The Hero of Ages is a masterpiece

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer he/him]

The World of Ash and Mists is gone. The game between Ruin and Preservation is over. And all that is left is balance.

On November 1st, I finished The Hero of Ages. I can safely sat that it deserves every bit of praise. This was a phenomenal book and a phenomenal ending to the Mistborn trilogy; a 10/10 masterpiece. Sanderson managed to tie everything about the previous stories into one that solidifed Scadrial and the Metallic Arts as some of my favorite worlds/magic systems yet. Hemalurgy was something that went far deeper than initially expected, and I am excited to read about it in Era 2. I love how he subverted the Chosen One trope AGAIN in a way that has me facepalming my suspicions of who wrote the epigraphs. I love how Hemalurgy and atium tied into the grander plot. There is an absolutely insane amount of things I could compliment about the enhanced worldbuilding: Vin's earring, the Terris Prophecy twist, the epigraphs etc...

Sanderson did a brilliant job building up Spook into an extraordinary character, concluding the tales of our favorite Mistborn, crafting the tragic tale of Marsh, and subverting our expectations of our favorite Terrismen. I was CRYING once Sazed took the powers!!!! My heart broke reading his note to Spook!!!! THE BLUE SKIES AND YELLOW SUN!! THE FIELD OF FLOWERS!!!  I am STILL crying when I even THINK about the ending!! The ending was heartbreaking, but there was also a profound feeling of hope. Hope for a better world than the suffering caused by Scadrial’s gods. AND THE LORD RULER!!!!!! The Lord Ruler's character development set him up as my 5th favorite Mistborn character. Bravo Brandon!

I applaud Sanderson the most for crafting the war between Ruin and Preservation. There have many times in fiction in which I've been spurned by the "good god vs evil god" trope. Even the best examples have been subject to binary morality, or the evil gods being defeated by pure incompetence. Fortunately, I never felt disappointed when reading about the gods of Scadrial. The war between Ruin and Preservation came across as something nuanced; progressed by the unparalleled intelligence, power, and patience of each god. I felt an overwhelming sense of horror from Ruin's divine abilities, and saw that Xanatos himself would be envious of Ruin's abilities of a Chessmaster. Ruin setting up the rebellion and malatium, or tricking Vin and Elend with koloss armies, were strokes of GENIUS! But most of all, Ruin and Preservation never sounded like binary forces of good and evil. They felt like intelligent deities that could either progress the Universe or usher the Apocalypse depending on the circumstances. I don't see Ruin as a mindless force of destruction, or Preservation as a purely selfless force of stasis.

In fact I view the Final Empire as the prime example of why Preservation needs Ruin. In my eyes Preservation, without eons suffering from the divine equivalent of a lobotomy, is a force of intelligent stasis. A force that, like his champion Rashek, would murder and destroy for the purpose of maintaining the status quo on a grand scale. I find that scarier than a force like Ruin, who imo could be the equivalent of the Grim Reaper in another circumstance.

The only issues I have with HoA are Spook and Beldre's relationship feeling underdeveloped, and Ruin having moments of being a generic doomsday villain. But those ultimately don't bog my opinions on the book or Ruin down.

It was lovely reading about Kelsier's earlier personality in The Eleventh Metal. And it was great reading between the lines to see the implications of Ruin's chess game.

And ofc I have several theories and questions. Who or what is "Adonalsium?" What are the three aspects of divine power? And what happened to the koloss, kandra and Marsh? Or Cett and Yomen. I'm so excited to RAFO.

Edited March 10, 2023 by AllomanticChainDude

[AquaRegia he/him]

Fantastic review, and I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!  Mistborn Era 1 is definitely also one of my favorite fiction trilogies ever.

Be forewarned:  Mistborn Era 2, beginning with The Alloy of Law, is a VERY different thing.  Many aspects of these novels are - quite intentionally - drastically different.  The tone and style were crafted to reflect a different genre of fiction, and the reduced length and complexity represented an unwelcome change for some readers.

I love Era 2 every bit as much as Era 1.  Many of your questions are answered, or at least, addressed.  But be ready for a new kind of ride!

[Treamayne]

Glad you enjoyed it. Era 1 is special for many of us that have read a lot of the Cosmere.

8 hours ago, AllomanticChainDude said:

And ofc I have several theories and questions. Who or what is "Adonalsium?" What are the three aspects of divine power? And what happened to the koloss, kandra and Marsh? Or Cett and Yomen. I'm so excited to RAFO.

8 hours ago, AquaRegia said:

Be forewarned:  Mistborn Era 2, beginning with The Alloy of Law, is a VERY different thing.

Just to clarify, in case you were unaware, The different Mistborn Trilogies' subtle subtheme is about how a society and culture progresses. So each Era will be a different state of society and technology. Sanderson says it best:

Spoiler

 

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Brandon Sanderson (edited):

With Mistborn, I wanted to do something different. For aesthetic reasons, I wanted a fantasy world that changed, that grew updated and modernized. One of my personal mandates as a lover of the epic fantasy genre is to try to take what has been done before and push the stories in directions I think the genre hasn't looked at often enough.

I pitched Mistborn as a series of trilogies, which many of you probably already know. Each series was to cover a different era in the world (Scadrial), and each was to be about different characters—starting with an epic fantasy trilogy, expanding eventually into a space opera science fiction series. The magic would be the common thread here, rather than specific characters.

There was a greater purpose to this, more than just wanting a fantasy world that modernized. The point was to actually show the passage of time in the universe, and to make you, the reader, feel the weight of that passage.

Some of the Cosmere characters, like Hoid, are functionally immortal—in that, at least, they don't age and are rather difficult to kill. I felt that when readers approached a grand epic where none of the characters changed, the experience would be lacking something. I could tell you things were changing, but if there were always the same characters, it wouldn't feel like the universe was aging.

<snip>

The Alloy of Law was the result, an experiment in a second-era Mistborn series between the first two planned trilogies. The first book wasn't truly accidental, then, nor did it come from a short story. (I've seen both reported, and have tacitly perpetuated the idea, as it's easier than explaining the entire process.) I chose early 20th century because it's a time period I find fascinating, and was intrigued by the idea of the little-city lawman pulled into big-city politics.

Alloy wasn't an accident, but it was an experiment. I wasn't certain how readers would respond to not only a soft reboot like this, but also one that changed tone (from epic to focused). Was it too much?

The results have been fantastic, I'm happy to report. The Alloy of Law is consistently the bestselling book in my backlists, barring the original trilogy or Stormlight books. Fan reaction in person was enthusiastic.

So I sat down and plotted a proper trilogy with Wax and Wayne. That trilogy starts with Shadows of Self. It connects to The Alloy of Law directly, but is more intentional in where it is taking the characters, pointed toward a three-book arc.

 

 

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Brandon Sanderson (Edited)

<snip>

So I said, "I've got this idea," and I pitched him Mistborn. And my idea on Mistborn was that it was going to be a set of three trilogies. An epic fantasy trilogy, a contemporary modern-day trilogy, and a science fiction trilogy set in the same world where the magic had become the means by which space travel happened. And so, I built into the magic systems space travel. Which is another discussion. I won't talk about that one. So, I pitched him this grand epic of nine books. Which the Wax and Wayne books are not part of, by the way. They are just me having fun with the world. So, you will eventually get to the official third Mistborn trilogy, which is a space opera. Science fiction. And then you will start to see a lot of things coming together that have been seeded for a long, long time.

 

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Brandon Sanderson (edited)

 For those who don't know, I originally pitched Mistborn to my editor, Moshe, as a trilogy of trilogies: Past, Present, Future. Epic fantasy trilogy, urban fantasy trilogy, science fiction trilogy, set in the same world, with advancing technology in which the magic becomes the foundation for space travel. And the original idea that the epic fantasy trilogy becomes the foundation of myth and religion in the modern day trilogy.

Words of Brandon edited to remove spoilers.