The Final Empire presents a world governed by a tyrant, the Lord Ruler. Sanderson can make you feel like you are in this dreary environment. Where the sun does not shine, the sky is grey due to the falling ash and where colours are a myth. This desolate environment is the setup for a small rebellion, a coming-of-age story and an exploration of violence. This book can be comfortably described as a coming-of-age story about Vin. Vin, our main character, at the beginning of the book is a street rat that does everything possible to survive by making herself as small and unnoticeable as possible. Once her powers are discovered she joins Kelsier and the others. At the beginning she sticks to the beliefs she has hold for a long time. She expects violence and is shocked when she sees this people been so close and kind. Baffled at how this people trust each other when she has been taught to not trust anyone, that anyone can stab you in the back. Is not only that Vin discovers the soft side of human relationships, but she also discovers herself. For her whole life she has made herself small as a survival strategy. When she can care about more things than survival, she does not know who Vin is. The street rat that hoped to only survive another day? The mistborn that can fly the skies at night? Or the girl that enjoys balls? Vin ponders this question through out the novel, making her feel a real teenager. Finally, Vin is able to develop her own moral compass through out the book. As we advance in the book, she becomes more curious about the opinion of others in certain topics. She becomes more vocal in what she thinks is correct and what she thinks is wrong. She starts noticing trends and understanding what motivates people and how different people are intertwined and how can that affect their future actions. Much of the development that Vin goes through is thanks to Kelsier. Kelsier although not the main character, plays an important role in Vin’s development and in the plot’s development. Kelsier has suffered a lot at the hands of the system build up by the Lord Ruler. Before his imprisonment he was more of making as best as he could for himself. He understood the unfairness of the world but was not bothered enough to make a change. After his imprisonment his only goal becomes overthrowing the Lord Ruler. He cares about the injustice that skaa have to suffer. How they are enslaved and treated as nothing more than tools for different tasks. Kelsier is aggressive, but he is also charismatic, can motivate people and although sometimes to violent, his heart is in the correct side. He saves Vin and treats her as his daughter he trains her, he listens to her, and he provides what she never had, care and a home. While Vin shows him a different perspective and challenges him in some of his views. Kelsier is not the first one to start a skaa revolution. There have been other attempts that have never succeeded. However, he understands people and has a skill to motivate them to fight. To make skaa see that there is another option. He clashes, specially with his brother, on how to handle the revolution. Kelsier thinks that anyone that is not with the cause and is working for the Lord Ruler is a target. His brother opposes this view and says that people are just trying to feed their families even if that means oppressing your own people. I wish there had been more talks between the brothers about this topic, as it was one of the most interesting ones presented in the books. In fact, I would have like more discussions between the brothers. Their conversations were some of my favourite aspects of the book. They made me stop and think for a few minutes. As shown by this review the focus of the book is its characters. It is a slow-paced book that follows this group of people planning a revolution. At all moments the book feels like you are just witnessing a historical event through the eyes of the people that trigger it. Which makes it feel more grounded. Allowing you to emotionally connect with the characters and have a personal interest in their plans succeeding. It is all this that brings me to one of my last favourite parts about this book, the ending. There is a certain character that ends up in a position that seems unlikely for him to be in. He is granted a lot of power that I am unsure based on what we have learned about the other characters they would have allowed him to have. It is early to see how this will play out, but it is weird and a bit unlikely that he was selected for that position.