Fantasy Book Club discussion

What were your initial thoughts in the first 100 pages?

I'm loving this story. The characters are so well-developed. I like how Sanderson treats the different aspects of the Mistborn world so matter-of-factly. He could spend a lot of time over-explaining and giving us way more detail than we need. Instead, if the characters take something for granted, like ashfall, then we are supposed to take it for granted too. He is revealing things about the world, but slowly and naturally.

I give an author 100 pages to capture my imagination and Sanderson had me in the first 10 pages. I have to say I was all prepared to hate this book so the fact that he grabbed me in less than 10 pages says a lot. His characters are instantly likable, and the world he created fascinating. I wanted to keep reading.

I think that many fantasy authors spend way too much time telling us about their world - I think world building is part of what attracts them and they want to tell you every little detail etc. This did not happen with Mistborn. The world was what it should be a backdrop for the story - enough is told to get you to understand the world. This was one of the first signs that it was going to be good.

On a different subject -- prologue - I generally don't like them - but I do read them. My husband did not read it. I thought it was intersting how "bad ass" this unknown traveler was and I was interested to learn more.

-- Wife of fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan: The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha

I agree Robin, I read the Prologue, and I gotta say that's what got me hooked. One man destroying an entire fortification in a single night? Awesome! And yet, at the same time the traveler's unexplained powers are tempered with a deep compassion. It's not until he finds out that a young girl was taken that he laid waste to the palace.

I also agree with the world building. Sanderson goes into great detail about the characters and their activities, but only mentions the mist and ash almost in passing, as if it were an afterthought. He brings up Obligators as though they were something we were already familiar with, and needed no further explanation of their functions. It made me even more eager for an explanation.

Restraint is IMO the hardest thing for authors - I've read a bunch of stuff where the author feels he has to "spill all he beans" too early...that was another thing I noticed in Sandersons writing - he would only "partialy hint" at things...I knew there was "something" that would be explained in more detail later and was glad to have the opportunity for it to unfold naturally instead of all at once.

-- Wife of fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan: The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha (04/09)

Sanderson actually captured me with the first sentence: "Ash fell from the sky." He doesn't go on to explain what it looks like or where it comes from, he just plunges straight into the story.

Yeah, it's not often you find that opening sentence that just grabs you and the refuses to let you go.

I can't say the first sentence did much for me - but I was hooked by the end of the prologue.

I'm going to have to agree with Jane here - I don't think that was a particularly great first sentence...but I was hooked early as I mentioned.

What I liked about the first sentence, 'Ash fell from the sky.", is that it was repeated in the prologue and in part one. And it's still mysterious to me - I'm assuming that it might be cleared up in the remaining books, but why are ash and mist such a normal everyday part of life?

I have not read the second or third books in the series, so my assumption is that it will be explained what happened. But I believe that whatever the original Lord Ruler was traveling to confront caused it. Some big bad cloud of evilness.

I was also hooked by the Prologue - and then got annoyed when the Prologue character wasn't there for so long! I hated Vin's crew (pre-Kelsier, of course) and it was painful to read about her struggles. Great book.