Review: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

THE HERO OF AGES BY BRANDON SANDERSON
Publisher: Gollancz
Format: Paperback
Series: Mistborn #3
Pages: 724
Date Finished: 18.08.15
Rating: 5/5
Summary: Tricked into releasing the evil spirit Ruin while attempting to close the Well of Ascension, new emperor Elend Venture and his wife, the assassin Vin, are now hard-pressed to save the world.This adventure brings the Mistborn epic fantasy trilogy to a dramatic and surprising climax as Sanderson's saga offers complex characters and a compelling plot, asking hard questions about loyalty, faith and responsibility.

“If you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you'll end up miserable.” 

Brandon Sanderson's official title should definitely be The Hero of Fantasy because his books are bloody fantastic. It's official: I'm 100% certain he's a genius.

If you haven't worked it out already from my gushing, this book was amazing. I read The Final Empire last July, The Well of Ascension back in December and finally I finished The Hero of Ages on my plane back from America. I read it in two main sittings, and despite the fact that you could probably knock someone out with this book, it was still faced paced, tense and exciting throughout.

Also, a hella lotta shit went down.

(There will be spoilers for the first two books in this series, by the way).

"Lately, I feel like my life is a book written in a language I don't know how to read.”  

I'm in awe of how much planning Sanderson must have done for this book. So many seemingly irrelevant things from previous books became significant, and all the plot threads were tied up spectacularly. I don't even understand how Sanderson managed to weave together so many individual POV's and subplots whilst still producing a coherent book.

Despite being sucked in straight away I spent the first four hundred or so pages feeling a little depressed. It wasn't because the book was bad--far from it--but rather because the situation that the characters were in seemed so bleak. Elend is questioning whether he is a good man after all or if he is just as bad as the Lord Ruler, Sazed has developed depression after Tindwyl's death and has given up his religious studies, and Spook has become addicted to his Allomatic power. The world is literally beginning to end, no one can find the Lord Ruler's stash of atium and there is seemingly no way for them to stop Ruin--an entity that Vin herself released.

 “Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”    

There are so many different POV's in this book, and my favourite was always the one that I was currently reading. Sanderson really showed off not just his talent for secondary world creation but for constructing rich and detailed characters. Just like in the first two books the character arcs were done so well, yet there was no telling which way they would go. I was honestly on the edge of my seat all the way through.

Vin is still such a badass, and it was so great to see Spook have a much bigger role in the story. I really do love that guy, as well as Breeze and Sazed and Elend and Allrianne and TenSoon and... yeah, I kind of love everyone.

Each characters decisions were so logical, even the ones I didn't agree with. Even if characters were opposing our heroes, Sanderson did a great job of still making them three dimensional. Unless you read this book you can't understand how refreshing it was for everything to just make sense.

If I'm being nitpickey I'd say that whilst it is clear that Vin and Elend do love each other, their relationship is a little passionless. Saying that, my favourite part of their dynamic is how they trust each other above everything. They're also willing to sacrifice each other for a greater cause and that just makes me so happy, especially when I've read so many books filled with stupid characters who choose to save their partner over the whole soddingworld.

 “You've managed-- in our short three years together-- to kill not only my god, but my father, my brother, and my fiance. That's kind of like a homicidal hat trick. It's a strange foundation for a relationship, wouldn't you say?”  

My favourite Vin/Elend scene was when they crashed the party, their exit in particular. It was so fucking badass. If I wasn't in public at the time I'd have yelled HELL YEAH as loud as I could, pairing the exclamation with an air punch or something.

Sanderson is famous for his plot twists and The Hero of Ages is full of them. I managed to figure out one of them ahead of time, but most of the time Sanderson had me fooled. The cheeky bugger. Honestly, the way everything came together at the end was just so great. Although I myself am an atheist I really appreciated the religious elements (don't worry, there is nothing preachy about them at all) and it was so lovely, especially because Sanderson himself his religious. You'll see what I mean if you read it--whilst it may not be for everyone I found it so tasteful, beautiful and surprising.

 “Faith means that it doesn't matter what happens. You can trust that somebody is watching. Trust that somebody will make it all right.”  

I read this book on the plane and by the time it was over I was crying really gross, ugly tears. I held them back a little, but thankfully everyone else around me was asleep so they didn't see the extent of my emotions. I was a mess.

Unfortunately I got spoilt for the big deaths but that didn't make them any less harrowing. For the last forty or so pages I was wearing my sunglasses (even though it was dark on the plane) so no one could see my red and blotchy eyes. I really have to commend an author when they make me care for the characters that much.

“People with passion are people who will destroy - for a man's passion is not true until he proves how much he's willing to sacrifice for it.”  

I definitely plan to reread this series back to back in the near future. It's one of my top three favourites of all time and I'm both excited and scared to read The Alloy of Law. Still, I don't think I've ever read a series as clever and well constructed as the Mistborn trilogy. I'm excited to read more Cosmere books to see how they fit together (also, look out for the mention of Hoid in this one).

I'm stopping the review here before I start crying again, but all I need to say is that if you haven't read this trilogy yet, you really need to. It's practically flawless.

Review: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

THE RITHMATIST BY BRANDON SANDERSON
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Audible Audio
Series: Rithmatist #1
Pages: 353
Date Finished: 10.07.15
Rating: 4/5
Summary: More than anything, Joel wants to be a Rithmatist. Rithmatists have the power to infuse life into two-dimensional figures known as Chalklings. Rithmatists are humanity’s only defense against the Wild Chalklings. Having nearly overrun the territory of Nebrask, the Wild Chalklings now threaten all of the American Isles.

As the son of a lowly chalkmaker at Armedius Academy, Joel can only watch as Rithmatist students learn the magical art that he would do anything to practice. Then students start disappearing—kidnapped from their rooms at night, leaving trails of blood. Assigned to help the professor who is investigating the crimes, Joel and his friend Melody find themselves on the trail of an unexpected discovery—one that will change Rithmatics—and their world—forever.

I am so in love with the concept and the world of this book. Sanderson said before that it's about a boy who doesn't get to go to magic school because he has powers, but because his parents work there. The Rithmatist is everything I love about a Sanderson novel--it takes tropes and turns them on their head, all whilst pairing them with a magic system that's so unique I'm convinced Sanderson is some kind of wizard. Crackpot theories sometimes end up true, guys.

The Rithmatist follows Joel, a kid who goes to the same school as Rithmatists, people who can make chalk drawings com to life so they can duel and combat Wild Chalklings--creatures made of chalk that can kill people. Joel goes to this school not because he has the same power as these Rithmatists, but because the head teacher feels like he owes it to Joel's late father, a chalk maker. First things first, I love that this book isn't about a chosen one or someone with power. The Rithmatists are the Harry Potters of the world, whilst regular Joe's like you and me are just like Joel. Whilst it's nice to follow a narrative about someone with a shitload of power, it's so damn refreshing to have a hero I can genuinely relate to.

“We're all freaks sometimes, Melody," he replied. "You're just... well, better at it than most.”

Talking about characters, can we give a shoutout to Melody? I absolutely love her. She managed to complain a lot without being annoying, and all the while be the heart of the book. Whilst Melody is a Rithmatist, she's also one who isn't very good and I love that she wasn't made into Hermione (not that I don't love Hermione because she's one of my favourite characters of all time) just because she's the girl friend in magic school.

“I'm like that," she said. "Wild mood swings. It makes me more interesting.”

This review is basically turning into a love letter to Brandon Sanderson (I'd honestly read the guy's shopping lists), but The Rithmatist manages to be a book about magic school yet not feel like it has anything to do with Harry Potter. I remember reading The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black last year, thinking that even though it was turning tropes on their heads it just felt like the same thing I'd read again and again (a trio of characters, the girl being the genius, etc...).

If you've read anything by Sanderson before, or even if you've heard of him, you'll probably know that he's famous for his unique magic systems. Unique is a word that gets thrown about a lot, but in Sanderson's case he deserves it. With each world he creates I'm shocked how he manages to come up with it, and the world of the Rithmatists is no different.

I get that you may initially think that it sounds stupid (magic chalk??), but it's logical and strangely scientific. I was completely on board, as well as a little amazed (and horrified that these kids basically have to learn how to draw circles perfectly. That sounds like hell).

“That was terribly thoughtless of you. What good is having friends if they don’t put you in mortal peril every once in a while?”

This book took me ages to get through, only because I listened to the audiobook whilst I was running (okay, I ran that one time and it was horrible) or cleaning. I did enjoy the narration, however I think that it would have been better to read in traditional form because the book had diagrams, and it's not the same listening to the narrator describe what they depict. The reason it got four stars because of five was because whilst I really enjoyed this book, I didn't love it enough to listen straight through.

I also want to talk about the mystery. From the outset I knew that Sanderson is a cheeky little bugger, and that whoever the killer was wouldn't be who you'd expect. I don't want to spoil it, but I was dead set on the murderer being one particular character, and had a very slight inkling about another. My inkling was right, though if I'm honest I didn't trust anyone and there were a host of people I could've blamed. Damn you Sanderson--I was so convinced that it would be this one character. So damn convinced.

“It's going to be painful." 

"It's a fun tradition." 

"So was witch-burning," Melody said. "Unless you were the witch.”

Brandon Sanderson is religious himself, and there was an element of religion in The Rithmatist. I remember Sanderson saying once in one of his writing lectures that he hates it when someone writes a character with the same viewpoint that he does, but makes the character really stupid. It was wonderful that despite the slight religious themes, it wasn't forceful.

I was brought up Christian but identify as an atheist, and despite Sanderson's own beliefs this book didn't make me feel stupid/wrong at all. Actually, there was one scene where Joel debated over whether he believes or not and I thought it was a really nice addition. I really respect an author that manages to represent beliefs that go against his just as well as his own. He's not telling you what to believe, not one bit. I'm of the belief that an author has every right to express their religious beliefs in a book and that doesn't bother me at all, but it was nice not to feel alienated because I disagree. Don't get me wrong, this was such a minute part of the story, but I thought it was worth a mention.

“I don't know what to say," Joel said. "I figure that if you are there, you'll be angry if I claim to believe when I don't. The truth is, I'm not sure I don't believe, either. You might be there. I hope you are, I guess.”

On the whole, The Rithmatist was a solid read filled with a wonderful cast of characters (I particularly loved Florence as one of the minor characters), a richly imaginative world and a concept which I loved. I didn't love the book on the whole, but I liked it enough to give it four stars and I would definitely recommend it.