Book Review: Mistborn: The Final Empire

I first saw Mistborn: The Final Empire when I was in Bangalore, buying books at Blossoms Book Store. It had been a long time since I had read any good works of fantasy, and, having heard a lot of praise for it from some of my friends, I decided to give it a try.

And it was thus that I picked up Mistborn: The Final Empire……..and realized that it was in a box set, with two other books. A trilogy.

I sighed to myself, unable to make up my mind. Should I buy the whole set and hope that it was worth it? There were two problems with buying the whole set. The first problem was that I might not like the series, in which case it would be a waste to buy the whole set. The other problem was that I had the bad habit of skimming through books before I read them, thus spoiling my own suspense and rendering the purchase a waste (again).

But the bad side of not buying the trilogy was that I might not find it again anytime soon.

Then I had an idea. I asked one of the shop workers if I could buy just the first book. However, he did not understand what I asked him, and I had to repeat myself. In the end, he told me that I could buy all three books, or none. That was it. Annoyed, I decided not to buy the set, and instead order it from FlipKart.

That was about a year ago.

Recently, I got the chance to order the first book of the trilogy from FlipKart and read it.

And was I impressed!

Brandon Sanderson has invented a totally new and unique form of magic, called Allomancy. Unlike most fantasy works, in which magic comes from the strength of the human individual, in Mistborn, magic comes from the burning of certain metals. Sounds boring? Read on.

There are eight basic metals, as well as two rare ones. Each of these metals, when burned in the human body, grants a certain magical ability to the user until the metal runs out in the body. Pewter, for example, grants physical strength. Tin, on the other hand, enhances the senses. Only a few select humans, called Allomancers, can burn metals.

But – wait a moment! How does the human body ingest metals? Do they bite and swallow metals? Isn’t that dumb? That’s what I wondered.

In real life, metals are present in almost all places in the world. Most of the elements in the periodic table are metals. You can find metals anywhere, from brass utensils and bronze statues to iron (haemoglobin) in our blood. Unconsciously, we digest metals every day.

However, in Mistborn, the amount of metals that get into our body this way is quite small – insufficient for burning (using for magic). Thus, metals need to be eaten separately. In the cities of the Final Empire, where the story is set, there are several merchants and traders who buy usable metals and turn them to dust, before mixing them with alcohol or water and selling them to Allomancers. Allomancers then buy these mixtures in vials, and swallow them. Then they can start burning them for magical purposes.

The story is set in the Final Empire, a vast country ruled by the immortal Lord Ruler, a being who once saved the world from a terrible horror (known only as the Deepness) and took over the world at a place called the Well of Ascension. For a thousand years, the empire has been a wasteland of ash and dust. Plants are brown rather than green. Ash falls from the sky, a result of the volcanic activity of the Ashmounts, a mountain range created long ago. Humanity has been genetically separated into two: the nobility, who live lavish, rich lives, and the skaa, the peasants.

Only those of noble blood can use Allomancy. Thus, the Lord Ruler strictly forbids the consorting of the two human races, fearing that the union may produce half-breed Allomancers who can challenge him. However, he cannot control this, and there are many such half-breed Allomancers, most of whom live as thieves.

Now, most Allomancers can only burn one metal. These Allomancers are called Mistings. However, some Allomancers can burn all ten metals. These are the Mistborn.

The story revolves around two Mistborn –  Kelsier, a thief crewleader turned liberator, and Vin, a young thief who joins Kelsier’s crew – who plan to free the people of the empire and overthrow the Lord Ruler. Armed with the support of several Misting friends, as well as an army of skaa, Kelsier plans to storm Luthadel itself – the capital of the empire – and defeat the Lord Ruler. But will it all work out? Does the immortal Lord Ruler fall in the end? What of the Steel Inquisitors, strange creatures who serve the Lord Ruler and will try their best to crush the liberators?

Read to find out.

The Conception of Magic in Fantasy

One of the most important challenges of worldbuilding, that is, creating fantasy worlds from one’s own imagination, is the thinking of and implementation of a suitably feasible system of magic. Of course, one may choose not to have no magic whatsoever in their fantasy world – but today, in the post-Tolkien era of fantasy writing, the use of magic in works of fantasy has become a norm, and almost all authors in this genre have come to use one form of magic or another in novels. In this article are explained (I hope adequately) the various steps involved in the creation of a believable and interesting system of magic. And hopefully, by the time you finish reading this article, you will be ready to think up your own magic system!

First of all: what is magic? If one seriously considers this question, one will find that what sounds succinctly obvious is not easy to put into words. Not a problem.

Magic can be many different things. In most works of fantasy today, magic can be defined as an almost supernatural force that, one way or another, changes the state of things in the situation in which it is used. The effects of this supernatural force can be brief (raising a stone for a few seconds in Eragon) or long-lasting (the enchantments over Hogwarts Castle in Harry Potter), depending on the type of magic used. In most series, – when I say series, I mean works of fantasy – both types of magic, temporary and long-lasting, can be found and are used reasonably often.  

But where does magic come from? Perhaps the first idea of magic was that it came from the strength of the soul itself.

Take, for example, the Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini, a relatively recent series that has incorporated this idea. Magic comes, in this series, from a mental power source that can only be accessed by years of training, with the exception of some (the Dragon Riders and elves) who can access this power source by instinct. How much magic a magician can summon is based solely on the level of experience as well as the will power and strength of the magician in question. The advantage of this magic system is that it allows magic users the possibility to limitlessly expand their prowess in the control of magic. This means that there is no limit to how powerful a magician can become, if he or she is willing to dedicate their lives to training.

Earlier systems of magic were far less opportunistic. In medieval Europe, magic was (for the most part) considered either an evil power, granted to blasphemers who worshipped the Devil, or a holy power, used by the greatest monks and hermits. The amount of magic an “evil” user could control was limited by the amount of magic given them by the Devil, while the amount of magic usable by “good” users was determined by their piety and willingness to use magic for good, unselfish means.

Today, there is a far greater variety of magic systems than before. In addition to the ideas of magic coming from within are those of magic coming from elsewhere. Magic can come from a myriad of sources, from the driving force of the universe (The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan) to certain metals (The Mistborn series, by Brandon Sanderson). There are no set conventions – all is left to the discretion of the author!

The next aspect of magic is its limitations. If there were no limits to what magic could do, what would be the point of anything non-magical? If magic could do anything from conjuring food to destroying entire armies, why would cooks or soldiers be valuable in the fantasy world? In order for anything to be more than slightly valuable, it must be in short supply. (Just my opinion!)

Or rather, it must not be in large supply. If everyone in the world behaved perfectly, thought the most logical things, believed in the most practical ideals – basically, if everyone was perfect – the world would be a much duller place. The same can be said of the uses of magic. If magic can do anything, the world would be both unrealistic as well as boring. Thus, I believe I can safely conclude that a magic system in which magic has no limits is bound to get boring and dull.

Now that we’ve seen the effects of a magic system – in fact any system –  without limits, the question arises once more: what kind of limits should magic users have? And what should magic be able to do?

This brings us back to the previous overview of the sources of magic. An obvious limit to magic in a system where it comes from the strength of the individual is exhaustion. How can one use magic in such a system if he or she is tired, and can no longer access the power within himself or herself? This is an excellent limitation, in my opinion, as it includes plenty of hard work on a magician’s part in order to improve their magical skills.

Other limitations include availability of a certain item (metals in Mistborn),  mana, and so on.

As for what magic can do, this depends on the author’s choice. After considering the limits of magic itself, deciding what magic can actually do is, in relative terms, quite easy. If the author has decided what magic and its users cannot do, it should be obvious what it can do, right?

A similar but equally important challenge to be addressed is this: who can use magic? It has become a trend in fantasy worlds today to include “magical” creatures such as elves and dragons, whose natural abilities far surpass those of most humans, and who can use magic instinctively. Humans, on the other hand, must either work hard to learn to use magic from one of these creatures, possess some degree of mixed blood (a result of inbreeding between humans and these magical creatures), or be “chosen” by some higher power (fate or God in most cases). Seldom are humans portrayed as the superior race, not only in terms of magic, but in all other aspects as well. (Strange, considering the fact that the authors themselves are human.)

Of course, magic doesn’t need to have users. There can be some higher force that controls magic, rather than some puny mortals.

And now, finally, the most important question of all: how does magic affect its surroundings? Fantasy worlds are often centered on a powerful magic system, where magic is a very important factor of the processes and phenomena of the world. How important magic is in this aspect depends on what magic can do, and how widespread its users are. In the Mistborn trilogy, magic is gained by ingesting the flakes of certain metals which can be burned to gain superhuman abilities, such as strength and enhanced senses. Obviously, what would be the most valuable thing in this world? Metal sources. And thus, in Mistborn, mining is one of the most important industries.

The above is just one example of how magic affects the world. There can be any number of side effects arising from the use of magic. The more of these there are, the more realistic the world becomes. Remember, in fantasy worlds, magic is just another force that controls the working of the universe. Keeping this in mind, I’d like to wish you potential authors the best of luck creating your own fantasy worlds. Happy worldbuilding!

Busy at work

I am currently in the process of writing a novel......

To Begin...

This is Ecthelion speaking. Can everyone hear me? Yes? So let's get started.

For a long time,  I've been looking for a place to put up all the essays and other writings that I've thought of over the past few years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes. (Not quite at seconds yet!) Finally, I decided to write a blog where I would write all that. Thus, Word of Power was created. The name was a catechism on the powerful Battle for Middle-earth ability possessed by Gandalf.

Nothing more to say. I'll start putting up my contributions soon.