# Sorely \_SORELY\_ disappointed in Mistborn. Help me wash the taste out of my mouth **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751 "2013-06-24T02:38:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/41 "2013-07-01T21:41:24Z")
Vin burned pewter, hocking a loogie. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeper\_Service](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Sleeper\_Service](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeper_Service)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/42 "2013-07-01T21:54:09Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Was it just his anti-SSM stance that turned you off? I found the essay (poorly written but hey it’s the blogosphere, anyway) to be making a genuine attempt at understanding between erstwhile enemies. It may have been a blog entry, but for someone who makes a living with his writing, I’d have expected better than a non-apology tacked on to an already offensive and unnecessary bit of soapboxing. His work is marketed to adolescents: it’s likely a few of them are/were already struggling with issues of identity and acceptance before he aired his grievances. I’m not saying he’s a major celebrity, but he could have an influence on his readership. I fully concede that it’s mostly my own problem. If there’s one rule of life I try to adhere to, it’s “Don’t be an ass.” As with similar offenders (e.g. Orson Scott Card) I have trouble separating the artist from his work. Result: I can’t enjoy the work. ---
**Author:** ![MilTan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@MilTan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MilTan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/43 "2013-07-01T22:18:21Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > I’m also a huge fan of Joe Abercrombie’s works, though they’re pretty gloomy/dark, and somewhat satirical of the whole fantasy genre. Still, if you like A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones, you’ll probably be okay with this. I don’t know about this. I’m having trouble coming up with the appropriate analogy here, but if ASoIaF is an 8 on the 1-10 “darkness and brutality” scale, and Malazan is maybe a 9.5, Joe Abercrombie is somewhere around a 17. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/44 "2013-07-01T23:13:51Z")
> [@Sleeper\_Service](#): > > It may have been a blog entry, but for someone who makes a living with his writing, I’d have expected better than a non-apology tacked on to an already offensive and unnecessary bit of soapboxing. His work is marketed to adolescents: it’s likely a few of them are/were already struggling with issues of identity and acceptance before he aired his grievances. I’m not saying he’s a major celebrity, but he could have an influence on his readership. > > I fully concede that it’s mostly my own problem. If there’s one rule of life I try to adhere to, it’s “Don’t be an ass.” As with similar offenders (e.g. Orson Scott Card) I have trouble separating the artist from his work. Result: I can’t enjoy the work. Well I have to say I see a strong distinction between Sanderson and Card. Sanderson seems to be almost apologetic for his agreement with the church. (I say “almost.” I mean, he endorses it, but you can kind of see he’s a little embarrassed by it, not really all that wholehearted about it, and it seems to almost be a matter of duty for him to agree with it.) Card on the other hand, is a raging asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeper\_Service](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Sleeper\_Service](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeper_Service)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/45 "2013-07-01T23:25:51Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Well I have to say I see a strong distinction between Sanderson and Card. Sanderson seems to be almost apologetic for his agreement with the church. (I say “almost.” I mean, he endorses it, but you can kind of see he’s a little embarrassed by it, not really all that wholehearted about it, and it seems to almost be a matter of duty for him to agree with it.) Card on the other hand, is a raging asshole. We boil at different degrees. IOW: You make a fair point, but I can’t stomach this kind of poison. To each his own. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/46 "2013-07-01T23:52:54Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > Since others mentioned Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice series, I’ll throw my two cents in - the first two books are good, but the storyline then entirely derails from what made it interesting (young kid gets brought in the world of noble politics/backstabbing/assassinry). The third book meanders off into a hugely disappointing direction, and has one of the worst endings I’ve ever seen. You have to wait for book six ( actually nine if you count the intervening Liveship Traders series ) to get any kind of closure on that one ;). There were three interlocking trilogies, the first and third of which are about the same protagonist. Personally I rate them as solid, but I don’t have a lot of interest in re-reading them. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/47 "2013-07-02T01:42:55Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > Yeah, but the ‘reset button’ in this case is, “turn into a god”. As a plot engine, it’s not very interesting. There really is no literary problem that can’t be solved by deifying your main character. > > . . . Ah, but the last time it happened, with the Lord Ruler, the world was very nearly destroyed. Even with his last minute patches, the world is slowly ending. And the ‘ancient knowledge’ has been suppressed since then, so anyone who suddenly “turned into a god” would very likely muck things up completely. I liked the way that the story made it obvious that if either of the two main heroes became a god, there would be too many things that they didn’t know to allow them to help the world. For them, attaining godhood would be, ultimately, a failure. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751/48 "2013-07-09T06:22:32Z")
For what it’s worth, I guessed the ending of the first book - and I guessed wrong. About two thirds of the way through I thought the ending would be[spoiler]Kelsior would turn out to be the Lord Ruler. I figured there was a mystery surrounding the Lord Ruler and a mystery surrounding how Kelsier had survived the pit. Plus we saw from the Lord Ruler’s diary that he had once been a normal moral person. And Kelsier was leading the rebellion but he was obsessed with killing the Lord Ruler and claimed to have secret knowledge that nobody else had about how to do it. I was figuring the end of the book would be the reveal that the Lord Ruler’s mind was breaking down and he wanted to die. But he couldn’t just kill himself outright. The original Kelsier had been killed in the pit and the Lord Ruler had adopted his persona in order to set up his own death. I thought Vin would end up doing the actual killing after she realized who Kelsier was and what he wanted her to do.[/spoiler]That last part was the only thing I even came close on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorely-_sorely_-disappointed-in-mistborn-help-me-wash-the-taste-out-of-my-mouth/661751.md?page=2)