This one is centered around a young thief named Vin who has had a tragic life until she meets Kelsier, a young revolutionary with a heart of gold. Their people have been oppressed for centuries by the Lord Ruler, a man who saved the world from a mysterious enemy years ago but rules as a tyrant. In a world full of Frankenstein-type creatures and metallically enhanced individuals can the people rise up and defeat their dictators?

Kelsier is a legend. His actions inspire a revolution in the commonfolk against the Lord Ruler. The Lord Ruler has many genetically altered beasts at his disposal with various metallic-based powers. Despite these hurdles, Kelsier still aspires to free his people and feels he has the power to do so given his '“mistborn” status. This term refers to those that have gone through great trauma and come out the other side with all the metallic powers. These super-powered individuals are virtually unstoppable and Kelsier uses this power to inspire others to join his crusade. Learning his background provides context to his reasoning for this, other than he’s just a good dude, and serves to help flesh out the world as a whole.

Vin is a nobody. A child with no one to care for her; she lives with a group of thieves that barely tolerate her presence. If she couldn’t sense people’s emotions, she would have been thrown out long ago. Kelsier takes interest in her during a chance meeting and their partnership quickly leads to an infiltration of the noble circle to get closer to the Lord Ruler’s secrets.

Most of the story is about Vin pretending to be a noble and learning about her powers. Infiltrating the Lord Ruler’s ranks is the crux of the story and the “cloak and dagger” style of the operation makes it a page turner. The character dynamics allow for some truly wholesome moments as well. Kelsier and Vin’s teacher-student relationship is phenomenal for their growth because she never had someone to do that for her and he never got the chance to have children. It is a redemption in its own right to allow this to happen.

It’s a wild ride with political espionage, love, action and real life lessons. A great first book to get into his novels and this series is a trilogy rather than The Stormlight Archives which is supposedly going to be 10 books. I wasn’t a big epic fantasy guy before reading The Way of Kings but this man single-handedly changed the game. Read one of his works and you’ll be hooked.