Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson

So, I have got around to doing my bit of finding out what the author who'll be finishing off the Wheel of Time series is going to be like.  Well, actually, that's a little unfair - in the light of Amy's review, I figured it was probably worth reading in its own right.

It is... interesting.

In many ways, it follows the tropes of the modern fantasy novel, but Mr. Sanderson has created a very interesting world for it to happen in; the aftermath of what appears to be the prophesied savior saving the world, but then turning around, conquering it, squashing all its previous culture flat, crushing all religion except that which declares him a strict subset of God, and enslaving the working classes pretty much entirely.  Oh, and the environment appears to have gone to hell, since a bunch of volcanoes are erupting all the time and covering everything in ash.

Our protagonists are, shall we say, somewhat opposed to this state of affairs.

I feel like I should note his "magic system" - I hate that phrase, please send possible replacements in a comment - as well, which is one of the more creative ones I've seen; specifically, the power works by consuming ingested metals and alloys to produce various effects, depending on which metals you use.  (How these people don't all come down with assorted forms of metal poisoning... is presumably part of the gift.)  I like it.  It seems well put together and coherent by the standards of such things.

Overall: well, a bit slow to start, as Amy noted, but I don't think unacceptably so.  Good characters, good plot.  I'm not going to actually commit to a recommendation until I've read the next book in the series, The Well of Ascension, but it surely looks promising.