The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I cannot believe how well Sanderson made this entire trilogy fit together. Each book was amazingly plotted and, as a whole, the trilogy is so well put together. No part of the trilogy was wasted and each detail Sanderson provided was vital to the story as a whole. Some of the key plot points for this book went all the way back to the first chapters of the first book. The ending to this book would have had me flipping tables over and yelling from how well it all worked if everyone hadn’t been asleep in the house.

If I had one criticism, it would be that, due to what the plot needed, there was a lot of sitting around and our protagonists spent nearly the entire book separated. Again, it’s what this book needed to work so well, but in the moment it sometimes left me wondering when things were going to get going.

Still, all that sedentary time made it all that more dramatic when the snowball began to roll along the hill.

There’s so much more I could say here, but this trilogy fits together so well that I don’t want to give anything away. I’ll merely note that Elend’s character growth from book 1 to book 3 should be required study as part of either high school or college political science classes as an example of the differences between an idea ruler and the practicalities of rule. Also, what we learn of another ancient society here is fascinating in terms of being bound by rules and what that means in a crisis.

I have enjoyed all of Sanderson’s Cosmere work thus far, but I think he has really made me love Scadrial and I can’t wait to return to Misborn Era 2. For now, however, I’m following the recommended reading order at http://i.imgur.com/tnGVDoB.png and going onto the Stormlight Archive (at least after a quick pit stop at 2 of the Mistborn RPG manuals to read the short stories within). 1

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