A friend loaned me the trilogy, absolutely gushing about it, and he reads incessantly. Reading the first book, I was wondering what he saw in it. The author's voice was rather generic and flat, and he worked too hard at trying to be mysterious to hook the reader in ("Ooh, aren't you curious what 'burning tin' means? Keep reading to find out!"), rather than letting his own voice and work pull you in. It took about half the first book for me to really be hooked, but even then, there seemed to be a lot of missteps and places where the story just wasn't coming together as well as it should have. The author also contradicts himself a few times, notably in that Ironpulling and Steelpushing are based solely on the Allomancer's weight, but then noting that Vin (and later, Elend) can Push/Pull much harder than other Allomancers. . . so it is based only on weight or not? The action scenes are amazing, and the characters are at the very least interesting and grow believably, and the climax of the series is absolutely astonishing, so it's still well worth a read. And the magic systems are the best part, with well-thought-out internal consistency to avoid gamebreaking powers (and with a few small loopholes to allow them when necessary). It almost feels like the author is a gamer, ticking off a GM checklist of what would and would not be overpowered in a tabletop RPG campaign. Starting up Alloy of Law, a sequel story, and the writing is much crisper, the characters more developed and intriguing, the pacing and flow much better. So consider this a great story told by an author still finding his feet, which perhaps should have been shelved until he had the experience to really make it sing. However, even with it's flaws, it's still an immensely enjoyable read, definitely recommended. Though all in all, I liked it better when it was called Deathstalker.
Not bad, could have been better.
A friend loaned me the trilogy, absolutely gushing about it, and he reads incessantly. Reading the first book, I was wondering what he saw in it. The author's voice was rather generic and flat, and he worked too hard at trying to be mysterious to hook the reader in ("Ooh, aren't you curious what 'burning tin' means? Keep reading to find out!"), rather than letting his own voice and work pull you in. It took about half the first book for me to really be hooked, but even then, there seemed to be a lot of missteps and places where the story just wasn't coming together as well as it should have. The author also contradicts himself a few times, notably in that Ironpulling and Steelpushing are based solely on the Allomancer's weight, but then noting that Vin (and later, Elend) can Push/Pull much harder than other Allomancers. . . so it is based only on weight or not? The action scenes are amazing, and the characters are at the very least interesting and grow believably, and the climax of the series is absolutely astonishing, so it's still well worth a read. And the magic systems are the best part, with well-thought-out internal consistency to avoid gamebreaking powers (and with a few small loopholes to allow them when necessary). It almost feels like the author is a gamer, ticking off a GM checklist of what would and would not be overpowered in a tabletop RPG campaign. Starting up Alloy of Law, a sequel story, and the writing is much crisper, the characters more developed and intriguing, the pacing and flow much better. So consider this a great story told by an author still finding his feet, which perhaps should have been shelved until he had the experience to really make it sing. However, even with it's flaws, it's still an immensely enjoyable read, definitely recommended. Though all in all, I liked it better when it was called Deathstalker.