Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

I decided to read this book because I don't read any Science Fiction/Fantasy and wanted to be able to recommend something.  Brandon Sanderson is a local author who has come and done a few author signings for us before and a few of the employees have said that this series was good.  

This book takes place in a fictional world ruled by an immortal tyrant for a thousand years.  The Skaa are a race of people who are enslaved by the Lord Ruler and abused by his noblemen.  They are so oppressed that they don't even fight back when noblemen beat them or kill them.  The Lord Ruler apparently had to defeat something called "the darkness" to save the world.  Since this happened so long ago, nobody knows what it was or really what happened.  Apparently this made him immortal and past attempts at killing him ended in failure.  Those who helped The Lord Ruler establish his reign were rewarded with a special magical power called Allomancy.  This allows you to swallow certain metals which give you special powers when you burn (metabolize) them.  There are ten Allomantic metals, each giving off a different magical result.  This power was only hereditary and had been passed down over the generations.  Not everyone inherited Allomancy (it was kind of rare)  and some people only had one Allomantic power.  Those who could access all the Allomantic powers are called "Mistborn".  Because this power was hereditary, there was no intermixing allowed between the nobility and the skaa.  The nobility were allowed to rape skaa women and had to kill them immediately afterward by law to prevent children.  Inspite of this law, there were still a few half breeds who had to hide their powers or else they would be killed.  One of the main characters in the book is Vin, an orphan who lives with a thieving crew in order to survive.  It turns out she as Allomantic powers and is discovered by another group trying to overthrow The Lord Ruler.  The group's leader, Kelsier, is a Mistborn.  

Excuse all the background information, it's hard to explain the plot of the book.  Anyways, this book was very addicting and I loved it.  There were several parts in the book that kept me curious and wanting to read.  My next few books I'm reading are the last two books in the series.   For those of you who have heard of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to write the last book in the series since Robert Jordan died a while ago.