Review of Mistborn: The Hero of Ages
What It's About
The Hero of Ages, the final book in the Mistborn Trilogy, is an epic continuation of The Well of Ascension. After a narrow escape from death in the last book, Elend and Vin start to grow wary of the mists they thought that they once knew; men and women who venture into them are randomly struck down by sickness, or in the most extreme cases, death. On top of that, a dark entity was releashed from exile in the Well after a thousand years of torturous waiting, and is eager to exact revenge upon the undeserving inhabitants of Luthadel. After escaping his prison, the entity, whose name is Ruin, causes the ash mounts that cover the surface of Scadrial, their home planet, start to erupt more violently then before. With each passing day, they get more and more powerful, until earthquakes start to shake the city and the people to their very cores. The army Elend has raised seems too weak to fight the dark army Ruin created; even with the help of a new, powerful Mistborn, Vin, and the Terrismen working together, it doesn't seem to be enough. The book focuses on Vin and Elend as they try to understand Ruin's dark motives, and as they uncover the reason why the mist is killing people. Meanwhile Sazed, a Terrisman, tries to decipher an ancient journal kept by the long-dead Lord Ruler himself. Vin must become the Hero of Ages if she wants to save the world from Ruin.
What I Liked
OK, let me just start out with saying that this is by far the best book in the series (perhaps even the whole world?) but solely because of the EPIC battles Vin fights in. I would say that a large percentage of why I love this series so much is because of the awesome battling that takes place in this book. Brandon Sanderson blew me away with his literary skills in this book.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was the way it talked about the Kandra, which I really haven't explained yet. Kandra are creatures that can consume the bones of any creature and take the form of the thing they consumed. For example, a Kandra can eat the bones of a large dog, and shortly after turn into that dog. The Kandra are very interesting creatures, in my opinion. I liked the way Sanderson talked about them because he gave us a glimpse through a Kandra's eyes a few times, and that was a very unique narrative. He also let us see that their species are not the vile, sadistic creatures that most people think they are.
One last thing I liked about this book was the Koloss, another species on Scadrial. Koloss are creatures that the Lord Ruler mysteriously created during his thousand year reign. They are very tall, blue creatures with little intelligence; the most they ever do is attack and argue, though they are very useful in battle. Although they were not discussed much throughout the first two books, Vin has some very intriguing revelations about them in the Hero of Ages.
What I Disliked
Though everything with the book was well written and very ineteresting, I was a little disappointed with the ending. I won't spoil anything for you, but if you ever read this book, you will understand why I didn't like it. I definitely disliked the use of Hemalurgy*, because it is such a gruesome practice, and I think that it could have been mentioned less.
*Hemalurgy is a dark practice used to take the Allomantic abilities, or magic, from a Misting (person with one singular power) or Mistborn (person with access to every power), done by grafting the body of a man with a spike that pierced the heart of an innocent Misting.
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