Mistborn: The Final Empire

Brandon Sanderson

Dec 2008 · The Mistborn Saga Book 1 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Michael Kramer

About this audiobook

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action.

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?

Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson

The Cosmere

The Stormlight Archive
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (Novella)
Oathbringer

The Mistborn trilogy
Mistborn: The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages

Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series
Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
Bands of Mourning

Collection
Arcanum Unbounded

Other Cosmere novels
Elantris
Warbreaker

The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
The Scrivener's Bones
The Knights of Crystallia
The Shattered Lens
The Dark Talent

The Rithmatist series
The Rithmatist

Other books by Brandon Sanderson

The Reckoners
Steelheart
Firefight
Calamity

Ratings and reviews

The story of this book is well written even if some of the terms used in the book are slightly corny. The consistency of the vocal recordings is unfortunately lacking. Many of the recordings are in rooms that are not properly dampened and resonate at the low frequencies of the actors voices. Some of the recordings even sound like they are made with the microphone mounted across the room. The levels of each actor are also not matched causing some to sound very quiet.

Great entry book to Sanderson's world building. Very creative and elaborate world that would have you memorize the effect of each metals. Being that its shorter than his Stormlight archive series definitely would recommend those that are new to Brandon Sanderson. The narrator did overall a pretty good job but it would be nice to have a female actress like they did for Stormlight archive. However overall its a good audiobook if you can get it at a discount, definitely a great story for long commutes.

Read this before Stormlight. If you read Stormlight first, then this book sounds like a twilight style teen lovestory. Acknowledging that my palate is somewhat spoiled with WOT and Stormlight, I have rated 4 stars and not 3. For reference, I would give Twilight a score of 1.1.

About the author

Brandon Sanderson is the author of such bestsellers as the Mistborn® trilogy and its sequels; the Stormlight Archive series; and other novels, including The Rithmatist and Steelheart. He won a Hugo Award for Best Novella for The Emperor's Soul, and was chosen to complete Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time® sequence.

Michael Kramer received an Earphones Award for his narration of the Kent Family series by John Jakes and for Alan Fulsom's The Day After Tomorrow. He has also read for Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time fantasy-adventure series. His work includes theater acting and recording books for the Library of Congress's Talking Books program.