From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action. Who is the Hero of Ages? To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness–the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists–is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful … ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.
Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. She can’t even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!
Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson
The Cosmere
The Stormlight Archive
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (Novella)
Oathbringer
The Mistborn trilogy
Mistborn: The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series
Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
Bands of Mourning
Collection
Arcanum Unbounded
Other Cosmere novels
Elantris
Warbreaker
The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
The Scrivener’s Bones
The Knights of Crystallia
The Shattered Lens
The Dark Talent
The Rithmatist series
The Rithmatist
Other books by Brandon Sanderson
The Reckoners
Steelheart
Firefight
Calamity
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
more
Stayed up until 2:30am (on a weeknight, to boot!) finishing this one. Worth every painfully groggy moment the next day.
This was an incredibly satisfying conclusion to a whirlwind trilogy; it made me feel both full and empty. Full, because I had just finished something incredibly substantive. And empty, because leaving such a rich world felt like loss.
This is one of my favorite books. It is a must read.
I think I’ll have to sit on this for a bit before forming my complete opinion. Without spoilers, I’ll say this. Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy is unlike anything I’ve ever read. I think because it’s so different, sobunique, it took me awhile -as in all of book one – to adjust to the world. With other fantasy books, authors feed off of our pop culture that we already know: vampires, elves, faeries, etc. Because of this world building, it probably deserves all the stars, but ratings also are about my feelings and how I relate. Would I recommend this trilogy? Yes. Especially to fantasy readers. Will I ever re-read them? I don’t know. I’m all up in knots about it. I have an immediate book hangover.
What an amazing book. The Hero of Ages was so exciting and captivating. So many things come to light in this book and it blew my mind. All the dots finally connect and I amazed how tactfully Brandon Sanderson made everything connect across all three books. I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation and the discoveries made had me losing my shit. All these characters that I love are tested and brought to the brink. This book was perfect from beginning to end. This series is a absolute favorite and a must read.
I have loved every book by Brandon Sanderson that I have read, and I have read them all! From the final volumes of the Wheel of Time to Mistborn to Way of Kings . Please keep writing for a longtime.
3.5/5
This book–this series–has somehow left me with all the feelings and yet left me feeling kind of flat at the same time. I loved some things about it. More things than not. But the things I didn’t love were frustrating enough that I’m going to drop my rating to 3 stars instead of bumping it up to 4.
Let’s start with the things I did like. There’s no denying that Sanderson knows how to build a magic system. I haven’t read any of his other books, but this series alone makes that abundantly clear. I took a lot of enjoyment out of piecing things together bit by bit as the story went along, making guesses and then finding out whether I was right or wrong. It’s a pretty complex system, but everything fits together so well and it’s interesting to see how the different parts of that magic system are similar and different from each other. It makes sense.
I also really loved Spook and Sazed’s character arcs in this story. They were both very well written, and I thought the conclusions each of them received were fitting.
Now for the parts that frustrated me. The pacing dragged. A lot. I struggled with this in TWOA as well–it felt like we were spending a LOT of time and energy on things that didn’t interest me or that seemed unimportant. I got that same sense here. Sure, it all comes together in the end (and the ending is incredible), but I didn’t enjoy feeling like I had to slog my way through the first half of the book to get there. Even the fight scenes drag sometimes. We get a play by play of the action and (again) explanations of how Allomancy works, and by this point, it’s just repetitive and exhausting. I honestly felt like this could have been edited down 200 pages or so and would have been better for it.
The thing that was most significantly lacking in this book, however, was relationships. Character relationships can make or break a book for me, and those relationships were one of the things I loved so much about the first two books. The relationships between Kelsier and his crewmembers, Vin and TenSoon, Sazed and Tindwyl, and so many others. Those relationships, those characters–they’re what made me care so much about the story and the stakes involved. But in this book, the characters–and their relationships–often seem to be shoved into the background in favor of Cool Plot Twists and Awesome Revelations. And those things are great. But I can’t help feeling they would have meant so much more if the characters hadn’t been reduced to mere pieces on a game board, which is what they felt like here. And don’t even get me started on Vin and Elend. I’ve had a hard time with Vin and Elend’s romance since the beginning of the series (I don’t particularly care for Elend), but I think it this book it felt especially flat. Almost nonexistant. We’re constantly told they’re in love, but I never really felt like I was seeing much of that. Which was frustrating since they’re arguably the two most important (or most prominent) characters in the story, and their relationship is constantly made out to be such an important thing.
All that being said, I can definitely appreciate Brandon Sanderson’s skill as a storyteller. He’s a master of his craft, and I can understand why this series is so often praised and highly recommended. His worldbuilding is some of the best I’ve seen, and when you do get to the end and see how everything fits into place, it really is pretty incredible. It would be interesting to go back and reread the whole series now that I know how it ends, just to look for the breadcrumbs that were sprinkled along the way. But these are LONG books, and I am exhausted of being in this world, so that probably won’t happen anytime soon.
This was an incredible story that kept me guessing and page-turning until the last moment. However, I did find the ending a little too short. Or I should rather say there wasn’t enough of a wrap-up after the dust had settled for my liking. It wouldn’t have taken much, but just a little more of a glimpse into the aftermath and a bit more time to enjoy the resolution would have been nice.
This answered ALL of the questions set up from the very beginning, including questions that I didn’t even know I had! And I mean, literally the first 50 pages of this was better than the entire second book, and it pretty much didn’t let up the whole way through. There was such a big and unexpected payoff at the end. (Also, I don’t think Sanderson wrote the romance well at all, but I love Vin and Elend so much.)
Another twist! And a sad ending…but it’s okay. There is a peace about it. Loved this book!
I thoroughly enjoyed this series well developed characters in a alternate world great read