The Mistborn Trilogy. *Spoilers*

[Elmandr]

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!




For me it was The Final Empire. Though i didn't want to get all nostalgic about it...I find that there really is no other way to explain. Here goes.

I'm sure you all know what a relation ship is like on the first few months--new and exciting, filled with discovery and growing closer with your partner.

Thats how book one is. It is, in a lack of a better and less corny analogy, the beginning of my relationship with Mistborn. The magic system was new to me, the characters mysterious and unknown. The story unpredictable. They always say that there will be no one like your first...

ehm. Joke. I kid. I just wanted to see how far i could take it.

then i thought, perhaps i'm just the type who likes beginnings. Looking back to all the trilogies and series i read, i found that i reread the firsts more. That i read them for longer periods at a time. That i liked them more.

However, i will not let my vanity blind me, i know there must be other opinions. Thus, i ask, of the three, which do you find the most enjoyable?

[Qarlin]

I like HOA the best. I think it's probably because I like worldbuilding so much, and this one had so much explanation of that in it. Having things explained was great for me, as it helped me understand how the world worked so much better.

And the fight scenes in the HOA were the most epic. As a fight choreographer, I'm biased in this regard, and love a good fight scene. Though Kel's fight with the Inquisitor is also an awesome one. When these get made into movies, I want to choreograph the fights... Please???

Also, this should be labeled as a Spoiler thread, because I wanted to go into specifics as to why I liked the last book best, but I didn't want it to put in spoilers where people weren't warned.

[Elmandr]

I like HOA the best. I think it's probably because I like worldbuilding so much, and this one had so much explanation of that in it. Having things explained was great for me, as it helped me understand how the world worked so much better.

And the fight scenes in the HOA were the most epic. As a fight choreographer, I'm biased in this regard, and love a good fight scene. Though Kel's fight with the Inquisitor is also an awesome one. When these get made into movies, I want to choreograph the fights... Please???

Also, this should be labeled as a Spoiler thread, because I wanted to go into specifics as to why I liked the last book best, but I didn't want it to put in spoilers where people weren't warned.

Agreed, vins fight scene in HOA Vs the inquistors was beyond divine awesomeness...It surpassed every thinkable word--every existing word of praise! Let me create one for it....

Incredafantastuloustic!

[Reaves]

HOA took everything up several notches. Character growth, the magic, the fights. The types of issues faced. However, there is still a special place in my heart for the Final Empire. There was just a certain ambiance about it to the world, the characters, the writing that I really enjoyed. Kelsier, the Survivor. The stained-glass cathedrals. The thieving crews. It all came together and clicked for me.

[Chaos]

I love the entire trilogy, but I love Final Empire the most. I think this is because of the Lord Ruler, the untouchable villain. I just love active, powerful villains. It's for that reason why I love Hrannis in Elantris, and I think it applies for the Lord Ruler, too. It's a strange paradox, because in this case, an "active" villain was a rather apathetic guardian of the world.

MB3, too, had an epic conflict, but it's just not the same. Ruin was untouchable and powerful, but the Lord Ruler is a deeper villain as I've ever seen. He's atrocious out of his compassion--that's just cool.

And the other part of me loves Kelsier. 'Nuff said with that one.

Over the entire course of the series, though, I loved Elend the most. He really pulled the entire trilogy together for me. However, since this topic is about a single book, it has to be Final Empire.

My opinion on the matter could change as I reread the entire trilogy, though.

[Relient A]

I completely love the entire trilogy, but Final Empire probably sits as my favorite. This one was just more fun for me to read. Vin pretending to be nobility, Kelsier's crazy antics, espionage at the stuck up balls... and not to mention I think Luthendel (did I spell that right at all?) would have been completely awesome to explore as a newly snapped Mistborn pre-Fall of TLR. I think I enjoyed the settings more overall.

But basing it on battle scenes... The climactic battles with Vin at the end of the latter two books were nothing short of... well, awesome.

[Elmandr]

Wow. A tie between the beginning and the end...WOA sits with zero votes. I wonder...

Everyone who voted, What was it about WOA that everybody seems ignore it. I mean, it was a longer read, and its hard to follow up the death of God--perhaps thats it. We approached the book remember the lord ruler's death and a siege is what we ran into...

Perhaps the shift from a climax to a stagnant, undetermined, new beginning was too much for us...

[CthulhuKefka]

I actually will chime in and lend my support to WoA as my favorite.

I think I liked it because of all three books, that one dealt most with politics and shady political dealings. I like reading about that stuff.

Plus, come on, Vin leaping through the air with a sword going to kill Straff? Pure awesomeness. Plus Zane is one of my favorite minor characters.

[Chaos]

I actually will chime in and lend my support to WoA as my favorite.

I think I liked it because of all three books, that one dealt most with politics and shady political dealings. I like reading about that stuff.

Plus, come on, Vin leaping through the air with a sword going to kill Straff? Pure awesomeness. Plus Zane is one of my favorite minor characters.

Yeah. As you all well know, Zane is by far my least favorite character. I did not like any moments of his screen time--he annoyed me. This is the primary reason why I didn't like Well of Ascension as much. While I too enjoy politics, it seemed to just move slowly.

I'm blaming it all on Zane.

[Relient A]

I have absolutely zero complaints about WOA. Minus the highlights, I think I enjoy it more than HOA. It was more character driven and the political aspect of it was handled smoothly so I was never bored.

Hmm... okay, I wasn't crazy about Zane, but I did have a lot of sympathy for him, especially after I learned what the Spike meant.

[dawncawley]

Just to give my two cents on the reason the middle is lagging in votes, from my own limited experience of course. I think the reason is that book two in a trilogy is often hard to classify as a favorite because it is seen more as a means to an end, rather than it's own story. I think in this trilogy that isn't precisely the case, as WoA is a very good book on it's own, but with the beginning and the end also on the list, the middle part is going to be a bit less, well, dramatic, for lack of a better word. I mean, it had drama, it had suspense, and a resolution of sorts, which is a beginning for something else, but still, it was there. I'm not sure where I was going with this train of thought, my migraine medications have finally kicked in and I am a bit sleepy and muddled in my thoughts. I hope some of what I said made sense.

[CthulhuKefka]

Just to give my two cents on the reason the middle is lagging in votes, from my own limited experience of course. I think the reason is that book two in a trilogy is often hard to classify as a favorite because it is seen more as a means to an end, rather than it's own story. I think in this trilogy that isn't precisely the case, as WoA is a very good book on it's own, but with the beginning and the end also on the list, the middle part is going to be a bit less, well, dramatic, for lack of a better word. I mean, it had drama, it had suspense, and a resolution of sorts, which is a beginning for something else, but still, it was there. I'm not sure where I was going with this train of thought, my migraine medications have finally kicked in and I am a bit sleepy and muddled in my thoughts. I hope some of what I said made sense.

Made perfect sense. With only a few exceptions, the second part of a trilogy usually is less liked than the first and third for some reason. Maybe because it is just a middle piece, but who knows. Look at Empire Strikes Back, arguably the quintessential Star Wars movie, and it was the second one. WoA kinda felt like Empire Strikes Back to me. The ending was really dark with Ruin being released, it had the same vibe.

Of course I'm not fully comparing Mistborn to Star Wars, since I felt all of the Mistborn trilogy was epic and amazingly well done, while Star Wars kinda lost steam with Return of the Jedi.

 

[Qarlin]

Yeah, Vin's killing Straff was a very cool move... Yeah... 

[GoryCat]

I really liked FE, but everything it was for me, HoA was more.  FE was brilliantly creative and gripping, but to me it was palpably an early work of a young writer and I could see the rough edges.  Something about the descriptions was unfinished; too much tell, not enough show, maybe?  I found the writing to improve in large, quantum leaps as the series progressed, and HoA was as good as anything Robert Jordan ever wrote.  WoA was, for me, slow; I didn't find the politics that exciting and the machinations seemed stretched (there, Jordan still has something on Brandon).  And I agree with Dracula; Zane was not the Kelsier he was intended to be for Vin (apropos of that: Brandon said that Zane was written to represent the Kelsier way of life for Vin, in contast with Elend; does it seem to anyone else that this dichotomy was just slightly weakened by Elend's being made Mistborn anyway, in the end?  Vin sort of got to have her cake and eat it too, there).  So I rate them 3, 1, 2 in order of preference, but don't get me wrong: I read them all in one obsessive sitting each, so they all worked.  For others, of course, what I found marginal they might find central.

[Chaos]

Just fyi, GoryCat, my actual username is Chaos2651, this is just my holiday name change. I like to be confusing that way.