Book Review: “The Final Empire”
Review of book one of the Mistborn series — The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Published in 2006 by Tor Books.
Summary
In the Final Empire, the emperor is immortal and powerful enough that it would be insane for anyone to think of overthrowing him, despite the ample motivation to do so. For the ska, the slave class, there is nothing in life to look forward to other than prolonged, laborious suffering and death at the hands of their noble overlords. And yet, a small band of ska thieves come together around a heist of such magnitude that no one can hear of it without knowing its insanity — a plan to steal the emperor’s capital city and treasury right out from under him!
Vinn is a young ska woman who is unaware of her alimantic abilities (this world’s form of magic) until this band of thieves takes her under their wing, training her, continually surprised at the extraordinary talent she possesses for alimancy. She becomes their damsel in disguise, a faux noblewoman infiltrating the society balls to spy on the Final Empire’s great houses to discover their weaknesses. Vinn helps her allies start a noble house war and stir up the ska rebellion, until at long last she infiltrates and stands against the emperor himself—as an assassin.
But like any insane heist, things don’t go according to plan. In the end, Vinn discovers that not all nobles are hard-hearted and deserving of death. She learns something about herself too, when she loses friend after friend to the enemy, ripping open old wounds of abandonment from her childhood. In the end, only Vinn can save the Final Empire; because only she holds all the clues to uncover the emperor’s secret weakness, and only she would be stubborn enough to try and face him alone.
Themes
There are two themes in this story, but Abandonment is the strongest. First, we learn that Vinn’s younger brother always promised to betray her, and then one day he vanished and left her behind at the mercy of his debtors. She calls to mind his acrid advice throughout the novel, reminding herself not to let her guard down, not to trust people, that everyone wants something from her and is only interested in taking care of themselves. Her brother’s voice echoes in her mind almost as frequently as her own thoughts; she certainly gives his words an equal amount of weight in her decision-making. All of this is rooted in her history with him — he took care of her after her mother tried to kill her, and then he himself chose to leave her behind. Vinn’s never recovered from those abandonments. She lives in constant fear that anyone she cares about will do the same. So instead, she chooses not to trust anyone.
But her life changes. She comes under the influence of a band of thieves who aren’t in it for personal gain; they’re all good friends who trust each other. At first she can’t believe it’s true. Then she sticks around, despite their insane schemes, just to see how it ends. She feels the irresistible pull of suspense—will someone betray the team in the end? Or will they really stick together through something as daring and dangerous as overthrowing the Final Empire? The allure of true friendship proves to be intoxicating and Vinn actually begins to trust these people. And then her fear increases, because if any of them were to die and leave her behind, the loss would feel so much like abandonment that she wouldn’t be able to forgive them.
The second theme touches on Class Divides, represented by the ska and nobility. The ska are thought to be dumber, emotionless, lower life-forms incapable of being educated. They are treated worse than livestock as they are easily replaceable. The most notable use of ska as an expendable commodity, is the fact that whenever a nobleman wants a ska woman he takes her, but must ensure that she doesn’t live long enough afterward to bear his child. Still, some half-breeds exist, and they often have alimantic abilities; Vinn and many of the other thieves are these sort of noble bastards.
Brandon Sanderson uses a skillful twist of the reader’s perception on several occasions. First, he represents the nobles as privileged and callous; while the ska are beaten down and oppressed. Then later in the story he shows how the thieving ska in the cities can be just as cruel to their ska underlings as the nobles are. But before the reader can write the nobles off as the faceless villains of the story, we’re introduced to a younger generation of nobles who care nothing for parties and flirtations and luxury, because they fear that the ska actually possess real humanity and it’s a crime to oppress them! There’s even a complex little scene where the thieves Vinn befriends are sitting around drinking wine and talking about raising a rebel army to overthrow the empire, wearing their comfortable clothes and counting their funds. Vinn stands up in the middle of them and accuses them of being more like the nobles, discussing ska lives like commodities, while they themselves don’t know what it’s really like to live the ska’s desperate, scraping sort of existence. I really loved that the theme Sanderson was exploring with class divides wasn’t boiled down to anything simplistic.
Imagery
This might be a good time to differentiate between what is “theme” and what is “imagery”. When I discuss the themes of a story, I’m referring to the way the author unpacks a concept through character choices, dialogue, and narration. Often, the theme is clearly stated in words either spoken or thought by someone; different opinions or points of view on the theme might be suggested throughout the story by a variety of characters and situations. The purpose of the theme is to give the plot an overall feeling of cohesiveness, like a conversation that stays on topic. For example, in The Final Empire the story starts with Vinn remembering her brother’s words about betrayal, and then ends with her rejecting that way of living and choosing to not abandon her love interest, even when doing so will make her future uncertain and probably difficult. The theme ties a satisfying bow on the whole story from beginning to end.
Imagery, on the other hand, might feel like a theme in that you’ll see if appearing again and again throughout a story, but the key difference is that it isn’t a dialogue. Imagery is often a visual detail (or some other sense like smells and sounds). It helps us have landmarks to cling to throughout a story, giving a feeling of familiarity. When we spot a new landmark we remember where we saw the last one and we know we’re not getting lost. Imagery sometimes builds on the foundation of a theme, but it’s not usually cohesive enough on its own to be a theme.
In The Final Empire there are several instances where age and physical appearance have a big impact on the story. When Vinn first sees the emperor he looks young and strong and handsome; when she next sees him he appears old and tired and frail. The nobility are divided in age — the younger lords of the great houses are all friends and have extremely different political and social views than their parents. Vinn herself is quite young, and her youth often puts her in opposition to the older, more experienced leader of her thieving band. There is another creature, a mist-wraith, she encounters one night in the mists. It’s a terrifying blob of amalgamated skeletons and Vinn’s companion tells her it is a ‘young one’ and that they look very different when they grow up. Later she meets a grown up mist-wraith, and she discovers that this is true.
I think Brandon Sanderson uses age differences to show (not tell) how youth is often associated with power/strength of body but cannot do without the wisdom and experience age brings a person. In the case of the evil emperor, he is unbeatable and confident when he is in his young form, but when he appears old he is weak and in danger of being defeated. Unlike the rest of the characters, he tries to use youth to protect himself, but sacrifices the wisdom of age to do so — and that’s why he’s an immortal tyrant. Such a complex use of imagery can feel like the development of another theme!
Recommendation
The Final Empire was one of the most satisfying stories I’ve ever read. I’d heard that Brandon Sanderson can over-describe and was wondering if I’d get bored at points. Maybe because this was his first book he didn’t do that as much in this story (maybe his other books ramble more), regardless, I didn’t think his descriptions took anything away from the story in this case. My favorite thing about this book is that it takes the usual expectations of a heist story — team up, make a plan, execute, and then the dramatic reveal where you find out what everybody was doing behind the scenes — and gives you a very satisfying ending where the heist they thought they were pulling wasn’t the actual heist the whole time. Without spoiling the story, I have to say it was very unexpected and yet very well-foreshadowed throughout that things had to end the way they did. That takes so much skill to write, and it’s a lot of fun to read!
I was not at all expecting a romantic subplot. But it was fun and added a lot to Vinn’s character arc. So — if you like fantasy with rich backstory (that isn’t fluff), a lot of suspense and adventure, a really fun and original magic system, and a little bit of romance — you’ll love this first installment in the Mistborn series. As for me, I can’t wait to read the rest!
