Mistborn was initially a trilogy, and then it’s become more than a trilogy, but the series does have an “Era One” that is made up of three novels that tell a complete story, plus a novella that’s more of a companion story and probably not essential. That one’s called “Secret History,” and is best read after you’ve gotten through the series. So, as for that original trilogy, it is admittedly kind of old, but it still feels relevant. The first book did recently turn 20, and then its author, Brandon Sanderson, has remained tremendously prolific in the years since, being more or less unavoidable within the fantasy landscape. He’s also behind The Stormlight Archive, which is half-done at the time of writing (10 books are planned, and each book is sort of the length of about three ordinary books, as all of them exceed 1000 pages), and Sanderson was also the author who completed The Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan passed away.
Further, there’s been a good deal of talk lately about a Mistborn movie being made, and a TV series possibly also being made, based on The Stormlight Archive, with Apple TV having the rights to both (and other stories that take place within Sanderson’s whole Cosmere shared universe). His work might become even harder to escape, with these adaptations, and it also means now is as good a time as any to get acquainted with some of his work, if you’ve not done so already. The original three Mistborn books are the perfect starting place, since they’re very readable, not too long, and were also among Brandon Sanderson’s earliest published works. As a bit of a warning, though, with this trilogy, it’s hard to talk about the plots of the second and third books without going over what happens in the first. There’ll be potential allusions to certain events from book 1, but specific spoilers will be avoided as best as possible. With a ranking, too, the first book has to be talked about last, because it is just a bit stronger than the next two (sorry in advance).
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‘The Hero of Ages’ (2008)
Starting with the third book in the series means that, yes, the Mistborn trilogy concludes on what’s technically its weakest installment. That’s a shame, but it happens, because endings are hard. It’s a bit of a His Dark Materials situation, because that fantasy trilogy (which later grew beyond being just a trilogy, a bit like Mistborn) doesn’t end as well as it began. Things got a little unwieldy and maybe overly ambitious, there, but the boldness was admirable. The Hero of Ages, in a perfect world, would’ve been to the Mistborn trilogy what The Return of the King was to The Lord of the Rings, but the world isn’t perfect, and neither is this series. As for what this third book is about… again, some mild spoilers might be necessary.
It feels a bit under-baked and drawn-out, compared to the other two Mistborn books… though it is very much a conclusion, and the final few chapters are good.
The Mistborn trilogy introduces characters who you’d expect to be around the whole time, but they’re not, and so knowing that Vin and Elend are still kicking at this point in the series might be surprising. Anything goes, after that first book, basically. Vin gets more powerful throughout the trilogy, being an Allomancer who, unlike most Allomancers, can burn more than one kind of metal, making her a Mistborn. After the events of book #2, Elend also becomes a Mistborn, with him and Vin being emperor and empress at this point in the story, but the conflict has reached an apocalyptic level with a god-life being known as Ruin being unleashed at the end of book #2. The stakes are high, and so it should be the most exciting book in the trilogy, but the drama isn’t quite there, and many of the big things that happen kind of just happen. It feels a bit under-baked and drawn-out, compared to the other two Mistborn books… though it is very much a conclusion, and the final few chapters are good. It just takes a while to get there, and Vin and Elend don’t feel as interesting here. They’re very powerful, and then there’s a newly unleashed villain who’s a little more powerful. It’s technically all escalation, and it should feel more exciting, but it doesn’t quite get there. It’s an odd experience, feeling like things should be working better than they are, and if not for some scenes found throughout the last couple hundred pages, you could probably argue The Hero of Ages ends the trilogy on a whimper.
2
‘The Well of Ascension’ (2007)
The longest of the first three Mistborn books, The Well of Ascension, continues the saga quite well. There are some bold places the story can go, post-The Final Empire, to the point where you could almost argue that the ironically titled The Final Empire is like a prologue to the “real” conflict of the trilogy. Like, someone who was initially positioned to be a savior was killed near the end of The Final Empire, and the same goes for the main antagonist of that first book, who felt like they’d be the main antagonist for the whole trilogy. Those two big deaths do a similar thing to the big deaths that happen at the end of the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones. The conflict escalates, and then there is also a struggle for who to crown as the new ruler of the Final Empire.
The Well of Ascension is not quite A Clash of Kings, but not much else is, and A Song of Ice and Fire is a fairly different sort of fantasy series to Mistborn, even if Sanderson does like to kill off characters in a George R.R. Martin-esque way at times. As for the titular Well of Ascension, it’s tied to the prophecy around the Hero of Ages, and yeah, the book of that name was just covered, so you sort of know where things are going in The Well of Ascension. But the tension it builds, and the way it bounces between different factions who are vying for power (with the most interesting characters here being ones affiliated with more than one group, or people who succeed in spying in one way or another) does keep things interesting, even if it’s technically lighter on action and spectacle than the other two books. It is a good middle chapter, doing the sorts of things a middle chapter in a typical trilogy has to do. Like The Hero of Ages, it peaks near the end, but the journey there is a fair bit more interesting to read than it ultimately was in that final book.
1
‘The Final Empire’ (2006)
The Final Empire is pretty great, to the extent that it’s understandable why it proved to be the book that made Brandon Sanderson an instantly noteworthy fantasy author. It’s got a fair few elements that feel familiar, within the fantasy genre and maybe within storytelling generally, since there’s the all-powerful main antagonist, a mentor/student sort of dynamic, and a group of heroes who are capable of greatness, but all have their own personal flaws. And it plays out a bit like a heist narrative, since the main mission the heroes undertake involves stealing a great deal of valuable metal known as atium from the central antagonist known as the Lord Ruler. The stakes do indeed get higher than needing to pull off a heist-type mission, though, as the outline of the plots in The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages makes clear.
Before The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson only had one other published novel, Elantris, which takes place in the Cosmere, but doesn’t prove quite as important as The Final Empire. This second novel of Sanderson’s is a good introduction to both the Cosmere and Sanderson’s work/style overall. It’s really good fantasy, and balances conventions with subversions well, meaning you get a good balance of stuff you’ve probably enjoyed before, in other works of fantasy, and then some surprises alongside all that, because parts of The Final Empire are quite subversive and even shocking. It’s a shame the momentum wasn’t maintained perfectly throughout the next two books, but at least those last two books are still worth reading. Further, topping a novel as good as The Final Empire is a big ask, and there’s even an argument to be made that Sanderson hasn’t written something quite as great as The Final Empire in the two decades since it was initially published (unless you’re particularly fond of The Stormlight Archives books; that series is, admittedly, a step-up in ambition, compared to the Mistborn trilogy).
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