There are a lot of things I could say about this book, but there are two that I think are important. First, this book had the best resolution of any book I have ever read. Second, this book (and the other two, though I never mentioned it earlier) makes fantastic use of the "quote" section at the beginning of each chapter. Overall, a fantastic novel, and a great series: in all honesty, my favorite fantasy series to date.

EDIT - Reread on November 30, 2011

In keeping with my reread of the Mistborn series, I finished this book today after procrastinating on it for thanksgiving, and I have to say it's as good as I remembered. As always, my favorite part of the book was the use of the Hero of Ages' writing at the beginning of chapters as a literary device for Sanderson to explain parts of what were going on that were not immediately clear. The tone of these, and the way that each one solved a little mystery that Sanderson had planted earlier in the story was pretty amazing. Perhaps my only issue with this book is that the plot itself is slightly lacking - definitely less detailed than the plot of the first two books. This is because Sanderson needed time to fit the series' conclusion into the story (which is, of course, fantastic), but it made the whole issue with Fadrex and whatnot seem a bit underdeveloped. Overall though, a great series, and one that I will continue to recommend as much as I have in the past.

EDIT - Reread June 16, 2022

Still really enjoyed this. First half is a bit scattered and Elend’s story really peters out a bit, but the wrap up of the series is still good fun. Reading now with a bit more of a memory of what happens, I found it startling how much TenSoon knows (he probably could have just solved the whole puzzle on his own?). The kandra in general are a cool surprise in the story, but generally don’t make too much sense on the logical consistency side compared to how much Sanderson tries to tie everything else neatly together. ( )

239000

F/SF

I think the speed at which I finished this book, despite being on holiday for half the period, goes to show how much I enjoyed it.

It's hard to think that this is Brandon Sanderson's debut trilogy. The worldbuilding and magic system are amazing, the characters are unique and well developed, and the plot is engaging. Though people seem generally to have issues with the first part of the books being 'slow', as usual I didn't really find this to be a problem, and largely felt the additional information added to the character development, continuity and immersion in the world, even if there was indeed some repeated informarion. As is the overall consensus though, the climaxes are definitely the shining points in each of the books, and the final one provided these in spades.

I particularly enjoyed the elements of the trilogy that dealt with politics and religion in ways that I feel I haven’t really seen in other fantasy series, including the birth of a religious icon, the ideological impacts of a regime change, and the difficulties of reshaping an empire instead of conquering or inheriting it. The way that these considerations integrated rather seamlessly into the overall plot and contributed both to character development as well as worldbuilding was extremely well done.

Of course, it wasn’t a perfect book or trilogy, and my main complaint (if it can be considered one) is that, as others have pointed out, the prose isn’t the prettiest and some of the dialogue is a bit clunky. However, there is also something refreshing about having straight uncomplicated language that only serves to be highlight the strengths of the books and made the read itself largely effortless. Sanderson also certainly improves as the series goes on, and there are passages in The Hero of Ages that show his potential to exploit the emotive impact of his words.

And when it comes to continuation, there's still plenty more to unpack about the world of the Final Empire, especially given how the trilogy concludes. While there are things to read before grappling with the next era of the Mistborn books, this first taste of Sanderson's own work has definitely whetted my appetite for more, and I'm looking forward to dive deeper into his Cosmere universe. ( )

Hacia mucho que no me enganchaba tanto una saga de libros. Los temas que trata Sanderson, el modo en que hace fluir la trama y los personajes que crea hacen que viajes al propio mundo de Mistborn.

No tengo palabras para explicar lo que me ha gustado esta trilogía de libros. Y todo lo que queda por descubrir y leer. ( )