Just finished The Final Empire

[Child Bahkbar]

I really enjoyed it. It had it's flaws, but over all I thought it was a fantastic book, and I'm really looking forward to starting the next one. If I was to rate the book, I would probably give it a 4/5.

So, on to my sorta-kinda-notreally review. I won't bother with a SPOILERS!!! warning, because I'm sure everyone on this board has read the first book.

The Wheel Of Time was what introduced me to Brandon Sanderson as an author. I thought he did a great job on books 12-13, and I actually enjoyed them even more than the last few Jordan books, so I decided to take a look at one of Sandersons original works. Mistborn had great reviews on Amazon, so I started with The Final Empire.

What I liked about the book.

It usually takes me 50-100 pages to really get into a book, but TFE captured my interest in the prologue. I usually find at least one protagonist to hate in a series, and, I must admit, I kinda disliked Kelsier in the beginning, but by the end of the book he was my favorite character. I also liked Vin, so this is probably the first series I've read where I didn't have one of the PoV characters.

The storyline progressed smoothly, and there was never really a dull moment. A lot of events took me completely by surprise, like the destruction of the army they'd spent half the book building up. Marsh's "death", which does bring up a question; If the inquisitors didn't "question" Marsh, how did they find out about Renoux? Kelsier's subsequent self-sacrifice took me entirely by surprise, and his brilliant plan in the end is what makes him one of my favorite fantasy book characters of all time, of all time!

What I didn't like.

Surprisingly, I don't have much to complian about with the particular book. The characters were fun to read about, and I could sympathise with almost all of them. So the only true disappointment I had in the book was the ending. It felt kind of rushed to me, and a few things just didn't make sense. First, there's the fact that they just left Vin's bag lying around somewhere. A bag they took from a Mistborn... a bag which contains Atium. It smacks of villain stupidity to me. That's just a minor qualm, though. Most series use some form of Deus ex machina, so it didn't really surprse me to see it here. No, my main problem is the defeat of the Lord Ruler. He said he'd been sliced, diced, crushed, dismembered, flayed, and served up with onions. Earlier in the book, someone mentioned that he'd even been beheaded, so if his immortality REALLY came from the bracers around his arms, shouldn't he have died from having his arms or head cut off? Maybe this gets addressed later, but for now it doesn't seem to make sense.

I'm sure there were other minor things I didn't like about the book, but I'm just too lazy to go through them all right now.

Over all, the book was a great read, but I do have one fear going into the next books.

I'm worried that Vin might become overpowered. That was a major problem for me in the later books of the Wheel of Time, everything started to become too easy for the protagonists, and there wasn't enough internal conflict. One of the reasons I like Vin as a character is that she isn't overly confident. She has doubts and fears which make her easy to relate to. I'm sure she'll become more self-confident as the series progresses, I'm just hoping she doesn't turn into an Egwene. *blegh* I hope, if there are any main villains in the next books, that they'll still be more powerful than the heroes. It's always more fun that way.

I also hope The Well of Ascension won't be as self-contained as this one.

Now I'm on to book 2!

[darniil]

Definitely keep reading. Many of your questions get answered later on, and if I understand what you're referring to regarding the deus ex machina, I believe that gets explained a bit, too.

Welcome aboard!

[happyman]

I really enjoyed it. It had it's flaws, but over all I thought it was a fantastic book, and I'm really looking forward to starting the next one. If I was to rate the book, I would probably give it a 4/5.

So, on to my sorta-kinda-notreally review. I won't bother with a SPOILERS!!! warning, because I'm sure everyone on this board has read the first book.

The Wheel Of Time was what introduced me to Brandon Sanderson as an author. I thought he did a great job on books 12-13, and I actually enjoyed them even more than the last few Jordan books, so I decided to take a look at one of Sandersons original works. Mistborn had great reviews on Amazon, so I started with The Final Empire.

What I liked about the book.

It usually takes me 50-100 pages to really get into a book, but TFE captured my interest in the prologue. I usually find at least one protagonist to hate in a series, and, I must admit, I kinda disliked Kelsier in the beginning, but by the end of the book he was my favorite character. I also liked Vin, so this is probably the first series I've read where I didn't have one of the PoV characters.

The storyline progressed smoothly, and there was never really a dull moment. A lot of events took me completely by surprise, like the destruction of the army they'd spent half the book building up. Marsh's "death", which does bring up a question; If the inquisitors didn't "question" Marsh, how did they find out about Renoux? Kelsier's subsequent self-sacrifice took me entirely by surprise, and his brilliant plan in the end is what makes him one of my favorite fantasy book characters of all time, of all time!

What I didn't like.

Surprisingly, I don't have much to complian about with the particular book. The characters were fun to read about, and I could sympathise with almost all of them. So the only true disappointment I had in the book was the ending. It felt kind of rushed to me, and a few things just didn't make sense. First, there's the fact that they just left Vin's bag lying around somewhere. A bag they took from a Mistborn... a bag which contains Atium. It smacks of villain stupidity to me. That's just a minor qualm, though. Most series use some form of Deus ex machina, so it didn't really surprse me to see it here. No, my main problem is the defeat of the Lord Ruler. He said he'd been sliced, diced, crushed, dismembered, flayed, and served up with onions. Earlier in the book, someone mentioned that he'd even been beheaded, so if his immortality REALLY came from the bracers around his arms, shouldn't he have died from having his arms or head cut off? Maybe this gets addressed later, but for now it doesn't seem to make sense.

I'm sure there were other minor things I didn't like about the book, but I'm just too lazy to go through them all right now.

Over all, the book was a great read, but I do have one fear going into the next books.

I'm worried that Vin might become overpowered. That was a major problem for me in the later books of the Wheel of Time, everything started to become too easy for the protagonists, and there wasn't enough internal conflict. One of the reasons I like Vin as a character is that she isn't overly confident. She has doubts and fears which make her easy to relate to. I'm sure she'll become more self-confident as the series progresses, I'm just hoping she doesn't turn into an Egwene. *blegh* I hope, if there are any main villains in the next books, that they'll still be more powerful than the heroes. It's always more fun that way.

I also hope The Well of Ascension won't be as self-contained as this one.

Now I'm on to book 2!

All I can say is, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[CrazyRioter]

Without spoiling anything, you have nothing to worry about, There's still plenty of challenges for the heroes in books 2 and 3, both internal and external.

Also, Brandon has said that the beheading thing was an exaggeration and he would have died if he'd actually got beheaded.

[Child Bahkbar]

Sweet!

Oh yeah, I noticed that on Dragonmount people seem to enjoy reading blogs about WoT, I know I do. So I'm thinking about blogging aboot my progress in the next three books, but I've already finished to first one, so I'm not sure if anyone would want to read my blog about the next few...but...um, would you?

Edited November 14, 2011 by Child Bahkbar

[happyman]

Oh yeah, I noticed that on Dragonmount people seem to enjoy reading blogs about WoT, I know I do. So I'm thinking about blogging aboot my progress in the next three books, but I've already finished to first one, so I'm not sure if anyone would want to read my blog about the next few...but...um, would you?

Go ahead. It's been a while since I read them, and it's hard to regain the older perspective. We've had this kind of thing before, and it's been fun.

[Thor]

I really enjoyed it. It had it's flaws, but over all I thought it was a fantastic book, and I'm really looking forward to starting the next one. If I was to rate the book, I would probably give it a 4/5.

So, on to my sorta-kinda-notreally review. I won't bother with a SPOILERS!!! warning, because I'm sure everyone on this board has read the first book.

The Wheel Of Time was what introduced me to Brandon Sanderson as an author. I thought he did a great job on books 12-13, and I actually enjoyed them even more than the last few Jordan books, so I decided to take a look at one of Sandersons original works. Mistborn had great reviews on Amazon, so I started with The Final Empire.

What I liked about the book.

It usually takes me 50-100 pages to really get into a book, but TFE captured my interest in the prologue. I usually find at least one protagonist to hate in a series, and, I must admit, I kinda disliked Kelsier in the beginning, but by the end of the book he was my favorite character. I also liked Vin, so this is probably the first series I've read where I didn't have one of the PoV characters.

The storyline progressed smoothly, and there was never really a dull moment. A lot of events took me completely by surprise, like the destruction of the army they'd spent half the book building up. Marsh's "death", which does bring up a question; If the inquisitors didn't "question" Marsh, how did they find out about Renoux? Kelsier's subsequent self-sacrifice took me entirely by surprise, and his brilliant plan in the end is what makes him one of my favorite fantasy book characters of all time, of all time!

What I didn't like.

Surprisingly, I don't have much to complian about with the particular book. The characters were fun to read about, and I could sympathise with almost all of them. So the only true disappointment I had in the book was the ending. It felt kind of rushed to me, and a few things just didn't make sense. First, there's the fact that they just left Vin's bag lying around somewhere. A bag they took from a Mistborn... a bag which contains Atium. It smacks of villain stupidity to me. That's just a minor qualm, though. Most series use some form of Deus ex machina, so it didn't really surprse me to see it here. No, my main problem is the defeat of the Lord Ruler. He said he'd been sliced, diced, crushed, dismembered, flayed, and served up with onions. Earlier in the book, someone mentioned that he'd even been beheaded, so if his immortality REALLY came from the bracers around his arms, shouldn't he have died from having his arms or head cut off? Maybe this gets addressed later, but for now it doesn't seem to make sense.

I'm sure there were other minor things I didn't like about the book, but I'm just too lazy to go through them all right now.

Over all, the book was a great read, but I do have one fear going into the next books.

I'm worried that Vin might become overpowered. That was a major problem for me in the later books of the Wheel of Time, everything started to become too easy for the protagonists, and there wasn't enough internal conflict. One of the reasons I like Vin as a character is that she isn't overly confident. She has doubts and fears which make her easy to relate to. I'm sure she'll become more self-confident as the series progresses, I'm just hoping she doesn't turn into an Egwene. *blegh* I hope, if there are any main villains in the next books, that they'll still be more powerful than the heroes. It's always more fun that way.

I also hope The Well of Ascension won't be as self-contained as this one.

Now I'm on to book 2!

Spoiled the op for length.

Glad to see you liked the book so much. Keep going, it shouldn't disappoint.

As for Renoux, I think the Inquisitors found him by tracking Vin. The Inquisitor who fights Kelsier (Bendal) is in charge of the team that is tracking her down and I think it is implied that the prisoner caravan is placed as an ambush for Kelsier and/or Vin.

While leaving her stuff out in the open probably wasn't the smartest idea, put yourself in Kar's, um, shoes. (I don't think the Inquisitors actually wear shoes, but I could be mistaken.) She has been depleted of her powers, is a small girl, is locked in a steel cage with a, supposedly, docile Terrisman steward and he is about to take control of the Ministry, which the Inquisitors (and he is their leader during the time of TFE) have been working towards for over two hundred years.

As for the Lord Ruler (this is mentioned, in part, during the epilogue; Sazed explains his immortality. The rest requires the knowledge that Sazed explains, combined with some Keeper stuff that is introduced in much greater detail in book 2): his incredible resistance to being killed is slightly separate from his immortality: if the fight had taken place 975 years earlier, removing his bracers would have barely mattered, and he would have ripped the city apart.