Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

140 reviews

schoha01's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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jelkebooks's review

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Okay, yup, I totally get the hype behind Brandon Sanderson. No one needed to hear this, as everyone knew this already. I've just had his books (and this one in particular) on my TBR for AGES, and the hype has had me scared but I totally did not need to be. I do have to say that this took me a little bit to get into. Not nececarily because it was hard to get into, but as someone who doesn't read a lot of high fantasy it just took me a little bit to get into things, get used to the writing and everything. 
However, after the first 100 pages or so I REALLY got into this book. The story was really compelling, the world incredibly interesting, and the characters were great to follow. I do have to say that Vin got on my nerves a little bit at times, but she did go through a lot of developement throughout the book, and I'm excited to see her journey throughout the rest of the series. Kelsier was absolutely unhinged, but in the best way possible, and I really loved our crew of side characters. I was quite gripped by the entire book, although at times it felt like not much was happening. However, I feel like every word is purposeful for this book, or the rest of the series. I just feel like even though I had a great time reading this book, mostly it just felt like a four star to me, with potential of a five star later on in the series.
Then those last 150 pages or so happened and they BLEW MY MIND. Oh my god, things started happening, were extremely action packed, and there were just so many twists and turns I just absolutely did not see coming but still felt like a natural progression of the story. My heart was just absolutely racing, and it just was easy 5 star material. Honestly, finishing this book gave me such an adrenaline rush. I absolutely can't wait to continue on with this story because this was such a solid foundation for things, and it can only go up from here, and it is already at a really high point for me. So yeah, it didn't end up being a 5 star in total, but it's really fucking close. If I did decimal point rating this would 100% be a 4.75.

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mads_reads_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Does not pass The Bechdel Test

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ctara2123's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75


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kiwij96's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Having heard many positive reviews about this series and of Brandon Sanderson's writing, I thought I'd start here, as was suggested. Maybe I went into this with too high an expectation, but this didn't really capture my attention past the fifth chapter, but I stuck with it in the hopes that the story would progress or improve. It didn't for me.

There were chapters upon chapters of filler, and seemingly important pieces of plot or development often happened off-page. My favourite characters were the supporting cast pretty much, because they were the only ones with any personality (Dox, Clubs, Spook, Breeze, Ham, Sazed). The whole book was just a grown adult man relying heavily on the capabilities of a 16-17 year old child, and often putting her in harm's way for no reason whatsoever.

Some parts of the story felt either info-dumpy or unfinished, and, at a couple of points, repetitive. There was also the mini romance plotline which was just completely out of place.

Also the ending happened too quickly. After reading 500 pages on what was essentially dialogue (don't even get me started on the amount of times the word "said" was used), politics and "oh woe is me", the ending felt very rushed and as though even Sanderson wanted the story to be over.

However, the magic system was interesting and a great concept, and there was some good camaraderie between the crew members. But that was essentially 100 pages of enjoyment really so idk, maybe I should have DNFed, I'm sorry.

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emmacartlidge's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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victoriakerr131's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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dollarsignimp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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nikkihill22's review

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

i really liked the plot and characters of this book. i hated the pacing of it. i cant decide if i hate the pacing of it more as a stand alone, or more as the first part of a trilogy. i listened to the audiobook, which i think was majorly helpful in finishing the book. the chapters are very long, which i don't mind in audio format, but if i were reading a physical book i think it would have been difficult to convince myself to pick it up as i typically like to make sure i have enough time to read at least one chapter any time i sit down to read. The audiobook was nearly 25 hours long (no complaints about long books, i love big books), and for whatever reason, the last 30 minutes of it were an epilogue? this makes me think the book was written as if it may never get a sequel. because a 25 hour book with a 29 hour sequel and a 27.5 hour sequel after that one in no way shape or form needs a 30 minute epilogue.

But the characters were utterly charming, i definitely started and ended the book for them, and i'm so excited to see where they go in the rest of the story. My one complaint about characterization is about the minor romance in the book, i don't fully understand why the character we follow falls in love with someone as quickly as they do, but love is love and it happens like that sometimes i suppose. I just don't think this character would have necessarily.

Sometimes i like to play "spot the mormon" when i read a book by a mormon author, and i definitely think you can find Sanderson's mormon background all throughout this book, especially with the log book entries and the Lord Ruler, as well as some of the importance stressed around family structures. But it wasn't quite as bad as some other mormon authors' works are.

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teyn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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