In Mistborn,  the first book in a fantasy trilogy, Brandon Sanderson has delivered something refreshing and vastly entertaining.  A thousand years ago the hero that was prophesied to save the world, failed. The Lord Ruler has been an invincible force ever since, ruling over what is now a depressing, ash covered wasteland where the lowborn are servants, beaten and broken into submission. The “magic” system, if it can be called that, is unique and a breath of fresh air. In the world of the Mistborn, the magic system is based on swallowing certain metals that are then “burned” to provide the particular power granted by that metal. It means that the number of things that can be done with magic is limited by less than a dozen known allomantic metals. By the ingenious use of these various metals, Mistborn allomancers can do a lot of different things.   More here