Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - The Hero of Ages

The Hero of Ages might be one of the most intense endings to an epic fantasy that I've ever read. I mean, they're always about saving the world in some form or another, but this is the first one I've seen where a planet was literally on the verge of falling apart. It makes for a very powerful reading experience, but it also makes the story kind of bleak on the way there.

Most of the book is about the struggles that Vin and Elend and their friends undergo in order to protect the people of the Final Empire from the evil (ish) deity (ish) that got released (ish) at the end of the previous book, while also dealing with the continual onset of the daytime mists. Humanity struggling against what is essentially a force of nature is always going to be a bit unsettling to read, and that's part of a good story, but there needs to be some hope, a vision of a path toward making everything okay at the end, and I felt like that was missing here. Given the events of the book and everything we learn about the powers of the destructive force they're up against, I wound up feeling like they really don't have a chance, and the only reason the book doesn't end with (spoiler alert?) the whole planet destroyed and everyone dead is a series of cosmic coincidences. I think the main issue is that, as much as the magic system has been very well fleshed out in terms of how it interacts with humans and the other creatures of the world, it's not well established how it works it comes to otherworldly beings and these abstract forces, and so all the interactions with Ruin feel like they're being made up as needed to drive the plot along. Much of the last part of the book, where these interactions take center stage, felt like it came out of nowhere, and (as with The Well of Ascension) I would have liked it better if there was more groundwork laid for that stuff earlier in the book so it didn't seem as arbitrary.

Despite my complaints, this was still definitely an enjoyable book to read. (Maybe I complain only because I find it worthy of complaining about - it lives up to my high expectations in so many other respects.) Like, even though the world is falling apart throughout the story, there are successes. The main characters have some good insights about Allomancy and the other metallurgical arts (i.e. magic), and there's a good amount of solid detective work, diplomacy, and military strategy that lays the groundwork for the final world-saving series of coincidences. And to be fair, some of these things that happen at the end are very much not arbitrary at all, like what gets revealed about the mists, and the history of the kandra - that was really well set up throughout the whole trilogy. The characters are well-written people with understandable motivations and personalities (except that I really don't understand Ruin's propensity for gloating), which made it easy to care about them and get emotionally invested in their quest, and in the end that's what I'm really looking for.

Content Warnings

island_neko's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

rikuson1's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

It Really Like It 😍
-★★★★✭- (4.75/5.00)
My Grading Score = 95% (A+)

Mistborn: The Hero of Ages, I am so glad it won me over by the very end. Coming off of The Well of Ascension and The Final Empire, I struggled a lot in regard to which one I liked more favorably and critically. With both of them settling within me, I came to the conclusion on accounts of favorability and criticality that I'm putting The Well of Ascension over The Final Empire. Now, when it came to The Hero of Ages, I'm going, to be honest, that I was not feeling it from the start. The tone was extremely melodramatic and overwhelmingly depressing because, for the most part, we are following the depressed and broken state of Sazed. And mind, this is just the feeling of depression, hopelessness, and dread that Sazed was giving off and it latched onto me making me feel his dread to some degree which probably was tough to read for me. As someone going through something similar (losing someone you invested and cared about), I guess it hit really close to home for me. Nonetheless, critically speaking, the portrayal of it all was extremely accurate and well done and has my highest praise. Brando said that writing Sazed in this book was one of the hardest things he's done in his writing career, and it shows.

Another thing that I wasn't fond of during the time of my reading this was that the second portion of the majority of this book was mainly focused on, and that was Spook. A character that in both The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension I did not care for to any degree. I did not like him as a character, I did not like his annoying accent and he just felt like a waste of space anytime he was present, additionally, he had this snarky attitude in book 2 that only made me dislike him more. So when I come to find out that he is one of the main focuses in this book, I was not ready and very reluctant to get through the "spook-focused" portions. I can tell that Brando probably knew that the readers did not care for Spook so he really really had to try and make us understand where Spook is coming from and try to make us like him and make him more important in the overall story. Now I feel it did accomplish making me understand where he is coming from and additionally the message he sends off which Marsch finds did make him extremely important to the overall story but he did not sell me on liking him by the end, but at the very least I can say I don't hate or dislike Spook anymore so that counts for something.

The other points of view it focused on were Vin, Ellend, and TenSoon. I felt all of these points of view were great or, at the very least, satisfactory. I was entertained and engaged for the most part on all of them. I have no complaints or critiques on any of them.

The action in The Hero of Ages really held off longer than any of the three books. And that's something I love, action. The build-up in this book was also something that was a lot more than in any of the previous books. It was to the point where I was almost afraid that it could not deliver on all of its build-up and additionally the surplus of the build-up of being the final book in this trilogy. But man, basically every chapter after chapter 71 really paid off on everything this trilogy was building up to in all categories, action, character development, plot reveal after plot reveals, after plot reveals, it was a great sanderlanche that I will never forget.

Verdict
The Hero of Ages and by proxy the Mistborn Era 1 has lived up to its hype. This is now my favorite fantasy trilogy, and I'm glad I went through it.

I Really Liked it.

Content Warnings

kmedusa's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

sophia_aumueller's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

sh543's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

insomniacsun's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

[slow clap] Una degna conclusione per una storia così coinvolgente che, dopo un blocco del lettore eterno, mi ha costretto a leggere 1500 pagine nel giro di 3 settimane. E ora con la grandiosa scoperta del Cosmere, so che sarà solo l'inizio. Grazie per l'ottima introduzione al tuo mondo, Sanderson. Il mio sarà senz'altro un soggiorno prolungato.
Con le rivelazioni in questo libro, rileggere il primo volume sarà una delizia e un'avventura completamente nuova, in cui mi cimenterò a breve di sicuro.

Il tono di questo libro era senz'altro più miserabile e cupo. Ripensandoci, he c'era da aspettarsi dal volume incentrato sull'Hemalurgy? Niente di buono poteva uscire dall'arte che ha dato origine agli Inquisitors, ma di certo non mi aspettavo l'estensione ad altre specie: quello sì mi ha preso alla sprovvista.

SAZED HERO OF AGES CONFIRMED E CHE RIVELAZIONE SIGNORI, CHE RIVELAZIONE. Ho sempre trattato gli estratti di inizio capitolo con estrema attenzione, rileggendoli più volte e confrontandoli con gli avvenimenti del capitolo. Le supposizioni su chi fosse The hero of ages erano molto limitate inizialmente: con la menzione di Elend e gli avvenimenti di fronte al Well of Ascension nel finale dell'ultimo libro, ero fermamente convinta che fosse Vin. Scelta sicura e scontata direi, essendo Sazed e Vin stessa ad essere convinti della cosa. Povera me che si è scordata della dedizione di Sanderson alla completa sovversione di tutti i tropi fantasy, specialmente nei miti e profezie. Un'altra mia teoria era Marsh: pover uomo ha passato l'inferno e dopo tutto quello comunque non era sotto il totale controllo di Ruin. C'è da ammettere che aveva merito, fosse stato un personaggio più centrale nel mito a lungo andare. Mi ero basata sulle sue insicurezze ed esitazioni, su simile lunghezza d'onda a quelle di Alendi, e ciò è bastato a farmi dimenticare completamente di quanto queste insicurezze fossero amplificate su Sazed. Accecata dalla mia stessa fame di sapere, che dire.

Sazed è partito da subito come tra i miei preferiti, ma raggiuntasi la conclusione dello sviluppo di questo meraviglioso personaggio, devo ammettere che sarà uno di quelli che rimarrà nel mio cuore per un bel po'. Sanderson avrà finito con te, ma rimarrai sempre nei miei pensieri, Sazed.

Finalmente un po' di meritato focus su Spook! I suoi POV sono stati tra i più coinvolgenti, e il vederlo crescere e maturare durante questa missione mi ha lasciato senza fiato e zittita mordendomi le unghie in più di un momento,

specialmente nei momenti in cui pensa di essere guidato da Kelsier... il mio cuore si è spezzato sia per lui che per me, entrambi illusi da un ritorno impossibile.

E l'uccidere entrambi i tuoi protagonisti nel gran finale? Un grande rischio, ma una perfetta conclusione per la caratterizzazione di entrambi. Come ha detto Sazed, è tempo del loro meritato riposo. Mi mancheranno senz'altro, ma se sono riuscita a superare la fine di Kelsier, sopravvivrò pure al loro addio. Parlando di addii, DOVE ABBIAMO MESSO MARSH???? MI RIFIUTO DI CREDERE CHE SAZED NON LO ABBIA SALVATO PER CUI SO CHE SI AGGIRA DA QUALCHE PARTE.... USCITEMI MARSH PER FAVORE. RIDATEMI IL VECCHIO MARSH LIBERO DAL CONTROLLO DI RUIN. Spero per Sanderson che la mancata conclusione esplicita implichi delle conseguenze importanti per la prossima era o, preferibilmente, la sua presenza. Non tradirmi così Brandon, ho alte aspettative.

Un'altra cosa che mi ha scosso nel profondo: i corpi umani rigettati di Ruin e Preservation? C'è sempre stato qualcuno di umano con in mano questi poteri opposti? Spero che la cosa venga spiegata e approfondita meglio in futuro, perchè non riuscirò a pensare ad altro andando avanti con le prossime ere.

Unica pecca, che ripensandoci è un problema in tutta la trilogia, è la mancanza di personaggi femminili rilevanti fuori dalla sfera romantica: con tutta la frenesia nel primo volume, devo ammettere di non averci fatto caso subito, ma la cosa ha iniziato a pesare quando ogni entusiasmo per l'introduzione di una potenziale stella emergente femminile finiva inevitabilmente smorzato da un plateau nella personalità del personaggio, relegato ad essere semplicemente la nuova fiamma di uno dei personaggi principali. Decisamente deludente a lungo andare e mi preclude dal dare il massimo. So di non essere sola a sostenere la cosa e spero che la carenza non prosegui nelle prossime letture e che Sanderson abbia ascoltato e dato peso adeguato a queste critiche.

Content Warnings

giulianasbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

5⭐️ y ♾️

No puedo expresar con palabras lo que acabo de leer, estoy flipando.
Desde que descubrí a Sanderson en noviembre del año pasado, me puse como objetivo leer todos sus libros y, cómo no, compré el primer tomo de la saga “El Imperio Final” que no sólo me encantó, sino que me marcó de una manera indescriptible. Después leí el segundo libro y también obviamente me encantó ¿pero este? Estoy sin palabras. Creo que es el libro más denso y complicado de los tres pero me ha atrapado y me lo he leído en cuatro días, cosa que nunca hago porque es un libro de casi 800 páginas y me suele llevar más tiempo.
Los personajes siempre los voy a llevar en mi corazón. Sazed, Kelsier y Vin me han marcado de por vida y sólo puedo darle las gracias a este magnífico escritor por abrirme las puertas a su increíble universo llamado Cosmere y no puedo esperar más a seguir leyendo los otros libros.
Sigo sin entender cómo una persona puede tener tan magnífica imaginación y plasmarlo en unos libros TAN buenos. Cada libro que leo suyo me gusta más y más y me declaro fan incondicional de Brandon Sanderson con todas las putas letras.
Me duele mucho despedirme de estos personajes tan queridos pero siempre los llevaré conmigo. No voy a mentir: he llorado con el final, pero me he quedado completa, no sabría ni cómo lo explicarlo.
Y ¿qué más puedo decir? Esta saga de fantasía es increíble y se la recomiendo a todo el mundo, pero he de decir que es bastante densa así que no la escogería como la primera saga para leer si te estás introduciendo en la fantasía.
Todo en este libro ha sido perfecto, no tengo ninguna pega. Menuda puta locura.

Content Warnings

More...