Review: The Final Empire

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes you do an author a disservice by reading their books - even the ones not linked in a series - out of the chronological order in which they were written. I think this is the case here; I discovered Sanderson's recent Stormlight Archive first, and then came back to read these. It's a great, original world, and an intriguing, novel plot, and I really enjoyed it. And yet... I'm left with the vague feeling that Sanderson's writing improved between this and his later work. The characters in this are a bit less fully-formed, and the training montage where Vin goes from downtrodden orphan to one of the most powerful people in the Empire is just a bit too abrupt and lecturey. Vin's falling in love feels a bit contrived, and her reaction to it a bit sudden and out-of-character.

This is still a very good story. I liked how the Sting part of the plot doesn't always go well for Our Heroes, and the world and the plot are really top-notch and different from run-of-the-mill epic fantasy. But I do think Sanderson has gotten better at his craft since writing this book.

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