Ah, I wondered if it might have been a typo since “mistborn” seems like a more plausible word. I’ve been meaning to get around to Sanderson since forever, but I didn’t do any reading for the longest time, and I’ve been on a big sci-fi kick since starting up again because I’m mostly interested in stories that use novel premises to examine issues like human rights and the nature of consciousness/life, etc. I’ve felt like fantasy is too meaningless adventure-y? Not enough induction of personal growth. But I’m in the middle of The Magicians right now, and that’s really proving me wrong, and also there was Tehanu. That was a hard book to read because it was so real.
the cosmere series as a whole (of which the mistborn saga is a part) reeeeaaaally straddles the line between sci-fi and fantasy;
it’s all a kind of “hard fantasy”, where all of the powers that people use are strictly limited by a certain energy source (don’t want to spoil anything here, even though it’s a kind of unimportant detail overall).
so, in the mistborn saga for example, people swallow certain metals and use those metals to power certain abilities, depending on the metal, which uses up said metal. if it runs out, there’s no way to power those abilities anymore. and it DOES run out, it’s very much finite.
so if you like sci-fi, especially more on the hard sci-fi side, and have been enjoying some fantasy lately, i think it might be right up your alley! ;)
Ah, I wondered if it might have been a typo since “mistborn” seems like a more plausible word. I’ve been meaning to get around to Sanderson since forever, but I didn’t do any reading for the longest time, and I’ve been on a big sci-fi kick since starting up again because I’m mostly interested in stories that use novel premises to examine issues like human rights and the nature of consciousness/life, etc. I’ve felt like fantasy is too meaningless adventure-y? Not enough induction of personal growth. But I’m in the middle of The Magicians right now, and that’s really proving me wrong, and also there was Tehanu. That was a hard book to read because it was so real.
Anyhow, thanks to you both.
Have you been through the 3 body problem series by Cixin Liu? Soooo good. Loads of the stuff you mentioned.
the cosmere series as a whole (of which the mistborn saga is a part) reeeeaaaally straddles the line between sci-fi and fantasy;
it’s all a kind of “hard fantasy”, where all of the powers that people use are strictly limited by a certain energy source (don’t want to spoil anything here, even though it’s a kind of unimportant detail overall).
so, in the mistborn saga for example, people swallow certain metals and use those metals to power certain abilities, depending on the metal, which uses up said metal. if it runs out, there’s no way to power those abilities anymore. and it DOES run out, it’s very much finite.
so if you like sci-fi, especially more on the hard sci-fi side, and have been enjoying some fantasy lately, i think it might be right up your alley! ;)
Love his magic systems. How’d you like stormlight 5? I balled.