Publication Date: July 25th 2006 

Publisher: Tor Books

Pages: 541

ISBN: 076531178X (ISBN13: 9780765311788)

In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more?

In Brandon Sanderson's intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage — Allomancy, a magic of the metals.

Now, What I Thought: 

This was really good!!! It was super long but considering how fast-paced it was, it was almost perfect. So the world we're set in is a fantasy dystopia. The sun has turned into a red giant and instead of clear skies, ash rains down almost indefinitely. The story follows this bad-ass 16 year old girl, Vin, and 35 year old, another hugely bad-ass, Kelsier. So there are two classes basically, the Skaa and the Nobles. The Skaa, which Vin is classed in are serving people, they are the 'poor' in this world. The Nobles on the other hand sometimes have access to magic in this world known as, Allomancy. Magic in this world is fuelled by elemental and alloyed metals. This magic can enhance abilities like super strength for example and the abilities differ from different metals the nobles ingest. This whole book is basically a heist for Kelsier and Vin's thieving gang to overthrow the Lord Ruler of the land.

It was really exciting to read and the way we got introduced to the characters was such a brutal and honest way! This whole world is just a wasteland, it's almost like this could happen to us, in real life, in about a couple billion years. We all know our sun is going to burn out sometime and become a red giant like all of the other stars have, it's just a matter of time. I really really really enjoyed this book, and I do wish I had read it sooner! During the book we obviously get a couple attempts by the gang to overthrow the Lord Ruler. Lets just say the first try did not go well. We really get to see why the Inquisitors, unbeatable and unstoppable powerful guards, are so feared of and holy crap that was intense. 

There were a lot of moments when I literally thought Sanderson was going to kill the main characters because taking on that big of a heist was bound to have many, if not, all casualties. 

WARNING: This is not a happy book. This is a sad, intense, thrilling adventure but not happy. The world Sanderson built and made is living in poverty and a literal wasteland with ash to cover their grounds, do not expect a happy ending. Kelsier was definitely one of my favourite characters, maybe tied with Vin. He was so bad-ass and a complete Dumbledore-like character that his words were so strong and wise. He really was a legend to people.

The only word I can think about for this novel is, intricate. It was so finely wound and woven into this thick, deep and thoughtful plot line and story in general. The whole book was so believable and possible because of the actual realness in the setting and the background behind the people and not to mention the actual world, and what happened for it to get to this point. Again, I really did like this and I'm very happy I finally read it! The characters are simply amazing and so memorable that I absolutely loved everything in this entire novel. This is such a raved about book that it deserves all of the hype it's getting!