HELLO, MY MAGNIFICENT NERDS! Can you believe it’s Friday again already? I sure as heck can’t. I know it’s Friday because Mabel the Merciless informs me that it is in fact, Fun Food Friday, and therefore she should be permitted to have M&Ms for lunch. And honestly… I can’t think of a good argument for that.

So this post is coming to you straight out of my sugar high. Mabel is climbing on the ceiling somewhere behind me and it would appear that enough M&Ms give her Spider Man powers. Before you judge us, you should know that we ate some Kale last week and also I told her “no” to coffee, so I think my World’s Okayest Mom mug remains uncontested.

This week I’ve been reading…

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Sanderson’s books are delightfully long. I like to listen to audio books while I knit or do chores and you get a good value with these. 20+ hours each. But I can’t always fit that much into a week, and if you are reading along I don’t want you to feel like you have to clear 20 hours. So I’m breaking these into multiple posts per book. Honestly, there is way too much to unpack in each book to squeeze into one post anyhow.

Spoilers for Mistborn: The Final Empire Below

I am loving this book! It ticks every possible box for me. 

• Sassy Heroine who is also super powerful magic-girl™? Check.
•  Said Heroine grew up poor and abused on the streets but now is going to be noble/royalty? Check.
• Kindly father figure who legitimately cares about magic-girl™ and ISN’T making it weird by being sexually attracted to her (I’m looking at you Harry:Molly shippers!)? Check.
• Interesting Magic System? Check.
• Evil religious and possibly immortal bad guy? Check.
• Fun heist/caper plot line? Check.

Part one is mostly spent introducing us to the large cast of characters, but the two main characters are Vin and Kelsier. 

Vin: She’s young, scrappy, and hungry (not unlike her country). She trusts no one, because in her very real experience, everyone is out to abuse or misuse everyone else. She has been serving on a low-rent thieving crew since her brother abandoned her a year ago (and honestly, her life was not better when he was around), and is adopted by Kelsier and his high-end thieving crew. 

Kelsier: A classic Robin Hood archetype, we first meet Kelsier as he visits a plantation to encourage the enslaved people there to rebel against the plantation owners. A lot of the themes in the book are very relevant to today’s real-world society, which can be uncomfortable at times, but in the good stretching-yourself sort of way. Kelsier was a successful thief, running major cons for years before he was betrayed, captured, and sent to die as a slave at the Pits of Hathsin. He is the only person to be known to have survived and escaped the pits. 

Kelsier and his crew obviously have a genuine affection for Vin, and are also motivated to actually do the right thing and save the enslaved Skaa from the cruel hands of the Lord Ruler. This god-king ascended to power about 1,000 years before the start of this book, and since then has oppressed all beings and races that are not his own. Over the course of part one, we see Kelsiers crew beginning to execute a plan to pull a major heist on the Lord-Ruler’s castle, where they will steal all of the Lord-Ruler’s Atium – the most valuable and powerful allomantic metal. Kelser believes that there is a secret eleventh metal that will allow him to kill the Lord Ruler, though he hasn’t worked out how. For now, the plan is to overthrow him by raising an army of rebel Skaa and using the Atium to take the capital city of Luthadale. 

Only Nobility are supposed to be able to use Allomancy -magic that is based on consuming and “burning” certain metals, each of which afford the user a specific power – But both Vin and Kelsier are ½ Skaa and ½ nobility. It’s not clear yet if Skaa are a different race, or if it’s more of a Caste system. They can pass as nobility, so I think it’s mostly the latter. That said, Allomancy is only physically possible for someone with Noble blood, so I assume more on this will be revealed later. 

Both Vin and Kelsier are Mistborn, which means they are able to burn and use all of the ten metals, and if the eleventh metal does actually exist they could theoretically use that one as well. Most Allomancers are only able to use a single metal and they gain a single power from it. 

I’m really enjoying the description of the magic system, but what really has me hooked on this book are the short passages from the Lord-Ruler’s journal, which were written before he had ascended to power. The first few you read, it’s not obvious that it’s the Lord Ruler speaking, but for me it seemed clear that it was his diary by the end of Part One. 

Currently on my needles…

I’ve started a Mistborn inspired scarf, and I’m really happy with it so far! It’s slow going, I’m using fingering yarn and US3 needles, but the faux cables just weren’t as nice with a more open gauge. Still, it’s a perfect palate cleanser between more intense projects. As per usual I have a couple of sweaters on my needles. I’ve finished and published my Aw Nuts Sweater:

Almost as soon as it was done I cast on a children’s version for Mabel, but I haven’t felt hyped to work on it, so it’s mostly languishing right now. I’ve got a D&D inspired cardigan that isn’t ready to show progress pics yet, but I think you’ll really dig it, and I’m working on a new version of my Beating Heart Tee, so it’s pretty much Sweater City around here. The scarf is a nice low key break from those when I want to just zone out with something small.

~Megan-Anne

“Honestly, for an evil god of darkness, he certainly can be dull.”― Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire

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