another quibble is that Sanderson's world is G rated, some might say a-bit too disney.  This is noticeable in most of his works, though I'm hoping his Way of Kings series will to suffer less of it as it progresses.
  Some may be more bothered by these issues than others, I was mostly able to overlook them on account of how entertaining the novels are.



  I feel that the first book is the strongest, Sanderson takes the story in a very different direction with the second and third books. Saying where it goes would spoil it, but while it is original and these follow-ups are still very entertaining, they don't stand as strong.

9/10

Warbreaker

Warbreaker is a standalone novel by Brandon Sanderson, and it reads much like his previous standalone, Elantris.

The novel follows two sisters, the younger sent as a hostage queen to marry the "God King", the older
sets out on her own to save her sister.

There is also a third POV character, a minor god in the God Kings court, who doesn't think much of his role as a god.

Sanderson constructs another unique magic system(as he seems to enjoy doing), this time based on color and 'breathes'.  Each person is born with a single 'breath', which can be transferred to others.  The more breaths you have the more powerful you are.

 Although this novel was released recently, it felt like something of a step back in regards to the quality of Sanderson's storytelling. I believe this story was originally written years ago, and only recently published, perhaps it just didn't receive as much of a rewrite/cleanup as some of his others have had.

  Some of the dialog feels forced, especially in the early portions with the older sister after she arrives in the city to save her sister.

 I did enjoy the book, but it is not Sanderson's best work, actually this is probably the least of his novels, so if you want to try Sanderson start with Mistborn or "The Way of Kings".

7.3/10

The Way of Kings

Finished Sanderson's Way of Kings a few days ago, the first in what is apparently going to be a very long series.

   I've read many of Sanderson's other novels(Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker) and WoK's feels almost like it was by a different author.  One problem I often had in his earlier works was the character interaction--somehow it always felt forced(though it could still be enjoyable).   In WoK's I never had this problem.

   The world is quite unique in fantasy, it is in no way just another medieval Europe, more of a science fiction setting where huge storms sweep through the inhabitants hide in shelters.  It also features crustacean like creatures that roam the landscape.

  The book is the first in a lengthy series so it does consist mostly of build up.  There are three primary characters; a young man captured and forced to work as a "bridgeman" in a war gets the majority of the time, but it also features an older fighter who happens to be the king's uncle, and a young woman who sets out to protect her family's assets.
  
   Overall a pretty damn good fantasy novel, but it will be another two years before Sanderson releases the 2nd book & years more for the rest.  I imagine I'll have forgotten much of what happened in the first book by the time the 2nd shows up.

9/10