Majestic February 14

For my 100th comment I wanted to comment a favorite book, so this will be the three volumes of the series "Mistborn" by Brandon Sanderson. I was captivated by the first volume "The Last Empire", I had a great time with "The Well of Ascension" and I was excited about the third volume, exceptional, "Hero of Ages."

First, the story is great.

Background: The story is set in a near apocalyptic world, with a red sun and a sky obscured by almost continual deluge of ash. Consequently, for over 1000 years, people have become accustomed to the sparse brown vegetation and do not know what a flower. The lifestyle of middle-age guy, populated mainly humans.

Political situation: The whole world is united in a vast empire dominated by a tyrant considered a living god. I must say it reign for 1000 years and always appears with eternal youth. He organized the company into three classes: the nobles, with only a allomancie power, skaas, noble slaves, and priests, all-powerful, in the service of religion in place, worshiping the tyrant Instead, the "Lord Ruler." The Lord has built his power over his supernatural abilities allomancie, on the submission of nobles and its domination of the supernatural creatures of this world, kandras, polymorphic kinds of spies and almost indestructible, and kolosses, kinds of giant terrifying as qu'incontrôlables.

The allomancie: A few exceptional individuals, all nobles, have the power to make the ingestion of metals (bronze, tin, copper, gold, etc.) exceptional abilities. They are called "MISTBORN" if they have the power to handle many types of metals. Burning these metals, they become exceptional agility, inhuman force, and even have the ability to influence the thoughts of others.

This is a learning novel about wine, 16 years early, prostitute girl, surviving on the streets by cooperating with bands of robbers. Wine is a frail girl who will become the most formidable woman of her time. Recruited by Kelsier, a thief considered a hero by skaas (this is the only known non-noble to be MISTBORN), it will join his band ... to bring down the last empire, the one the tyrant in place since 1000 years was set up! And this is only the first challenge because in the end it will simply fight a god and save the world.

The goal is ambitious, the story is epic but easy to follow thanks to a magic system (the allomancie) very streamlined, and the band is made Kelsier savory characters, well described, we enjoy following . Writing is effective and fluid, with an effective narrative process (a few lines of a mysterious writing before each episode, and it was not until the end of the novel to understand what these words meant). Under the guise of entertainment, the author also asks the right questions about power, about what makes a leader and religion. Of course, we are not in Montesquieu or Saint Augustine, but it is also far from a simple entertaining fantasy novel.

The first volume is a classic fantasy novel, with magic, fighting, some scenes that would not have looked out of place in a type of regency romance (prom scenes ...), of treachery, of unexpected friendship and twists.

The second volume consolidates what was built in the first volume and the third volume is exceptional for me: There is a dizzying suspense, incessant twists. Above all, the characters we experienced at the beginning of the first volume have extremely advanced (even those who have died and are revalued) at times even we barely recognize them, and then finally, like the characters themselves facing identity issues, we come to understand that all these aspects make up what they are (although for some it was well hidden, I think Spook particular !!!).

The conclusion of the series is hard enough, the author does not make concessions, but it is the one that suited. Just after reading these three books (fortunately, they are long, so we can spend time with wine and friends), I already want to read this series.

(Note: this is a copy-paste of my opinion about the series read in English, so I can not comment on the translation only on the bottom)