If you couldn't tell from the obscene number of gifts surrounding our tree in the previous post, Santa (or rather, Derrick's parents) were good to us this year. Among the many gifts, they gave me the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. I managed to not start reading until Sunday, but pretty much the moment I cracked the cover, it was all over. I plunked myself down on the couch, waving and muttering goodbye as my in-laws left (okay, not quite--I did fix breakfast and then I carried Sylvia out to watch them drive away, but my nose was stuck in the first book pretty much all morning) and then read as often as I could for the next four days. Sylvia started pulling the books away when she wanted my attention. Derrick threatened to hide them from me. I finally took pity on him and spent three hours with him before the twitchiness was too much and I had to get back to reading.
Wow, those are good books.
On the minus side, I was so engrossed with them yesterday I skipped lunch and have had a headache ever since I finished reading. It's been a while since I last immersed myself so fully in reading anything, and it's actually kind of tiring to read that much.
But oh, I loved those stories. I loved the characters, the world, the plot twists and turns, and that ending was one of the most fitting, satisfying endings I've read in a long time. I'm a bit of a romantic, so I want things to come out right in the end. I want the good guys to succeed and live and I want the bad guys to be frustrated and die. Sanderson doesn't disappoint. Though he does kill off a lot of good people, their sacrifices aren't wasted. The characters change and grow, leaving behind their less admirable traits as they face their adversaries. Even the bad guys (most of them, anyway) come out looking complex, even good. It's obvious by the end of the third book that the big bad from the first book did his best, but in the end was deceived by the real big bad. It's possible to respect him for some of what he did, and see the tragedy in the tyrant he became.
It's an amazingly good, complex, full body of work. If you like fantasy, I highly recommend it. Just don't ask to borrow my copy.
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I just finished the first book and I enjoyed it too. I normally avoid fantasy at all costs but I really got into this one. I'm on hold at the library for the next one.
ReplyDeleteI've read a lot of fantasy, and this is, in my opinion, some of the best I've read. I thought all of them were very good. I'd probably suggest one for book group if I were still in town :\ I'd love to hear what you think of the next one and of the full trilogy when you're done.
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