Mistborn: the final empire, by Brandon Sanderson

Another recommendation by Patrick Rothfuss, and a great one at that! The magic system is very different (using metals in one way or another), and I like it.

There is a very interesting, although rather simplistic, dichotomy between the upper- and lower-class, the haves and the have-nots, the masters and the slaves. First, no middle-class. The slaves are called "skaa", although I am not really sure why. And I am not sure why, after centuries of coexisting (barely), the "nobility" even questions whether or not the "skaa" are more or less human. Sanderson went to lengths to show how self-important and ego-centric the privileged class was, but they are ostentaticiously missing some common sense. The skaa on the other hand, are rather ultra-obsequious; even the rebellions do not really amount to much. If there was one thing I did not like about this world, it was that the white-collar folks were too over-the-top.

The overlord character, a tyrant ruler some call a god, has a very respectable shroud of mystery wrapped around him. The author pulled a very clever trick with the journal, and I have a lot of respect for those kind of tricks. And his little army of zealots (obligators and Steel Inquisitors, not unlike the infamous Crusaders in a lot of respects) enforces the trynanical oppression rather well; the Inquisitors are really interesting, both in their background and their abilities.

The terrismen are also very intriguing, and it will be satisfying to learn more about them in other books. I guess one could say that there are technically two different magic systems employed by different races (or perhaps a third if you count the mistwraiths/kandra). So even though this story did a fairly good job at exploring this little pocket of reality, it left a good number of doors open for other lines of possibilities.

Perhaps one of the better things about this book was that I was drawn in right away, and the author kept me going. I like that kind of book. The character developement proceeded at a very satisfactory pace, as well as the action and tension, not to mention several appreciable twists throughout the story. I get the impression that "book 2" is more of a prequel, based on the title. We will see.