Friday, July 22, 2011

Cameron Recommends: Mistborn

So I have decided to do some fun things with this blog. As you may or may not know I am using this blog as a backbone for some of the journal entries that I do online. It's a nice way to write about things that aren't really that important but that are fun. I'd also like my posterity to know that I was (mostly) normal.

So I have decided that each week I will write a post titled "Cameron Recommends" which will allow me to tell about something I enjoy. It might be a recipe, book, movie, song, album or anything really. So look forward to them.


This week Cameron recommends Mistborn. Mistborn is a fantasy novel written by Brandon Sanderson. For all of you fantasy lovers out there Brandon Sanderson was the author that was chosen by the wife of the late Robert Jordan to finish the Wheel of Time Series. Mistborn was written before that. So I absolutely loved this novel. It was suggested to me by my good friend Karen Mills while I was working in Pennsylvania for the summer a few years back.

Why recommend this? Because it is well written and well thought out. The characters of Vin, Kelsier, Sazed, Breeze and Ham are interesting, especially Kelsier. The book takes place on a world where the mystical hero that was to save the world from evil actually failed thousands of years ago. In this world of ruin, ash falls from the sky and Lord Ruler is god. The nobles have the favor of the Lord Ruler and the skaa are peasants who work for nothing. This world also has a unique magic system based on metals. When a person who was born with the ability to work magic swallows a given metal then they can "burn" it inside themselves for the ability that metal gives. Each metal gives a certain ability and most people that can use magic can only burn one kind of metal. However a mistborn can burn them all. What I really liked about the magic system in this book is that the magic follows physics in a way. For each metal there is an opposite, one will pull and the other will push. For the basic example, steel allows one to push on metal objects whereas iron allows you to pull on them. Plus it is such a great and engaging story. I am not huge into fantasy but I loved this book. One of the few 5 out of 5 books I've read.

So go read it. If you are in Logan and are interested I own it if you'd like to borrow it.

Well that is it for me. Hope you enjoy!

4 comments:

Charlie said...

Sounds like a good book I'm always looking for something new to read and can't wait to check this out.

PS Congrats on becoming a PhD student that is wonderful.

amandahyer said...

have you read the whole trilogy? cause it is kind of mind blowing. Seriously amazing. I whole heartedly recommend anything written by Brandon Sanderson

cankerz said...

Oh I love the trilogy, so good. And I have read everything he has done, except for the wheel of time stuff. I'll probably start the wheel of time soon though. Way of Kings was also amazing.

Shantel said...

I love this series. :) I hope you are doing well Cameron!