Book review: The Hero of Ages
by: Brandon Sanderson
Oh my god – an epic fantasy series that actually finished not only in a timely manner, but within the bounds of my lifetime! But let’s not congratulate the author only for that small feat – he also deserves praise for writing an awesome book & series. The quality of writing in this book is just as high as the previous ones, the stakes are even higher and the twists are pretty decent (and work!).
He hit on a couple of points – picking up some things from the first book that you didn’t even realize were plot related and making them huge – in a completely organic way that felt like the opposite of him pulling them out of his ass. In sense, I got a real sense of respect for the reader, and a desire to make the pay-offs really matter for characters and reader alike.
I wasn’t particularly excited about all the religious angles in the book – but it turns out my fears of Mormon proselytizing were unfounded (Mr. Sanderson is Mormon – see here for an interesting look at his theology interacting with his personality and the rest of the world: ) – yay! I’m always weary when a book deals with religion and I know the writers personal religion because the clashing of bias (my trying to read into what they write vs. are they actually putting anything in there to read into) is annoying. However, the way he dealt with the religious questions was somewhat surprising, and happily moved me out of my place of paranoia.
The ending itself…made perfect sense, was laced with sadness and triumph, and moved the world on in a new and interesting direction. I think I would have been happier in some ways if certain characters had not met their ends BUT I see why it happened for the story, and it is better for their doing so.
Random summary: Well written, entertaining, rewarding on multiple levels.
He may come back to this world later in his career – it’s been mentioned on his message board and in interviews – and that would be awesome. I love where he left things, and the things he mentioned as potential future elements seem like crazy fun – Feruchemical mistings, the other metals, and folks with 1 feruchemical & 1 allomantic misting ability. And steampunk. I think that came up too. Good times.
FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE STARS
GOOD SHIT.
I can understand spelling “proselytizing” wrong, and spelling “congratulate” with a D is a common error, but “auther”.
Eh. It’s what happens when you get ~4 hours sleep a night for a month. The joys of having a newborn!
I did look up prosethewhatsit in a half awake stupid, but I suspect the site I found it on spelled it wrong. Which is all kinds of amusing. Bad information doesn’t die on the internet – it spreads!
Fixed the typos you pointed out, not really the point of the post though.