paperback, 672 pages
Published May 13, 2014 by Tor Teen, Tor Books.
A hero with an incredible talent...for breaking things. A life-or-death mission...to rescue a bag of sand. A fearsome threat from a powerful secret network...the evil Librarians.
Alcatraz Smedry doesn't seem destined for anything but disaster. On his 13th birthday he receives a bag of sand, which is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians plotting to take over the world. The sand will give the Librarians the edge they need to achieve world domination. Alcatraz must stop them!...by infiltrating the local library, armed with nothing but eyeglasses and a talent for klutzines
The first quarter of the book is weak, boring, and I almost stopped reading. Is good that I didn't because the story, narration, and overall writing gets much better. What I like about the story is that it shows the flaws in the characters and the consequences making them more alive as opposed to too fictional because of obvious plot armor.
I can't say I wasn't entertained, but somehow I wasn't 100% sold. The characters were relatable, and I liked the general comradery of the main characters.
It was a good change from my usual fare, even though the magic system (which was cool) felt a bit too much like science fiction with it's many rules and identifiable patterns.
What a relief this book was. I read Brandon Sanderson's first book, Elantris, back in Alaska and I thought it was pretty amateurish. When I heard he was the author that would be finishing Robert Jordan's last Wheel of Time novel, I got worried. Luckily, with Mistborn: The Final Empire, he has laid my fears to rest.
Here is an example of his ability to write a complex world with an intricate magical system, more than a handful of characters working on several plot lines at once, and not drop the ball with a deus ex machina. I've already picked up book two and will most likely finish it soon.
