An earlier series from the author of Stormlight Archives.
Interesting that it was published same year as much weaker “Lies of Locke Lamora”, that has a very similar theme of thieving crews stealing from the rich.
The world is a mix of Industrial Britain and colonial America. There’s mist at night, and there’s ash falling from the sky during the day, and most of the population are slaves, working on plantations.
There are recognizable “Witcher” elements as well: as a good-hearted middle aged assassin trains a talented 16-years old girl. Also, they are constantly drinking potions to support their superhuman abilities.
Mistborn are superhumans that get their abilities from consuming (or “burning”) metals.
You can recognize Sanderson’s style – he’s very structural in his descriptions of different abilities: which metal gives which ability, and the different combinations of those. In Stormlight Archives this structure will turn into different types of “lashings” and “spren” and all that.
On one hand, the story seems to be quite a banal combination of “coming of age” from the 16-years old perspective (“Am I a kid, or am I already a woman?” and all that), and a “Count of Monte Cristo”-like story of long-lasting revenge over some powerful people on the other.
But Sanderson wouldn’t be Sanderson if there weren’t at least some interesting twists there. The entity the heroes seek their revenge on is called just Lord Ruler, and he has ruled the Empire for thousand years. Sanderson muses that a country that is controlled by the same person for too long becomes mismanaged, because the oversights of that single person have impacts on everyone. And there’s no way of replacing someone who’s immortal. Story of any dictator.
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