Mistborn Brandon Sanderson - does it cheer up?

As others have said, it's a pretty dreary world they're in, and they're fighting to overthrow an all-powerful Emperor-God... it's never likely to be a walk in the park for them, so it shouldn't seem particularly nice to the reader either.

There is most definitely a lot of struggle, and quite often the struggle is for the characters to find optimism and reason (which I admit, could be pretty darn depressing!) but at the same time, it puts their struggle into good context. If any of them were more cheery about it (okay... so Ham and Breeze tended to be relatively cheery) then it would make it seem as if their struggle wasn't as great as it was.

In short... yeah, it's fairly depressing for quite a bit of it, but if it wasn't, then the tone of the book would be at odds with the events of the book I think. It's a bit of a necessary evil.
 
I liked the ending of mistborn series and I found that listing to alloy of law imaditley afterwoods gave you a nice almost eplog of how the ending worked out long turm
 
quantumtheif said:
Everything works for the better. This author is the master of pulling light out of darkness.
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it takes some time but he dose not do downer endings but like a roalacoster it would not be exctiing without the ups and downs
 
One of the theme of the books, certainly books 1 and 3, is about maintaining hope when the situation seems unwinnable. Which can make them seem depressing. Also the high body count among the key characters does make them a bit darker than the norm.


That said they are not as dark as many fantasy works.
 
Twas a very good ending IMO. Especially with the atium being the gods body(though I have a lot of questions in general about that) and I like that Sanderson created such an interesting eco system and unique magic system.
 
Montero said:
Seen good things said about Mistborn, so got the first book out of the library. So far, and not very far in, there have been repressed serfs, ash falling from the sky, inquisition types and there is about to be rape and murder.
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It does open with the suggestion that this is going to be a potentially grim book. Especially in the first couple of chapters with Vin.

However, it shortly changes direction and tone, and there's no rapeyness. There's never really any further gloom added detail - just repetition that there's ash falling from the sky, and the serfs are oppressed.

Montero said:
Um - what makes it good fun? If you don't mind me asking.
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The use of Allomancy, and how this empowers the main characters, is fascinating. If nothing else, this is a really well developed part of the story, and once you see the characters using it, gets a lot more interesting.

Montero said:
That said, I'm going to give it another go - next weekend.
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Did you ever return to it, Montero? Just curious what you thought.
 
I really enjoyed all 3 Mistborn books.
It's been a while since I've read them but they really seemed to come together at the end. I agree with the other comments that the magic system is what gripped me.
 
Mistborn started of well enough for me, but then went downhill from there. The magic system was nice till it got too big. Like it escalated like mad when the good and bad powers where introduced who held the world in balance...
 
When I started reading The Final Empire, I thought it was lame. The magic system another futile attempt at innovativeness (who cares how it works). When they start scheming to take down the Emperor, it also seemed lame. I asked myself, how is this interesting? How can it go wrong? If it does go wrong - do I care? I nearly put it down - but I had a good recommendation. I struggled on - it does get better and draws you in, some excellent twists. I blazed through the second and third books. The setting is dreary but the characters do sparkle, there's just enough philosophical/existential wrangling to engage the brain a little too.

I didn't like the beginning, I didn't like the ending, but the middle bit was excellent.
 
The Mistborn Trilogy is arguably the best three books I have ever read. I've seen a couple of comments saying they weren't keen on the ending, etc. but it was one of those books that when it finished and I was sat at home alone I was screaming out for someone to talk to about it. So I emailed Brandon Sanderson instead to tell him how excellent it was. To this day he is the only author I've ever felt the need to email while gushing profusely about his work.
 
GreggyPea said:
The Mistborn Trilogy is arguably the best three books I have ever read. I've seen a couple of comments saying they weren't keen on the ending, etc. but it was one of those books that when it finished and I was sat at home alone I was screaming out for someone to talk to about it. So I emailed Brandon Sanderson instead to tell him how excellent it was. To this day he is the only author I've ever felt the need to email while gushing profusely about his work.
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I must admit that I really enjoyed the books as well. What hooked me was the magic system...burning metal was incredibly unique.
 
mgilmour said:
I must admit that I really enjoyed the books as well. What hooked me was the magic system...burning metal was incredibly unique.
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Sanderson's Magic systems are wonderful. Give a story context and a logical conclusion while avoiding déux ex machina endings.
 
I liked one and two, but the third one ruined it for me when the ending was nothing more than a kludgy attempt at Mormon allegory. The dude with the metal tablets ascends to heaven and becomes God. Come on. Thing one: it didn't follow the logic of the rest of the story AT ALL, and thing two: COME ON. So yeah, that annoyed me.
 
I've only read the first one so far and I loved it. Yeah, it isn't perfect but it was quite enjoyable and I'm itching to reread it.
 
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