Mistborn: The Final Empire
Brandon Sanderson's 2006 novel opens in a thousand-year empire ruled by a god-emperor called the Lord Ruler, where ash falls from the sky every day and the lower-class skaa exist as slaves on the estates of an immortal nobility. Vin is a sixteen-year-old skaa pickpocket in the underworld of the capital, scraping by with a thieving crew that beats her, until a charming master thief named Kelsier discovers that she is a Mistborn, a rare kind of magic user able to ingest and burn metals to fuel powers ranging from enhanced strength to mind influence. Kelsier wants Vin for the heist of a lifetime, the overthrow of the Lord Ruler himself, financed by stealing the empire's gold supply and seeded with a skaa rebellion. Sanderson's hard-magic system, every metal does one specific thing, helped redefine modern epic fantasy and launched the long Cosmere universe.
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What you might want to know about Mistborn: The Final Empire
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a world where ash falls from a red sun and a god-emperor has ruled for a thousand years, a thief named Kelsier recruits a small crew to do the impossible. He needs Vin, a street girl with a hidden gift.
Yes. Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006) is the first book in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Era 1 trilogy. It introduces the magic system of Allomancy and the world of Scadrial.
Mistborn: The Final Empire is one of the most-recommended Cosmere starting points alongside The Way of Kings and Warbreaker. It is shorter than Stormlight Archive and self-contained.
Mistborn: The Final Empire was written by Brandon Sanderson, published in 2001 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.
Mistborn: The Final Empire is 669 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Mistborn: The Final Empire takes most readers 10 to 14 hours to finish.
Mistborn: The Final Empire is a standalone novel by Brandon Sanderson, not part of a series.
Mistborn: The Final Empire is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.