Mistborn: The Final Empire

I came very close to not reading another Brandon Sanderson novel after reading and hating Elantris. But then I got into a book-geek discussion about some fantasy series and another reader convinced me to give this one a try. Also, I was curious because of Sanderson taking on the Wheel of Time series (which I've yet to begin). A common thread among fantasy aficianados regarding Sanderson is the respect he's earned for his well-developed systems of magic. That's in evidence here. In this world, magic is known as Allomancy and is based on metals. Mistings are people who have the ability to use one of the allomantic metals, whereas a full Mistborn has the ability to use all of them. In the central city of Luthadel, the seemingly invincible Lord Ruler maintains his dominance over the nobility and a large class of serfs called skaa. It's been centuries since the last skaa rebellion was brutally put down and no one believes the skaa even have the will to mount another. But there's a skaa thieving crew that have a plan. This story contains some interesting characters, a unique magic system, a decent plot, and some exciting action sequences. I enjoyed it. I also liked that even for the first book in a trilogy, it's a fairly self-contained story. It had a great finish too.