The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Series: Mistborn #3
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: February 11, 2010
Publisher: Gollancz
Source: Bought
Add it: Goodreads
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Tricked into releasing the evil spirit Ruin while attempting to close the Well of Ascension, new emperor Elend Venture and his wife, the assassin Vin, are now hard-pressed to save the world.This adventure brings the Mistborn epic fantasy trilogy to a dramatic and surprising climax as Sanderson's saga offers complex characters and a compelling plot, asking hard questions about loyalty, faith and responsibility.

In short: Fuck my life.

This is my attempt at coherency, but we all know that I’ve never been very good at that so this review should be interesting since this trilogy, and especially the grand finale, HAS RUINED MY LIFE FOREVER. While it didn’t beat The Final Empire in terms of heartbreak (Kelsier, you guys… #neverforget), The Hero of Ages punched me in the gut and pulled out my intestines, then gave my heart a good squeeze for good measure. I’m pretty sure I’m missing several organs after reading this trilogy.

*deep breaths*

*pulls self together*

*fails*

Can I just scream about how Brandon Sanderson has the extraordinary ability to plant clues throughout his series and then pull everything together in the final instalment? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HE DID HERE AND IT KILLED ME. There were so many things that were mentioned in the previous two books that suddenly make sense or are more important that I thought they were going to be. I shrieked several times when I realised that Brandon Sanderson had been planting clues all along, every since the beginning of The Final Empire. This did mean that The Hero of Ages was a bit more predictable than the previous two books, because everything has now come together and I was able to figure things out pretty quickly. It was some amazing storytelling, and I only hope that his future and current series *stares at The Stormlight Archive* is just as epic as this trilogy.

Is it weird that I thought that The Hero of Ages could have longer? It’s over 600 pages long but I didn’t want it to end, and I would have loved it if Brandon Sanderson had gone off on a few tangents, perhaps written about some absolutely pointless things and had the characters take days to get to places. Because that’s how much I adore his writing and this world and these characters. I wasn’t ready to let go, and as soon as I finished I wanted to go back and reread the entire trilogy again. However, none of those said tangents or day-long and detailed treks happened because Sanderson’s books are packed full of action and there’s no chill. NO. CHILL.

I’ve fangirled about Vin a lot over the course of my downfall, but after The Hero of Ages she has become one of my favourite characters of all time. I loved her in the first two books and then The Hero of Ages cemented my feelings for her. Now I absolutely adore her, and I could read about her forever.

As for Elend, I still don’t like him. YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!!! I was hoping that he would grow on me because it’s no fun when you don’t like one of the protagonists, especially when you have to read from his point of view. And this is one of my favourite trilogies so obviously I wanted him to be awesome. But that didn’t happen. Everything continued to be handed to him and he was ~awesome~ at everything he did without even really trying. I don’t think he earned anything, and his character development was disappointing and almost non-existent in comparison to Vin’s.

The crew were, of course, lovely. While we’re missing some members (*cries forever*), we also have some new additions such as TenSoon. Spook’s point of view was an interesting addition too, although I thought his chapters were the least captivating for the most part. They felt very detached from the story. However, towards the end they did start to get better, and his point of view contains a couple of my favourite moments of the trilogy. It was really weird to see the crew so separated and spread out, but it was also a great choice by Sanderson because we got to see so many different things and events, and everything slowly came together with a giant bang.

The Kelsier stuff killed me as usual. There was one mention in particular that made me burst into tears because I loved Kelsier so fucking much, and I have been missing him since he died in The Final Empire. I want him back, damn it. But this whole religion that is being built around him is very interesting, and I loved seeing how different groups of people chose to interpret the religion and how they worshipped in different ways. The way they also misinterpreted Kelsier’s character and actions was painful, and also, I believe, very true to real life society. I don’t normally like religious stuff, but it worked very well in the Mistborn series and Sanderson had an interesting underlying commentary going on here.

I don’t think it’s possible to gush about The Hero of Ages enough, so I’m going to leave this here. I’m a little sad that I’ve finally read it because I hate that this trilogy is now over and I have had to say goodbye to my favourite characters. AND THAT ENDING. It’ll stick with me forever. I haven’t cried like that in a long, long time. When I die, can someone make sure this trilogy is put in my coffin along with my Spartacus DVDs? Thanks.