the Hero of Ages

Brandon Sanderson

Vin mistakenly set free Ruin, and Preservation is no longer strong enough to hold Ruin in check. It is up to the fallible humans to set right their mistakes and save the world.

The Lord Ruler set up cashes to save his people, and yet failed to protect them the rest of the time when he was living. It’s strange how out of touch with the world he got – but perhaps that can be attributed to Ruin.

Vin is once again important, but Elend and the other character have bigger roles to play. No longer is brute force the way to solve every problem, instead diplomacy and thinking are useful. Nice to see for a change.

There were several lightbulb moments for me while reading where I suddenly realized the importance of something that happened in the first two books. I can’t get over how amazing some of these things were, and the setup of things.

The ending is just as I wanted it to be. It was obvious that they were doomed – but not obvious who would save things. Oh the irony for Sazed. I loved Sazed’s convincing uncertainty, but happy usefulness in the end. Who knew religion was good for something?

Amazing. I can’t wait to read the standalone book that comes around 300 years after the events in this novel. I’m not sure it’ll be as good as these, but still good no doubt. Additionally I’d like to read other things by Sanderson – the magic systems he dreams up are inspired.