My experience with reading Mistborn backwards

[Halyo_Alex]

Firstly, allow me to clarify the title. No, I didn't read each book in order but from back to front. No i didn't read Hero of ages first, then WoA, then TFE.

I read. ALL. Of ERA 2. FIRST.

Alloy of Law was my first ever BRANDON SANDERSON novel.

Wax was the first Cosmere character I read about.

So let me tell you about my experience with reading Mistborn backwards.

 

It was actually cool. Make no mistake, I have no regrets about reading the books this way. It was a fun and interesting experience to treat Era 1 as a prequel trilogy (everyone loves prequel trilogies, right?) with Era 2 as the "present day". Seeing all of the references to past characters as my first time learning of their existence was fascinating, seeing Vin immortalized as the Ascendant Warrior and wondering, "WOW, what did she have to do for THAT to happen?" made reading era 1 and seeing how Vin started out all the more interesting. I guess a comparable irl thing would be like meeting a celebrity and getting to know them on a personal level instead of just being aware of their celebrity persona. When Harmony showed up through Wax's earring and spoke to him, I was like, "Damn, God himself is just a chill dude who wants to keep things safe. ....And also not omnipotent, hmmmm." That was some interesting foreshadowing (retroshadowing?) for the end of HoA. Wax's Twinborn powers were immediately a favorite out of all magical skills i've ever seen, though being a Bloodmaker sounds more practical in a real life setting. I hate the idea of getting hurt in such a way that permanently damages me, so knowing that F-Gold could restore even a lost limb given enough time, really sounds appealing to me. The speed bubbles of Bendalloy and Cadmium were fascinating to read about, time dilation is one of my favorite things in science fiction, and Cadmium would be great for being able to just sit through boring stuff in a fraction of the time. And then it being the key component to Miles' defeat, just... Chef's Kiss. Perfecto. Introduce an ability that feels useless and impractical, and then smack the reader in the face with, "sure, BUT..." And then Ironeyes. Rusting IRONEYES. As a fan of Terry Pratchett, a "personification of Death" character will always remind me of Death from Discworld, so it was a little "Ha!" moment when he showed up. And Miles' prophecy about the "Men of red and gold, bearers of the final metal" was suitably ominous for the book's main antagonist's final words.

Shadows of Self, hoo... That was an emotional roller coaster, surprisingly. I won't lie, I cried at the end. And the Trellium spikes... other than Ironeyes, that was my first glimpse of Hemalurgy. and Bleeder really made it feel terrifying. The Kandra as a whole were actually quite satisfactorily explained in Era 2 that I felt like I comprehended their functionality having read just those 2 books so far. And it really made the mystery novel aspect of the book feel much more intense, when anyone you know could be a Kandra... cue The Spy: "He could be any one of us!" And yeah, when it was revealed that Bleeder/Paalm WAS the real Lessie from the intro of Alloy, I cried. I felt furious at Harmony for misleading Wax into doing that, to forcing her hand into killing herself so that Harmony wouldn't be capable of making her into his pawn again. Harmony started to feel like a nontagonist (neither pro- nor antagonist, a middle ground of moral grey, which in retrospect makes perfect sense given his Shards).

Bands of Mourning, OH BOY, this is probably my favorite Mistborn book just because of the Southerners and Ettmetal. Now remember, I had no idea who Kelsier was other than The Survivor, and The Lord Ruler was basically a footnote in my knowledge. So the mystery of the Sovereign's temple, the false bands, that was all extra mysterious. The Ettmetal cubes were AWESOME. Mechanically-altered allomantic and feruchemical effects was SUCH a fun thing to add to the series, and making a rusting AIRSHIP using them? Dope. So dope. Translation medallions were a fascinating addition, and promptly set my brain a-theorizin' upon what they could do and how they were made... No concrete theory on it yet, but I suppose Lost Metal will tell us all what we need to know about it. And of course, crossing the two, Ettmetal cubes and Medallions, I realized you could basically turn anyone into a Leeching grenadier for rapid metal depletion. Put an A-Chromium medallion on them, give em Ettmetal cubes, and let them cause chaos by depowering people around the area.

The reveal of Kelsier being the Sovereign probably hit me a lot less hard than the average mistborn reader, but it was a FASCINATING reveal that the Survivor had managed to live, you know, 300+ years and reach the southern scadrians. And of course that made the reveal that Kel dies in the midst of book 1 all the more nutty and shocking for me when I read TFE. "Wait, he WHAT?!"

 

So yeah, that's a rough summary of my thoughts from reading Era 2 as my first-ever cosmere books.

[Kingsdaughter613]

19 minutes ago, Halyo_Alex said:

Firstly, allow me to clarify the title. No, I didn't read each book in order but from back to front. No i didn't read Hero of ages first, then WoA, then TFE.

I read. ALL. Of ERA 2. FIRST.

Alloy of Law was my first ever BRANDON SANDERSON novel.

Wax was the first Cosmere character I read about.

So let me tell you about my experience with reading Mistborn backwards.

 

It was actually cool. Make no mistake, I have no regrets about reading the books this way. It was a fun and interesting experience to treat Era 1 as a prequel trilogy (everyone loves prequel trilogies, right?) with Era 2 as the "present day". Seeing all of the references to past characters as my first time learning of their existence was fascinating, seeing Vin immortalized as the Ascendant Warrior and wondering, "WOW, what did she have to do for THAT to happen?" made reading era 1 and seeing how Vin started out all the more interesting. I guess a comparable irl thing would be like meeting a celebrity and getting to know them on a personal level instead of just being aware of their celebrity persona. When Harmony showed up through Wax's earring and spoke to him, I was like, "Damn, God himself is just a chill dude who wants to keep things safe. ....And also not omnipotent, hmmmm." That was some interesting foreshadowing (retroshadowing?) for the end of HoA. Wax's Twinborn powers were immediately a favorite out of all magical skills i've ever seen, though being a Bloodmaker sounds more practical in a real life setting. I hate the idea of getting hurt in such a way that permanently damages me, so knowing that F-Gold could restore even a lost limb given enough time, really sounds appealing to me. The speed bubbles of Bendalloy and Cadmium were fascinating to read about, time dilation is one of my favorite things in science fiction, and Cadmium would be great for being able to just sit through boring stuff in a fraction of the time. And then it being the key component to Miles' defeat, just... Chef's Kiss. Perfecto. Introduce an ability that feels useless and impractical, and then smack the reader in the face with, "sure, BUT..." And then Ironeyes. Rusting IRONEYES. As a fan of Terry Pratchett, a "personification of Death" character will always remind me of Death from Discworld, so it was a little "Ha!" moment when he showed up. And Miles' prophecy about the "Men of red and gold, bearers of the final metal" was suitably ominous for the book's main antagonist's final words.

Shadows of Self, hoo... That was an emotional roller coaster, surprisingly. I won't lie, I cried at the end. And the Trellium spikes... other than Ironeyes, that was my first glimpse of Hemalurgy. and Bleeder really made it feel terrifying. The Kandra as a whole were actually quite satisfactorily explained in Era 2 that I felt like I comprehended their functionality having read just those 2 books so far. And it really made the mystery novel aspect of the book feel much more intense, when anyone you know could be a Kandra... cue The Spy: "He could be any one of us!" And yeah, when it was revealed that Bleeder/Paalm WAS the real Lessie from the intro of Alloy, I cried. I felt furious at Harmony for misleading Wax into doing that, to forcing her hand into killing herself so that Harmony wouldn't be capable of making her into his pawn again. Harmony started to feel like a nontagonist (neither pro- nor antagonist, a middle ground of moral grey, which in retrospect makes perfect sense given his Shards).

Bands of Mourning, OH BOY, this is probably my favorite Mistborn book just because of the Southerners and Ettmetal. Now remember, I had no idea who Kelsier was other than The Survivor, and The Lord Ruler was basically a footnote in my knowledge. So the mystery of the Sovereign's temple, the false bands, that was all extra mysterious. The Ettmetal cubes were AWESOME. Mechanically-altered allomantic and feruchemical effects was SUCH a fun thing to add to the series, and making a rusting AIRSHIP using them? Dope. So dope. Translation medallions were a fascinating addition, and promptly set my brain a-theorizin' upon what they could do and how they were made... No concrete theory on it yet, but I suppose Lost Metal will tell us all what we need to know about it. And of course, crossing the two, Ettmetal cubes and Medallions, I realized you could basically turn anyone into a Leeching grenadier for rapid metal depletion. Put an A-Chromium medallion on them, give em Ettmetal cubes, and let them cause chaos by depowering people around the area.

The reveal of Kelsier being the Sovereign probably hit me a lot less hard than the average mistborn reader, but it was a FASCINATING reveal that the Survivor had managed to live, you know, 300+ years and reach the southern scadrians. And of course that made the reveal that Kel dies in the midst of book 1 all the more nutty and shocking for me when I read TFE. "Wait, he WHAT?!"

 

So yeah, that's a rough summary of my thoughts from reading Era 2 as my first-ever cosmere books.

Man, you must have been so confused when he died... What did you think happened?

[HSuperLee]

That's honestly kind of amazing. In some ways it almost sounds like you had a more dynamic experience than the rest of us. Makes me wonder if we'll eventually have people who read Era's 3 or 4 before the rest, and what their perspectives will be.

[Celairiel]

I'm also curious what you thought when Kel died. 

How did you come to read Era 2 first? Did it just catch your eye in the bookstore? I'm that sort of person that I assumed publication order was the best order and started with Elantris, and if my friend who encouraged me to try Sanderson didn't guarantee that Mistborn was more epic, I may have stopped there. So starting in the middle just confuses me.

What was it like learning about mistborn vs. mistings after you had been used to the twinborn vs mistings of Era 2? Reading it in the published order, it was weird seeing that shift, and I'm curious how it felt going the other way.

[Halyo_Alex]

3 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Man, you must have been so confused when he died... What did you think happened?

I think my first thought as soon as it was clear he was deceased was "oh rust, was that a Kandra in the medallion?" followed by "...Yep, it probably was" when there was in fact a Kandra posing as Kel's spirit soon after his death.

2 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

That's honestly kind of amazing. In some ways it almost sounds like you had a more dynamic experience than the rest of us. Makes me wonder if we'll eventually have people who read Era's 3 or 4 before the rest, and what their perspectives will be.

Seeing guns and stuff used with allomancy was definitely an interesting way to start things off. The knockback tricks with Wax's shotgun and storing iron was also really satisfying.

2 hours ago, Celairiel said:

I'm also curious what you thought when Kel died. 

See above.

2 hours ago, Celairiel said:

How did you come to read Era 2 first? Did it just catch your eye in the bookstore? I'm that sort of person that I assumed publication order was the best order and started with Elantris, and if my friend who encouraged me to try Sanderson didn't guarantee that Mistborn was more epic, I may have stopped there. So starting in the middle just confuses me.

Skallagrim's video reviewing "enchanted swords", and then he brought up Allomancy, and Atium allomancy in particular, and then linked to both Alloy and Final Empire in the description... I just happened to click on the link to Alloy of law like a doofus maximus, and got it as an Ebook that day. Committed to reading era 2 first when I realized "hmm, there's a lot of history here that's being laid out as if the reader is familiar with the names."

2 hours ago, Celairiel said:

What was it like learning about mistborn vs. mistings after you had been used to the twinborn vs mistings of Era 2? Reading it in the published order, it was weird seeing that shift, and I'm curious how it felt going the other way.

Seeing a mistborn in action felt just as cool as the W&W era people make it sound, what with the mentions of the Set attempting to create new mistborn by mixing allomantically powerful bloodlines. Kelsier especially, with his proficiency in steel and iron simultaneously, made me realize just how much Wax can still improve his steel.

Also of course this (and Skallagrim's video but to a lesser extent, as he only explained the initial set of metals) ruined (ha!) the reveal of the new allomantic metals past the 10 original ones, and I knew that Atium was the god metal of ruin from the outset of the first era trilogy.

[AquaRegia]

I'm really happy to hear that it was still an engaging - and even surprising - experience.  Having had big reveals in OTHER media spoiled for me (e.g., The Mandalorian; thanks a lot, Facebook), nothing would make me sad like knowing a first-time reader missed out on a satisfying Sanderson revelation.  The way he builds layers of mystery within other layers is just so terrific, I want EVERYONE to have that same full enjoyment.  It's great to hear that even "out of order", the wonder and excitement is still there.  Thanks for sharing!

[Elend Venture]

On 3/15/2021 at 6:55 PM, Halyo_Alex said:

Skallagrim's video reviewing "enchanted swords", and then he brought up Allomancy, and Atium allomancy in particular, and then linked to both Alloy and Final Empire in the description... I just happened to click on the link to Alloy of law like a doofus maximus, and got it as an Ebook that day. Committed to reading era 2 first when I realized "hmm, there's a lot of history here that's being laid out as if the reader is familiar with the names."

Seeing a mistborn in action felt just as cool as the W&W era people make it sound, what with the mentions of the Set attempting to create new mistborn by mixing allomantically powerful bloodlines. Kelsier especially, with his proficiency in steel and iron simultaneously, made me realize just how much Wax can still improve his steel.

Also of course this (and Skallagrim's video but to a lesser extent, as he only explained the initial set of metals) ruined (ha!) the reveal of the new allomantic metals past the 10 original ones, and I knew that Atium was the god metal of ruin from the outset of the first era trilogy.

Ah, another Skallagrim fan. I first learned about Sanderson through Skallagrim's video on shardblades, and subsequently picked up The Way of Kings at my local library. After that summer when I had finished the Stormlight Archive up to the most recent book at the time, I moved onto Mistborn Era 1, and not long after Era 2 and Secret History as well.