Review: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson
Published: October 14th 2008 by Tor Books
Rating: 5 Stars
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adult.
Source: Purchased from Waterstones
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | Waterstones
Goodreads 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

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Warning, this review contains SPOILERS from the first two book.

Words cannot begin to describe how emotionally draining this series is. This is one of those books where I simply cannot form the words to explain how much I loved it. For the past two month or so this series has consumed me and if I could summarise The Hero of Ages in one word it would be ‘bittersweet.’ The journey, from beginning to end was so full of compelling character development, vivid world building and a range of emotions.

I’ve said this a few times but when I read a fantasy I find that the world building is equally as important as the character development because it helps us understand why the characters react in a certain way based on their social, political and religious circumstances. Sanderson well and truly excels at establishing a fascinating, in depth fantasy world. By the end of this series I had such a strong, vivid understanding of the social, political and cultural construct of this world. On top of that you get a well established history to the empire that never once felt like an info-dump.

I must say though, as much as I adored the world building it was the characters that well and truly stole my heart. All the characters are filled with shades of grey which is well and truly highlighted in the form of the Lord Ruler, a man who only made a brief appearance in the first book but is still very much present in the narrative of the story. By the end of the book I actually found myself sympathizing with the predicament the Lord Ruler was put in, which goes to show the complexity of Sanderson’s characters.

The first book of this series belonged to Vin, the second to Elend, and the third and final installment of this series belongs to Sazed. His emotional struggle and his journey to understand and believe in his faith well and truly drove this book for me. However, Sazed is not the only character that underwent some incredible character development and I was surprised to see the changes in Spooks character as he went from being a quiet follower to a commanding leader who finally understood the part he played in this tale. I was in awe at the journey Spook takes in this series.

Now before you read on I must say that this next part contains a MAJOR SPOILER from the book.

I don’t think I could write this review and not mention the fates of my dear Vin and Elend Venture. Can we all please have a moment of silence for the emotional trauma I experienced at the hand of this book. I’ll admit I had my fears that they might not make it to the end but I never actually believed this would actually happen. It was so sudden and so out of the blue; I genuinely had to put to the book down so I could process what actually happened. I never thought that I’d get emotional when reading this book but I well and truly choked up at this moment.

At the center of the flowers, he found two people. Vin lay wearing her customary mistcloak, shirt, and trousers. Elend was in a brilliant white uniform, complete with cape. They were holding hands as they lay amid the flowers. And they were both dead.

My words well and truly do no justice to this masterpiece of a series. I will say that for anyone who looks for rich world building, intricate character development and an emotionally driven journey, then you should pick up this series.

I don’t usually use gifs in my reviews but I think this one is a very accurate portrayal of how I felt by the end.