Mistborn is an excellent series and I thoroughly enjoyed every book in the original trilogy: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. I was completely drawn into Sanderson's world of Allomancers and all of the interesting things they could do right from the start. For the uninitiated, Allomancy is the art of "burning" an ingested metal to enhance your own physical and mental abilities. One of these metals let you mentally push yourself off of nearby metal objects and another lets you pull the metal towards you. With each metal having a unique ability Sanderson is able to create a society where Allomantic powers are used in very creative ways and the magic system alone makes this series a win. There are 8 metals that can be ingested/burned and most Allomancers can only burn a single one; however, there are rare individuals who can burn all 8 and these are known as Mistborn. All 8 powers in one person - that's when things get really interesting.

In additional to the complex and believable magic systems in the books, Sanderson's characters are also excellent. The world of the Final Empire is a bit dystopian in nature and run by the immortal Lord Ruler. Interestingly, he is the Hero of Ages who one thousand years ago successfully repelled a great evil and ascended to godhood. He then remade the world as it is today and now rules it as a tyrant. This is the backdrop for Mistborn and it is a great story.

I knew little of Brandon Sanderson when it was announced that he was selected to finish the Wheel of Time series after the death of Robert Jordan. I decided to check out some of his work to get a feel for his writing before his first Wheel of Time novel was published. What I discovered was that I had been missing out on one of the best Fantasy authors writing today. To be blunt, Brandon Sanderson is a better fantasy writer than Robert Jordan.

Overall this series is expected to be a trilogy of trilogies. Book 4, The Alloy of Law is a standalone novel that is actually between the first two trilogies. It takes place many years in the future after The Hero of Ages and introduces the characters of Wax and Wayne who are the focus of the second trilogy. Wax and Wayne are extremely entertaining characters and I can't wait for the second trilogy to be completed.

For you audiobook fans: Michael Kramer does an excellent job of bringing these interesting characters to life as the narrator so expect this series to grab you from the start and never let go.