The Hero of Ages

THE HERO OF AGES (Mistborn #3)

Written by Brandon Sanderson

Published by Tor Teen, October 7, 2014

My star rating: 4 stars

THE SYNOPSIS:

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. Find it on Goodreads

MY REVIEW:

I’ve heard for many years that Brandon Sanderson is royalty when it comes to writing. After reading the first 2 books in this series, I could definitely see where everyone was coming from. But, it wasn’t until I finished this book that I REALLY understood. This many isn’t just royalty – he’s the end all, be all, brilliant, genius! This book was INCREDIBLE!!!

You’re probably wondering – “You’re singing praises for the book and its writing….. but you rated it 4 stars?” – seems strange, I agree. I’ll tell you why the one star is missing before I go on. With the first two books, one of my favourite things about them was the hope. That no matter how difficult and impossible things seemed, there was always something to fight for. A light at the end of the tunnel that was worth all the pain. Something to look forward to. But DAMN this book was bleak! I get it. They had exhausted everything and now were facing the literal end of the world. They had tried everything and still failed. I can see why things were so dark! But it was that loss of atmosphere that I really missed. I still feel awful about taking a half star away for this (especially when this bleak outlook had everything to do with the plot) but the tone was so different and sometimes made me want to not read it and I felt like it was repeating sometimes. Everything was just so dark and the same.

The second half star I had to take away was that there was also very little political intrigue or magic. There a small amount of magic throughout, and mainly towards the end, but not much else happening in that way in the beginning. The political intrigue also quieted down. Since these two elements were as prevalent, this meant that there was quite a big of fighting. I’m totally cool with that! But it was just a little too much for my taste. I found the fighting scenes getting to be a little boring and I started to skim through them.

With my only negative opinion out of the way, let’s look at the good stuff! If you were looking for answers, you get all of them in this book! The one’s you expected/wanted, and even ones that you didn’t know you had a question for lol! When things started to come together, and I was piecing together elements from all three books, I was cooking in the kitchen at the time. As I slowly started to connect the dots, I was jumping up and down and screaming – literally – along with the reveals. It all suddenly made sense and I lost my mind! I knew I liked these books but I hadn’t realized until “that” moment just how invested I was in this world and the characters. It did take a while to get to this moment, but it’s so explosive that it’s all worth it in the end! There were things that were mentioned in book one that all of a sudden played a large part in the conclusion. And, for some reason, he wrote it in such a way that you never forgot that moment. I am NOTORIOUS for forgetting details of the beginning of a series. But, for some reason, with this series I remembered every detail. It was so weird and rewarding!

This was also one of the best finale’s I’ve ever read. It was heartbreaking (I might have cried a little), but it was beautiful, peaceful, passionate, and so much more. It was unexpected for sure! I think that my emotions were so caught off guard for this ending!! If you weren’t aware there is a continuation of this series that happens hundreds of years in the future. Same land, but different characters. I originally had no plans AT ALL to read that series. It actually angered me a little! I was annoyed that it was just the same world and I was going to have to learn a whole new cast of characters that had nothing at all to do with the characters I loved….. HOW DARE YOU?? But now….. I want to know!! Knowing what I know now, I am beyond interested in continuing!

I LOVED this series….. SO MUCH! The characters, the magic system, the world….. it’s brilliantly written! This series was hands down a fantasy masterpiece and you NEED TO READ IT!!!!

Until next time, happy reading!