Just Finished All the Mistborn Books for the first time... heres a tier list and explanation
Overall, here are some thoughts about my placements and why they are there.
Final Empire - its Good! You can see though Brandon's early writing and prose. But the foundations of it are strong and its carried by how the other two books land.
Well of Ascension - While it is Flawed, it also has some of the best sequences in the entire trilogy. Some plot points and areas could have been tightened, but its a page turner thats intense. The politics, combat, mystery, is very well done.
Hero of Ages - overall a great landing for a trilogy. It has a few issues, but as an ending, lands really well and it gets placed in S tier. The ending still saddens me, and I wish we could have been told of a happy life between our main characters, but in the end, still a great book. In of itself it may have only been A tier, but because of it sticking the landing on a trilogy (which is REALLY hard) it gets placed in S
Alloy of Law - There really isnt much issue with Alloy of Law- its a fun western-fantasy, just with pretty low stakes and little character development. Its fun, though a bit Shallow.
Shadows of Self - arguably the Strongest Wax and Wayne book in terms of structure. Again, the stakes aren't crazy high, but the plot twists, the introduction of the bigger villian, pacing, everything here was executed to near perfection.
Bands of Mourning - this one is weird. The first half of the book is A, maybe even S tier. The second half.... kinda falls off, but then has a really good ending so... I have severely mixed feelings on it
The lost metal - Good, but did not hit the landing as well as the Hero of ages. Before the end, the book was kind of in B-tier, but the ending was so so SO satisfying. When it was happening, I felt sad, but I also knew "this is perfect". So its the bottom of A for me
Secret History: This one, to me, is more important in its implications than the actual story. It also comes off a little bit like a patch job (even though I know its not) and not so much as a great explanation. Though, Kelsir scaring the elders Scooby-Doo style was fantastic.
Overall: a great series thus far. Though I am excited, I have a lingering concern about Ghostbloods. As I felt their involvement in Book 7 was a little out there and left me feeling a bit lost. While I understand the pay off will be in the next books, I found that it was layered on a little TOO thick in the Lost Metal. It came off like the Cosmere Avengers, and because of it being layered a bit thick, it didnt come off as a "icing of mystery" and was leaning towards "under baked plot" if that makes sense.
Lemme know what you think!