Mistborn: The Final Empire

The American author Brandon Sanderson published the fantasy novel Mistborn: The Final Empire through Tor Books on 17 July 2006. The Well of Ascension came next, in 2007, with The Hero of Ages completing the trilogy in 2008. The setting is the Final Empire, a tyrannical regime under a seemingly immortal ruler, with the population divided between the nobility and the heavily oppressed skaa, which is the arrangement the plot intends to end.

The magic of the world is Allomancy, which lets certain people burn metals to produce specific powers. Most Allomancers can use only one metal and gain a single ability, while the rare Mistborn can use any of them. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler has ruled the Final Empire, and the skaa who work the plantations have had no reason to expect anything else, because the Lord Ruler has outlived every attempt at rebellion.

Vin works a street gang and thinks she is lucky to be alive until a thief called Kelsier finds her and tells her she is something the nobility has spent centuries hunting: a Mistborn. He is planning a robbery at the scale of a revolution, and he needs someone who can move among the houses doing the robbing. His crew includes a scholar who reads the old religions, a smoker who hides them from detection and a Terrisman who can store memories in metal.

The trilogy continues with the two later volumes, and the wider Mistborn setting later moves to a different era with different characters, each designed to be read on its own. The first book establishes the Final Empire, the metals, the crew and the plan that carries the story forward.