Mistborn Book One by Brandon Sanderson Summary
Check out Brandon Sanderson’s first book Mistborn, the first book of the Mistborn Trilogy and a good starting point for all of Sanderson’s books. This summary is to help refresh your memory of all the major events in the book before you read the book review. This epic fantasy is the the story of Vin’s life as she joins the best criminal crew to overthrow the Lord Ruler who controls the world with an iron fist.
If you haven’t read the whole book yet, I highly recommend it. The summary is just a summary, and you miss the intricate plot, character development, and impressive world building Sanderson writes in this book.
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Prologue
Kelsier is a skaa, or peasant worker, who shows up at Lord Tresting’s plantation to tell the weary, slave skaa that in the west, local leaders defy the Lord Ruler and treat their skaa well, even paying them. Mennis, one of the skaa elders who warned away Kelsier for his troublemaking, wakes the next day to find the manor house burned down and all the guards, members of the house and even Lord Tresting are dead. The skaa girl taken by Lord Tresting the night before tells Mennis that is was Kelsier who killed everyone before rescuing her from the house and burning it down.
Part 1 The Survivor of Hathsin
Chapter 1
Vin, a young girl in the city of Luthadel, is helping pull a job with two thieving bosses, Camon and Theron. Camon now played the part of nobleman when an obligator from the government’s (Steel Ministry) Canton of Finance comes to make a deal. The obligator is unsure about the deal until a hidden Vin uses her “Luck”, a special ability to influence others emotions from afar.
Chapter 2
Also in Luthadel, Kelsier meets an old friend, Dockson, who asks all about Tresting and their next thieving job. Vin and Camon meet with a head obligator who ultimately agrees to the contract and gives them the large sum as down payment. Vin is very suspicious and thinks it’s a trap, but they leave the building without incident.
Kelsier and Dockson are in the Finance office when the notice Vin’s Allomantic abilities. They recognize her as a Misting and an Allomancer because of her ability even though she doesn’t know it. But as Camon and his crew make it back into the street, the obligator and a Steel Inquisitor step out of the Finance building to start tailing Camon, so Kelsier and Dockson agree to divert the obligator and Inquisitor in order to get to Vin later.
Chapter 3
Back at the crew’s hideout, Kelsier shows up, and Camon and the crew have all heard of Kelsier, referring to him as the ‘Survivor of Hathsin’. Kelsier explains to Vin that her “luck” is actually Allomancy and explains to her that there are eight basic Allomantic metals and two higher metals used in Allomancy, each corresponding to a different ability. Only nobility is supposed to be born with allomancy abilities, but most can only use one of the eight abilities.
These individuals are called Mistings. Skaa aren’t supposed to have abilities at all, but when nobility have children with skaa it can happen (why the Lord Ruler doesn’t allow half breeds). People who can use all eight are extremely rare and called Mistborn. Vin tells Kelsier that her mom was a skaa prostitute and her dad is a high ranking official in the Steel Ministry.
Chapter 4
Vin comes back to meet Kelsier’s crew which consists of Dockson, Breeze (a Soother who pushes emotions) and Ham (a Thug who has unnatural physical strength), Clubs (a Smoker to block outsiders from detecting Allomancy), and Yeden a regular skaa. Kelsier and Dockson show up and tell them that this job is overthrowing the Lord Ruler and his Final Empire for the skaa rebellion headed up by Yeden. After a lot of arguing, the crew members agree to Kel’s plan because they’ll get half of the Lord Ruler’s wealth and all his atium-the rarest and most valuable metal.
Kelsier later tells the group that he’s found a secret eleventh metal that can supposedly kill the Lord Ruler. Kelsier admits he wants revenge for the Lord Ruler throwing him and his wife into the Pita of Hathsin. His wife died, and Kelsier is the only known person to ever make it out alive. But he discovered the Pits is where the Lord Ruler mines for atium.
Chapter 5
On his way to steel atium from one of the Noble Houses, Kelsier “burns” or uses the steel inside of his stomach to jump off the roof and “push” against metal around him, essentially allowing him to fly along rooftops. Then, he burns tin to heighten his senses to see in the mist. He used a combination of steel pushing and iron pulling to get onto the roof of Keep Venture, where he fights through multiple guards to steal money and atium.
Chapter 6
Back at Club’s safehouse, Kelsier, Vin, Dockson, Breeze, Ham, Clubs, and Yeden list all the things they need to do including raising and training the skaa army, throwing the city into chaos, and getting rid of the city guard. Kelsier suggests they start a war between the Noble Houses to create the choas in the city. Then, Vin suggests get the city garrison, the twenty thousand soldiers who guard Luthadel, to leave the city by staging an attack on the Pits of Hathsin, so the Lord Ruler thinks his atium is in danger.
To help with the army, Kelsier has killed a nobleman from the far west of the empire and replaced him with an actor who will use his business in shipping to buy up and secretly ship weapons to the skaa under the guise of arming his new soldiers for his city keep. Kelsier decides that Vin is going to be a noblewoman they plant to keep track of the nobility politics and stir up more conflict. Then, Kelsiers brother Marsh shows up at the end of the meeting.
Chapter 7
Kel tries to convince Marsh to help them by infiltrating the Steel Ministry and tracking the Inquisitors. After Marsh leaves, Kel brings Vin outside into the night to train her Allomancy and even gives her a Mistborn clock. Kel explains that each power or ability had two corresponding metals-one to push and one to pull.
For example, brass was used to push emotions while zinc was used to pull emotions. Vin had just used pewter to push her body like ‘Thugs’ did. Under Kel’s direction, Vin burns the corresponding metal-tin- to pull her body and all her senses are heightened.
Then, Vin burns bronze and can feel vibrations coming from Kell. He tells her that bronze allows you to sense when someone is using Allomancy. ‘Seekers’ like Marsh have this ability along with all Inquisitors. Then, Vin burns the corresponding metal-copper- which hides your Allomancy from others in addition to blocking your own emotions from being manipulated by others. ‘Smokers’ like Clubs can create a copper cloud around others to keep them all from being sensed by seekers. That’s why they’re all staying with Clubs who provides the copper cloud at all times with the help of apprentices.
Eventually, Kel explains that the last two metals, steel and iron, are for pushing and pulling against metal objects. When then burns one of them, she starts seeing blue lines coming from her connecting to random objects made of metal. The thicker and brighter, the blue line, the larger and heavier, the metal object.
Chapter 8
Kel takes her to practice outside the city walls where they meet a man named Sazed, a Terrisman. They all get in the carriage bound for the city of Fellise. They pull up to a mansion in Fellise that’s the new home of Lord Renoux, the actor nobleman that Kelsier placed there, and Vin will be his niece being introduced to high society.
Part 2 Rebels Beneath a Sky of Ash
Chapter 9
Two months later, Vin is practicing her Allomancy on the streets of Fellise with Kel, who also goes on raids at night to create more confusion amongst the Great Houses. Lord Venture is throwing a ball in a few days that Vin must go to, so Sazed vows to go as her escort in order to protect her.
Chapter 10
Back in Luthadel, Breeze helps Vin learn to push emotions and tells her that the key is understand and read people to know how they’re feeling before pushing them. Back at Club’s safe house, Kel is talking to Sazed about what the Lord Ruler would do if he knew a Terrisman Keeper living in his city because the lord ruler has killed all known Keepers and hunts any left. One of the things Keepers do is remember all the religions once in the world that the Lord Ruler has wiped out because he preaches himself as God.
Chapter 11
Tipped off by a scout, Kelsier and Vin go to Camon’s hideout to find everyone killed by an Inquistor who still must be looking for Vin. Kel insists that she can still complete her part of plan as no one should connect her as a noblewoman to when she was the young skaa girl working with Camon.
Chapter 12
When Vin first arrives at the ball with Sazed as her chaperone, she notices all the windows depict the Lord Ruler defeating the Deepness, a formless black object, that was supposedly the reason it always rained ash here. Sazed leaves for the steward dinner in order to also spy, but tells Vin to stay at her table. Suddenly she recognizes her father, someone her brother Reen pointed out years ago as an important obligator.
Vin decides to make her way up to the balcony and runs into a young man who says she’s in his spot where he can read his book. After a conversation, Vin finds him a little annoying because he keeps going back to reading but also finds him amusing. When she prodes him a little more, he introduces himself as Lord Elend. After she hurries back down to Sazed who tells her that the young man was Lord Elend Venture, the heir of Keep Venture the wealthiest of the Noble Houses.
Chapter 13
Back at the Renoux mansion, Kelsier and Sazed agree that Vin shouldn’t go around Lord Elend anymore because he’s too high profile, it may be scandalous at court, and other girls might be jealous. Vin is disappointed because she felt at ease talking to Elend. That night, Vin follows Kel back to Luthadel to break into the Lord Rulers stronghold.
But first, he teaches her to use atium, the rarest and most powerful metal. When Vin burns the small piece that Kel gives her, she sees a projection of Kel a few steps in front of him doing what he’s going to do. The projection always moves first, and Kel explains that atium allows you to see what someone will do next. It also sharpens your mind and reflexes, so you can make decisions faster.
Chapter 14
Outside the Lord Ruler’s palace, Kel tells Vin that they’re breaking into a small room in the tunnels that the Lord Ruler visits for three hours every three days. After killing the guards outside, they run into more guards and together Vin and Kel kill them using Allomancy which Vin is uncomfortable about it at first. They finally make it to the room and open the door, three Inquisitors are waiting for him.
As Kel fights two Inquistors, Vin runs out followed by the other Inquistor and ends up losing him in the tunnels, but not before he cuts open her side. Vin makes it outside and uses the metal on the spires of the palace to jump onto the roof, and the Inquisitor still finds her even though he can’t see her, hear her, or sense any metal on her. She tries to outrun him, but, suddenly, she passes out.
Chapter 15
Kel makes it back to Clubs, and the rest of gang scolds him for being so dumb and rash partially because Vin is missing. Suddenly a tall, robed man is seen coming into the hideout who turns out to be Sazed carrying an unconscious Vin. Sazed came to Luthadel and found Vin at the palace as soon as he noticed she wasn’t at the mansion anymore.
Keepers are also skilled healers, so Sazed gets to work stitching up the large wound in Vin’s side. Sazed then shows Kel a thick book he found next to Vin that she had used to block throwing metals from the Inquistors. They don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s in the language of Khlennium-the ancient homeland of the Lord Ruler.
Part 3 Children of the Bleeding Sun
Chapter 16
Vin wakes up two weeks later, and Kel apologizes for bringing her with him even though she would have come no matter what he said. Back in Fellise, Vin thanks Sazed for saving her and asks if he’s an Allomancer which he doesn’t answer directly. He does tell her that one of the things Keepers do is burn metals to create memories, and that’s how he remembers so many religions and languages that have died out.
The Lord Ruler strictly monitors and breeds all Terrisman to be just stewards for nobles, and part of the controlled breeding is that all Terrisman are eunuchs. Vin is embarrassed she didn’t know this, but Sazed doesn’t seem upset when he tells her. Then, Vin asks who betrayed Kell last time at the palace. Sazed tells her that most people assume it was Mare, Kel’s wife who was caught with him and died in the Pits.
Chapter 17
The crew has a meeting to discuss progress, and Sazed tells them that the book taken from the palace is an early account of the Lord Ruler’s life and travels written by the Lord Ruler himself. Vin tells them she’s bored and convinces the crew she can go to an upcoming ball to spy on the nobles.
Later, she finds Kel on the balcony, and he tells her about what used to grow before the Lord Ruler’s Ascension called flowers. Mare told him about flowers, and Kel admits that he still loves her even though he heard the Lord Ruler thank Mare for betraying him. The night Mare died in the Pits is the night Kell Snapped and developed his Allomancy powers.
Chapter 18
At the next ball, Lord Elend promptly sits at Vin’s table, uninvited, with a pile of books and starts reading. Again, they find it easy to tease one another. Another man comes to ask Vin to dance, and she gladly accepts as part of her spying.
After Vin tells the first man that Lord Elend is only showing her around as a big brother, she dances with many other men who are no longer intimidated by Elend at her table. However, when he leaves for a drink, Sazed tells Vin that Elend is using her in some kind of court games and not sitting with her because he likes her.
Chapter 19
That same night in Luthadel, Kel dumps the dead body of a nobleman into the lawn of one of the Great Houses to stir up more chaos. Then, he meets with a skaa informant and acts as a skaa informant to Lord Venture to spread more gossip.
Kel goes back to debrief with Vin and Sazed about the ball and finds out Elend Venture supposedly is friends with two rival Great Houses heirs. Vin also tells him that she saw Elend had books criticizing the Lord Ruler and his kingdom.
Chapter 20
The next day, Vin finds out that Yeden and Kel are traveling to the caves to inspect the army. Before the group leaves, Marsh shows up to train Vin on using bronze and copper. Marsh tells Vin about using bronze to sense which metals others are burning as they each give off a specific wavelength and feeling.
While Vin is practicing her soothing, Marsh also admits that while he loves his brother, Kel is probably going to get himself killed with this plan. Marsh is going along with it because he truly wants to help the skaa rebellion. Vin also realizes that Marsh was in love with Mare, too, and holds Kel responsible for her death.
Chapter 21
Kel and Yeden arrive at the caves that are only accessible by three large cracks in the grounds. At first, Kell is scared because it reminds him of the Pits, but he’s happy to see Ham. Kel’s also impressed by how Ham’s prepared the army.
At a common meal with the army, Kel uses his Allomancy to push the anger of a man while he gives a motivating speech. The angry man tells his doubts about Kel and the whole plan to the army, but a loyal supporter gets up to defend the plan. The two duel, secretly spurred on by Kel’s soothing, and Kel uses his Allomancy to make sure the loyal supporter wins.
Chapter 22
Vin goes to ask Sazed about a section about Terrismen in the Lord Ruler’s book, and Sazed tells her about Keepers abilities. Ancient Terrismen, and nowadays Keepers, are Feruchemists meaning they have the ability to store up extra abilities, such as strength, memories, power, in metal outside their bodies like jewelry.
Chapter 23
At the next ball, Elend gives Vin his handkerchief-a symbol that he’s trying to court her. Before she leaves, she uses Allomancy to follow Elend to a meeting with other noblemen that are supposed to be politic rivals. Vin hears them talking about the faults of the Lord Ruler and how to change society.
Chapter 24
The next day Vin goes with Ham to the city garrison to learn how to burn pewter better and get updates about the garrison movements. Ham knows most of the hired skaa there though they don’t know what he does. When they arrive, the captain tells Ham that a skaa rebellion from the caves attacked the garrison of a nearby town, and Ham agrees to join the Luthadel garrison going to help in the fight.
Chapter 25
Kel and Vin burn pewter to run for hours in order to get to the battle. They make it to the outskirts of the battle to see the last of the remaining skaa getting slaughtered by a neighboring city garrison, but there’s nothing they can do. They go back to the caves to find about two thousand men left who tell them Yeden lead the army there for real battle experience.
Part 4 Dancers in a Sea of Mist
Chapter 26
Two weeks later when Vin and Kel finally make it back with what’s left of the army, and, Spook, Club’s nephew, come in to tell them there’s a mandatory execution for everyone to see in the town square. Thieves don’t normally go, but the crew decides they need to see what’s happening.
On a rooftop above the square filled with tens of thousands of people, the crew watches as Inquisitors behead numerous skaa, mostly women and children as a show of power after the rebellion battle.
Chapter 27
Vin and Kel go to meet Marsh, who has taken his place as an obligator, and Vin asks if Kel is keeping back a part of the plan for them. Finally, he admits that he does intend to use the eleventh metal from legends against the Lord Ruler, but he hasn’t figured out how to use it.
Then, Kelsier finally tells Vin that the ninth metal to burn is gold when she asks about it. After Kel warns her it’s an odd experience, Vin burns the gold to see another version of herself street urchin that makes her emotions feel pretty messed up. The best Kel can understand it is that gold lets you see what could have been you if you made other choices.
When Marsh arrives, he tells them that they’ve underestimated the government who has stations of soothers repressing the skaa at all times. The hidden stations also have seekers who can sense Allomancy in the area and alert the Inquisitors. Marsh is gaining favor in the government quickly and working on getting the location of these stations.
Chapter 28
At the next ball, Vin meets up with Elend who almost kisses her and tells her that his family makes money by secretly controlling the mining and shipping of the Lord Ruler’s atium. Later, his friends warn Elend that there’s something suspicious about Vin. Then, Elend’s friend shows up to tell him they had Vin’s carriage followed and discovered she wasn’t in the carriage when it left the city gates.
Chapter 29
At the next crew meeting, they examine a map of all the secret Soothing stations the government has and discuss how to deal with them. While sharing other updates, Vin does not tell them what Elend said about the atium.
Chapter 30
At the next ball at Keep Venture, Vin and Sazed find out this will be the last ball before the House war, and everyone is only talking with their allies. Vin tries to talk to Elend, but he says they can’t see each other anymore as his place in House Venture is more important. Then, Vin finds out from the court gossip, who’s actually a competent informant, that Elend’s dad and Elend’s former fiancé, Shan, have set up his assassination tonight.
Vin goes to stop the assassins as she realizes she loves Elend and finds Shan there who’s a Mistborn. Vin ends up killing Shan and her two mistings before retreating to Club’s place.
Chapter 31
Vin tells Kel she’s figured out she can see Allomancy even when someone’s burning copper, something thought to be impossible. She demonstrates on Kel and says this must be how the Inquisitors can still find them, like the night Kel and Mare were found in the palace. Back at House Venture, Elend learns from his spy that Vin is part of a skaa thieving group working out of Clubs place, and he’s relieved that she’s only trying to rob him instead of a spy for the other houses.
Chapter 32
Vin and Kel find an Inquisitor has killed Marsh, and, in the room, they find a hidden note from Marsh saying the Inquisitors were on to him. Kel instructs everyone to leave Club’s shop and the Renoux mansion for their backup lair and tells them he’ll be back in two days.
A prisoner in the Pits of Hathsin climbs out to a stranger wearing a Mistborn cloak who tells him to get as many prisoners out as possible because the guards are dead. As the prisoner runs away, Kel uses his Allomancy to pull and shatter the metal crystals in the pits. He plans to destroy the pits and the Lord Ruler’s entire source of atium.
Chapter 33
The next day, Kel and the crew hear there’s more executions happening and, on the way, they see everyone from the Renoux mansion including Lord Renoux and Spooks in the prisoner carts. Against Vin’s advice, Kel goes down to free the prisoners from the carts, but an Inquisitor with guards appears because it was a trap.
Kel takes on the Inquistor as Ham leads the rest of their skaa soldiers into the battle. Not directly joining the fighting, Vin and Breeze work on making the government soldiers feel more afraid, so they’ll leave. Lord Elend shows up with bodyguards looking for Vin, as more skaa join the fighting and clog up the streets to block soldiers.
Chapter 34
As Ham and his men free the prisoners, Kel beheads the Inquisitor with an ax, but then the Lord Ruler’s carriage pulls up to the fight. The Lord Ruler, looking like an ordinary young man to Vin, steps out, and everyone can feel his absolute power which makes everyone around them feel ultimate terror.
As he walks towards Kel, two skaa soldiers stab him with spears, but he doesn’t even flinch. He confronts Kel, still with two spears through him, and hits Kel in the face. Kel falls to the ground, and the Lord Ruler stabs him through the heart with one of the spears before leaving in his carriage.
Part 5 Believers in a Forgotten World
Chapter 35
As Vin is on the roof of the safe house questioning Kel’s actions, the skaa people come out into the misty streets in large crowds yelling about Kel’s sacrifice. The crew goes to Kel’s rented warehouse to find it full of weapons, and Lord Renoux is there except now he looks like Kel. Renoux is a kandra, a creature who can take others skin and bones, and was hired by Kel to appear to his skaa followers after he died to encourage them.
Kel also left instructions for them to take over the city and more weapons in the other warehouses. In the note, he tells them he died to finally give the skaa people something to be passionate about, so the entire population would fight against the Lord Ruler. While everyone else starts their jobs Kel left them, Vin decides to break into the room in the palace using the atium and the eleventh metal Kel left her.
Chapter 36
Vin makes in to the secret room in the palace where she fights two Inquisitors. She wounds them enough to open the door of the room and finds an old man sitting in a homely room by the fire. The Inquisitors catch up and call the old man the Lord Ruler.
Vin burns the eleventh metal and sees two other men, dressed differently, that are two different versions of the Lord Ruler. The Inquisitors take Vin away unconscious, and when she wakes up she’s in a prison cell. Eventually, the Inquisitors take her to the Lord Ruler’s throne room where he looks like the young man again and makes all Vin’s emotions oppressive.
The Inquisitors ask the Lord Ruler if they can run the government instead of the obligators because the obligators make too many mistakes. Vin is asked who her father is and, eventually, because she can’t lie to the Lord Ruler, she admits her brother told her it was the head obligator. The Lord Ruler allows the Inquisitors to kill the obligator and take over the government before ordering Vin be killed.
Chapter 37
Elend, who stayed in the city against his father’s wishes, turns himself in and is brought to Dockson who tells him that Vin is in the palace dungeon. Elend tells Dockson to ally with him and the remaining nobility in order to defeat the Lord Ruler’s soldiers.
Vin is brought back to her cell, and the Inquisitors bring in a very beat up Sazed who followed Vin into the palace. Once the Inquisitors leave, Sazed uses his stored up strength in metal he swallowed to break open their cell. They make it out of the dungeon before a dozen guards find them.
Just as Vin tries to take on the guards, Elend and some of his guards show up. This gives Vin time to find her vial of metals in her cloak to swallow, and she uses her Allomancy to help kill all the guards. Vin tells Sazed and Elend to leave the palace and raid the Lord Ruler’s atium storage while she stays to try and kill the Lord Ruler.
Chapter 38
As Vin storms back to the throne room, she’s knocked down by the Lord Ruler’s power and grabbed by an Inquisitor. A second Inquisitor comes and pulls a spike from the other Inquisitor’s back, killing him instantly. Vin realizes the second Inquisitor is Marsh who’s finally found their weakness.
Marsh goes to take the spike out of the Lord Ruler’s back, but there is none. The Lord Ruler uses his power to throw Marsh and Vin against the walls, injuring them both. Then, Vin realizes the truth as she’s trying to fight against the Lord Ruler’s Allomancy.
After reading the translated logbook of the Lord Ruler’s, Vin realizes this man is actually a Terrisman guide who hated the man who was supposed to defeat the darkness. This Terrisman, Rashek, had killed the real hero and taken the power of the Well of Ascension without riding the world of the Darkness completely. Vin is finally able to remove the metal bracelets woven into Rashek’s skin, and he rapidly ages as all the strength and aging he has stored up disappears.
Sazed enters the room with more metal to help Vin recover, and she stabs Rashek as he’s so old he can’t stand up. The skaa outside the palace are all cheering.
Read the Full Book Review
Now that you’re reminded of the main points of the book, read my full book review. This is an absolutely incredible start to the Mistborn saga which I highly recommend you completely read if you haven’t yet. If you love reading fantasy novels, the review also has more recommendations including another fantasy series that you’ll love if you liked this one.
I also have a review and summary of the second book, Well of Ascension, if you’re moving to the next book in the Mistborn series. If you’re looking for the book, you can find it here.
