This is a good start to what i hope will be a long career for Mr. Sanderson. I do have to say that some parts of the novel put me off. At times the dialog just seemed to drag on as a lot of back history was given as speech. Also the names for people, places and things all started getting a little to similiar.One of the strong aspects that made me want to keep reading was the orginality of the piece. It was a totally differnt look at how magic could operate in Fantasy. Also there was a good mix of political and religious intrigue to keep me guessing on what was going to happen.The twists at the end were also a huge plus to make the book better. All in all i have to give this book a 4 star review, the dialog and general slowness of the story keeps it from being a 5. I have ordered the first book of the mistborne series to see how his writing goes from here.