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Series · 3 books

Mistborn, Era 1: Original Trilogy

Brandon Sanderson · read by Michael Kramer

They tell a story. Hardcover files every book in this run as fiction, and their readers there call them mysterious and adventurous. Facts, not factors: neither plays any part in our call.

Read it

Every book we have judged on how far the recording outruns the page: 201 of them, the page's answer at the left-hand end and the recording's at the right. Marked for scale: All the Light We Cannot See, To Kill a Mockingbird and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This one sits between the bottom 31% and the top 42% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. −0.40, where we start backing the page; 0.40, where we start backing the recording.Mistborn, Era 1: Original Trilogy
close call · the formats are level; the book being worth protecting is what settled it

It is a close call (the audio case sits between the bottom 31% and the top 42% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page), and this one is good enough to be worth protecting: it sits in the top 9% of our shelf of books for how well the print crowds think of a book, and a series is a long way to be wrong. The first encounter only happens once, so we give it to the page.

Length does not decide this

82h 01m to listen, at 1×65h 37m to listen, at 1.25×54h 41m to listen, at 1.5×46h 52m to listen, at 1.75×41h 01m to listen, at 2×about 57 hours to readabout 43 hours to readabout 34 hours to readabout 26 hours to readabout 21 hours to read

The runtime is Audible’s, 3 recordings added together, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 1,703 pages in total at 30 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a floor on this one: this one runs 2.9 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so there is more on each page than our 300-word average assumes and it will take you longer than we say.The runtime is Audible’s, 3 recordings added together, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 1,703 pages in total at 40 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a floor on this one: this one runs 2.9 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so there is more on each page than our 300-word average assumes and it will take you longer than we say.The runtime is Audible’s, 3 recordings added together, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 1,703 pages in total at 50 pages an hour, which is about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a floor on this one: this one runs 2.9 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so there is more on each page than our 300-word average assumes and it will take you longer than we say.The runtime is Audible’s, 3 recordings added together, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 1,703 pages in total at 65 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a floor on this one: this one runs 2.9 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so there is more on each page than our 300-word average assumes and it will take you longer than we say.The runtime is Audible’s, 3 recordings added together, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 1,703 pages in total at 80 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a floor on this one: this one runs 2.9 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so there is more on each page than our 300-word average assumes and it will take you longer than we say.

If you must listen → dedicated listening only

Easier in audio than The Handmaid's Tale.

All the books we hold · 222

About as much work in audio as most of the books we hold.

Fiction · 176

About as much work in audio as most of the fiction we hold.

Doorstoppers · 54

About as much work in audio as most of the doorstoppers we hold.

Reading load against listening load

Every book we hold placed by how much work it asks on the page, left to right, against how much it asks in your ears, bottom to top: 222 of them. Easy both ways is the bottom left corner, hard both ways the top right; above the dashed line the ears work harder, below it the page does. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one is in the middle 40% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the middle 40% of our shelf of books for effort in your ears.
The dashed line is where a book would be same effort either way. This one sits on that line (the format is not fighting you either way), between the bottom 34% and the top 23% of our shelf of books for extra work in audio.
On the page0.06
In your ears0.10
Audio disadvantage0.14

Where that puts this one among the books we hold: in the middle 40% of our shelf of books on both counts (effort on the page and effort in your ears). The middle of the scale is not the middle of the shelf (most books sit below the average on both), so a book at 0.00 is already in the top 43% for effort on the page. Each of the three is measured against the whole shelf separately, so the bottom figure is not the top two subtracted. It is this book’s own distance from the middle.

What the audio disadvantage is made of. Two things and no others: how fast readers say this one moves, and how demanding the reviews we read found it. There is no third: the structural one has no data source, so it contributes nothing rather than being guessed at. Both directions are declared priors we have never fitted against a real verdict, which is the weakest-evidenced part of the whole model.

Every book we could measure both features on placed by pace, fast to slow, against how demanding the reviews we read found it, plain to demanding: 166 of them. The easiest listens are the bottom left corner and the hardest the top right, which is the shaded one. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one reads at about the pace of most books we hold and about as demanding as most, and neither is pushing it far from the middle of the shelf.
This one reads at about the pace of most books we hold and about as demanding as most, and neither is pushing it far from the middle of the shelf.

How the call was made

Where a bar carries ticks, the grey one is the middle of our shelf and a coloured one is a line we publish, cool where we start backing the page, warm where we start backing the recording. The evidence squares at the foot are a different thing: how far each of our four sources went, hatched where there was nothing to measure at all.

The audio case
0.09It sits between the bottom 31% and the top 42% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. Inside the band where neither side has made its case on this number alone, so the call is settled by what else is on the page.
Narration payoff
0.23Michael Kramer’s reading and the book are received about equally well: in the middle 40% of our shelf of books, on 22,906 ratings of the narration. This is a difference, not a score: it sets the reading against its own book, so a much-loved book with a merely good reading sits low on this shelf even where nobody disliked either.
What is at stake
1.31It sits in the top 9% of our shelf of books for how well the print crowds think of a book: well enough regarded that a wasted first encounter costs more, so we lean towards protecting the page. Blended across 2,463,934 Goodreads ratings and 13,046 on Hardcover, each scored inside its own population first, and never added together.

For the page

  • The print crowds think highly of it

For the recording

  • The voice and the book are received about level
  • Audio is neither helping nor fighting this one
  • 22,906 listeners behind it

So the case for the page won it, but only just.

A bigger dot counted for more: the voice and the ear are sized by their share of the sum above, the other two by how much stands behind them. A hatched square is a reason that did not apply here, which is not the same as one that counted for little.

Evidence
1.00How much of the picture we actually have, out of 1.00: four questions, each answered as far as the source could answer it, less anything taken off for reading fewer reviews than we aim to.The reading22,906 people have rated this reading: as good as it getsThe second sourceHardcover knows this book, with 13,046 readers there: as good as it getsThe matchHow sure we are that the recording we scored is this book: as good as it getsThe reviewsWe read 900 reviews to judge how demanding it is: as good as it gets

What each crowd complains about

In the reviews we read, how often readers brought it up and how often listeners did, each against what is usual for that same crowd across our whole shelf, which is the grey tick. The track stops at 4×. Listeners are only ever compared with listeners.

Listeners of this book bring up the pace about twice as often as listeners usually do, while readers of it bring it up about twice as often as readers usually do.

The books in it

Showing the stars as each shop prints them. The two crowds are not measured from the same place: on our shelf Audible’s listeners average 0.35 of a star above Goodreads’ readers, so a recording that is ordinary for Audible can still out-star a book that is genuinely well liked for Goodreads. Switch the toggle to take that difference off.Showing each figure as its distance from its own crowd’s middle on our shelf, in standard deviations, so 0 is a typical book for that crowd. Listeners start 0.35 of a star up, partly because anyone who finishes a twenty-five-hour recording chose it deliberately, and this takes that off. It is not a claim that audio is better, the story figure is still Audible’s own (people rating a story they heard), and none of it moves the verdict above.

One row per book: who reads it, how long it runs, then Audible’s listeners on the story and Goodreads’ readers on the book.

Mistborn: The Final Empire
Michael Kramer24h 59m19h 59m16h 39m14h 17m12h 30mAudible 4.70+0.66Goodreads 4.48+1.33
4.71·Audible
overallAudible
overall, pooled by the shop, so we hold no ruler for it
77%5 stars: 77 per cent, 8,542 ratings
18%4 stars: 18 per cent, 2,005 ratings
3%3 stars: 3 per cent, 356 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 101 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 61 ratings

11,065 ratings · performance and story, as the shop pools them

4.71+0.36 sdAudible
the performanceAudible
the performance, against Audible’s own crowd
77%5 stars: 77 per cent, 7,177 ratings
18%4 stars: 18 per cent, 1,642 ratings
3%3 stars: 3 per cent, 318 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 70 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 55 ratings

How often this goes badly1.3% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars. About typical for the shelf. The middle of our shelf is 2.0%, and half of it falls between 1.0% and 3.1%.

125 of 9,262 listeners gave the performance one or two stars

The shape of the room

  • United, this one
  • Warm
  • Split
  • Lukewarm

A united room: 77% of the listeners gave the performance five stars. A room that agrees this far leaves little to gamble on.

9,262 ratings

4.70+0.66 sdAudible
the story, as heardAudible
the story, as heard, against Audible’s own crowd
77%5 stars: 77 per cent, 7,151 ratings
18%4 stars: 18 per cent, 1,645 ratings
4%3 stars: 4 per cent, 357 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 60 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 56 ratings

9,269 ratings

4.48+1.33 sdGoodreads
the book itselfGoodreads
the book itself, against Goodreads’ own crowd
60%5 stars: 60 per cent, 649,106 ratings
31%4 stars: 31 per cent, 333,179 ratings
7%3 stars: 7 per cent, 78,325 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 14,314 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 6,726 ratings

1,081,650 ratings

The Well of Ascension
Michael Kramer29h 17m23h 26m19h 31m16h 44m14h 39mAudible 4.65+0.48Goodreads 4.37+0.84
4.68·Audible
overallAudible
overall, pooled by the shop, so we hold no ruler for it
74%5 stars: 74 per cent, 6,134 ratings
21%4 stars: 21 per cent, 1,769 ratings
4%3 stars: 4 per cent, 331 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 48 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 27 ratings

8,309 ratings · performance and story, as the shop pools them

4.77+0.63 sdAudible
the performanceAudible
the performance, against Audible’s own crowd
81%5 stars: 81 per cent, 5,616 ratings
16%4 stars: 16 per cent, 1,085 ratings
3%3 stars: 3 per cent, 185 ratings
0%2 stars: 0 per cent, 23 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 17 ratings

How often this goes badly0.6% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars. Fewer than most recordings here. The middle of our shelf is 2.0%, and half of it falls between 1.0% and 3.1%.

40 of 6,926 listeners gave the performance one or two stars

The shape of the room

  • United, this one
  • Warm
  • Split
  • Lukewarm

A united room: 81% of the listeners gave the performance five stars. A room that agrees this far leaves little to gamble on.

6,926 ratings

4.65+0.48 sdAudible
the story, as heardAudible
the story, as heard, against Audible’s own crowd
73%5 stars: 73 per cent, 5,019 ratings
21%4 stars: 21 per cent, 1,483 ratings
5%3 stars: 5 per cent, 347 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 46 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 18 ratings

6,913 ratings

4.37+0.84 sdGoodreads
the book itselfGoodreads
the book itself, against Goodreads’ own crowd
51%5 stars: 51 per cent, 368,844 ratings
38%4 stars: 38 per cent, 274,926 ratings
10%3 stars: 10 per cent, 70,799 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 9,975 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 2,403 ratings

726,947 ratings

The Hero of Ages
Michael Kramer27h 45m22h 12m18h 30m15h 51m13h 53mAudible 4.76+0.91Goodreads 4.56+1.68
4.77·Audible
overallAudible
overall, pooled by the shop, so we hold no ruler for it
81%5 stars: 81 per cent, 6,503 ratings
15%4 stars: 15 per cent, 1,231 ratings
3%3 stars: 3 per cent, 225 ratings
0%2 stars: 0 per cent, 32 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 13 ratings

8,004 ratings · performance and story, as the shop pools them

4.83+0.88 sdAudible
the performanceAudible
the performance, against Audible’s own crowd
85%5 stars: 85 per cent, 5,755 ratings
12%4 stars: 12 per cent, 836 ratings
2%3 stars: 2 per cent, 112 ratings
0%2 stars: 0 per cent, 16 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 12 ratings

How often this goes badly0.4% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars. Fewer than most recordings here. The middle of our shelf is 2.0%, and half of it falls between 1.0% and 3.1%.

28 of 6,731 listeners gave the performance one or two stars

The shape of the room

  • United, this one
  • Warm
  • Split
  • Lukewarm

A united room: 85% of the listeners gave the performance five stars. A room that agrees this far leaves little to gamble on.

6,731 ratings

4.76+0.91 sdAudible
the story, as heardAudible
the story, as heard, against Audible’s own crowd
81%5 stars: 81 per cent, 5,451 ratings
15%4 stars: 15 per cent, 1,028 ratings
3%3 stars: 3 per cent, 205 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 40 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 9 ratings

6,733 ratings

4.56+1.68 sdGoodreads
the book itselfGoodreads
the book itself, against Goodreads’ own crowd
66%5 stars: 66 per cent, 430,994 ratings
26%4 stars: 26 per cent, 173,200 ratings
6%3 stars: 6 per cent, 42,220 ratings
1%2 stars: 1 per cent, 6,765 ratings
0%1 stars: 0 per cent, 2,158 ratings

655,337 ratings

The verdict is for the series as one commitment (82h 01m65h 37m54h 41m46h 52m41h 01m of it), because that is the decision you are actually making.

The series

Mistborn, Era 1: Original Trilogy

Finished · One voice throughout

3 books numbered on Goodreads’ list, with 2 novellas or companions filed between them. The last one came out in 2016 and Goodreads lists nothing further. Five quiet years is where we start using that word.

Michael Kramer reads all of the 3 books of this run. Audible files them inside a longer “The Mistborn Saga” listing that runs past this one.

From Goodreads’ own series index, checked on 11 September 2026.

Every reading we hold

One complete reading of Mistborn: The Final Empire, and it is the reading the call above leans on. If there is another, we have not found it. The shelf grows in reviewed batches, never because somebody searched for a book.

  • Michael Kramerour pick24h 59m19h 59m16h 39m14h 17m12h 30m · One voice · Audible UK and US
    • The same voice all through

    Performance 4.71 · Story 4.70 · 9,262 rated the reading · 1.3% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

The recording we mean · Mistborn: The Final Empire

Runtime
24h 59m at 1×
Read by
Michael Kramer
Kind
One voice
ASIN
B004SOKICO · Audible UK
Rated in
Audible UK and US · 7,958 + 1,304 ratings of the performance
Judged on
22,906 ratings of the narration
Published
Gollancz · 2011

Audible sorts a search by newest, so ours may not be the first one you are offered. The runtime is the check: if the one in front of you says 24h 59m, that is the reading these numbers describe. “Judged on” is the crowd behind every judgement we make about this reading: the smaller of the performance and story counts, which is why it is a little under the two shop counts added. We do not link out to a shop, and we take nothing if you buy there.