Favorite and Least Favorite Forms of Investiture (to Read)

[EdgedancerJacob he/him]

See above for a poll on favorite and least favorite forms of Investiture to read, not to have. 

Edited September 11, 2024 by EdgedancerJacob

[Trusk'our he/him]

Hemalurgy is (obviously) my favorite to read about, mostly because every time a new book uses it, some new possibilities are shown for its use, and it gives the bad guys an edge to and spice things up.

Allomancy and Feruchemy are close seconds, as they have a lot of creative uses and allow fun actions, all while not overburdening the characters with nigh immortality (I'm looking at you, Surgebinding).

I'd have to say the Investiture of Canticle was my least favorite to read- it felt too "cheap" to work with compared to the engaging challenges of Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy, yet had few interesting payoffs. 

[EdgedancerJacob he/him]

4 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

the Investiture of Canticle was my least favorite to read- it felt too "cheap" to work with compared to the engaging challenges of Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy, yet had few interesting payoffs. 

I agree with you on this, though I was reluctant to include it in the poll since it's so different than anything else in the Cosmere. It almost feels like an effect of Investiture, rather than a way of using Investiture itself. 

[therunner he/him]

Right now my favourite is Surgebinding, because of how it dove-tails character development and challenges with magical powers.

Least favourite is Soul Stamps, after TLM. There it felt kinda cheap, suddenly there are universal stamps, stamps to turn into Elantrian. It felt Deus Ex Machina to me.
I did enjoy it in Emperor's Soul, so hopefully it will be treated "better" (from my subjective standpoint) again in the future.

[alder24]

I have a soft spot for Awakening, I just love how creative, innovative and fun it is, while not being overly powerful. It sparks my imagination to think outside of the box. Awakening is my favorite. 

Metallic Arts in general are my second favorite to read because they're really dynamic, there are a lot of abilities and combining them in different mixes creates a lot of interesting possibilities. 

And while I do love Surgebinding too, it's really fantastic, the fact that literally everyone can heal even the deadliest of wounds lessens the stakes for me. It's just more interesting when healing is either not possible or limited to a selected few. Still, Surgebinding is very fun. 

As for the least favorite, I have to choose Sand Mastery only because the graphic novel format didn't really work for me. I don't feel it's fair to compare lesser invested arts to those from major Shardworld, like Aviars vs Surgebinding, so I only choose from major magic systems.

[Duxredux he/him]

Favorite to read? Depends on which series Brandon is currently putting out books for, which system he's developing. In general though, I find myself rereading Mistborn era 1 and 2 the most often. Allomancy in particular is fascinating to me because metal is the backbone of IRL civilization and technology and is everywhere. I found it particularly brilliant that the catalyst for the power itself can be directly manipulated by Allomancy and so even carrying around your source of power can reveal you. Yes, we'll see more and more people utilize Aluminum vial pouches or flasks, but that's not a straight upgrade as we see early on Vin using Pushes and Pulls to quickly swallow Atium. Wrapping everything in a conductor like Aluminum also won't be an end all solution since it will hinder regular tech as well as Allomancy (for example, wrapping a cellphone in aluminum will block all signals from it), nor is Aluminum as strong as industrial steel. As we see from Ranette, engineering with Allomancy in mind can be fascinating and I'm sure we'll get into different fields as well, be it structural, mechanical, or electrical engineering. A team of engineers could spend a lifetime designing technology to accommodate Allomancy, and because of that, I have no idea how Scadrial will actually develop throughout my lifetime of reading about it. Choosing Mistborn to be the world viewed through multiple epochs was brilliant on Brandon's part.

Least favorite to read? Era 1 Hemalurgy. I never liked the relevant scenes, but then I'm not particularly entertained by violence. Theorizing about it is one thing, but I always start skimming when I get to scenes like Marsh being made into an Inquisitor. Boring or clunky is preferrable to nauseating.

2 hours ago, therunner said:

Least favourite is Soul Stamps, after TLM. There it felt kinda cheap, suddenly there are universal stamps, stamps to turn into Elantrian. It felt Deus Ex Machina to me.
I did enjoy it in Emperor's Soul, so hopefully it will be treated "better" (from my subjective standpoint) again in the future.

I get that. Emperor's Soul was a hundred day mad scramble of Shai paying the cost of time and research to create and use a single Soul Stamp. We saw the misunderstandings and revisions of her view of Ashravan throughout the book. We got none of that for her Elantrian Essence Mark, she's just now super powered. Sure, Shai probably spent years of research and iteration to create that Essence Mark, and perhaps we'll some day get a glimpse of that process, but to have her show up having already paid the cost off screen omits much of what made Emperor's Soul so fascinating. Even her other Essence Marks had to be earned by manipulating Gaotona.

Granted, her Elantrian mark doesn't really do much at all for the story, it basically served as a diversion. Moonlight didn't really have a character arc, she was exposition and cameo.